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This week Keswick Photographic Society held its third set subject competition. The theme for this was song titles which seemed a popular choice as there was an excellent entry with twenty members participating. The songs were chosen from a wide range of genres and artists. Songs from pop stars such as The Beatles, Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel, Fleetwood Mac and David Bowie were well represented. Others included children’s songs such as Nellie the Elephant and The Ugly Duckling. There were also songs from shows and films such as The Bare Necessities, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines and Any Old Iron.  Members had obviously enjoyed using their imagination and hadn’t been shy about revealing their musical tastes.

The images were judged by one of our members, Sue Rugg, who had gone to great lengths to record each song so that she could introduce the images by playing short excerpts. She’d obviously enjoyed her task, particularly the humour displayed by some members in their choices and she felt that most of the images represented the songs well. She also wondered how some members had spent their youth given their choice of song titles and images.

There was the usual mix of landscapes, people pictures, creative images and nature. Sue’s overall choice of winner was an image of a Gannet skimming the sea by Simon Roberts. The song title for this was “Electric Glide in Blue” by James William Guercio.

 

Best landscape went to David Woodthorpe for a woodland scene titled “Moss Garden”, a song by David Bowie.

 

Best People was awarded to Ted Jordan for his image of two women titled “Sisters” written by Irving Berlin and sung by The Beverly Sisters.

 

Sue chose “Helpless” an image of a young Grey Wagtail by Tony Marsh as the best nature image

 

and “Purple Haze” by Bob Given as the best creative image.

 

It was a fun evening, enjoyed by everyone and excellently judged by Sue who gave many helpful tips on how the images could be improved.

All the entered images can be seen on our gallery page

Julie Walker

We held our second open competition of the season.  Maybeth Jamieson, a long time member, and immediate past president, of Dumfries Camera Club, was the judge and gave very detailed critique of the images which was full of positive comments and helpful tips.

Maybeth was present in the meeting room and members attended either in the meeting room or online via Zoom.  As usual there was a wide range of subjects in the images, including landscape, portraits, sport, creative and nature, taken locally and further afield.

There were 26 prints for Maybeth to judge.  The Best Overall winner of the print section was Ken Rennie with an excellent landscape titled “Cold start to the day”.  This image scored the maximum of 20 points and was also judged Best Landscape.

 

Also scoring a maximum of 20 points were images by Carol Minks, with “Arctic Reindeer Svalbard” which also achieved Best Nature,

 

and Julie Walker, with “Down by the Mill” which achieved Best Creative .

 

Scoring 19 points was “River Rider” by Sue Rugg, and was also awarded Best People.

 

Four images were awarded 18 points, “A Tree and a fence” by Sue Rugg, “”Dornoch Point” by Ken Rennie, “Pladda Sound” by Tony Melling and “Suspicion” by Alan Walker.

There were 49 Digital images entered to judge. There were five images scoring the maximum of 20 points. The Best Overall was “Vincent the Boy who liked trains” by Sue Rugg, which also achieved Best People image.

 

The Best Landscape again went to Ken Rennie for his image “Deepdale Beck”.

 

Best Nature was achieved by Julie Walker for “Snow Leopard in Snow storm”.

 

The final 2 images scoring 20 points were an image of an athlete “Nelvin Appiah” by Bob Given

 

and “Red Kite Diving” by Ronnie Gilbert.

 

Two entries scored 19 points those being ”Goldfinches Squabbling” by Carol Minks and “Fortune Teller” by Alan Walker. Five images achieved 18 points,  “The Vaccinated” by Sue Rugg, which was also awarded Best Creative, “Jay and Woodpecker standoff” by Marilyn Woodthorpe, “Cottages in Cove” by Tricia Martin, “Mountain Lion in pursuit or prey” by Alan Walker, “ and “Thrush Chick waiting to be fed” by David Woodthorpe.

All the entered images can be seen on our gallery pages

Gordon Train

This week Keswick Photographic Society’s members were entertained by Carrie Calvert who gave a talk titled “A Walk on the Wild Side” accompanied by numerous prints. Carrie’s passions are nature photography and walking. In her spare time, she spends many hours walking miles on the fells near her home in Brampton, and further afield in Cumbria and Northumberland, searching for wildlife subjects to photograph. Carrie is a full time NHS employee at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle so she has little time to spare but at weekends and during holidays she rises as early as 3.30 a.m. to be out on the fells by dawn. During the recent stressful times due to the pandemic, she has found it very therapeutic to be out and about in the fresh air with her camera.

 

Carrie prefers to photograph in the wild rather than from a hide and she is very protective of the wildlife she photographs, making sure that she does not cause distress by getting too close. Her wonderful photographs of a variety of species have been achieved by observing their behaviour from a distance, sometimes for hours, while deciding on the best location to photograph from, working out a good composition and waiting for perfect light.

 

Carrie’s prints covered a wide variety of creatures.  Owls are a particular favourite of hers and she had images of a number of different species including Short Eared Owls, Barn Owls, Little Owls and a Long Eared Owl. Other birds included in her presentation were Terns, Red Kites, Puffins, Gannets, and Sanderlings. She has twice had images selected for BBC Countryfile’s Calendar. One of Greylag goslings in 2017 and another of a cygnet under its mother’s wing for the 2022 calendar.

 

As well as birds she also has numerous images of mammals including Red Squirrels, Brown Hares, Red and Fallow Deer and Badgers. She also photographs domestic species such as Highland Cattle, Longhorn Cattle and local breeds of sheep.

Carrie explained that she often has to put up with considerable discomfort to achieve her images sometimes lying for hours on the wet and cold ground or scrambling over slippery rocks and wedging herself into position between them. She emphasised the importance of a flask of coffee which is almost as essential as her camera on her early morning outings!

Carrie’s enthusiasm for her subject was apparent throughout her talk which was also full of helpful tips particularly for those new to wildlife photography. Her prints of native wildlife were inspirational and more than adequately demonstrated that it is not necessary to travel huge distances to locations abroad in order to achieve prize winning images. In conclusion it was a most enjoyable evening.

Julie Walker

Our first set subject competition of the season was held on November 3rd. For this, members were asked to submit a panel of three images, either prints or digital images, on a subject of their choice. Seventeen members entered and there was a wide variety of themes including portraits, landscapes, sport and wildlife.

Alan Walker judged the images and as well as looking at the quality of each individual image he considered how well the three images in each entry sat together as a cohesive panel.

There were six print entries and Alan awarded “Best Print Entry” to Sue Rugg for her panel of high key images of trees. He remarked that the simplicity of these images was particularly appealing.

 

There were 11 entries in the digital image section.  “Best Digital Entry” went to Antony Melling for a panel of beautiful abstracts of flowing water.

 

Alan then made a number of other awards. Best Portrait was awarded jointly to Annie Given for her digital panel of three images of a boxer

 

and to David Price for his print panel of three close up portraits of a busker.

 

Ann Healey’s triptych of moody trees was selected as the best creative entry.

 

Bob Given’s entry of female rugby players was awarded “Best Sports Entry”.

 

“Best Landscape” went to Chris Burgess for three images of sand dunes which illustrated various stages in their development.

 

Marilyn Woodthorpe’s panel comprising head shots of a Merlin was selected as the best nature image

 

and finally Michael Rowlinson’s panel of vintage diggers and other machinery was awarded “Best General Interest”.

 

Julie Walker, Nov 2021

Gerald Chamberlin DPAGB EFIAP is a member of the Morton Photographic Society in Carlisle and is an experienced photographic judge and speaker.  Members of the society again attended either in person at the meeting room or on Zoom.

Gerald started by explaining the science of Infra-Red (IR) and how it fits into the light spectrum, as ‘Invisible Light’, the history of Infra-Red photography and how it began in the late 1800s. It was used in both the First World War, for identifying trenches and gun emplacements, and during the Second World War. He showed how it was also used in the 1960s and 70s to produce ‘psychedelic’ photographic effects on record covers, etc. Originally the process relied upon film but nowadays digital cameras, which are a lot easier to work with, achieve excellent results. Gerald used to use a DSLR but now uses digital mirrorless cameras.

He explained how there are two ways to achieve IR by the use of external IR filters for the camera, which makes the process very slow, or getting the camera professionally converted by changing the standard filter in the camera to an IR filter, and the choices of different wavelength filters.

He presented his excellent digital images of very varied subjects, including the Harbour at Galston, Little Langdale, Carlisle War Memorial, Ferrybridge, Eskdale, Lowther Castle, Edinburgh Jupiter Park, Longtown Car Show.

The sitting man as Silloth, Threlkeld Quarry including Sir Tom, Beamish Museum, including some panoramas.

He described the complex and quite technical processing of the images once taken, including the stages of Custom White balance, Red and Blue swapping, Desaturation of colours, Clarity and Dehaze, using software such as Photoshop and Nik Effects.  He also showed some excellent prints for members to examine.

 

Gerald then bravely demonstrated this workflow for post processing the images on his laptop, successfully detailing the various stages.  Finally, Gerald showed a short video showing the subtle processes he had used on those prints displayed in the room. Members enjoyed the very informative talk and the excellent images and prints.

Gordon Train

This was the Society’s first Open Competition of the season. It was also the first meeting where the judging of prints has been possible since the start of the Covid pandemic due to previous meetings taking place solely on Zoom.  Our judge, Simon Allen, who attended via Zoom, is a member of Dumfries Camera Club. He an experienced judge and gave his detailed critique of the images which was full of positive comments and helpful tips.

The evening was divided in to two halves;  prints and digital images. There were 28 prints for Simon to judge.  There was a wide range of subjects in the images, many taken locally but some from further afield.

The overall winner of the print section was Carol Minks with a beautiful image of a Whimbrel.

 

This image scored the maximum of 20 points and judged Best Nature print.    Ken Rennie also achieved the maximum score of 20 for his image of a seascape titled ‘Wild Horses’, this image was also judged the Best Creative print.

 

Three scores of 19 were awarded; one to Alan Walker for an image titled “It’s long way down Dad…be brave Son”, an adult and a young owl,

 

and another to Marilyn Woodthorpe for an image of an Indian woman feeding her goats titled “Feeding Time”.

 

The third was an image by Tom Stenhouse titled “Attempted Charge Down”, which also was judged Best People print. Simon also awarded a score of 18 to four prints. These were “Dawn on Bassenthwaite Lake” by Fred Bell, which was also judged Best Landscape print,

 

“In the Shifting Wind” by Sue Rugg,

 

 

“Three in One” by Ken Rennie

 

and “Made It” by David Price

 

Fifty Two images were submitted for judging in the digital section. Again a wide range of subjects in the images. The overall winner was Bob Given for his image titled “Lara Clears”, a monochrome image of a high jumper. This image scored 20 points, and judged Best People image.

 

A score of 20 was also awarded to Alan Walker for his image titled “ I see You”.

 

It was a good evening for Carole Minks who was also awarded 19 for her image titled “Wild Buzzard with Prey”, which was also judged Best Nature image.

 

All the entered images can be viewed in our gallery pages:

Gallery link

 

Despite only starting her photography journey in 2013, our latest Zoom speaker, Jo Knight, DPAGB BPE1* QPSA EFIAP, has already attracted considerable  international acclaim for her unique creative fine art images. We were enthralled and enthused after her first presentation to the Society in March and couldn’t wait to have her back for this season. In the new presentation, titled Promoting Passion, Jo convincingly demonstrated the truth of her aphorism of do what you love and love what you do. Jo has chosen a photographic path in which she single-mindedly pursues the style of photography which resonates with her artistic sense regardless of more conservative and restrictive external judgements.

Much of her work involves constructing photographs by combining a number of her images in Photoshop, such that she spends almost as much time in front of a computer screen as in front of the camera viewfinder. Not that this applies to her first love of wildlife photography in which she sensitively brings out the character of birds and animals in their natural setting, although she is not averse to improving the backgrounds for pictorial effect.

Jo has had to overcome many obstacles in her all-consuming passion for photography, not least that she has invisible painful neurological disabilities which limit her mobility. So the majority of her images are taken within 10 miles of her home in the Eden Valley and she has to use herself as the model for her creations. Her composite image called On The Shelf has her own figure positioned on the shelf in her hallway to metaphorically address an implied critical comment by a friend as to why she was still single in middle age.

 

The image illustrates her way of working in which a long time is spent developing the concept of the story she wants to tell and then she takes the various photographs to produce a compositionally strong and effectively-lit image in the computer, including adding shadows by hand. The On The Shelf image took two years from conception to creation but the effort was rewarded by it being selected for the exclusive Master of Print award of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain as well as gaining a gold medal in the 2019 Scottish International Salon.

Jo became the Lady of the Lake only by immersing herself in her bathtub clutching a sword and with the camera suspended from the bathroom ceiling. The background was taken at the local River Eden.

 

While not actually confining herself to a bird cage, she created Life Behind Bars in which the birds are the ones looking in, in a series of thematically connected images commentating on the way we keep animals in solitary confinement.

 

The series was nominated for an award from 5000 entries to the  2021 Fine Art Photography Awards. The Enemy Outside shows her trapped during lockdown behind a window (salvaged from house demolition in her village) which is being beseiged by red Covid viral particles. This was the global winning entry of a Covid-19 lockdown competition attracting over 6000 entries from 90 countries and was shown in a large outdoor exhibition held at the Beijing World Art Museum.

 

Jo highlighted other obstacles which rang true with our own female members. Camouflage wear for wildlife photography comes in pink for women! Adventure watches hang off the wrists of the fairer sex and hides have viewing holes beyond the reach of any but six-footers. She also has her own sad tale of male harassment and champions the cause of gender equality in a number of her composite photographs, including a literal Breaking The Glass Ceiling and a hard-hitting image titled Child Bride. Equally poignant was her image of Evacuee showing a young girl with a teddy bear and with a disappearing railway line added to the background.

These and other images of  social commentary and of personal tribulation show Jo to be an outstandingly unique photographer with a gift of being able to translate the stories conceived in her mind into striking creative fine art representations. She certainly lives up to her mantra of Have The Courage To Tell Your Own Story and the exquisite and moving photographs that we were treated to in her presentation certainly justified the enthusiastic reception she was given by members at the end of an unforgettable evening.

Keith Snell

On Wednesday 22^nd September David Bibby entertained Keswick Photographic Society’s members with an illustrated talk on Iceland in winter. He first visited Iceland seven years ago with two aims in mind; to walk on a glacier and to see and photograph the Aurora Borealis. On his way to achieving these he travelled along the south coast of Iceland visiting some of the now well-known sights. On his first visit however, there were very few tourists and he and his travel companion were often alone.

 

His presentation started in Reykjavik.  He then took us eastwards, first to the Strokkur Geyser which he illustrated with a short video clip of an eruption. He then went on to several dramatic waterfalls including Gullfoss, which was partially frozen, and Skogafoss. After this he went on to photograph the Eyjafjalljokull ice cap. At this point David gave us a lesson in how to pronounce the seemingly unpronounceable Icelandic names which we were greatly in need of!  His next destination was the Myrdalsjokull ice cap which covers the Katla volcano. With the help of a guide, he ascended this by snow mobile.

 

David then showed us images of the wreck of a US Navy Douglas aircraft which crashed on the coastal plain of Solheimasandur in 1973. This is a desolate spot and a four-mile round trip on foot is required to reach the crash site. Weather conditions can be hostile.

His journey then took him further east on to Hofn. On the way he stopped to visit Jokulsarlon which is a glacial lagoon usually filled with icebergs. These eventually drift out to sea; some being deposited on the way on the nearby black volcanic sand beach.

 

David then described the difficulties he experienced in trying to achieve his aim of walking on a glacier. Several of the glaciers that he visited proved to be unsuitable however he finally settled on the Skaftafellsjokull glacier and, equipped with suitable footwear including crampons, he and his travelling companion ascended it.

Finally, David explained how he had achieved his aim of photographing the Aurora Borealis, including what not to do. He was lucky to witness three displays of this amazing natural phenomenon.

 

We had a very enjoyable evening listening to David and looking at his superb photographs and videos which showed off the stunning Icelandic landscape to full advantage.

Julie Walker

 

On Wednesday 15th  September members enjoyed three different presentations.

The Chairman, David Woodthorpe, opened the evening with a presentation explaining the complexities of the annual PAGB (Photographic Alliance of Great Britain) Inter-Club Projected Digital Image Championship. As winners of the NCPF Club Championships, Keswick Photographic Society was selected to represent the Northern Counties in the National Championships. Success in rounds one and two carried Keswick into the final round where they achieved 6th place overall. Another fantastic achievement for Keswick. Judges selected ‘White-tailed Eagle Patrolling Forest’ by Ronnie Gilbert for a Silver Medal Award.

 

‘Taking Pictures of the Milky Way’ was presented by Richard Jakobson. His images are absolutely stunning! He captures not only the wonder of the sky at night but includes foreground detail to create spectacular landscapes.

 

Images were shown from Buttermere, Hard Knott, Crummock Water, Ennerdale, Stonehenge, Portugal and Namibia. Richard demonstrated how the galactic core becomes more visible as you travel further South.

 

The need for rigorous planning was stressed and details of Apps and Software that support planning were shared. The time of year, phases of the moon and weather conditions all need to be considered.

 

A tripod is an essential piece of kit, a wide fast lens if possible, and at a basic level a head torch with red lamp, warm spare batteries and several layers of thermal clothing! Finally we learned about processing and stacking and merging multiple images. Richard is leading an Astrophotography group for any club members who would like to learn more about this aspect of photography.

Finally Simon Roberts demonstrated his enthusiasm and expertise in Wildlife photography through a wide range of impressive images taken in locations across the world including India, Svalbard, South Africa, Finland, Norway and closer to home Wales and the Scottish Highlands.

 

Simon’s narrative was both informative and really interesting thanks to his stories along the way. Being at risk of becoming stuck in sea ice and dangling cameras attached to monopods over the side of ships are two that come to mind!

 

Simon left us with some key ethical questions around the welfare of both the animals and the bait that is used to attract them in locations that are specifically set up for photographers.

 

Keswick Photographic Society welcomes beginners and expert photographers, as new members, or guests, to their meetings. Due to COVID live meetings are restricted to members only for the time being. However, meetings are also being broadcast via Zoom and guests may join these. For information about how to join Keswick Photographic Society or to participate in one of our Zoom meetings as a guest please e-mail: contactkeswickPS@gmail.com.

Sue Rugg

 

This week’s meeting was the second of the new season. Our speaker was David Garthwaite, a fine art photographer from Leeds. His speciality is architecture but he photographs landscapes and does some portraiture work as well. The talk was given via Zoom and most members watched from the comfort of their own homes, but some chose to attend our normal venue, the Friends Meeting House, where we watched via a laptop linked to the television screen.

David began by showing a short video of some of his monochrome images. These included several of the stunning City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Some, taken closer to home, were of the Roker Pier and Berwick Lighthouse. There were images too from London, including an image of The Shard.

 

There were also images from the Netherlands.

 

David researches his locations thoroughly before travelling. Once on site he spends time viewing his subject from every angle and then he decides on the best composition. All this before even taking his camera out of the bag.

 

Unlike many photographers he prefers to shoot on dull, overcast days as this does not create strong shadows and provides a flat image that he can add his own shading too as he sees fit. On bright days he waits until the sun disappears behind a cloud. Sometimes he also uses long exposures to eliminate distractions such as people or vehicles moving through the scene.

David’s distinctive style is largely due to his meticulous approach to processing his images using Photoshop and other software and most of his talk comprised a master class in this.

 

He can spend hours processing one image and he employs such techniques as replacing skies and selectively lightening and darkening parts of the image. While many other photographers also employ such techniques David goes to great lengths to ensure that these changes are employed gradually to ensure they look natural.

 

It was a very informative and enjoyable evening although many of us will need to watch the recording of this meeting several times before mastering his approach.

Keswick Photographic Society’s welcome both beginners and expert photographers, either as new members, or as guests, to their meetings. Due to the COVID pandemic live meetings are restricted to members only for the time being. However, meetings are also being broadcast via Zoom and guests may join these. For information about how to join Keswick Photographic Society or to participate in one of our Zoom meetings as a guest please e-mail: contactkeswickPS@gmail.com.