Blog

For our meeting of the 14^th February we were the guests of Penrith & District Camera Club who hosted a three-way competition with ourselves and Carlisle Camera Club in Newbiggin Village Hall. This annual event is a very social evening with a welcome opportunity to view the range of photographic work (as projected digital images) from all three clubs, with each club showing 15 images from different authors. The images were judged and scored anonymously by Jack Bamford, now of Hexham Photographic Society but previously a very active and well-respected Cumbria-based photographer and club member.

The range of photographic subjects was very broad but with landscape, nature, travel and formal and informal portraiture very much to the fore. Jack emphasised at the outset the very high quality of all the images on show and this was widely acknowledged by the audience despite the competitive element of the occasion. In the event, Keswick Photographic Society were the clear winners with 260 points and Carlisle gained 248 and Penrith 232 points.

Five images were awarded the maximum 20 point score. Three of these were from Keswick authors: Ronnie Gilbert with Bonelli’s Eagle Plucking Pigeon;

Rosamund Macfarlane with White-tailed Sea Eagle;

and, John Macfarlane with Foxes Greeting By Snowbank.

This perhaps emphasises the renown of the Keswick club in wildlife photography but they were not the only club with this expertise. Carrie Calvert of Carlisle Camera Club also gained the maximum 20 points with an exquisitely atmospheric image of a Black Grouse Lekking at daybreak on the moors. And the fifth top scoring image was by John Tillotson of the Penrith club with an exceptionally inventive montage of three different people photographically trapped inside bottles and titled The Three Samples. However, when pressed, the judge selected Ronnie Gilbert’s image as the Best of Show.

As well as praising the fair and perceptive judging comments of Jack Bamford, the fine hospitality and refreshments provided by our Penrith hosts were also enthusistically acclaimed by the audience.

In what was a week of competitive photography, Keswick Photographic Society were in competition again at the weekend when they entered the Northern Counties Club Championships held in Gateshead. The Society gained first place in both the photographic prints and projected images sections and will now go on to represent the northern counties of Great Britain in the national club championships later this year.

Our next meeting, at the usual venue of the Friends Meeting House in Elliott Park, Keswick,  will be on Wednesday 28th February at 7.30 with a presentation of landscape and wildlife by our well-travelled members Alan and Julie Walker and titled Hot and Cold. Visitors are most welcome to join us.

Keith Snell, Chairman

This week our members were hugely entertained and informed by Neil Hulme who talked about his passion for mono images. His talk “Moments in Mono” gave us a geographic tour through locations he has photographed with his increasingly unique style. He started in Northumberland and finished in the Lake District with views of the Wirral, the north west coast, North Wales, Venice and the Peak District along the way. This was liberally laced with his self-deprecating  humour and tales of the “near misses” encountered whilst attempting to capture these images. Such “near misses” included sinking waist deep into salt marshes whilst fleeing the oncoming tide and a narrow escape from a marauding herd of Blackface sheep.

Neil spoke of the inspiration he has had from such photographers as Michael Kenna, Rohan Reilly, Stephen Cairns and Josef Hoflehner. He explained in detail how he obtained his images. Although they may seem simple and somewhat minimalist Neil showed what care and attention was taken to capture exactly what he had in mind. This frequently involved careful attention to weather forecasts and driving significant distances at ungodly hours. His images are often taken using filters to create long exposures with emphasis in composition on leading lines, separation of components within the image and careful tripod placement.

Neil has a very individual style and throughout his presentation he informed us of the techniques he uses in post processing. He draws the viewer’s eye to focal point of the image with careful selective lightening and darkening. He often removes the horizon line to create a surreal, ethereal feeling. He emphasises the leading lines within the image. Neil also brought with him prints of his images which demonstrated with even more clarity the quality of his work.

Feedback from members afterwards was very positive and I am sure that many of us were inspired to hope for dank, murky, misty mornings to go out and try our hand at his style.

Richard Jakobson