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We were privileged to have an evening with David Clapp on 12^th May. David is a professional landscape and travel photographer from south-west England. He has recently been giving talks all over the world via Zoom and in normal times he runs numerous workshops and photographic trips both close to home and in countries further afield. As well as being an award-winning photographer David is also an accomplished musician and he has spent the last few months perfecting his technique on a vintage banjo.

 

David is a highly entertaining speaker and he showed us numerous examples of his superb work starting with landscapes. His normal technique is to take seven or so images in portrait mode which he then stitches together to create a panorama. This creates a huge file which allows him to select smaller areas of the image without any loss of quality. David went on to explain the importance of the proportions in his images. Careful alignment is also essential which he demonstrated in his architectural images taken in India. He had carefully positioned his camera in these to achieve a symmetrical image. The direction of the light is also important, his preference being for side lighting. It is his attention to such details that have contributed to his success. David also presented several infra-red images taken on a camera converted for this purpose. Theses included some beautifully tinted photographs of the Taj Mahal.

 

During the second half of the evening David talked about a visit to a refuge camp in Palestine which had clearly made a deep impression on him. He had been accompanied by local guides and was able to access areas of the camp that might otherwise have been impossible for a European. His aim had been to document life in the camp and as such he had only used a small and discreet camera.

 

This visit had influenced the direction of his photography and he was now determined to carry out more project-based work.

David’s advice to other photographers is that they should avoid seeking to please others but instead focus on developing their own creativity. He also believes that impactful images can only be achieved through observation. It was important to capture the moment, particularly in travel photography. This ability had to be learned. He also considered it important to experiment in order to develop an individual style and unique images.

 

Our season has been extended until the end of June and we will be meeting via Zoom twice a month until then. Our next meeting will be held at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday 26th May when we will be holding a fun battle with Northallerton Camera Club which will be judged by Ross McKelvey, an award-winning photographer from Belfast.

Julie Walker

Tonight, a panel comprising three of the Society’s most experienced members commented on members’ images.  Alan Walker, Bob Given and Keith Snell are all award-winning photographers who also judge club, regional, national and international competitions.

Photographers often find competitions and critiques intimidating and can be deterred from submitting their images, however this can be one of the best ways to improve. To encourage members to participate in tonight’s event it was made less threatening and more friendly by allowing the authors to remain anonymous.  Fifteen members, including novice, intermediate, and experienced photographers, took advantage of this opportunity and in total forty-five images were submitted. Landscapes predominated but there were also images from a number of other genres including people, wildlife, flowers, abstracts, travel and astrophotography.

 

The majority of images had been taken locally but some were from more distant lands including Sri Lanka and Iceland. The panel members agreed that, overall, the quality of the images was very high.

A number of lovely landscapes were seen during the evening. The authors of these had made a considerable effort to achieve them. Many had risen early to take advantage of the dawn light and in some a mist had further enhanced the image.

 

Another member had spent the hours of darkness in the cold photographing the Milky Way from Crummock Water.

 

Others had endured less than perfect weather conditions to create some very atmospheric images.  All demonstrated the important part that the quality of light plays in producing landscape images.

 

The panel took care to draw out the positive aspects of each image as well as making suggestions on how each could be improved. In the main they were in agreement but in a few cases the three panel members had a lively discussion on their different ideas on how to enhance the image. Overall, their suggestions fell in to a number of different categories. The first of these was to remove any obvious defects such as bright spots, out of focus areas and other distractions.

 

Cropping was suggested in several of the images, sometimes to eliminate distracting elements, but in others to simplify the image or to emphasise the main point of interest. In several cases square or letterbox formats were suggested.

 

Another was to add contrast to some images by selectively lightening or darkening different areas. It was also important to ensure that images were sharp but not to over sharpen. The fifth was to ensure that the colour was natural by correcting any colour casts and to avoid oversaturated colours which can be a problem with digital photography. Digital noise and artefacts also need to be avoided.

 

The evening was both instructive and very entertaining. The panel members worked well together as a team and demonstrated that simple adjustments could be made to most of the images submitted to enhance them.

Our season has been extended until the end of June and we will be meeting via Zoom twice a month until then. Our next meeting will be held at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday 12^th May when David Clapp, a well-known professional landscape and travel photographer will talk about his work.

Julie Walker

KPS has entered the Photographic Society of America, Projected Image Division, Interclub Competition for several years now. We have steadily worked our way up the 6 leagues and now compete in Division One of the competition. Clubs from the USA and many other parts of the world compete in this competition ( as far as I am aware there are no plans for a breakaway European Super League!)

We were successful again this season finishing second to Greater Lynn Photographic Association from Massachusetts. Finishing so high in the competition several of our members images received awards. Julie Walker received the highest award of the season for “Pelican on Ice with Fish”

 

Other award winners in the Open Competition included Bob Given for “Together”

 

Simon Roberts for “Osprey”:

 

Alan Walker for “What are you looking at”:

 

and Ronnie Gilbert for “Evening round up  on the marsh”:

 

KPS have also entered PSA Nature Division Interclub Competition over recent years and compete in the first of three divisions. This season we came second and were again, like the PID, pipped to the post by Greater Lynn Photographic Association.  Members images which received awards in the Nature Division included Ronnie Gilbert for Grizzly Bear Fishing:

 

David Woodthorpe for Snow Hare washing:

 

and Alan Walker for Long-eared Owl with Kill at Dusk:

 

And finally for the first time  KPS has entered the PSA, Photo Travel Competition this season. The competition has two divisions and we finished sixth in league B. Award winners included Ken Rennie for “The Raven”:

 

Fred Bell for “The Witches Hat”:

 

Carmen Norman for “Alpe di Suisse”:

 

and John Macfarlane for “Over the high pass into Zanskar”:

 

Thanks to Alan Walker, Keith Snell and David Woodthorpe for organising the entries for the Open, Nature and Travel competitions respectively.

Richard Jakobson

Our meeting this week was held on Monday as we took part in an interclub fun competition with Lancaster Photographic Society which was hosted, via Zoom, by them. This was a return battle for one hosted by Keswick last season. The judge for the evening was Carol McNiven Young who is a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and an award-winning photographer.

Each club submitted thirty-five images which were then scored out of twenty. Keswick chose at least one image from each member of the Society who had submitted an entry and, as a result, the work of twenty-five members was represented. The standard of work from both clubs was high and the scores, which ranged from thirteen to twenty, reflected this.

Carol awarded five images the maximum score of twenty. Four of these were by Keswick members which included “Anna Clears”, a sports image by Bob Given:

 

“Summer Storms”, a landscape by Ken Rennie:

 

“Long-eared Owl Hunting at Dusk”, a wildlife image by Alan Walker:

 

and “Waiting and Hoping”, a charming image of a child peeping around a door by Sue Rugg. The latter was chosen by the judge as her favourite image:

 

The fifth image score of twenty was awarded to Christine Armstrong from Lancaster Photographic Society for her image “Brown Hare”.

Carol also awarded scores of nineteen to four images. These included a backlit squirrel by Tony Marsh from Keswick:

 

a second image from Alan Walker, this one was of two kestrels fighting:

 

and another image from Bob Given, this one was of an attractive female model:

 

The fourth score of nineteen was awarded to a member of Lancaster for a moody landscape of The Struggle near Ambleside.

Scores of eighteen were awarded to four images from Keswick Members. These were: “Gramps and Grandkids”, an unusual family portrait by David Woodthorpe, “Male Stonechat on Gorse” by Tricia Rayment, “Osprey with Trout” by Ronnie Gilbert and “Chaffinch Domestic Quarrel” by Keith Snell. Four Lancaster members were also awarded eighteen for their images.

Overall there was a wide range of subject matter, including abstracts, still life, landscapes, architecture, portraits and wildlife. This was a keenly contested competition but on this occasion Keswick was the winner by forty-five points.

Julie Walker

Keswick Photographic Society held its Annual General Meeting via Zoom on 7^th April. The meeting lasted no longer than fifteen minutes and following this five of the Society’s members talked about the photographic projects they had undertaken during lockdown.

Julie Walker spoke first about how lockdown had provided an opportunity to spend time experimenting with different techniques in order to convert her photographs to more painterly images. Julie showed a number of examples of her creative work including images of animals taken in the Kalahari in South Africa, tall ships on the river Thames and ballerinas.

 

Sue Rugg was next to talk. She had been inspired by Keith Snell, another club member, to experiment with Intentional Camera Movement. This involves moving the camera as the image is taken. Sue showed some lovely images of water and also of woodland taken with both vertical and horizontal movement of the camera. She had been particularly pleased with the impact of this technique on the colours in the images.

 

Tony Marsh then talked about an online community called the Wild Bunch he had joined. This had been set up by Andy Rouse, a well-known wildlife photographer.  Members of this group are regularly set challenges which during lockdown have included Autumn, Garden Macro and Close Ups, Two’s Company, Silhouettes and Slow Shutter Speed to name a few. Tony showed the various images that he had considered for these challenges as well as his final submissions.

 

Richard Jakobson followed. He explained that, inspired by Tony Marsh’s macro work, he had set up a studio in his conservatory and his first project had been to photograph snowdrops. In order to achieve a sharp image from back to front he had taken a number of images focused on different areas of the flowers. He had then stacked these together using software that detects the sharpest areas in each image and then combines them. He had then tried this technique on various other subjects.

 

David Woodthorpe was the final speaker. He explained how four members had particularly influenced his work. Inspired by Carmen Norman he had purchased a light box which had enabled him to take portraits of family members as well as still life images of flowers.  Richard Jakobson’s work had encouraged him to take photographs of the moon and he had also been inspired by Keith Snell to experiment with Intentional Camera Movement. Tony Marsh’s work had also led to him experimenting with macro work and focus stacking.

 

Our season has been extended until the end of June and we will be meeting via Zoom twice a month until then. Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 28^th April when members’ images will be critiqued by three experienced members of the society who are also judges.

Julie Walker

Keswick Photographic Society’s annual Portfolio of the Year competition was held via Zoom on Wednesday 31^st March. It was judged by Stephen Fowler, a Northern Counties Photographic Federation judge from Ryton. The competition normally consists of prints and digital images but this year, because of the limitations caused by Covid-19, entries were restricted to digital images only. Members entered four images with each one of the four being of a different photographic genre. Entries were marked out of twenty and an award is given to the member achieving the highest combined score for his or her images. Twenty members entered the competition, giving a total of eighty digital images. These can all be viewed in our gallery pages:

KPS 2020-2021 Galleries

The eighty images featured the following photographic genres: nature (fauna and flora), landscape, weather, creative, sport, the hand of man, people and portraiture. Before awarding a mark, Stephen gave a critique of each image. Three images achieved top scores of twenty and these were ‘Rajasthani Lady’ by David Woodthorpe:

 

‘White Tailed Sea Eagle Landing with Catch’ by Alan Walker:

 

and ‘Radiant Smile’ by Tom Stenhouse:

 

Nine images received impressive scores of nineteen and these were: ‘Gone to Seed’ by Tom Stenhouse, ‘Old Soldier’ by Marilyn Woodthorpe, ‘Golden Dawn’ by Marcus Mackay, ‘Goshawk with Prey’ and ‘Rock Swirls, Painted Desert, Utah’, both by Ronnie Gilbert, ‘Common Buzzard’ by Tony Marsh, ‘Obscured by Clouds’ and ‘Together’, both by Bob Given and ‘Can I Help You Comrade’ by Alan Walker. Twenty-three images were awarded excellent scores of eighteen and these were: ‘Moody Ennerdale Sunset’, ‘Milky Way Core Over Algarve’ and ‘Hazelnut Sorbet’, all three by Richard Jakobson, ‘An Intimate Conversation’ and ‘Hanging On’, both by Keith Snell, ‘I Can Swallow That’, ‘Church of the Spilled Blood’ and ‘Stellar Catch on Ice’, all three by Simon Roberts, ‘Arctic Landscape’ and ‘Medieval Warrior Queen’, both by Alan Walker, ‘Red Squirrel’ and ‘Winter’s Touch’, both by Carol Minks, ‘Anna Ahead’, ‘Autumn Leaves’ and ‘Stripes en Pointe, all three by Annie Given, ‘Green Iguana in Breeding Colours’ by Julie Walker, ‘Black Tailed Godwit’ and ‘Poppy’, both by David Rayment, ‘Moonset Behind Grizedale Pike’ by Tony Marsh, ‘Mist in the Hills’ by Tom Stenhouse, ‘Mick the Dealer’ by Bob Given, ‘Evening Round Up on the Marshes’ by Ronnie Gilbert and ‘Goshawk with Grey Squirrel’ by Fred Bell.

At the end of the judging, Stephen remarked that he had thoroughly enjoyed looking at the images which, he stated, represented a superb combination of the different photographic genres. Stephen chose his overall winning image of the competition and this was ‘White Tailed Sea Eagle Landing with Catch’ by Alan Walker. This image was also awarded the accolade of  ‘Best Nature Image’. Stephen chose ‘Golden Dawn’ by Marcus Mackay as his ‘Best Landscape Image’:

 

‘Autumn Leaves’ by Annie Given as his ‘Best Creative Image’:

 

and ‘Best People Image’ was awarded to Tom Stenhouse for ‘Radiant Smile’.

When the individual authors’ marks were added together, the winner of the Portfolio of the Year competition was Alan Walker with a superb total score of seventy-five out of a possible eighty. In second place, and only one point behind, with an excellent score of seventy-four was Tom Stenhouse. Bob Given was third with a score of seventy-three and in fourth place was Ronnie Gilbert with seventy-two. In all, eight members achieved very commendable scores of seventy or more.

Tricia Rayment

Jo Knight, an award-winning photographer who has exhibited in many different countries, was our speaker tonight. The theme of her talk was the obstacles that she had to overcome in order to progress from a complete beginner to achieving her first distinction with the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain over a period of four years.

Jo only took up photography in 2013 when she decided to take photographs to show her father of the wildlife she encountered on her daily walks with her dog. She bought a third hand camera but found the manual, which was full of technical jargon, hard to understand. She then joined Penrith and District Camera Club and there found the help and support that she needed to progress her photography. She quickly developed her skills and achieved success in club competitions.

 

 

Jo has a disability and she has also suffered from a long-term illness with the result that she is in constant pain. Both her mobility and her energy are limited. While she could cope with photographing wildlife during the warmer months of the year Jo realised that the cold winter months would present a problem so she needed to find another outlet for her photographic skills. She decided to venture in to studio photography and to convert her tiny second bedroom for this purpose. This presented a second obstacle as her budget was limited so she purchased most of her photographic equipment second hand or cheaply through eBay or Amazon.  Instead of hiring professional models, she bribed friends and relatives to pose for her. She then turned to taking photographs of herself often in elegant gowns, again purchased at a low cost, and, using the skills she had developed in mastering processing software, she incorporated these in imaginative and beautiful composites.

 

At first Jo’s images were not appreciated by club competition judges but her huge success in international and other competitions shows the extent to which she has conquered this obstacle. The final obstacle was to overcome her own lack of confidence in her work but she has now learned to trust her own gut instinct.

Jo showed us numerous examples of her exquisite work during the evening and kept us entertained with a lively and highly articulate narrative. She is a talented and creative photographer who has faced numerous obstacles in her life. Her determination and dedication in overcoming these to achieve such recognition and success in the photographic world is an example to us all.

Julie Walker

David Boag has been a professional wildlife photographer for over 40 years. He has travelled the world and he has written eighteen books for a variety of publishers and large corporate organisations. On 17^th March he gave an entertaining and humorous account of his career as a photographer, and the approach he takes to wildlife photography, to Keswick Photographic Society.

 

David first became interested in photography in the late 1960’s when the development of cameras capable of relatively fast shutter speeds enabled the capture of animal behaviour. Then in the 1970’s electronic flashes were invented which allowed him to take high speed action shots. He was regarded as a pioneer in this field and his first book, which featured Kingfishers, was published in 1982. His next book was on puffins which included underwater shots. In those days there were no water tight housings for cameras available so David had to build his own. The difficulties of wildlife photography then should not be underestimated. Shutter speeds were still relatively slow compared to those possible today with digital cameras and images could not be seen instantaneously on the back of the camera. Instead, it would take up to three weeks to a month for David to have his film processed and developed. Only then could he view his images.

 

In the 1990’s David produced a series of books on four different habitats in Britain; woodland, river, coast and garden. In these he emphasised that it was important to link images together to produce a story.  He also shared some of the tricks of his trade such as using props to attract animals in to his garden. A later project undertaken was to document the natural world of a quarry and this led to a major commission in America for the quarrying industry. This involved producing five books and took four years to complete. He visited the USA four times a year for three to six weeks each time to capture the changing seasons. With all expenses paid he said, tongue in cheek, that it was a hard life!

 

In recent years, following the introduction of digital cameras, potential income purely from the sale of images has shrunk significantly so, in addition to his books, David makes a living by giving lectures on cruise ships, leading safaris and teaching photography.  He has produced a series of tutorials which are available for purchase on his website. He is extremely modest about his own standard of photography and says that it is his enthusiasm that is the secret to his success. As a professional photographer he does not often have time to wait for perfect conditions but just has to make the most of the situation.

Throughout the evening it was David’s enthusiasm that shone through and he gave us a most enjoyable and interesting evening.

Julie Walker

The Society’s Fourth Open Competition took place via Zoom on the evening of Wednesday 10^th March. This was the last of the four Open Competitions that constitute the league for the 2020-21 season. The judge was John Fare from Workington. John is a Northern Counties Photographic Federation judge.

Thirty members entered a total of eighty-eight digital images which were all given a score out of twenty. For this competition all the images were required to have been taken in the British Isles but there was still a wide range of photographic genres submitted, including nature, creative, landscape, sport and portraiture. At the start of the judging, John commented on the excellent quality of the images which he stated was to be expected from a club that did so well in external competitions, such as those held by the Photographic Society of America. He added that all the images scoring eighteen and above he would class as excellent.

Over one-third of the images achieved scores of eighteen and above. Four images by three members achieved a top score of twenty. These were ‘Wide Eyed and Over’

 

and ‘Hermes’

both by Bob Given,

‘Summer Storms’ by Ken Rennie

 

and ‘A Pine Marten’ by Simon Roberts.

 

An impressive score of nineteen was awarded to fourteen members for their images and these were ‘A Foxy Look’ and ‘Bringing Home Dinner’ both by Simon Roberts, ‘Kingfisher, Failed Catch’, ‘Gannets, Bempton Cliffs’ and ‘Mountain Hare’ all three by Carol Minks, ‘Alium with Love in a Mist’ by David Woodthorpe, ‘Kestrels Fighting Over a Mouse’ by Alan Walker, ‘Backlit’ by Tony Marsh, ‘Water Vole Washing’ and ‘Waiting For the Bus’ both by Julie Walker, ‘The Orange Cloud’ by Carmen Norman, ‘Scale Force’ by Ken Rennie, ‘Badger at the Pool’ by Ronnie Gilbert and ‘Weather over Wythburn’ by Chris Burgess. A further fourteen images received scores of eighteen and these were ‘Anticipation’ by Julie Walker, ‘Iceworld’ by Marcus Mackay, ‘Trees in the Mist’ by Patricia Martin, ‘Night Bright’ and ‘A Good Day’s Work’ both by Sue Rugg, ‘Sunset on the Crags’ and ‘Let it Rain’ both by Keith Snell, ‘Barn Owl with Vole’ by Ronnie Gilbert, ‘The Balancing Dipper’ by Gordon Train, ‘Goldcrest’ and ‘Juvenile Pied Wagtail in the Rain’ both by Tony Marsh, ‘Sulking in the Rain’ and ‘Red Fox Hunting’ both by Alan Walker and ‘Looking Towards the Mighty Buachaille Etive Mor’ by Fred Bell,

At the end of the judging, John chose his top images from some of the different photographic genres represented and these were ‘Wide Eyed and Over’ by Bob Given (Best People), ‘Summer Storms’ by Ken Rennie (Best Landscape), ‘Mountain Hare’ by Carol Minks (Best Nature)

 

and ‘Waiting for the Bus’ by Julie Walker (Best Creative).

 

John also revealed his overall winning image of the competition and this was Bob Given’s ‘Wide Eyed and Over’, a brilliantly captured pin-sharp image of an athlete performing a back over jump as she crests the top of the bar, eyes staring ahead and hair flowing.

David Rayment thanked the judge for all the time he spent on our images and for his in-depth analysis and suggestions for improvements.

All the entered images can be viewed in our Gallery pages

This week the society held its annual ‘Short Sets’ competition.  This is a contest judged by the members on the night.  This was the first time it had been conducted via Zoom which  presented a few challenges. There were eleven contestants, each of whom had eight minutes during which to impress the voting audience.

Entries could be either a selection of still images (PDIs) on a theme which the contestant explains as the images are projected, or it is an audio visual (AV) display set to music.

The evening began with John Macfarlane’s ‘Nature’s Show’, an AV composed of short video clips, stills and some excellent time-lapse photography of the north-western fells showing  day turning to night and some dramatic winter scenes.

He was followed by Ann Healey’s take on the summer of 2019 with a couple in top hat and tails captured singing in the grounds of Snowshill Manor, before a Morris Dancing troupe performed on a village green, in the picturesque Broadway in The Cotswolds.

‘A road trip around Washington and Oregon’ by Julie Walker began with the wonderful undulating countryside of The Palouse, before moving through the dramatic canyons landscape and concluding with glorious coastal seascapes.

Ken Rennie then presented a monochrome sequence of soft, long exposure waterfall images with very dark landscape environs. The milky water cascading over rocks and into rivers and streams delivered such peacefully smooth shape and form.

Richard Jakobson’s ‘Sky at Night’, the winning entry in the AV section, began with a wonderful panoramic skyscape around Castlerigg Stone Circle before moving to Crummock Water and Seascale Beach.  Richard then moved into much more telescopic detail of several distant constellations and some weird and wonderful nebulae; including The Veil, Heart and Soul and Crescent. The AV concluded with a tracking of the Comet Neowise.

Philip Cartwright’s ‘Seasons Medley’ was a selection of photographs of landscapes, flora and fungi through the seasons, culminating in some wonderful winter scenes.

Marilyn Woodthorpe’s AV described the peace of living in Grange during lockdown and centred upon the flora and birdlife in her own garden, concluding with images of a Red Squirrel.

Alan Walker’s Oregon Rodeo images complete with lively cowboy music and very dramatic, and painful looking, rodeo experiences completed the AV line-up.

Fred Bell’s PDI presentation was a selection of very high quality colour and monochrome landscape images from a recent holiday in The Outer Hebrides, Skye and Glen Coe.

This was followed by Edward Richardson’s ‘Newcastle by phone’, which explored the historical and iconic sites and sights of his regular walk through the city.

The final, and winning PDI Short Set, was David Woodthorpe’s presentation ‘A month of change on Grange Crag’.  The images of views overlooking Grange, Derwentwater and Castle Crag showed the dramatic changes in the weather from an ethereal cloud inversion, to snow scenes through to warm light on trees and rocks from late winter sun.

It was once again a pleasure to see so many of our members’ fascinating photographs.