Blog

Three of Keswick’s own members provided the entertainment this evening.

First in the spotlight was Sue Rugg who talked about her journey from complete novice in 2013 to an accomplished sports photographer today. She described the many pitfalls encountered whilst photographing sporting events. In 2014 she went to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow but, despite having good seats, she soon discovered that she was not in the right place, quickly realising that she needed to be much closer to the action and in a position to achieve an uncluttered background. Following this she went to her granddaughter’s gym club but, although she was closer to the action, the backgrounds were still very cluttered. She then turned her camera on the Yorkshire stage of the Tour de France cycle race only to find that other spectators often obscured her view. Other obstacles at similar cycling events included support vehicles, advertising barriers, motor bikers and poor weather as well as her own over enthusiasm which sometimes resulted in her failing to press the shutter in time to capture the participants. Sue presented some excellent images and her talk demonstrated to members that setbacks and frustrations can, with perseverance, be overcome.

 

 

 

Ronnie Gilbert took the second slot and focused on his trip to the forests of the Bialowieza National Park in Poland in the winter of 2019 to photograph the European Bison. Ronnie explained that at the end of World War I there were no European bison left in the wild. They have now been reintroduced in Europe and there are about 7500 worldwide with around 800 in Bialowieza. In addition to Bison, Ronnie photographed Elk, Fallow Deer and Red Deer all against a stunning backdrop of snow-covered forest. He also photographed a variety of birds from hides including Goshawks, Buzzards, Sparrowhawks and White-Tailed Eagles. As always Ronnie’s talk and superb images were an inspiration to our members.

 

 

 

Our third speaker was Tony Marsh who talked about the wildlife he had photographed during the pandemic. All his images were taken within walking distance of Keswick. Tony explained that he always carries a camera and long lens on his walks and that these are set up ready to fire. His talk included many helpful tips on how to photograph wildlife including where to find certain species locally. His images included moths, butterflies, beetles and fungi as well as many different species of birds. Tony’s helpful and informative talk will have encouraged and enthused those of our members who are keen to develop their wildlife photography skills.

 

The Society’s second Open Competition of the 2020-21 season took place via Zoom on the evening of Wednesday 25^th November. The judge was Gerald Chamberlin DPAGB EFIAP from Morton Photographic Society. Gerald is a Northern Counties Photographic Federation judge and he has judged at Keswick on a number of occasions. Twenty-six members each entered three digital images and within the seventy-eight entries there was a wide range of photographic genres represented, including nature, macrophotography, creative, landscape, travel, portraiture, sport and astrophotography. Gerald had been sent the images a fortnight before the evening so he was able to view them and decide on his scores and critiques in advance of the meeting.

Gerald started his judging by commenting that, as he had come to expect from Keswick Photographic Society, the entries were of a high standard. Two images achieved a top score of twenty and these were ‘Scooting Along’ by Marilyn Woodthorpe and ‘Dans la Salle de Bains’ by Alan Walker.

An impressive score of nineteen was awarded to six other images and these were ‘Female Kestrel Attempting to Take Food from Male’ by Julie Walker, ‘Tuscany Early Morning Mist’ by Tom Stenhouse, ‘Long-Eared Owl Hunting at Dusk’ and ‘The Tackle’ both by Alan Walker, ‘White Tail Eagle Patrolling Forest’ by Ronnie Gilbert and ‘On the Hunt’ by Ken Rennie. A further six images received scores of eighteen and these were ‘Spanish Sparrow’ by Carol Minks, ‘Mist of Gold’ by Carmen Norman, ‘Trusting’ by Sue Rugg, ‘Winters Morning Isthmus Bay’ by Fred Bell, ‘Warming Up’ by Julie Walker and ‘Red Squirrel with Hazel Nut’ by Ronnie Gilbert.

At the end of the judging Gerald chose ‘Skipping Along’ by Marilyn Woodthorpe as his overall winning image. This simple but striking expertly-captured image showed two rows of trees leading the eye to a lady on a scooter. Marilyn had taken this lovely autumn image on a Society trip to Berlin.

 

In addition Gerald chose his top images from a number of the different photographic genres represented and these were: ‘Tuscany Early Morning Mist’ by Tom Stenhouse (Landscape),

 

‘On the Hunt’ by Ken Rennie (Nature),

 

‘ICM Smithy Beck’ by Richard Jakobson (Creative),

 

‘The Tackle’ by Alan Walker (Sport),

 

‘Dans la Salle de Bains’ by Alan Walker (Portraiture)

 

and ‘Trusting’ by Sue Rugg (Black and White).

 

All the entered images can be seen in our Gallery Pages.

Tricia Rayment

 

This week’s meeting was a talk by Alan Walker, one of our most experienced members, on “How to Maximise Your Chances of Success in Photography Competitions”. There are three sorts of competitions that members participate in: “fun” challenges on specific topics that are mostly for entertainment and learning, internal competitions that lead to a league table over the year and external competitions that the club enters using member’s pictures. It is notable that for a small club, Keswick punches well above its weight in external competitions.  Although most of us take photographs for the pleasure of creation rather than the prospect of winning something, competitions do allow us to share our pictures with other interested people and receive, usually, constructive criticism and advice from judges. Most members find that their photography improves as a consequence. Alan is well positioned to give members advice on entering competitions, he is extremely successful himself with accolades in both National and International competitions, but just as significantly, he is a well-respected and thoughtful judge, as he demonstrated in the Society’s previous meeting, when he judged our black and white pictures.

 

Alan gave a detailed description of how best to process images using the common types of software, stressing the degree of control gained with shooting RAW files as they contain far more information than the standard JPEGs, thus allowing extra manipulation to bring out their best. He then went on to ask what it is that judges are looking for as this will vary with different genres; in Nature competitions the ability to tell a story being more important than technical excellence for example. He also explained that in order to create different scores in the photographs they look at, judges look out for minor blemishes to criticize and it is important to avoid such “judge bait”  as spots caused by dust on the censor, over exposed whites, wonky horizons or bits of the main subject inadvertently protruding out of the sides of the frame.

 

He proceeded to run through a whole range of photographic genres from Landscape to Wildlife, Sport to Portraits, Infra-red to Creative Composites (which combine different images into the same picture using computer software). In each area Alan gave us detailed advice and guidance based upon his extensive experience and expertise and, perhaps best of all, everything was illustrated with his superb photographs, showing superb examples of each of these categories. This was one of those rare meetings that was both a visual delight and a significant learning experience for all of us.

Tony Marsh

Keswick Photographic Society held its first set subject competition of the season on Wednesday 11^th November. The subject for the competition was “Using Monochrome for Impact”. These competitions are judged by our more experienced members and are intended to assist through the constructive criticism of images in an informal and friendly environment. The judge on this occasion was Alan Walker who is an experienced photographer. He has judged many competitions at club, national and international level.

Alan explained at the outset that, in judging the images, he would be taking in to account the extent to which they made good use of monochrome.  As the evening progressed, he offered well targeted and helpful advice to members on how to improve their images by appropriate cropping, adding contrast to achieve a good range of tones from white through to black and enhancing compositions by choosing strong focal points. In a few cases he felt that the images would have been better left in colour.

There were sixty-nine entries in total by twenty-three members, which included a number by this season’s new recruits. The images covered a wide range of subjects including landscapes, portraits, creative images and natural history.  After critiquing each image individually Alan selected thirty-one that he felt would score well in open competitions. Included in these were several images from relatively new recruits Ann Healey, Chris Burgess, Sue Rugg, Antony Melling, David Leighton, Marcus Mackay and Gordon Train. The high standard of their work augers well for the continuing success of the Society. In addition, amongst the best, there were images from longer standing members Fred Bell, Carol Minks, Marilyn Woodthorpe, David Woodthorpe and Ken Rennie.

Alan awarded “Overall Best” to Keith Snell’s “Exposed to the Elements” an exquisite fine art nude image of a young woman posing on a rock.

 

In accordance with a recent decision to introduce a wider range of awards Alan also selected Fred Bell’s “Diamond Beach Iceland” as “Best Landscape”, a beautiful image of water flowing around ice taken with a slow shutter speed.

 

Deborah Tippett’s “Mr Pan”, a well-lit and highly competent image of an Asian gentleman smoking a pipe, was awarded “Best Portrait”.

 

Richard Jakobson’s “The Pour” was awarded “Best Creative”. This was an image of steaming water being poured in to a glass cup which looked as if great care was needed to avoid being scalded.

 

Finally, Tony Marsh’s “Dunlin”, a beautiful high key image, was chosen for the “Best Nature” award.

 

All entered images can be viewed on our gallery pages at

2020-2021 Competitions

 

 

On Wednesday 4^th November Keswick Photographic Society members were treated to two fascinating talks by John and Rosamund Macfarlane titled: “Living with the Nomads and Eagle Hunters of Mongolia, and Lake District Reflections Above and Below the Water Surface” . Both are well known to the Society as Rosamund is a past Chairperson while John remains a member. John and Rosamund have travelled extensively, taking photographs as they go, and they have both achieved many photographic distinctions and awards.

John and Rosamund have visited Mongolia twice and their second visit, in the late winter of 2018, was the topic for the first half of this talk.  John began with a brief history of Mongolia which has been independent for less than 30 years. He described how they travelled in smelly, battered four-wheel drive vehicles, visiting both the central and far west areas of the country and how they stayed with several nomadic families in their traditional homes known as Gers. He went on to talk in detail about the nomadic way of life. This is now under threat, partly because of social pressures, but also because of climate change that is leading to harsher winters and drier summers which make it harder for the livestock, on which they depend, to survive.

 

Rosamund then provided a detailed insight in to the life of the Kazakh eagle hunters. Horses are essential to their way of life and children are taught to ride as soon as they are able to walk. She explained that there is a long tradition of hunting on horseback with eagles for foxes and wolves which provide food during the winter.

 

After a short break Rosamund presented a selection of her images of reflections taken in various locations in the Lake District.

 

John then talked about a number of images that he had taken from the unique perspective of below the water’s surface. John described how he had achieved these original images which involved, in many cases, swimming in the icy waters of the Lake District’s streams and tarns. Definitely only to be undertaken by those with a robust constitution.

 

This was an absorbing evening of two contrasting halves, both illustrated with superb, high quality images taken by Rosamund and John.  Both sections of the talk were full of interest and the more intrepid travellers amongst the society’s members will, no doubt, have been inspired to visit Mongolia while some of our more adventurous photographers may try John’s below the surface techniques for themselves.

Julie Walker

Tonight’s speaker was Bob Given, MPAGB from Northern Ireland who talked about his love of sports photography. Bob lives in Belfast and he belongs to the prestigious Catchlight Camera Club.

Bob began by pointing out that it is useful to have a good knowledge of the sport you are photographing as choosing the right moment to press the shutter is critical. His advice was “if you see it in the viewfinder you’ve missed the shot”. He also advised that thorough preparation for the event is essential, especially ensuring that you have the right equipment with you.

Line Out Mayhem:

 

Bob showed a large number of images during the evening which covered a wide range of sports including athletics, cricket, American football, netball, tennis, table tennis, baseball, cage fighting (otherwise known as mixed martial arts), Australian rules football and rugby. Many of his images had won awards and some had been included in his successful panel for a Master’s distinction with the Photographic Society of Great Britain, the highest award that can be achieved.

Third Change:

 

While Bob’s superb and prize-winning images made sports photography look easy, he made it clear that it is not and there are many pitfalls to be avoided.  The first of these is simply in choosing, and gaining access to, a good position to take images, both to achieve the best angle for shooting the action but also to avoid distracting backgrounds. Bob pointed out that in a number of sports the low level of lighting could be a problem.  Some sports could involve potential for injury if the photographer is not in a safe location. The javelin and hammer competitions, for example, pose particular threats and it is essential to ensure that you stand well out of reach.  Bob’s advice was always to seek permission from the organisers of sports events and to follow their instructions on where to stand.  The dedicated sports photographer also has to go out in all weathers no matter how bad the conditions. Indeed, some of Bob’s best shots were taken in torrential rain.

All Hands:

 

Despite the limitations of Zoom Bob gave us a most enjoyable an inspirational evening which contained much useful information. While presentations given via Zoom are not quite the same as those given in person this technology does allow talks to reach a wider audience and on this occasion the evening was shared with members of Dumfries Camera Club.

Julie Walker

The Society’s First Open Competition of the new season took place via Zoom on the evening of Wednesday 14th October. Our judge was Kevin Hilton from Hexham. Kevin is Vice President of Hexham & District Photographic Society and is a Northern Counties Photographic Federation judge. Twenty-four members each entered three digital images and there was a wide range of photographic genres represented, including nature, macrophotography, creative, landscape, cityscape, travel, portraiture and sport. Kevin was sent the images a fortnight before so he was able to view the images and decide on his scores without having to come to quick decisions on the evening.

Four images by two members achieved the top score of twenty. These were ‘No Turning Back’ by Sue Rugg

 

‘Luskentyre Pony’ by Sue Rugg

 

‘Sitting Gracefully’ by Julie Walker

 

and and ‘Pelican on Ice with Fish’ by Julie Walker.

At the end of the judging Kevin chose ‘Luskentyre Pony’ as his overall winning image.

An impressive score of nineteen was awarded to eleven members for their images and these were ‘In the Enchanted Glade’ by Keith Snell, ‘Christine’ by Julie Walker, ‘Fighting Iguanas’ and ‘Contemplating Nature’ both by Alan Walker, ‘Evening Trees’ by Ann Healey, ‘Dramatically Delicate’ by Carmen Norman, ‘Confrontation’ by Ronnie Gilbert, ‘Red Squirrel in the Snow’ by Carol Minks, ‘Banded Demoiselle on St John’s Wort’ by Tony Marsh, ‘Early Morning at St Michael’s Mount’ by Ken Rennie and ‘Vidaredi’ by Deborah Tippett. A further thirteen images received scores of eighteen and these were ‘Out of the Deep’ by Sue Rugg, ‘White Throated Dipper’ and ‘Rabbit’ by Gordon Train, ‘Cimon della Pala’ by Carmen Norman, ‘Misty Morning Dead Vlei’ by Graham Smith, ‘Juvenile Robin’ by Tony Marsh, ‘Inversion on Derwentwater’ by Michael Rowlinson, ‘End of the Day’ by Marilyn Woodthorpe, ‘Deepdale’ by Ken Rennie, ‘Awakening’ by Deborah Tippett, ‘Reclining in the Evening Light’ by Alan Walker, ‘Mountain Hare by its Form’ by Carol Minks and ‘Family Group’ by Ronnie Gilbert.

David Woodthorpe, the Society’s chairman, thanked the judge for all his hard work awarding the scores and giving a critique of the images, all done under the constraints of a virtual meeting.

Tricia Rayment

All the entered images can be viewed via the gallery page of the website:

2020-2021 Competitions

On Wednesday 7^th October Keswick Photographic Society entered into Battle with Catchlight Camera Club.  With a membership of 65 accomplished photographers and based in Belfast, Catchlight is the current champion club of both the Northern Ireland Photographic Association and of the Irish Photographic Federation. They have also excelled in the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain competitions for several years!

One of the few positive aspects of Covid-19 is that, conducting our meetings via Zoom, the usual obstacles of geographic distance have been removed. So, not only were we able to enter into competition with a Club located in Belfast but our judge for the evening, who lives in the New Forest, was able to conduct her assessment of our images from the comfort of her home. Sue Sibley is a judge of some renown with many photographic distinctions. She is the current President of Southampton Camera Club and Chairman of the Southampton International Exhibition.

Sue was provided with a total of 70 images sorted alphabetically by title of the image so she had no idea from which club the photographs originated. They represented the work of 60 different photographers thereby ensuring that the competition reflected the work of the whole membership of the two clubs.

It is not possible within the limitations of this article to describe the range of photographic genres included within the competition and the incredibly high quality of many of them. Suffice it to say that landscape, natural history, wildlife, both artistic and quirky creative compilations, portraits and the human form, photo journalism and travel images all made appearances.

Sue Sibley gave enthusiastic, incisive, well reasoned and very positive assessments of the images, often indicating how she felt the images could be improved for future competitions, though recognising that some were just brilliant as they were!  She had been asked to score images out of 20 so the maximum score for each club was 700.  We were not surprised to come second in this competition being a club with half the number of members, but we gave them a run for their money. The scores were 606 to Catchlight and 591 to Keswick; a very close call.  Catchlight were worthy winners having submitted some really excellent images right across the board. KPS members can feel very proud of themselves for competing so well against such illustrious company. Five of our entries received the top score of 20. It was a very successful evening all round.

Sue was invited to nominate the best image in four categories and she chose ‘Milky Way, Namibia’ by Keswick’s Richard Jakobson as the best landscape

 

and ‘Three Against One’ by Keswick’s Alan Walker for the best Nature image.

 

Catchlight’s Joanne McGuiness won the best Portrait category with ‘Sunflower’:

 

and Gerald Gribbon also from Catchlight won the Creative Image category and the overall winning image with “Butterfly Rescue”

 

 

Keswick Photographic Society continues to hold meetings via Zoom. Although it would not seem possible to give a practical demonstration via this medium on Wednesday 30^th Carmen Norman, one of the Society’s members, did just that.

 

The topic for the evening was still life photography and, had we been able to hold a normal meeting, we would have taken our cameras with us and under Carmen’s expert tuition we would have attempted to produce our own images.  Although not quite the same as trying this out for ourselves, Carmen kept us amused by demonstrating from her own studio how to photograph a strawberry as she dropped it in to a glass of water. Her set up was very simple. She used a light tent with a black background with a couple of desk lamps as the light source and the glass of water was placed on a mirror to provide a reflection. As Carmen dropped the strawberry, she took several shots in quick succession using the motor drive on her camera. This ensured that she captured the strawberry in mid air as well as the splash as it entered the water.

 

She then demonstrated how she processed the images by first selecting two that she liked and then combining them using Photoshop software.  This enabled her to include the strawberry as it fell through the air, as well as the splash when it entered the water, in one image. She repeated the demonstration several times using different shaped glasses and lighting.

As well as the practical demonstration Carmen showed us a number of other still life images that she had taken using the same light source and tent. These included images showing flour being sprinkled over a cake, which had proved to be rather messy,

 

and another of a light bulb with sparklers in the background.  She encouraged members to have a go themselves at home, to experiment and above all to have fun.

 

The evening was very informative and entertaining and we look forward to seeing members’ own still life images inspired by Carmen’s talk at a future meeting.

Carmen runs landscape photography courses, workshops and photo walks in the Lake District and is an accomplished photographer. More information about Carmen, her work and the courses she runs can be found on her website carmennorman.co.uk.

On Wednesday 23^rd September Keswick Photographic Society’s members enjoyed a presentation given by one of their own members, Dr Keith Snell. The title of the talk was “But is it Art?”. Keith began by explaining that while in America photography was treated as an art in Britain this was not generally the case.  He therefore set out to persuade the audience that some genres of photography are indeed art.

Keith began by examining the differences between art and photography. He said that photographers generally just capture reality and detail while an artist starts with a blank sheet. However, Keith argued that there is a more artistic side to photography. Concentrating on how artistic effects can be achieved in the camera he looked first at how photography can be used to present objects in a graphical way. He used a number of his own images to illustrate this point looking at patterns and abstracts in both the natural and manmade world.

 

Next Keith described how he creates moods such as isolation, independence, infinity and hope in his landscape photographs.

His next subject was figurative art. While photographs are often just a likeness Keith demonstrated that moods such as contemplation, wistfulness, preoccupation, dejection and distraction could be portrayed if the photographer carefully chose appropriate lighting and poses for their models.

After a short interval Keith looked at the development of impressionism in photography initially by using multiple images.

 

He then looked at the use of intentional camera movement.

 

To illustrate the effect of these techniques, Keith showed examples of his own work, as well as that of others, including impressionist images of trees and water that he had taken both locally and abroad.

 

This was an entertaining, inspirational and informative evening illustrated by a selection of Keith’s sublime images that would not have looked out of place in any art gallery. By the end of the evening there seemed no doubt that some photographs, including the many examples shown by Keith, could be categorised as art.