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On Wednesday 1^st April Richard Hodgson, who was born and raised on a Cumbrian dairy Farm, gave a fascinating talk titled “Field to Photo”. Richard has been taking photographs of farm animals for twenty years or so and is one of Britain’s leading livestock photographers. His interest developed when showing his family’s pedigree Holstein cattle. His work, which has taken him all over the country, has included providing images for various farming magazines, working for specialist breed societies, photographing for commercial companies to advertise their products and taking commissions for example when a farmer wants to sell his animals. He likes to take unusual images if possible.

Richard provided a fascinating insight into the difficulties of photographing farm animals outdoors. His job is to make them look good and this is not always easy. Backgrounds and the light may not be perfect. The animals may not be cooperative and it may take up to six people to manage an individual. It requires much patience.

It can also be dangerous, particularly if a cow has calves when his presence may be seen as a threat by them. On one occasion Richard had to resort to taking photographs from the farmer’s Land Rover. Many of his images have also been taking at events such as County Shows and he explained the criteria used to judge the animals.

As well as taking photographs of livestock Richard also enjoys taking images of people, often when they are interacting with their animals and he showed some lovely images of farmers and their children in a variety of situations including at shows when they have to comply with certain dress codes.

His images captured perfectly the affection that farming families have for their animals and the humour of some situations.

This was not just a talk on photography but one that provided an interesting insight into the world of farming.

Julie Walker

On 11^th March Keswick Photographic Society held its audiovisual presentation evening. This is an annual event where members project a slideshow of a selection of their images accompanied by a musical soundtrack. There is no particular theme chosen so there is often a wide range of genres.

To start off this year our chairman, Tony Marsh, demonstrated the amazing diversity of colours and forms of the butterflies and moths found in Borneo. This was accompanied by a suitably exotic soundtrack of “Indo-Jazz”.

Alan Walker then showed us a selection of images taken over 20 years ago on a winter trip to Yellowstone National Park, USA.

This was followed in a similar vein by Julie Walker who convinced us of her love of the North American landscape with a series of images taken over two decades of visits to the continent. The accompanying soundtracks were very nostalgic to those of us of a certain age, with extracts from “Maverick”, “The Virginian”, “The Magnificent Seven”.

Nearer to home, Richard Jakobson had also collected photographs for over ten years. In this case, of the wildlife to be found in Clints Quarry, a disused limestone quarry in West Cumbria. Orchids and kestrels and dragonflies were a main feature here.

After our break we enjoyed a double offering from Mike Kidd. Firstly, he gave us his take on the dancing traditions of the Masai tribes in Africa with suitably “uplifting” music (they jump a lot!).

In complete contrast he then showed a collection of portraits of the “Goths” at Whitby. Here photographers have ample opportunity to take images of Goths in all their various costumes and make up.

A tranquil end to the evening was provided by Keith Snell with his landscapes taken on trips to the Hebrides. These included “standard” landscapes of the islands but also demonstrated again, his skill at creating more artistic interpretations.

Richard Jakobson