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Please note that next Wednesday’s  meeting will be held in Crosthwaite Parish Rooms, Main Street, Keswick, CA12 5NN ( opposite 117 Main St, Keswick)

There was a warm welcome for Howard Brown at the society’s meeting tonight.  Howard is an amateur photographer, a member of Chorley Camera Club and an expert in seascape photography.  Indeed his photograph of Mangersta Sea Stacks from the Isle of Lewis was short-listed for the Scottish Landscape Image of the Year 2016.

Although Howard’s talk was called ‘Simple Seascapes’ it soon became apparent that his work, the preparation for it and often the degree of physical difficulty actually reaching some of the remote locations, meant that his seascapes could hardly be described as simple.  The first part of Howard’s presentation centred upon the technical and practical considerations of being a seascape photographer.  For all photography the essential ingredient is good light but this is even more critical when taking the striking landscape photographs which are almost always taken during the hour or so either side of sunrise or sunset.  The added complications with seascapes are the tide and the continually changing point at which the sun will be at the horizon throughout the seasons.  There are several phone apps which help with some of these problems and Howard explained which he used.  Howard is meticulous in his planning and will often sketch out the scene beforehand to get the best composition.  He is an advocate of the British Army adage of the 7Ps – Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents P*** Poor Performance.  I’ll leave the reader to consider the fifth P!!

Most of Howard’s seascapes are taken around the British Isles, but the highest concentration of lighthouses, which are in the main very photogenic, are apparently around the Brittany coast so this area is a great attraction to him, too.

The second half of Howard’s presentation entailed a detailed explanation of his approach to a number of his images.  Through his photographs of seascapes taken all around the British Isles he explained his journey from a novice photographer only seven years ago to the expert he has become in such a short period of time.  He has moved from the use of heavy vignettes and the use of HDR (High Dynamic Range) software to give punch to his images post production, to his current approach of light touch adjustments in Adobe Lightroom.  In order to achieve the right image in camera Howard uses an array of filters and light metering equipment and constantly monitors the changing light in his long exposure shots.  His images varied from very dramatic punchy colour images, through monochrome to much more subtle almost pastel colours. He demonstrated his significant progress in getting the light and composition right in camera thereby minimising the amount of computer manipulation to produce his quite outstanding images.

All in all this was a very informative presentation which was much more than a simple display of a presenter’s images but was a detailed analysis all that is required both technically and practically to get outstanding photographs

David Woodthorpe (Vice-chairman)

This was the opening meeting  of the 2018-19 season and, as is traditional, involved a presentation by the Society’s chairman, Keith Snell,  called “Winter Wonderland”. This was based on images taken on a trip that Keith undertook to Yellowstone National Park this January. To start Keith explained a little about the human history and geological past of the area. Yellowstone was the first National Park in the USA, being signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872 and the largest major volcanic activity there blew up about 600,000 years ago and produced approximately 600 cubic miles of rock and ash having a major impact on the whole global weather system and ecology and left a caldera some 40 to 70 miles across. Geo-thermal action persists with multiple hot springs and geysers scattered around most of the park and Keith showed pictures of marvellous cascading terraces of pools formed by mineral rich hot springs running down a hillside. Exotically colourful algae transform the hot pools and edges of geysers.

Keith then moved on to landscape shots of the dramatic snow covered mountains, forests,  rivers and lakes and the wonderful wildlife there which ranged from Trumpeter Swans to Moose. His group were very lucky to see not only large herds of Bison but to be able to capture a brief head to head encounter between two bulls and, in one beautiful and striking image, a line of bison walking along a ridge skyline above a perfectly situated lone tree, all surrounded by deep snow. This luck continued with the news of a killed Bison close to the road where, with patience, they were able to observe a wolf pack approach, wait for the alpha male to start feeding and then howl their appreciation of full stomachs before playing with one another in the snow. A short video added to the magic.

Keith also visited the Grand Tetons National Park, which holds a dramatic mountain range, with the highest mountain, Grand Teton, rising to 13,775 feet (4,199 m) above sea level. The weather here was bitterly cold and a toe and finger tip threatening 2hour wait next to a traditional farm barn in minus 20 degrees was eventually rewarded by 60 seconds of lifting mist which revealed glorious warm light illuminating the mountain peaks behind the barn before the mist closed down the view again. The resulting image was magical and summed up the harsh beauty of this portion of the United States.

After the break some of the members who had scored the highest points in last season’s internal competitions spoke for a few minutes each about how they had achieved their shots. Keith Snell started with a picture of an Eagle Owl peering round a tree at us the viewer, Keith was rather shamefaced about it as he knew that the owl was sat on the wrist of its handler, albeit hidden behind the tree, but the shot was extremely striking.  Tony Marsh then talked about a picture of a perky Wren atop a gate post, David Woodthorpe discussed shots of a flying Kingfisher and a Jay landing on a branch, both taken in hides near Kirkcudbright and Ken Rennie analysed how he had built up three of his exquisite landscape shots.

Tony Marsh

The results have come through for the final round of this season’s Photographic Society of America PID-Group B competition. KPS came first out of 19 clubs in the May competition and joint first in Group B in the end of season standings. We will be promoted to Group A next season. Three of our images received Honours Awards in the May competition:

Col de Bavella by Ken Rennie

The Story of the Fox and Vole by Alan Walker

and Deadvlei Milky Way by Richard Jakobson

KPS for the first time entered the “Only Mono” print competition held on May 12th. This a competition for mono print images only with 4 mounted prints entered from each club.

The results have recently been published and we came second. The submitted images were

Lone Tree and Bison – Keith Snell

Dornoch Point – Ken Rennie

After The Snowfall – Julie Walker

After our club’s promotion to Class A of the Nature Division (the “Premier League”) of the PSA (Photographic Society of America), the end of season results have been published. Keswick Photographic Society came 4th out of the 32 clubs in the A league. A really creditable performance which again emphasises the strength of nature photography within our club.

Details and scores will be posted to the members section.

Keswick Photographic Society’s annual Portfolio of the Year competition was held on Wednesday 11^th April. This was the final internal competition of the season and it was judged by Gerald Chamberlin DPAGB, EFIAP, from Morton Photographic Society in Carlisle and a Northern Counties Photographic Federation judge. The competition was divided into two sections: Prints and Digital Projected Images. Within each section, members enter 3 images, each in a different photographic genre. Entries are marked out of twenty and an award is given to the member achieving the highest combined score in each section. Fifteen members entered the competition, giving a total of forty-five prints and forty-five digital projected images for scoring.

The print entries were the first to be judged and included the following photographic genres: natural history, landscapes, weather, creative, sport, the hand of man, transport, people, portraits, abstracts and patterns, Before awarding a mark, Gerald discussed each image, in some cases suggesting where improvements could be made. The winner of the print section of the Portfolio of the Year competition was Alan Walker with a superb total score of fifty-eight out of a possible sixty. Two of Alan’s prints achieved top scores and these were: ‘The Story of the Fox and the Vole’ and ‘Back Stage before the Farewell Gig’:

In joint second place with scores of fifty-four were Julie Walker and David Woodthorpe and in joint third place were Ronnie Gilbert and Keith Snell with scores of fifty-two. In addition to Alan’s two top scoring prints, notable prints which achieved scores of nineteen were ‘Young Grizzly in Clover’ by Ronnie Gilbert:

‘Siberian Jay’ by Tony Marsh:

‘Autumn Beauty’ by Julie Walker and ‘Hare Brakes’ by David Woodthorpe:

After a break for refreshments, including some delicious cakes cooked by Marilyn Woodthorpe, the second half of the evening was devoted to the projected image entries. As with the prints, there was a wide range of photographic genres represented. The joint winners of the digital projected image section of the Portfolio of the Year competition were Richard Jakobson and Julie Walker, both of whom only dropped four points to achieve excellent scores of fifty-six. One of Richard’s projected images, entitled ‘Power on the Horizon, received a top score of twenty. This showed a very dramatic view of distant wind turbines out at sea under a threatening stormy sky:

In second place with a score of fifty-five was Alan Walker, closely followed by Ronnie Gilbert and David Woodthorpe in joint third place with scores of fifty-four. Within the projected images section, an image by Rosamund Macfarlane, entitled ‘Backlit Puffin’ was awarded a top score of twenty:

Seven other images received scores of nineteen. These were ‘Langdale’ by Julian Carnell:

‘Eagle Hunter and His Eagle’ by Ronnie Gilbert, ‘Deadvlei Milky Way’ by Richard Jakobson,  ‘Girl with Tattoos in the Red Hat’ by Alan Walker and ‘Sprinting Hare’ by David Woodthorpe, ‘Dreaming of Leaving’ and ‘Buachaille Etive Mor’ both by Julie Walker:

David Rayment thanked the judge for all his hard work judging the images.

This was the final indoor meeting of the season, although there is a three-day Society outing to Edinburgh taking place this week. Our next season begins on Wednesday 5^th September at The Friends Meeting House, Elliott Park, Keswick, CA12. You will be most welcome to join us.

Tricia Rayment

For tonight’s meeting we welcomed back David Stout EFIAP PPSA DPAGB of Whickham Photographic Club, Gateshead. David, who judged one of our internal competitions at the start of the season, was revisiting to give a projected digital presentation titled “From Casablanca to California”. This was a photographic tour over two continents from North African Morocco to the North American states of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada and California.

This proved to be travel photography of the highest order with exquisite images of very varied subject matter, brought to life by an engaging and entertaining commentary. Each photograph conveyed the uniqueness of the location and gave a visual insight into the character of the place. This was achieved by showing the inhabitants, whom David had persuaded to be photographed, and the urban or rural environment which defined life in the areas visited.

In Morocco he showed us the architectural splendour of the royal palaces as well as street scenes which revealed the practices of the people in everyday life. Interspersed with the scenery, he captured insightful portraits of the inhabitants.

A Berber elder tribesman or a young girl dressed in a traditional niqab. As David explained, his success in securing these candid portraits, normally so difficult to get agreement for, was down to a courteous approach combined with a few words of local dialect and a good deal of brass-necked charm! The landscape covered everything from desert scenes to the complex environment of a tannery with its myriad of processing wells.

Moving across the Atlantic to the USA brought a huge contrast in the imagery on show but with the same photographic attention to the details of place and peoples. We were taken on a road trip extraordinaire as we moved southwards from the volcanic and mountainous national parks of Yellowstone and Grand Teton, through the mystical rock formations of the Bryce and Antelope canyonlands, to the desert dunes of Death Valley and the iconic mountain scenery of Yosemite in California.

Our journey through this rural spectacular was mixed with the urban splendour of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, the glitzy excesses of  the Las Vegas strip, the eerieness of gold-mining ghost town Bodie  and in David’s final destination, San Francisco, the starkness of the Alcatraz island prison and of course the Golden Gate bridge. All of these destinations were illuminated by the quality and the perspective of our visitor’s photography and his revealing and witty anectdotes which brought them to life. His photographic tour de force was greeted with enthusiastic thanks by the members at the end of the evening.

Although our formal meetings of the season are now ended, we will report on our informal photographic club sojourn to Edinburgh and district on 17-19^th April. This will be followed by  an exhibition of photographic prints of our members at the Northern Photographic and Video Show to be held at the Rheged Centre, Penrith, on the weekend of 12-13^th May. Attendees are most welcome to visit us at our stand, where members will be happy to provide advice on photographic equipment and techniques and to talk about our activities and the attractions of membership of the Society.  The next season will start at 7.30 on Wednesday 5^th September at our venue of the Friends Meeting House, Elliot Park, Keswick, CA12 5NZ. This will be the AGM of the Society together with a social evening with buffet to welcome new and continuing members and, as always, visitors are most welcome to join us.