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Tonight we held our last open competition of the season. Our judge, Jack Bamford, as well as being an ex member of Keswick Photographic Society, is an experienced and well respected national and international judge and his critique of the images was full of positive comments and helpful tips. He also commented on the overall high standard of images produced by the Society, particularly in the prints section.

The evening was divided in to two halves;  prints and digital images. There were 32 prints for Jack to judge.  A high proportion of these were nature images, many taken locally but some from further afield including a tiger from India, a jaguar from South America, vultures from Bulgaria, an Iberian Lynx from Spain  and a Great Grey Owl from Finland. There were an equal number of landscapes, most taken locally.

The overall winner of the print section was Ken Rennie with a beautiful image taken in Borrowdale titled “Break through”:

 

Jack commented “this print is what landscape photography is all about” and he praised the level of detail in the print, the beauty of the light and the overall print quality.  Ronnie Gilbert also achieved the maximum score of  20 for his image of an Iberian Lynx:

 

A third score of 20 was awarded to Carol Minks for her image titled “Golden Eagle and Fox”:

 

Two scores of 19 were awarded; one to Alan Walker for a monochrome image titled “The Story Teller”:

 

and the other to Julie Walker for a monochrome image of three white galloping horses titled “Out of the Mist:

 

Jack also awarded a score of 18 for six prints. These were “Jaguar on River Bank at Dawn” by Ronnie Gilbert, “Moss Force” by Carmen Norman, “Great Grey Owl, Finland” by Carol Minks, “Late Evening Sycamore Gap” by Tom Stenhouse and “Wild Tiger Cub” and “On the Lookout”, a Kingfisher, both by Tony Marsh.

Forty images were submitted for judging in the digital section. Landscape and nature images again predominated. Many of these were taken locally but we were also transported to the Forbidden City in China, Venice, the Arctic, South America and Alaska. The overall winner was Ronnie Gilbert for his image titled “Golden Eagle Pair Displaying”:

 

Scores of 20 were also awarded to Gordon Train for his image of a Spotted Fly Catcher:

 

Alan Walker for his image of a Grizzly Bear with a fish titled “A Successful Catch”:

 

and David Woodthorpe for his image of a Sedge Warbler.

 

It was a good evening for Ronnie as he scored 18 for his second image which was of a Toucan.  It was also a good evening for Carole Minks who was awarded 19 for her image titled “Ringed Plover Calling”:

 

and 18 for “Blackbird and Berry Feast”.  Another 19 was awarded to Tony Marsh for his “Female Blackbird with Red Berries”. Alan Walker achieved 18 with his image of a ballerina in a derelict building titled “Contrast”. Scores of 18 were also  awarded to Keith Snell for “Giant Kingfisher with Catch”, and two to Julie Walker for an image of a Polar Bear and her cub titled “A Tender Moment” and also for “Waiting for the First Bus”.

Julie Walker

The meeting on the 20th  of February took the form of a “fun” competition between ourselves, Carlisle and Penrith & District Camera Clubs; our annual “Three Way Battle”. Each club provides 15 digital images from 15 different photographers and is an excellent showcase of the breadth of talent in each club. Scoring our images was Richard Speirs, an extremely experienced and well-respected judge, both locally and nationally.

Richard started by congratulating us on the quality of the images saying that he had found no poor images with every one having photographic merit. He then proceeded to comment on each of the forty-five images generously pointing out all that he found good about each one but also giving advice about how some of the images could be improved, whether by different cropping or adjustment of the light in bright or shadowy areas and colour balance.

Scores on the night ranged between 14 and 20 and Keswick did very well with three of the four 20 scores, featuring work by Alan Walker an exciting close up of a Grizzly Bear with a Salmon in its mouth and water cascading all around it:

 

David Woodthorpe with a sparkling photograph of an all-white Scottish Mountain Hare grooming itself with its impressively furry back feet :

 

and Ronnie Gilbert with a colourful Aracari, ( a small Toucan) leaning along a wonderfully twisty branch or vine, the tip of its beak a few inches away from an airborne fly, all perfectly in focus:

 

Ronnie’s photograph was judged to be the best of the competition and Keswick also topped the final score tally, especially pleasing as fifteen members contributed to our success.

A few days later a rather more serious competition between the fifty member clubs of the Northern Counties Photographic Federation which covers the North East of England as well as Cumbria, was held with separate sections for projected images and prints. Keswick was first in both of these categories with an image “Forest Ballerinas” by Julie Walker being crowned “best projected image in show”:

 

and Ronnie Gilbert being only one of two to score full marks with a print of his aforementioned Acari and Fly. This is a significant achievement, not least because this is the third time in as many years that Keswick has come top in both sections.

Tony Marsh