I wouldn’t normally post this, but I actually thought it was a really generous offer, so worth the plug.

One of our readers who is a musician has commented on a post here about the fact that they are an up and coming musician in need of some assistance from a photographer to do some live action / portrait shots for promo work for “posters/flyers/myspace/local press…etc”

The unfortunate part of this is the ‘up and coming’ part, as our dear reader is a struggling student / musician who cannot afford to pay cash for the shots. What she can offer instead is free tickets to a gig, and a home baked cake!

Now as a photographer, I know that I love cake, as do many other photographers. Unfortunately, being on the other side of the world to Dublin doesn’t really leave me with the option to do this work myself, but I’m sure there will be some photographers out there willing to help, who can do with adding some portrait and live action shots to add to their portfolio and a nice slice of cake.

Any queries should be directed to rionahartman _at_ hotmail _dot_ com

A really interesting combination of competition, event and exhibition for all photographers and photo aficionadas has started in April at the No. 3 venue on Fade Street:

On Monday nights from 7.30 -11.30pm, No. 3 hosts SHOOT-OUT, an evening of cutting-edge music and photography. Each night, the work of 5 photographers is showcased on flat screen TVs and projector screens. Throughout the night, patrons are given voting cards and invited to choose their favourite image. The photographer behind the winning image joins 9 other winning photographers over three months to compete for the grand prize. The final is co-adjudicated by public vote and a panel of experts.

I attended yesterday’s  showcase and was really impressed by the quality of the works on display – not to mention that it was quite difficult to pick one “winner” out of the evening’s 50 pictures.  You can view all participating photographers and their works here. If you are interested in participating yourself, you’ll find the application form on the website of the Shootout Crew. A very neat idea indeed.

Once again St Stephen’s Green is host to an outdoor photographic exhibition this time featuring photographs of Polish wildlife by Artur Tabor. There was a previous outdoor gallery held last year in the park and from what I can gather it was very popular with visitors to the park so it is well worth a visit.  This year’s exhibition was officially opened at the end of last week and will run until September 6th. You can find out more information about the exhibit on the website. Meanwhile here is some of what you can expect.

Continuing and combining the theme from the last couple of posts this weekend a group of us are having a photomeet around the Dublin Maritime Festival. There’ll be a market, tall ships and all sorts of wonderful things going on. So if you are interested in photography please grab your camera and come along. We are meeting at 1pm on Sunday, June 1st at the Harbour Master pub, behind Connolly Station in the IFSC. We have a Facebook event page which you can check out and you can also check out the images from our last photomeet on Flickr.  Any and everyone is invited.

If like me you are photography crazy, and like to keep an eye on photoblogs from in and around Dublin and the rest of Ireland, you life has just become a lot easier. Donncha has done the Irish Photoblogging community a great service by developing irishphotographers.org a site where all of the best photographers from around the city and country can submit a feed of their blog so that everything appears in one nice, neat centralised place! I think it’s a fantastic idea, and I’m only raging that I didn’t come up with it myself sooner! But, big shout out to Donncha for putting it together, and I really think that you should go check it out and sign up!

I don’t think anyone has posted this already and if they have, many apologies. Restored for some time now following its destruction back in November 2004, the Olympia Theatre canopy looks great. I couldn’t resist snapping it the other night as it is the first time I’ve seen it back in all its glory.

Africa Day at Dublin Castle took place yesterday and was great craic altogether. A celebration of African culture and tradition, the place was packed to the brim – there was a 20 minute queue to get in when we arrived at around 3pm. According to RTÉ, over 7, 000 people attended. There were stalls displaying traditional crafts, clothing and everyday utensils, short films and exhibitions, South African wine tastings and sporting events. The main stage hosted a great mix of African and Irish acts – from traditional Malawian Dance Performances to Irish hip hop group Millionaire Boyz and Irish trad lads Kila.

it ended with performances from Mundy (who opened his set by saying “Should I just sing Galway Girl and go home?”), Republic of Loose and Sinead O’Connor.

According to the 2006 census, almost 42,000 of the people living in Ireland were born in Africa.

There are a few more pics on the Dublin Blog Flickr.

Over the weekend a big gang of photobloggers met up at the George Bernard Shaw pub Toe Jam carboot sale. Its a small venue with a small number of stalls selling all sorts of weird and wonderful things and certainly one to look out for, I think the next one is planned for July, so if you are a member of Facebook you can join the group (in the above link) and get notified when the next one takes place.

In keeping with the outdoor market theme we then headed to the Temple Bar farmers’ markets for more snaps. Here’s some shots of the day and you can see more of everyone’s in the dedicated Flickr group, go on and get lost in some excellent photography. And if you fancy joining us the next time, keep an eye out as I will post details here.

Some shots from the old U2 recording studio (in the pic above it’s on the right) on Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock; It’s the only one-story building left in the area, surrounded by 10-floor apartment blocks and large holes in the ground where 10-floor apartment blocks are being built. I think a few albums, including All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb were recorded here. Most of the graffiti is on the wall just across from it which I think is, sadly, going to be knocked down.

A compulsory purchase order was handed to the band back in 2001 when the Docklands was undergoing all that redevelopment and they went to court to fight it; an online petition to save the studio was even started. And even though the studio was saved, I doubt this wall was!

While I love the Grand Canal Dock area and all that’s being done to it, it’s a shame that this little bit of Dublin history may well be on it’s way to being knocked down – fans from all over the world have somehow managed to find their way though the building rubble to leave their messages.

As written about in the previous post, last night saw Dublin’s participation in Earth Hour. I was at the Customs House to watch the lights  go off and the pics below show before and afterwards. A video of the lights going out is available here.

According to news reports today there was a drop of 50 megawatts nationwide in energy demand last night in comparison with last week. You can read more on Ireland.com, on the Earth Hour blog and the official Earth Hour website.