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In collaboration with the Keswick Theatre Club, seven of our members attended the dress rehearsal of their production of A Dolls House by Ibsen. We we spaced all around the small seating area in the Studio at the Theatre by the Lake. This gave quite differing viewpoints of the play and the actors. It was interesting to see how we all coped with the difficulties of the lighting and the differing approaches to our final images. The Keswick Theatre Group were able to use some of our images on a stand during their run and Northern Arts used them in their review of the production.

Here is a selection of our images:

Keith Snell:

David Price:

Richard Petty:

Simon Roberts:

Richard Jakobson:

Jo Knight:

Clive Penkett:

A larger selection can be seen on our gallery page:

A Dolls House

 

On Wednesday 19^th November our guest speaker was Sue Clark who is a long-standing member of Conwy Camera Club. She is also a well-known photographic judge. Sue’s talk on “What Makes a Picture Work” addressed the various elements that are needed for a successful photograph.

She started by describing the core principles of composition used for centuries by artists, and more recently by photographers, such as the rule of thirds, the golden section, the golden spiral and golden triangles. She then covered how elements such as empty space, line and colour can be used to create different effects. Various factors such as balance to create stability, contrast to create interest, emphasis to direct attention to a focal point, movement to guide the viewer’s eye, and pattern to create rhythm, can be employed. In some cases, rules can be broken to shock or challenge the viewer.

Throughout her talk Sue gave numerous illustrations of how these rules had been applied by artists, photographers, graphic designers and even architects.  She demonstrated how a composition could be improved for example by flipping it so as to read it from left to right or by removing distracting elements.  The feeing of a portrait could be changed by taking the photograph from a different angle. Lines can be used effectively, diagonal lines for example can be used to create drama and frames can be used to keep the viewer’s eye in the picture. Using an image of the American Embassy in London and the American flag she illustrated that patterns can be improved by the inclusion of a focal point.

Sue’s talk was a fascinating insight into the principles that many use instinctively in producing an image. In conclusion Sue recommended that Keswick’s members look at a range of images to determine what makes a picture work but added that they should not be constrained by rules.

The latest speaker at Keswick Photographic Society was Guernsey based, Steven Le Provost. For many years a powerful force in UK photographic circles, Steven has judged both national and international competitions and has numerous distinctions from organisations such as the Royal Photographic Society and the London Salon of Photography.

He specialises in creating images that have a distinct “painterly” feel, using techniques in Photoshop that take a number of fairly ordinary initial photographs but blends them together in ingenious and creative ways.

Eschewing sharpness in favour of a degree of blurriness with colours “bleeding” into the background he aims to produce an end result which portrays mood, atmosphere and emotion. He showed us images of still life, mostly arrangements of flowers, images of the countryside, often with small figures within them and “made up” scenes on the beach and in cityscapes. He uses “layers” extensively.

These are backgrounds of mundane items such as peeling paint, an old wall, weathered wood or even the frosted glass of his front door, which can be adjusted in opacity on all or parts the image to create atmosphere and interest. Much of this process involves trial and error but in general what was striking is the creative imagination that is involved to envisage an end result that is both artistic and unique to him as a photographer.

It was a shame that this was a zoom talk, so the meeting could not view prints of his work but instead had to imagine how the images we were seeing on the screen would come to life on carefully selected art papers.

Tony Marsh

The first set subject competition this season was “Macrophotography” and  our own chair, Tony Marsh was  judge for the evening.  Tony has great knowledge of natural history and experience with macrophotography. He was therefor able to give useful comments and insight on all the images submitted. He chose three images as best of the night with Simon Robert’s “Sundew” coming out top.
Best Image 1. Simon Roberts – ” Sundew “.

2. Simon Roberts – ” Red thighed Bromeliad ”

3. Richard Jakobson – “Autumn colour ”

10 other images were awarded the Tony “Gold Award”:
Julie Walker – ” Blue Hawker Dragonfly ”

” Red Eyed Tree Frog on the Move ”

” Black Darter on a Windy Day ”

and ” Swallowtail ”

Richard Jakobson – ” Mushroom ”

Jo Knight – ” Cockchafer Beetle ”

Simon Roberts – “Glass Frog ”

and ” Golden Dung fly ”

Alan Walker  ” Great Green Bush cricket ”

Carol Minks ” Honey Bee on an Allium ”

All the entered images can be seen on our gallery page:

2025-2026 Competitions

 

Penruddock-based photographer, author and outdoor guide Tom McNally visited the Keswick Photographic Society this week with a memorable evening of images and stories.

Tom told us about his background, starting with his father’s home darkroom, through a formal education to degree level in photography and a few years of outdoor guiding before developing a business combining his passions for photography, the outdoors, and Cumbria, from its mountain peaks to mining heritage, as well as volunteering with the mountain rescue service.

He works professionally with a number of outdoor brands, events and elite extreme athletes including skiing, climbing and mountaineering, base jumping & mountain biking.

Tom also showed one or two “extreme wedding” commissions and delivered an absolutely fascinating presentation – one of the best many members remember – with just the right balance of concept, technique (with “marginal gains”)  and anecdote behind some of his award-winning images, sharing the joys, serendipity and difficulties of working in extreme environments both high in the mountains and underground.

It’s unusual to find a speaker with such an interesting narrative and excellent images as well as the effortless ability to engage and amuse an audience. His stock of “Extreme Lakeland” books was soon exhausted and we look forward very much to his “Forty Fells” publication and its associated Rheged exhibition next year following in the footsteps of our friend Amy Bateman.

We are all grateful to him for taking time out from his busy calendar and young family to give us such an outstanding talk.

Simon Roberts

Our latest meeting was the 1st open competition of the 2025/26 season .
Richard Speirs DPAGB , APAGB , BPE2* was our judge for the evening.
He again commented how much he looked forwrd to judging our images due to the high quality of the work submitted.

His “best images of the night” were:
Best overall image and best pdi: Simon Roberts – “Albatross Argument”

Best Print: Ronnie Gilbert – “Bonelli’s Eagle landing on stump”

Best People (pdi.): Julie Walker – “Incarcerated ”

Best Creative (pdi.): Julie Walker- “Lady Jane and Pony”

Best Nature (pdi.): Fred Bell -“Peregrine with Red Grouse”

Best Landscape (pdi.): Fred Bell- “Valley of Shadows”

Best People print: David Price – “Appleby traveller with best friend”

Best Nature (pdi): Tony Marsh – “Lapwing”

Best Creative (pdi.): Jo Knight – “None so Blind”

Best Landscape (print.): Tony Melling – “Afterglow”

All the submitted images can be viewed on our gallery pages:

2025-2026 Competitions

On Wednesday 1^st October our guest speaker was Christine Widdall who is an award-winning member of Oldham Photographic Society as well as a national and international judge. Her interest in photography commenced at the tender age of 5 when she was handed a camera to take a photograph of her dad.

The first half of Christine’s talk was dedicated largely to photographs that she takes purely for pleasure. These included landscapes taken in the Lake District and many more of the Saddleworth area where she lives.

She also presented images of insects and birds taken in her garden or within walking distance of her home. Many of the were taken during lockdown when she set up a range of perches in her garden.

 

After a break for refreshments Christine talked about her competition images. Many of these were taken at events such as Goth and Steam Punk festivals. She does not just attend these events as a bystander but goes along as a participant often in costumes that she has made herself.  She also takes studio shots, sometimes in her garage or living room, of friends and relatives who are willing to model for her, also in costumes she has made herself or found in charity shops. Many of these images are used in composites with backgrounds she has taken in a wide range of places both in the UK and abroad.

Christine is extremely accomplished in producing these and she has won many awards for them. She attributes her success at least in part to taking care to match the perspective, mood, light, colours and shadows in her images as well as using a limited palette.

Christine injected much humour into her entertaining and informative talk. She showed a wide variety of images demonstrating how versatile a photographer she is and it was a great pleasure to view a portfolio of images of such high quality. Throughout her talk the joy that she takes in her photography was clear and it was refreshing to hear from an accomplished photographer who still takes images for their own sake rather than just for competition.

Julie Walker

Last week’s meeting of the Keswick Photographic Society consisted of an informal discussion and critique of the members’ own photographs. Each member submitted a handful of images in advance and the meeting split into groups of three, each equipped with a laptop loaded with the images.

Portrait by David Woodthorpe

Such an informal and non-threatening format allowed everybody to have some of their photographs assessed and admired but with the possibility, where appropriate, of supportive advice as to how they might be improved, either in the taking or in post-processing afterwards.

Indian Child by Marta Almar

Images included, wildlife, sport, travel, landscape, street scenes and a few in camera creatives such as multiple exposure and intentional camera movement whilst taking the picture.

Forest Path by Tony Melling

It turned out to be an absorbing and enjoyable exercise with members having to be dragged away from their small groups at the tea break and at the end of the meeting.

Marsh Harrier by Jeremy Malley-Smith

 

The third meeting of the season featured a presentation by Cheshire photographer Lynda Haney MPAGB FBPE EFIAP (www.purpledaisy.uk) from Southport Photographic Society. Lynda’s talk, entitled Creative Images was about her photographic journey from being a young girl to the present day and learning from her grandad about how an image of herself could be captured inside this box (a camera). He told her it was magic. Lynda went on to explain how she wanted to paint images but eventually chose digital photography.

Through her employer, she was able to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop and also joined the local camera club. Lynda admitted she was initially too scared to submit any images for competition however, when the club had a competition entitled movement, she submitted her first photo called Going Home and won it.

Lynda began teaching how to use Photoshop to teachers who were teaching their children. As this was the mid 90s, there was no internet, Google, YouTube or Wiki to give Lynda the assistance on using Photoshop. Lynda asked her boss for help but he suggested she, “press buttons” to see what happened so off she went to learn.

Later on in her photographic journey, Lynda’s club entered a competition and the winning image was Lynda’s Pheasant In The Snow. The judge was really surprised as it was her old employer but hadn’t realised how far she had progressed.

Lynda’s favourite genre is wildlife and whilst she is happy tackling any another genre, she did say people photos really are the most challenging. Her initial creativity came from her love of painting and trying to create photographs in the style of famous artists. From this she discovered how to create a textured layer that could be added on top of a ‘normal’ photo, before adding several different textures (all on different layers) to create an infinite number of textures. Her creativity was going at full speed. Lynda showed many photos, explained the back story well (her time spent teaching physics to A Level meant she was good at public speaking), interspersing with her own humour to keep the audience thoroughly entertained.

Lynda brought a selection of printed work that was available for all members to view. She talked about paper choice. After a break for tea & biscuits, Lynda dissected a couple of photographs, showing how each one started from the original shot to the finished image, each one having hundreds of layers with huge file-sizes. The mammals were all taken at her local zoo.

Whilst the talk was about Lynda’s creative photography, she did mention that for wildlife photography, her lens of choice was the Sony 100-400mm telephoto zoom lens.

Some of our members will add textured layers to their images but Lynda gave the audience much needed enthusiasm especially seeing so many amazing photos. This really was magic!

Jeremy Malley-Smith

On Wednesday 10^th September, society members were treated to a wonderful presentation given by award winning photographer and member of Keswick Photographic Society, Bob Given MPAGB EFIAP EPSA FBPE.  Bob is a prolific and renowned photographer whose specialism is Sport photography.  And in that respect we’re not talking about a particular sport, but very many different sports.

Bob set the scene by explaining how his vast experience in photography had taught him not only how to choose wisely and therefore limit the amount of camera gear that he had to carry around, but how to get into a strategic position to maximise the chances of getting a good result.  As an official photographer with a Press Pass for some sports he recognised that he had opportunities to get advantageous positions.  However, he went on to explain that for many sports, the enthusiastic amateur can often get equally good positions, especially if they remember to stay low avoiding the normal standing position used by so many amateur photographers.

His prolific activity and range of interests became obvious very quickly when he revealed that all the images to be shown during the evening had been taken within the previous 12 months!  Bob started with individual events like tennis, water skiing and  field sports. These included Javelin, shot put, long jump, high jump, hurdles and track races by able and Paralympic athletes. Some of these images were shown in both colour and monochrome to demonstrate how each could emphasise particular elements that the photographer wished.

The second half of Bob’s presentation centred upon team sports and particularly his love of rugby which he is heavily involved in photographing almost every week.  However, he threw in examples of other team sports including American football, sailing, hockey, cricket and football for good measure. Some of Bob’s rugby photographs have won national and international awards, so it was no surprise to be shown many really excellent examples.

This was a master class in Sport photography and a fascinating and most enjoyable evening.

David Woodthorpe