Keswick Photographic Society

15th October 202615th October 2026

Mark Hetherington: ‘Cumbrian Landscape’, 14th October 2026

On 14th October our members were treated to a stunning presentation of local photographs by a full-time local photographer currently based in Penrith. Mark Hetherington is an Associate of The Royal Photographic Society and was the winner of the 2026 International Garden Photographer of the Year. His work has featured in The Times Newspaper, British Photographic Awards and in The Trail, Amateur Photographer and Outdoor Photography magazines.

For all of us who live in and around the Lake District, we are fortunate to be in some of the most spectacular scenery in the country, if not the world. However, most of us witness the scenery when it’s light and probably when it’s dry, too. Photographers like Mark, whose remarkable images we have just witnessed, seem never to be indoors when there is a sunrise, sunset or in deed any other phenomenon or spectacle to capture.

13th October 202613th October 2026

Basia Bogacka: ‘A Journey to the Arctic’, 7th October 2026

On 7th October we were treated to a journey to the Arctic by renowned fine art photographer, Basia Bogacka. The evening was split into two parts, the first featuring Greenland and the second Svalbard. Each section started with a fascinating telling of the very different history and geography of the two sets of islands as well as an insight into some of the current climate crisis, (not least demonstrated by retreating glaciers and sea pack ice), and geo-political considerations.

3rd October 20263rd October 2026

Gerry Coe: ‘iPhone Photography’, 30th September 2026

At our meeting on 30th September members were treated to a masterclass with a difference. There is an expectation that presentation images will have been taken with conventional cameras, however speaker Gerry Coe, a professional photographer from Belfast, showed a series of incredible images taken with his phone.

Gerry has 60 years experience of photography and is a Fellow of The Royal Photographic Society, a Fellow of the British Institute of Professional Photographers and a Fellow of The Master Photographers Association amongst others! He was the first person ever to gain a fellowship by submitting a panel of photographs taken on an iPhone rather than a traditional camera.

26th September 202626th September 2026

1st Open Competition, September 2026

Competition nights are always popular at our Club, as they provide the opportunity for judges to give constructive advice on how our photographs might be improved and also allow our images to be seen by other members.

Our Open competitions allow pictures from any genre of photography and are divided into two sections: mounted prints and digital images which are projected onto a screen (called Projected Digital Images or PDIs). Points are awarded for each picture up to a maximum of 20, then the judge states their favourite from certain genres, eg landscape, and chooses their overall winning image.

Our 1st Open competition of the 2026/27 season took place on Wednesday 23rd September and our judge was Maybeth Jamieson MPAGB from Dumfries camera club.

19th September 202619th September 2026

Alastair Marsh: ‘Wildlife Photography’, 16th September 2026

The latest meeting of the Society featured award-winning wildlife photographer Alastair Marsh. He visited us hot on the heels of multiple successes in the latest British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA). One of Alastair’s hedgehog portraits is featured as the front cover of this year’s BWPA book. His talk was subtitled ‘trying something different’ and was illustrated with stunning photographs of native species mostly close to his home in North Yorkshire. The images were outstanding both in their technical quality and the inventiveness of his compositions.

The inventiveness came from the ingenuity with which he arranged the photographic set-ups used to capture unique aspects of animal behaviour. The overriding aim was to remain as unobtrusive as possible so that the animals acted in a natural manner. To achieve this, much of the photography relied upon the remote triggering of the silent shutter of a camera that was often positioned inches away from the subject. He also subtly exploited remotely-triggered low level flashlights to illuminate either the subject or its immediate surroundings to produce evocative naturalistic images.

11th September 202611th September 2026

Keith Snell: ‘Hits & Misses’, 9th September 2026

For our second meeting of the new season the club were treated to a presentation by longstanding member Keith Snell of his photographic hits and misses over the years. Hits were those images that had been awarded medals in international competitions, whereas the misses were favourites that he felt should perhaps have been rewarded. However, he emphasised that as photographers we should not be seeking to please competition judges but rather to please ourselves. Very often our emotional connection to an image would then make it uniquely personal.

Keith attributed his start in photography to his family moving at his early age to a house with a bathroom. Having running water and a small easily-blocked window, this could be temporarily converted to a dark room for the contact printing of film negatives. His further progress from then on was largely the result of inspiration and advice from fellow photographers, not least through joining Keswick Photographic Society when he moved to the area in 2008. He also considered that becoming a photographic judge of local club competitions improved his own critical appreciation as well as enjoying the wealth of photography excellence in the camera club scene.

10th September 202611th September 2026

New Season

The new season of Keswick Photographic Society began on Wednesday 2nd September 2026, when we welcomed members both old and new.

Club member Mike Kidd opened the first half of the evening with a talk about his travels in Africa, India and Scotland. Mike is a keen wildlife photographer who showed us some stunning images, including ones of tigers. His most recent trip was just a few weeks ago to the Masai Mara in Kenya where he photographed the wildebeest migration which included a crossing of the Mara River. His photographs highlighted the dangers of the crossing with many crocodiles waiting to prey on the younger and weaker animals.

5th May 202610th July 2026

Alan Walker: “Frozen”, 15th April 2026

On Wednesday 15^th April Alan Walker, a long-standing member of the club, gave us a whistle stop tour of some of Earth’s colder regions focusing mainly on the wildlife to be found there. He started his tour in the Poles including both the Arctic and Antarctica. His first stop was Svalbard which is a remote Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The main reason for going there was to photograph Polar Bears:

25th April 202610th July 2026

POTY April 2026

Our Portfolio of the Year competition was held on April 8^th and judged by Sue Clark from Conwy Camera Club. Members can enter three images into the print section from three different genres and three images into the PDI section, again from different genres. Sue judged the prints first and made the following choices:

Best People (Figurative)- Her Ladyship Courting by Alan Walker:

8th April 202610th July 2026

“Field to Photo”, Richard Hodgson, April 1st 2026

On Wednesday 1^st April Richard Hodgson, who was born and raised on a Cumbrian dairy Farm, gave a fascinating talk titled “Field to Photo”. Richard has been taking photographs of farm animals for twenty years or so and is one of Britain’s leading livestock photographers. His interest developed when showing his family’s pedigree Holstein cattle. His work, which has taken him all over the country, has included providing images for various farming magazines, working for specialist breed societies, photographing for commercial companies to advertise their products and taking commissions for example when a farmer wants to sell his animals. He likes to take unusual images if possible.