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The latest meeting of Keswick Photographic Society was to host an interclub competition with Carlisle and Penrith & District  Camera Clubs. Members from all the clubs attended, as well as a number unable to do so who joined from their homes on Zoom. The judge for the evening was Gerald Chamberlin , a member of Dalston Photographic Society and currently President of the Northern Counties Photographic Federation.

Gerald provided penetrating and stimulating critiques of all 45 digital images on display; 15 from 15 different members of each of the participating clubs. The images were scored out of 20 and three images, all from the Keswick club, were awarded the top mark of 20 points. These were: Male Polar Bears Sparring by Julie Walker;

White Tail Eagle with Catch by Jeremy Malley-Smith;

and My Sweet Rose by Alan Walker;

Marks of 19 points were awarded to Patricia Rayment for Gannett with Nesting Material;

Keith Snell for Turneresque Sunset;

and Ronnie Gilbert for White Tail Eagle Landing;

again all Keswick members.

Three images from the Penrith club were awarded 18 points: Bat Top Hat by Nicky Robley; Grab and Go by Mark Hetherington; and All in Blue by Stuart Edgar. A mark of 18 was also awarded to June Perry of Carlisle for Frost in Glencoe and to Keswick members Bob Given for Breaking Through, Tony Marsh for Little Owl on the Run and David Woodthorpe for Rajasthani Village Boy.

The final points tally for all the images made Keswick Photographic Society the overall winner with 266 points, followed by Penrith & District Camera Club with 243 points and Carlisle Camera Club with 233 points. The Penrith club offered congratulations to Keswick for their success and a vote of thanks for organising the competition, with particular praise for the interval cakes provided by Marilyn Woodthorpe and Gráinne Jakobson.

Keith Snell

Congratulations to our members Julie Walker and Keith Snell for the selection of their prints in the PAGB Master of Print competition.

This is open to members of all PAGB clubs but only 60 prints are accepted and then displayed in the exhibition which opened this weekend in St Martin’s Church in central Birmingham.

The exhibition then moves to various locations around the country and will be in Wilkinson Cameras store  in English Street, Carlisle, in May-June. Julie’s  image was “American Fox with Mouse”:

and Keith’s image was “Turneresque Sunset”:

On 5^th February Keswick Photographic Society members enjoyed a talk given by Colin Trow-Poole via Zoom. Colin dedicated the first half of his talk to some of his panels of prints. He commenced with a panel of infra-red images put together for his successful application for an Associateship with the Royal Photographic Society (ARPS.) in 2006. To achieve his ARPS Colin was required to produce a panel of 15 themed images. His chosen subject was the sailing barges of the rivers Severn and Wye, known as Trows, which had been beached many years ago to reinforce the banks of the River Severn. As it was important to show variety in his panel Colin explained how he had taken the images from both low and high angles.

When it came to applying for his RPS Fellowship in 2022 Colin chose to document the lives of a Romany Gypsy family who regularly spent the winter months living in their two wagons and a yurt close to his home. He befriended the family, earning their trust, and was thus able to produce a fascinating panel in monochrome showing intimate aspects of their lives both out in the open, especially around the camp fire on which they cooked their meals, and inside their accommodation.

Colin has a wide range of photographic interests and he presented several other panels produced purely for personal pleasure. These included one of colour images of rusty old cars taken at Pendine Sands in Wales, another infrared panel of images taken of the Porth Wen brickworks on Anglesey and another of abstract images of ceilings in colour. He also showed a monochrome panel taken in Kerala, India, of people in their environment.

The second half of Colin’s talk was dedicated to his street photography during which he showed a selection of images from various locations including London, Birmingham and New York emphasising the use of light in them.

Throughout the evening Colin entertained his audience with stories about how he had achieved his photographs as well as providing useful tips on photographic techniques and how to put a panel of images together to achieve a cohesive whole. It was yet another very enjoyable and absorbing evening.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 19th February when Alistair How will give a talk on Urban Night Photography.

Julie Walker

On 29^th January Keswick Photographic Society members enjoyed an inspirational talk by Bill Pickard on creative photography. His main subject was Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) whereby the camera is moved very slightly while taking an image to produce an artistic image but he went beyond this to describe how he processes his images using other creative techniques. Bill’s talk was illustrated with an extensive selection of his superb images.

Bill photographs a wide range of subjects including street scenes, landscape, wildlife, flowers and sport. One of the most imaginative but simple images he presented was of two pieces of electrical wire, not a subject that many photographers would think of taking.

He explained that he usually carries two cameras, one of which he uses to take straight images and the other for ICM. He showed a number of straight images and then versions of the same subject taken with ICM and used these to illustrate what he referred to as the magic of ICM, the ability to transform something mundane into something special.  He described some of the other advantages of ICM as being the opportunity to create impressionistic art, the ability to hide distracting details and its versatility.

In particular this technique works well in low light when normal photography would be difficult. His images were taken in a variety of locations, some as nearby as his own garden, Morecambe and Blackpool and others further afield such as France, Italy and Iceland.

Bill wowed us with his enthusiasm for his subject and his lovely images. He gave members numerous tips on how to achieve a variety of different images. In conclusion he recommended ICM to us as a means of achieving totally unique images. This was a totally absorbing evening especially for those members who particularly enjoy creative photography.

Julie Walker

On the 22^nd January Keswick Photographic Society was given a presentation titled “In His Element” by landscape photographer, Mark Gilligan. He now lives in Cheshire from where he can access both North Wales and the Lake District for his photography work.

Mark has worked professionally in varied photography and videography roles for over 35 years but now concentrates on landscape photography, including workshops in Cumbria and Snowdonia.

The presentation title, “In His Element” refers to his ability to capture stunning, evocative landscapes irrespective of the weather conditions. Those conditions varied from bright cloudless, midday sun, often a “no-no” for landscape photographers, to dark brooding skies with landscapes punctuated by shafts of light.

Mark showed many of these images, most taken in the Lake District and Noth Wales. He encouraged feedback from the audience on the night and his commentary included advice on equipment and technique as well as a liberal sprinkling of humour.

Our first speaker of 2025 was Kevin Pigney who delivered a real masterclass in wildlife photography, not only showing some of his superb images, but explain very clearly how he made them.

Many were from his home patch in East Anglia and almost all of the rest from within the UK (rather than the “trophy” images we often enjoy seeing) and he was able to describe the work needed to find the subjects of his photography. He described the planning as well as execution of both projects and individual shots, with some comments on his philosophy and post-processing.

Even the most well-rehearsed advice bears repeating – like his advice on developing the fieldcraft to get near (and low) enough to the subjects – as Robert Capa famously said: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”!

There was an excellent balance between advice on the art and technical science of wildlife photography which not only entertained, but educated members and there was something in it for everyone from the relatively inexperienced to the old pros.

We hope to be able to invite him back in person from East Anglia for another talk in coming seasons with the added bonus of seeing some of his prints.

Simon Roberts

Our meeting was the 3rd open competition of the 2024/25 season .
John Fare(from Workington Camera Club ) was our judge for the evening. He commented how difficult the judging was due to the high standard of images submitted. Consequently separating the images often rested on looking at minor technical details and all the images scored highly. There were 7 images  awarded the maximum 20 points.
8 images were given “best in category” awards:
Jeremy Malley-Smith for White Tailed Eagle Flying – Awarded Best print and Best Nature .

Robert Given for Tacking – Awarded Best PDI .

Annie Given for Lexi – Awarded PDI Best People .

Ken Rennie for Summer Storm – Awarded Best PDI Landscape .

Julie Walker for On The Beach – Awarded Best creative .

Tony Marsh , Wren With Prey – Awarded Best PDI Nature .

Keith Snell for Xenia- Best Print, People

Ken Rennie for Brampton Sunset – Best PDI Landscape

All the entered images can be seen in our gallery pages:

2024-2025 Competitions

In the first round of the Photographic Society of America’s international Nature Interclub Competition, KPS photographers were awarded two Honorable Mentions and a prestigious Merit Award. Six photographers’ images were entered and the club currently sits in third place in the top league (Group A) of this competition.”

Our latest meeting was the 2nd open competition of the 2024/25 season .
John Reed DPAGB ARPS BPE3* was our judge for the evening.
4 images were awarded the maximum 20 points.
5 images were awarded “Best of “:
Simon Roberts – Snowy Fjord’s First Light – Awarded Best Overall image , Best print and Best Nature:

Ronnie Gilbert – Dalmatian Pelicans in Flight Predawn – Awarded Best Pdi:

Robert Given – Layered Defence – Awarded Best People:

Fred Bell – Sundown over Derwentwater – Awarded Best Landscape:

Antony Melling – Sunset Shore – Best creative:

All the images entered can be viewed on our galleries page

2024-2024 Competitions

The first set subject competition of this season was for images obtained using mobile phones only. The technical quality of such images has increased greatly over recent years and this was demonstrated by the quality of the photographs submitted by our members. The competition was judged by our chairman, Tony Marsh. He used his “Olympic” system of marking, awarding the images either Bronze, Silver or Gold. There were 39 images submitted, of which 10 attained Gold standard:

Double by Richard Petty:

Inside a 20th Century Mosque by Alan Walker:

Witch’s Tree Aurora by Paul Rathbone:

Orange Tip on Cuckooflower by David Woodthorpe:

Progress by Keith Snell:

Forever Friends by Almar Marta:

Grass Sillhouette by Alan Walker:

Cumbria Aurora by Keith Snell:

Arctic Cathedral by Richard Jakobson and then rightly flipped horizontally by Tony:

Amanati Muscaria by Paul Rathbone:

All the entered images can be viewed in our gallery pages:

2024-2025 Images