Kilkenny are the Kings of the Shield!

The high standard of entry in this year’s National Shield competition was repeatedly complimented by the judges during their commentary at the event in Limerick over the weekend. Twenty-six clubs entered the competition, making it one of the biggest entries in the history of the National Shield. 

Kilkenny Photographic Society won the top award, with Malahide and Dundalk coming in a very close second and third. The quality, variety and imagination of the photography on all the panels (a total of almost 420 photographs) entered in the competion illustrates just how much standards in Irish photography continue to rise.

Members of Kilkenny Photographic Society as the very proud Overall Winners of the IPF National Shield 2017 – there will be no stopping  them now 🙂

Many new clubs who had entered the Shield for the first time, enjoyed the opportunity to see the work being done in other clubs and to share their interests with club members from far and near. Many new friendships were made and there was no shortage of exchanges of invitations between clubs to visit each other.

Once again this year, the National Championships was sponsored by Sheldon Long of ‘Fine Art Papers’. Sheldon has been a valued and much appreciated supporter of the Shield for several years. The event was hosted by Limerick Camera Club, whose members gave much help and assistance throughout the day.

One of the highlights of the day was the presentation of the Seamus Scullane Memorial Award to John Doheny, LIPF, of Mallow Camera Club, which is reported elsewhere. Both he and his friend Pat Heavin, AIPF, also of Mallow, gave a tour de force presentation on Audio Visual photography and how it can be used to utilise and add interest to photographic projects. Their talk followed an equally superb presentation of the photography of Dominic Reddin, FIPF, whose fellowship panel of kingfishers and whose work as a nature and landscape photographer, went down extremely well with his audience.

This year’s event marked a number of significant changes in the competition. For the first time, clubs were allowed have up to two LIPF images on each panel (subject to certain criteria) and images were marked out of ten points, rather than twenty as in the past. In previous years, all judges were from outside Ireland. This year, two of the judges were from Ireland, but neither were from clubs competing in the competition. Comments received by the co-ordinator after the event will be put to the IPF Council for consideration in the running of next year’s competition.

The Irish judges, Anne Cassidy, FIPF and Podge Kelly, FIPF, (a former president of the IPF) judged with Janet Haines, ARPS, who is chair of the Royal Photographic Society’s Digital Imaging Group. Their commentary on individual images and panels at the end of the event went down extremely well and in the opinion of many present, were the best ever provided at a National Shield. By that period of the day, the audience had grown to over 150 people. In all, upwards of 200 people visited the exhibition throughout the day.

A phenomenal amount of work goes on behind the scenes in the weeks before the competition and on the day itself. This was acknowledged by the IPF President, Dominic Reddin, during the awards ceremony when he thanked the co-ordinator, Bill Power, for organising the event. He also expressed thanks to the back-room team of Joe Doyle, Tony Murray, Ita Martin, Brian Deering, Niamh Whitty, Patrick Kavanagh, Liam Beattie, John Cuddihy, Sheamus O’Donoghue, Helen Quinn, Denis Whelehan and Jim McSweeney. Taking and checking entries, organising the venue, panel displays, number crunching, preparation of medals, awards certificates and much more besides takes huge time and effort before the event, but especially so on the day itself.

Results, winning panels, winning individual images are all available to view below. Presentation photos to follow later in the week.

Finally, we express a massive thank you to all clubs who participated and to everyone who travelled to Limerick for the 2017 National Shield.

IPF National Shield 2017 Results

Winning Panels

Winning Images

Colour Panels

Monochrome Panels

Presentation Photos