Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Serbian Salon ...

Today the results of a Serbian Salon of Photography were announced. Well more of a circuit of Salons. There were four Salons in one, which really means four sets of judges looking at the images.

I had entered eight different images and that meant I had a chance of a maximum of thirty-two acceptances to the exhibitions.

My results were very satisfactory at twenty-two acceptances!

These are the eight images I submitted and all were accepted, some multiple times!

Happy days ...

   

 

 

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Finals ...

So the finals of the Winter League for the mono prints and digital projected images happened this past Tuesday 11th of March.

The judge was a long standing member of the Celbridge Camera Club: Cliff Hutchinson AIPF EFIAP

I managed to grab second place in the Intermediate Digital Projected and first place on the Intermediate Monochrome Prints. I was really pleased with that!

This will leave in a better position towards my promotion to Advanced in the club.

I will leave you with the image that got me the first place in the Mono Print ...


Photograph Stob Dearg, Buachaille Etive Mor by Javier Leite on 500px

Sunday, February 9, 2014

on my way to Advanced ...

I have been a member of the Dublin Camera Club for well over a decade now, and it is fair to say that it is the place where my photography has been growing, improving and maturing ...

The club runs a series of competitions throughout the year for members. These are a fun way of getting your images judged, criticised and "compared" to other images from other members. To my mind, the best way to improve your photography.

Over the past few years I did not partake in many of the competitions, mainly because I was the club's competition secretary and whilst I had help from others at the club, it still took too much of my time.
The main result of that is that I got stuck in the Intermediate level at the club. Well, that and that we had an incredible crop of good photographers in the Intermediate level over the past few years. So, even if I entered competitions, I am not sure I would have fared very well against them.

Times have moved on and I am no longer in the Club's Council and no longer the competition secretary. And I have had a lot more time to dedicate to my own photography and to entering competitions at the club.

I did set myself a goal to get promoted to the Advanced level this year. Best way of achieving that is by doing well in the club's competitions during the year, which in the club runs from September to September.

So far two competitions have been taking place. One, called the "Summer Competition", ran last September and it marked the start of the competition year at the club. 
My results were encouraging, winning both of the sections I entered: Mono Prints and Digital Projected.

The other competition taking place is the "Winter Monthly League" which runs from October to February, with finals taking place in March. So it is still ongoing.
Results so far are quite good, having won every one of the four months so far in the Mono Print section and coming in the top three every month on the Digital Projected section.
At the moment I am topping the table in both sections, and, if I do the maths correctly, I cannot be caught in any, so technically I have already won both the Mono Prints and the Digital Projected. 

From each of the months, the images marked by the judges in the top 20% get retained by the club to go into the finals in March, where a few trophies will get awarded.
So far, all of my Mono Prints and four of my Projected images have been retained towards the finals.

So fingers crossed!

I will leave you with two of the images I entered in the league, the first one as a print and the second as a projected image ... both of them retained to the finals

  

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

going for the AFIAP distinction ...


Recently I have submitted my application to FIAP for the AFIAP distinction.

Some of you may wonder what FIAP and AFIAP mean at all ... probably the majority of you!

FIAP is an international federation of national associations of photography, it stands for La Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique.
Its purpose is the promotion of photographic art under all its aspects and by all kinds of photographic events.

The Irish national association is the IPF, the Irish Photographic Federation, which represents the Irish photographic clubs around Ireland. One of them is, of course, the Dublin Camera Club, of which I have been a member for well over a decade now.

FIAP runs a program of distinctions, as they say, rather grandiosely,  to honor eminent personalities known in the field of photography.

To be awarded distinctions a photographer has to have a number of works accepted for exhibition in Salons all over the world.
A Salon is simply put a photographic exhibition to which photographers from all over the globe are invited to submit images. Those images will then be subjected to a judging process and the best will be accepted to the exhibition.

The first of the artistic distinctions, the basic level if you like, is the AFIAP or Artiste FIAP.

To be awarded the AFIAP, a photographer needs to have 40 works accepted for exhibition in at least 15 different Salons across at least 8 different countries. At least 15 different images need to be accepted. There are other minor requirements, but those four are the main ones.

To date I have had 80 works accepted in 27 Salons in 17 different countries!

So I hope to be hearing some good news on my application in the coming months.

... I leave you with my most accepted image below, 11 acceptances in Salons in Argentina, Croatia, England, Germany, Greece, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Wales ... 

Monday, October 7, 2013

12 Henrietta Street ...

A couple of weeks ago I managed to get access to one of the amazing houses in Henrietta Street in Dublin for a photoshoot.
The house is full of history and beauty, a really inspiring place! And the light is great too!

I still have to work through many files from that day, but here is a sample ...



Monday, September 23, 2013

at South Studios again ...

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of being in the company of Ciaran Whyte (he of thewonderoflight fame) and Lorraine Gilligan ... a wonderful husband and wife team of photographers. Most of you in Dublin have heard of them!

They kindly invited me to a shoot with a British model by the name of Lulu Lockhart at South Studios in Dublin.

I hope I managed to be helpful that morning. I tried!

Here is a shot I managed of Lulu ...

                                        Breakfast can wait by Javier Leite

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Emily

A week ago I had the pleasure of working with Emily on a shoot.
I am sure you will all agree that Emily is a gorgeous young model!
This particular pose was her idea ...

Emily by Javier Leite on 500px.com
Emily by Javier Leite

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Preparing the next photoshoot ...

Preparations for the next photoshoot are ongoing ...

In the mean time here is a picture from the last one


Friday, August 23, 2013

The Model Photo Shoot ...

Four shots from my first model photo shoot ... got loads to work through! Nice complaint to have ...



Wednesday, August 21, 2013

El Argentino

Now that I have a few colour images I decided to enter a new salon in Argentina, aptly named "El Argentino" ...

For the first time I entered both colour and mono sections in full!
This is my 27th salon of photography, and the second one in Argentina.

Fingers crossed!


Abeer

Definitely enjoyed the first model photoshoot ...


A Moment's Dream by Javier Leite on 500px.com
A Moment's Dream by Javier Leite

First Model Photoshoot ...

Guess what ... I decided to take a few pictures with a model.

Really enjoyed the day!!

The Good Soul by Javier Leite on 500px.com
The Good Soul by Javier Leite

Monday, May 14, 2012

The trip that the D800E took ...

I made it back from my holidays... Yes, I was on a holiday in Spain. In Galicia to be precise, the northwestern tip of the Iberian peninsula. I just had to go. My little brother was getting married (to a gorgeous Argentinian girl), so it was rather imperative that I made it over there.

I took my D800E on holidays with me and we were accompanied by most of my photographic entourage, from tripod to lenses. 
My dear (beautiful and patient) girlfriend made it too!

I was asked to take a few pictures at the wedding, and I obliged, mostly because it was my brother that asked me to. Otherwise ...

I always had great respect for wedding photographers, after all it is not an easy thing to do ...but after "trying" my hand at it, my respect has grown enormously. It is just so difficult. And tiring too! They all deserve every cent they get and more!


I hope I managed a couple of decent shots at the wedding. After all, we had great weather for it, much the surprise of everyone involved!

But the wedding was only a day (just like most weddings I know).

The rest of the week I spent some quality time with my girlfriend and friends, and with my camera.

I chose two main bases for the week. Camariñas and Santiago de Compostela. We had all weathers, from incessant rain in Camariñas to stone splitting heat in Santiago.

Somehow I managed to take a few pictures, and I will be uploading some soon to my website.

JL



Saturday, February 18, 2012

Josef Hoflehner books

This past Xmas I wanted to get myself a nice book as a present... and ended getting my self three!

I just could not choose between any of Josef Hoflehner books and if it wasn't for money restrictions I would have bought them all.
But I had to choose, and so I chose three: China, Unleashed II and ZNZ.

Just a couple of words: Sublime and Gorgeous.

Go and get them if you can!

    

JL

Friday, February 17, 2012

Edge 80

Lensbaby have announced their new Edge 80 optic this week, and I find myself wanting one...

Have been thinking about an 85mm lens for some possible portraits and this tilt optic could fill that gap at a quite reasonable price, although the price in EUR or GBP has not been announced yet.

I already own a Lensbaby and I am happy with the results ... unusual slices of focus and lovely blurring. I must post some on my website soon!

Lensbaby Edge 80













JL