Author: Tom Stenhouse

For tonight’s meeting we welcomed back David Stout EFIAP PPSA DPAGB of Whickham Photographic Club, Gateshead. David, who judged one of our internal competitions at the start of the season, was revisiting to give a projected digital presentation titled “From Casablanca to California”. This was a photographic tour over two continents from North African Morocco to the North American states of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada and California.

This proved to be travel photography of the highest order with exquisite images of very varied subject matter, brought to life by an engaging and entertaining commentary. Each photograph conveyed the uniqueness of the location and gave a visual insight into the character of the place. This was achieved by showing the inhabitants, whom David had persuaded to be photographed, and the urban or rural environment which defined life in the areas visited.

In Morocco he showed us the architectural splendour of the royal palaces as well as street scenes which revealed the practices of the people in everyday life. Interspersed with the scenery, he captured insightful portraits of the inhabitants.

A Berber elder tribesman or a young girl dressed in a traditional niqab. As David explained, his success in securing these candid portraits, normally so difficult to get agreement for, was down to a courteous approach combined with a few words of local dialect and a good deal of brass-necked charm! The landscape covered everything from desert scenes to the complex environment of a tannery with its myriad of processing wells.

Moving across the Atlantic to the USA brought a huge contrast in the imagery on show but with the same photographic attention to the details of place and peoples. We were taken on a road trip extraordinaire as we moved southwards from the volcanic and mountainous national parks of Yellowstone and Grand Teton, through the mystical rock formations of the Bryce and Antelope canyonlands, to the desert dunes of Death Valley and the iconic mountain scenery of Yosemite in California.

Our journey through this rural spectacular was mixed with the urban splendour of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, the glitzy excesses of  the Las Vegas strip, the eerieness of gold-mining ghost town Bodie  and in David’s final destination, San Francisco, the starkness of the Alcatraz island prison and of course the Golden Gate bridge. All of these destinations were illuminated by the quality and the perspective of our visitor’s photography and his revealing and witty anectdotes which brought them to life. His photographic tour de force was greeted with enthusiastic thanks by the members at the end of the evening.

Although our formal meetings of the season are now ended, we will report on our informal photographic club sojourn to Edinburgh and district on 17-19^th April. This will be followed by  an exhibition of photographic prints of our members at the Northern Photographic and Video Show to be held at the Rheged Centre, Penrith, on the weekend of 12-13^th May. Attendees are most welcome to visit us at our stand, where members will be happy to provide advice on photographic equipment and techniques and to talk about our activities and the attractions of membership of the Society.  The next season will start at 7.30 on Wednesday 5^th September at our venue of the Friends Meeting House, Elliot Park, Keswick, CA12 5NZ. This will be the AGM of the Society together with a social evening with buffet to welcome new and continuing members and, as always, visitors are most welcome to join us.

Following on from our success in the Three Way Battle last Wednesday, Keith, Ken & myself travelled to way beyond Hexham yesterday to attend the Judging of the Northern Counties Photographic Federation’s Club Competition.  There are 50 clubs in the NCPF, the majority being in the North East, and 24 of them entered the PDI competition and 18 the Prints.  We won this competition last year and also had best individual PDI & Print.

Each club enters 20 PDIs & or 20 Prints and these are shown in rapid succession to three judges, who haven’t seen them before and who make an instant judgement to give a score between 2 & 5, the three scores are then added up. This involved looking at 480 PDIs and 340 prints so you can see how rushed it is.

I am pleased to say that we again won both categories with 222 points in the PDIs, (2nd Hexham with 213 and Durham 3rd with 209), and 238 in the Prints, (2nd Durham with 215 and 3rd Northallerton with 203). As you can see these are significant margins. There were no 15s scored in PDIs and only one 15 in Prints so congratulations to John Macfarlane, Ken Rennie and Alan and Julie Walker for their scores of 14.

Individual results can be viewed in the members section.

Tony Marsh

The usual Wednesday weekly meeting of Keswick Photographic Society was transferred to Thursday following an invitation from Morton Camera Club for members to attend and present their images.  A group of volunteers from Keswick set out to Morton Community Centre in Carlisle where they were welcomed by Chairman Gerald Chamberlain.

The evening was started by Keswick’s Chairman, Keith Snell with an image of a nude model holding a discreetly placed chiffon. It had been taken at a Royal Photographic Society course when the model was relaxed and not consciously posing. Keith had used a small Canon G15 camera without flash producing an image which fulfilled all the rules of fibonacci sequence.  He then showed a lone Red Fox in Yellowstone in scenic snowscape, a reminder that these are lone animals who can survive in wilderness and travel huge distances. Next was an example of Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) which was achieved by panning from left to right with the appropriate camera settings. He ended with an example of In Camera Multiple Exposure (ICME) where three images of heather, reeds and water were superimposed on each other giving a surreal appearance.

Richard Jakobson then gave a talk on “A Novices Guide to the Milky Way” showing beautiful images of the night sky and the Milky Way. His tips were to be awake at 3am(!), use a tripod and to focus on infinity. Amazingly the camera sees a totally different image from that of the eye.  Richard had added foreground interest by either using longer exposures, a torch or a little help from the quarter moon. However he encountered two problems; condensation on the lens and falling asleep.  Despite the title of ‘novice’ these images were very good.

Ken Rennie then showed some stunning landscape images of Dornoch Point in Scotland, Castle Crag in Borrowdale and the steamer on Ullswater taken from Gowbarrow.  His talk included the various techniques he uses in lightroom and photoshop to obtain impressive improvements which were often counter intuitive. In addition he changed from using a wide angled lens to a telephoto lens to emphasise the more interesting aspects of the landscape, hence the adage “less is more”.

Following the interval Carmen Norman showed some studio shots of a ballerina (Kirstie) in a variety of poses displaying her versatility including an amazing standing splits. The use of a step ladder gave some additional interesting postures and lighting challenges.  Outdoors, Kirstie did some ballet leaps and spins adjacent to Crummock Water, waterfalls and Cathedral Cavern where a point pose reflecting in the water was beautiful.

Carole Waterhouse showed a number of images that at first sight appeared ordinary but after some radical cropping to focus on an intriguing part of the image then copied up to 6 times, she produced some exceptional work, “Hands of Buddha” being a good example.  Images of bubbles and reflections were manipulated into creative and visually impressive compositions.

Ronnie Gilbert ended the evening with some of his natural history shots. He explained that  for certain animals it was essential to be in a hide because of the sensitivity or the ferocity of the subject including kingfishers, sparrowhawks and a European Brown Bear whereas less sensitive and more curious fauna are hares, squirrels, and the deer in Bradgate Park.  The RSPB sites at Leighton Moss, Martin Mere, Bempton Cliffs and the Farne Islands all provide ideal sites to photograph various species of water loving birds. One of Ronnie’s beautiful images was of two humming birds on the decking of an apartment in California, taken with camera in one hand and a G&T in the other.  His finale was an image of an adolescent grizzly bear running towards him, he chose to stand still and fortunately the bear passed by about 5 feet away. Phew!

The feedback from Morton members was very complimentary and Keswick Photographic Society look forward to the 2018-2019 season when Morton Camera Club will visit Keswick to reciprocate the session.

The evening of our third Open Competition was judged by Richard Speirs DPAGB, APAGB, BPE2. Richard is recognised as one of the top judges in the Northern Counties and he did not disappoint.  He judged using constructive criticism, advice and a sense of humour; he even had the courage to involve the members in deciding whether his advice was good or not.  However despite the opinion of the audience, he didn’t alter the scores!

These competition evenings can be long with many images to get through, on this  occasion there were 36 prints and 59 digital images. It was impressive to see that more of our new members had entered, thus braving exposure to comments that might be less than favourable. Fortunately, Richard always gave the good points first followed by the improvements, so first timers were in good hands, as the blows of negativity were softened by kindly suggestions.

The prints’ section had some excellent entries, overall the lowest score was 15. Two members scored 20 points; Carol Minks with a wonderful image of a “Juvenile Sparrowhawk” looking very coy in the rain and John Macfarlane displayed an equally impressive image of a sea otter eating a baby octopus, entitled “Chewy”. The striking thing about the latter image was that the otter was in complete harmony with the background, both in terms of colour and texture. The judge is asked prior to the competition to give first place should there be a tie and it was Carol who received this accolade.

Five members received scores of 19 points; Rosamund Macfarlane with “Puffin drying off”, Tony Marsh with “Blue Tit and Lichen”, Carol Minks with both “Male Stonechat on Gorse” and “Black Tailed Godwit”, Ken Rennie with “Solway Watercolour” and Alan Walker with “Fighting Barn Owls”.

A score of 18 was obtained by eight members; Ronnie Gilbert with “Red Squirrel in morning light”, Keith Snell with “Birds in Flight”, Rosamund Macfarlane with “Puffin Portrait”, Marilyn Woodthorpe with “Eggstacy,” Tom Stenhouse with “Fish Feeding Frenzy”, Julie Walker with “Red Stag in Snow”, Tony Marsh with “Caerlaverlock Rainbow” and David Woodthorpe with “Drizzle on a Squirrel”.

The digital image section was equally competitive with a tie for the top position of 20 points by Julie Walker’s “Crested Tit” and Ronnie Gilbert’s “Male Sparrowhawk with Prey” which Richard described as “stunning” giving him first place.

Ronnie Gilbert’s “Running Hare” and “Red legged Partridge” together with Ken Rennie’s “Safe Haven” were awarded 19 points.   Both Alan Walker’s “Bald Eagle in the Rain” and “Wild Rocker” as well as David Woodthorpe’s “Wren on Bracket Fungus”, Tony Marsh’s “Portinscale Kingfisher” and Rosalind Macfarlane’s “Bearded-Tit doing the Splits”  (an eye-watering image!) all scored 18 points.

With nearly twice as many digital images as prints Richard, using no accompanying notes, always appeared calm and collected and the evening finished exactly on time. Timing is a difficult thing to master being the hallmark of an excellent judge.

Once again it is the familiar names that appeared amongst the high scorers; as the saying goes “the cream always rises to the top”.  Unfortunately, not all the images can appear in this article nor be described in great detail but the standard of the two winners gives an indication of the excellence displayed.

Meetings take place at The Friends Meting House, Elliot Park, Keswick CA12 5NZ on Wednesday evenings AT 7.30PM. The next meeting is on the 31st January a practical session on “Still Life”

Tom Stenhouse

Tom Stenhouse has been  a member of the Keswick Photographic Society  for nearly 10 years. He very bravely submitted himself to a critique by his peers as he described the journey he has taken from then until now. That journey has been both geographic and technical, which made for an interesting evening.

When he submitted an early image of birds in flight into one of the regular competitions that the Society holds, he was advised  by the judge to make some alterations. He then lightened the wings as suggested, but this made no noticeable improvement. He became aware of the mantra, “You cannot make a bad picture good but you can make a good picture bad by too much post production work!”

Tom’s other interesting comment was that, sometimes, an image was better with some monochrome than all colour . A monochrome background can sometimes reduce the visual intrusion of the background on the main subject of the image.

By 2012 Tom had moved on to more adventurous applications within Lightroom and Topaz. A good example of that was a visit to the Golden Temple in Japan on a dull day in which he was able to bring out the golden aspects of the subject through the software that was now available. He was now regularly receiving commended and highly commended both in local and wider competitions and was able to use the software to enhance his images. One interesting image of 2013 was a view from Warnscale Bothy which unusually highlighted the visitors book in the window . In the same year he took some pictures of his daughter’s wedding – a stressful and not to be repeated exercise!

By now, his ability with the software was producing different results. Swapping backgrounds and improving foregrounds had led him onto still life. Smokin Joe did not go down too well with the judge, but the droplet sequence of photos showed great skill in the manipulation of the original images and were well received.

Geographically, we had moved from  the Western Isles, the Yorkshire Dales, Japan, New Zealand, Valencia,….to Ashness Bridge lit at dusk by torches!

Tom’s final set of images was the juxtaposition of the original picture of birds in flight with a recent sequence of birds in dispute over fish.

The comparison showed  how far he has come in his journey.

Meetings take place at The Friends Meting House, Elliot Park, Keswick CA12 5NZ on Wednesday evenings AT 7.30PM. There will be no meeting on the 24^th January as the Society is visiting Morton Photographic Society and so the next meeting is on the 31^st January a practical session on Still Life

Stephen Harris

KPS members would like to wish everyone who visits our website a happy Christmas, a healthy and prosperous New Year.

This was an evening where instead of having a presentation from an outside speaker,  members viewed one another’s pictures in the form of themed “panels” of three prints. 28 panels were shown in total from 14 members and it proved to be a fascinating and enjoyable evening where we could look at very personal and sometimes quirky images that were often very different from those we would enter into competitions.

Ronnie Gilbert set us off with themes of “Diving for food”, showing a Grizzly Bear and a Lesser Black-backed Gull with a fish each and an Otter with a crab, and then three icy scenes containing a handsome male Wigeon, (a duck), a flying Mallard and a Snipe.

Roland Harries showed intriguing pictures taken from the window of his upstairs flat, three of wonderful cloudscapes and three showing the recent roadworks proceeding near Booths supermarket. Two of these at night were particularly atmospheric.

Richard Jakobson had contrasting panels of impressionistic views of grasses and birch trees, with a pleasing blur caused by moving the camera vertically whilst taking the picture and dramatic monochrome portraits of a White Rhinocerous, a Cheetah and an Elephant, taken in Namibia. Roy Knowles panel was on a theme of “Walls”, a pleasingly isolated zig zag of dry stone walls taken near Caldbeck Common, the graffiti covered interior of an abandoned Irish coastguard station and a dramatic house wall mural from Londonderry remembering the events of Bloody Sunday. Tony Marsh showed three different lemur species taken in Madagascar and Carol Minks featured more “Winter” scenes of a Cygnet on ice, a wonderful sunset overlooking Derwent Water and a flock of brightly coloured Waxwings adorning a tree like exotic Christmas decorations. She then followed with three beautiful butterflies, surrounded by grasses or flowers taken in the Bulgarian mountains where the insect life is untouched by modern farming practices in a way we can only dream about.

Ed Richardson then took us to New Zealand with shots of the same tree standing in a lake and with a backdrop of mountains. Taken over a number of years it showed very different lake water levels. Ken Rennie, one of our most skilful landscape photographers treated us to four sets of landscape prints. A section of Hadrian’s Wall near Housesteads in very different conditions but all in beautiful light, ethereal low key shots of Ullswater, Rydal Water and a Scottish Loch, rays of sunlight streaming between the trees in a foggy Gelt Woods and minimalist shots of sand and sea from the Solway, Cornwall and Brittany. Keith Snell’s shots were all taken within 20 paces of one another  in Wasdale, each using novel techniques and showed how much interest can be gained by looking imaginatively in a small space whereas Tom Stenhouse treated us to a sunset performance in a hotel infinity pool in Thailand where a fire-lighting finale was matched by the pyrotechnics of a setting sun backlighting splashes of water. A second set was of two colourfully lit modern towers in Tokyo and Kyoto flanking a serene but equally colourful ancient Buddhist temple.

Carole Waterhouse, showed three panels, one of a Heron at Muncaster Castle, a trio of Indian Street characters and idiosyncratic portraits of street performers from Edinburgh and Whitby. Marilyn Woodthorpe showed landscapes,  three snowy Cairngorms scenes and three of lava fields and amazing flower displays from Idaho. David Woodthorpe’s panels were of beautiful coloured smoke trails at a Red Arrow display and detailed bird portraits all taken in one day in Scotland. Perhaps the most intriguing presentation was by Robert Webb: he has been experimenting with an ancient plate bellows camera that he has been renovating using bits from e-bay and custom made metalwork. Using film he acquires from the Czech Republic and home developing he has successively produced images of tree bark but this is very much the beginning of a work in progress.

All in all, this was a highly enjoyable evening with a great range of photographic enthusiasms on show and with the explanations given gave us much insight into each other’s photography.

In the first round of the PSA Interclub Open competition, Keswick came 8= out of 21 clubs, with Alan Walker receiving the Best Image of the Round award for Lynx in Mid Air.