The Society’s second Open Competition of the 2020-21 season took place via Zoom on the evening of Wednesday 25th November. The judge was Gerald Chamberlin DPAGB EFIAP from Morton Photographic Society. Gerald is a Northern Counties Photographic Federation judge and he has judged at Keswick on a number of occasions. Twenty-six members each entered three digital images and within the seventy-eight entries there was a wide range of photographic genres represented, including nature, macrophotography, creative, landscape, travel, portraiture, sport and astrophotography. Gerald had been sent the images a fortnight before the evening so he was able to view them and decide on his scores and critiques in advance of the meeting.
Gerald started his judging by commenting that, as he had come to expect from Keswick Photographic Society, the entries were of a high standard. Two images achieved a top score of twenty and these were ‘Scooting Along’ by Marilyn Woodthorpe and ‘Dans la Salle de Bains’ by Alan Walker.
An impressive score of nineteen was awarded to six other images and these were ‘Female Kestrel Attempting to Take Food from Male’ by Julie Walker, ‘Tuscany Early Morning Mist’ by Tom Stenhouse, ‘Long-Eared Owl Hunting at Dusk’ and ‘The Tackle’ both by Alan Walker, ‘White Tail Eagle Patrolling Forest’ by Ronnie Gilbert and ‘On the Hunt’ by Ken Rennie. A further six images received scores of eighteen and these were ‘Spanish Sparrow’ by Carol Minks, ‘Mist of Gold’ by Carmen Norman, ‘Trusting’ by Sue Rugg, ‘Winters Morning Isthmus Bay’ by Fred Bell, ‘Warming Up’ by Julie Walker and ‘Red Squirrel with Hazel Nut’ by Ronnie Gilbert.
At the end of the judging Gerald chose ‘Skipping Along’ by Marilyn Woodthorpe as his overall winning image. This simple but striking expertly-captured image showed two rows of trees leading the eye to a lady on a scooter. Marilyn had taken this lovely autumn image on a Society trip to Berlin.
In addition Gerald chose his top images from a number of the different photographic genres represented and these were: ‘Tuscany Early Morning Mist’ by Tom Stenhouse (Landscape),
‘On the Hunt’ by Ken Rennie (Nature),
‘ICM Smithy Beck’ by Richard Jakobson (Creative),
‘The Tackle’ by Alan Walker (Sport),
‘Dans la Salle de Bains’ by Alan Walker (Portraiture)
and ‘Trusting’ by Sue Rugg (Black and White).
All the entered images can be seen in our Gallery Pages.
Tricia Rayment