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15th February saw Keswick Photographic Society welcome back specialist landscape photographer Ken Rennie with his presentation entitled “Finding Beauty in Nature”. Ken had been an important member of the society up until last year, but living near Brampton made attending our meetings an increasing challenge. He has had work accepted in a number of prestigious exhibitions including Landscape Photographer of the Year and Edinburgh Festival Exhibition and has been published in Landscape Photography Magazines and in the past contributed significantly to Keswick’s success in both international and national photographic competitions.

 

 

Ken described the main categories of photographs that he has pursued over the years commencing with “Grand Landscapes” heavily featuring the Scottish hills as well as Cumbrian fells and valleys but also some epic areas on the Continent, some of which he travelled through on his bike. His is keen to revisit favourite spots and showed us different pictures of the same vista taken over a number of years as he searched for the perfect combination of light and weather conditions. He warned against being seduced by a pretty view and not taking into account the subtleties of maximising the most satisfying composition with the important elements sitting in a pleasing position. Not averse to removing distracting elements or adding in others at the processing stage, even if it is only lightening appropriate patches to simulate sunlight, he is not out to achieve total realism but create something believable, which shows what attracted him to take the photograph in the first place and which hopefully creates an emotional response. He will always ask himself at the time if he has made the very best of the location and the conditions that he could.

 

 

Such perseverance and attention to detail was also evident in his pictures of the next section of the talk concentrating on “Waterfalls”, both in the large scale and in small details. He is a master of slow shutter techniques, but will often blend three or more images to have elements of sharp stationary foliage together with blurred milky water, and/or detail in both a bright sky and in dark rocks in the combined result. He is very skilled at this and other processing manipulations but stresses the importance of processing manipulations not being evident to the final viewer. A section of “Monochrome”, (black and white), images included a number of waterfall shots, especially those focussing tightly on small cascades and the swirling effects of foam on the “splash pools” under the waterfalls, that appear with a long  exposures. Many of these require delicate positioning of both himself and tripod over some wet and mossy areas and Ken stressed the importance of being on the right side of precariousness when manoeuvring.

 

Other favourite subjects for monochrome included winter trees with those combined with snow and perhaps a stark fence being especially successful.

 

“Nature” subjects were not neglected with some exquisite flower and insect macro-photography and a few “People shots”, most memorably of a prettily dressed tourist standing in a lavender field in Provence which he made especially timeless by digitally removing the rather annoying arm and hand holding her mobile phone! A more recent project has been a concentration on “Seascapes” often combined with “Intentional Camera Movement” where the camera is moved slightly during a slow shutter opening in order to deliberately capture a pleasing and atmospheric blur.

 

It was a real pleasure to see both Ken and his work again, many of them images we have been familiar with over the years, but with plenty we had not seen before. Although he delivered his talk with projected images, he brought along a number of his exquisite and highly accomplished prints for us to view at the tea-break and after the talk itself.

Tony Marsh

Rod Wheelans from Dumfries presented what he referred to as his “holiday snaps” to the meeting. These were not just any snaps though as many were award winning prints. He also showed photographs taken by his wife Anne Greiner, who is also an award-winning photographer. Rod is well-known in the photographic world and he is a past president of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain.

Rod explained that their main interest was in travel photography and in particular photographing people. He and Anne had visited both Georgia and Turkey many times and he kicked the evening off with a selection of photographs taken in Turkey. He said that he always ensured that the guides he employed took them to remote villages in the mountains where residents of the lowlands traditionally took their animals to graze during the summer months. Many continue to spend their summers in their temporary dwellings in the mountains, which are little more than huts, although they no longer have any livestock.

Rod and Anne had photographed some of the villagers over several years and Rod recounted many amusing tales about their encounters. Most were more than willing to have their photographs taken and some were even prepared to queue. Rod always made a point of taking their photographs back with him on subsequent visits as gifts. He has even learned a little Turkish so that he can communicate with the local people.

 

Rod then moved on to his photographs in Georgia where his experiences were similar to those in Turkey. In both locations many of the photographs were taken in people’s homes. In Georgia he described how the Russians had taken everything with them when they left except for a large number of yellow buses. The local people had now put these to good use, in some cases converting them in to homes for themselves and in others turning them in to shelters for their animals.

 

During the interval Rod displayed his successful Royal Photographic Society Fellowship Panel comprising 21 monochrome prints of images taken in Georgia.  In the second half of the evening Rod showed us images of people taken on a recent trip to Brazil and then went on to show us other work including images of dancers, portraits and domestic animals.

 

Rod is a very entertaining speaker as well as an excellent photographer and we had a most enjoyable evening.

Julie Walker

This week’s talk titled “When Life Gives You Lemons” was given by Jennifer Willis from Northern Ireland. Jennifer describes herself as a wife, mother of three adult boys, grandmother, dog lover and photographer. In fact, she is a multi-award-winning photographer.

 

During the first half of the evening Jennifer talked about her early work. This included studio portraits, sports photography, especially rugby, and photographing dogs and other animals.

 

She showed us numerous examples of her work. More recently Jennifer started working with friends rather than professional models and she says that this is where she gains most satisfaction.

 

The second half of her talk was devoted to a special project that she has undertaken in the last 18 months or so. This involved taking photographs of women with secondary breast cancer. She describes these photographs as the most important she will ever take.

 

She has exhibited 32 of these images in Northern Ireland and is proud to have raised awareness of the issues facing these women. It was a most poignant and thought-provoking evening.

Julie Walker

For the first meeting of the new year Keswick photographic Society (KPS) members were entertained by four members of Dumfries Camera Club. This is a reciprocal arrangement; four members of KPS having presented talks to Dumfries a few weeks earlier. It was a tremendously successful evening with members treated to some first class images and explanations of techniques.

The evening began with Margaret Elliott explaining how a Covid 19 lockdown project resulted in the production of a panel of fine art macro images of flowers which gained her the qualification, Associate of The Royal Photographic Society.  She explained the processes involved, occasionally freezing the flower heads in water and the practice of photo-stacking.

 

This involved her photographing very tiny parts of a flower and continually adjusting the point of focus before taking more, thereby ensuring that the resulting image is pin-sharp throughout the depth of the image. Margaret superimposed layers of texture on some of the images to great effect.

 

David Moyes explained his journey through architectural photography from absolute novice through to expert with success at the highest level.  Last year David won a Gold Medal at the prestigious Edinburgh Exhibition and had a number accepted in international salons.  David explained that the principal lesson in his success involved the understanding of the impact of light and shadow.

Showing his original images, followed by the monochrome processed images, David revealed just how dramatically different the results could be, even when beginning with apparently simple colour photographs.  He also demonstrated how the treatment worked so much better with new materials and shapes in modern architecture.

 

Maybeth Jamieson began her presentation with images from her photography passion; sport and particularly, tennis. Her images captured the raw emotion and the extreme exertion of professional tennis players. Maybeth demonstrated the techniques which best delivered the drama of the game emphasising in the shape of the players, the light and shadows and the opportunities to include or exclude the contextual environment elements.

 

In addition to tennis Maybeth enjoys equestrian sports from point to point to three day eventing and visits many locations around the Borders capturing the action very successfully. The talk was rounded off with a variety of other sporting images including cricket, athletics and motorbike scrambling.

 

Jean Robson completed the line-up and showed some remarkable images from her two recent trips to Svalbard.  Entitled Arctic Moods, Jean’s talk began with an explanation of her expectations; to photograph arctic wildlife.  Her successes, however, were initially with wonderful landscapes.

 

Arriving in late April the sea ice was melting and the pancake ice seascapes were enhanced by the incredible patterns created by the ice and the directional lighting.  Occasionally wildlife would enter these landscape shots and produce even more wondrous images.  Two such images included a fox and a walrus making unannounced appearances!  Jean explained the lack of interest shown by the wildlife in general to the zodiacs in which they approached some.  This enabled some wonderful close-up photographs of Walrus, Seals, Reindeer and, on her later autumn trip, Polar Bears waiting for the arrival of the winter ice.

 

The later trip also provided beautiful lighting conditions on mountain sides swept clear of snow. Jean captured many stunning images of wildlife and landscape.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening for which all four speakers were thanked and applauded.

David Woodthorpe

This week Keswick Photographic Society’s members were entertained by one of their own members.  Ade Gidney who has a considerable reputation for, and much success with, landscape photography presented a series of wonderfully printed landscape images in the first half of the evening.

 

These prints were panels of 10 and then 21, which had won Ade his LRPS (Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society) and then his Landscape Fellowship (FRPS) respectively.

 

A Fellowship is the highest RPS distinction and requires a detailed statement of intent to accompany and explain the rationale for the series of images, which, in Ade’s case concentrated on the effect of changing light on mountain-scape compositions through the seasons.

 

In order to achieve these Ade regularly camped out on the fells to get the best light from sunset and sunrise vistas.

 

The second half of the evening was devoted to projected landscape images, all of which were taken within the British Isles and which focused of the impact of light on the land.  This was a very accomplished presentation of some quite inspirational photographs.

Our meeting on the 30^th November was a presentation via Zoom by Colleen Slater who is based in Brighton. Colleen is a macrophotography specialist and she took us through the development of her interest which first started when she began to photograph flowers deliberately placed under water. These flowers continue to photosynthesise and as a result produce bubbles of oxygen which when photographed close up with varied backgrounds produce some beautiful unique images.

 

She then moved on to macrophotography of flowers and was able to give us various tips and tricks used when out in the field. Whilst photographing flowers Colleen began to be aware of a fascinating variety of insects which sparked her interest in imaging them close up.

 

In contrast, as part of a project with a local photographic group Colleen began to take macro images along Brighton promenade and beach. This resulted in a completely different set of macro photographs of objects in this urban environment

 

as well as a fascinating series of the textures that can be seen when you take the time to look.

 

We were joined for this Zoom meeting by members of Kendal Photography and all found this a fascinating and inspiring evening.

Richard Jakobson

On the 16^th November we were given an exhilarating presentation by James Rushworth on The Dolomites and Iceland. James is an experienced rock climber and mountain skier now based in Kendal. He described how working as a ski guide in the Dolomites in Italy led to a further career in photography and the production of climbing and photography guides.

 

He showed us several vertigo inducing photographs of his climbs in the Dolomites including the famous Via Ferrata.

 

There were also images of off-piste skiing down terrifyingly steep couloirs high in the mountains.

 

Interspersed with these very active representations of the Dolomites were landscapes demonstrating their beauty both during the day and also at night.

 

The second half of the evening was based primarily in Iceland, where James now also runs photographic tours and where he tries to get away from the more popular photo locations as much as possible. These include trips into the centre of Iceland in 4-wheel drive vehicles

 

and into ice caves beneath the glaciers.

 

He has been able to capture the many stunning landscapes in Iceland which of course include photographs of the Aurora Borealis.

 

James also uses a drone for photography at times. He was able to show us how the drone can offer a completely different perspective even when only a few metres off the ground.

 

His audience was captivated throughout the evening by James’ extraordinary images and the narrative that accompanied them.

If you would like to become a ‘virtual’ member or attend one of our Zoom meetings as a guest please email us (contactkeswickPS@gmail.com)

Richard Jakobson

Our first set subject competition of the season was on the theme “Gold” and was judged by Richard Speirs DPAGB, APAGB, BPE2, from Morton Photographic Society. There were 62 images entered into the competition from a wide variety of genres. As ever Richard judged the images with a keen eye, helpful critical comment and his entertaining dry wit. The images were not scored but best nature image was “Gold-3” by Ade Gidney:

 

Best creative image was “Golden Tree” by Ann Healey:

 

Best landscape was “Gold-1” by Ade Gidney:

 

Best portrait was “Shasta” by Bob Given:

 

10 images were highly commended: “The Guardian of the Gold” by Alan Walker, “Highly Polished” by Wendy Gordan, “Goldfinches” by Tony Marsh, “Golden Light” by Tony Melling, “Anna Rose” by Bob Given, “Gold Rose Bowl” by Jo Knight,  “Golden Retriever” by David Woodthorpe, “Golden Sun Voyager” by Richard Jakobson, “Golden Hour over Derwentwater” by David Woodthorpe and “Gold Leaf” by Tony Melling.

All the images can be viewed on the gallery page: “Gold” Set Subject

 

 

 

This was our first open competition of the season. This meeting was well attended, with the majority attending in the meeting room, the highest attendance in person since the start of the covid pandemic, and others attending on Zoom.  The judge, Jack Bamford, a past member of Keswick Photographic Society,  is an experienced judge and gave his detailed critique of all the images which was full of positive comments and helpful tips.

The evening was divided in to two halves;  prints and digital images. There was a wide range of subjects in the images including Landscape, Portrait, Wildlife, Creative and Street photography.

There were 28 prints for Jack to judge.  Five prints awarded the maximum 20 points.  ‘Harvest Time’:

 

and ‘I Wish I could fly away too’ by Julie Walker, the latter awarded Best Creative:

 

‘Hiding Away’ by Keith Snell, which was awarded Best People:

 

”Owl about to land’ by David Price, award Best Nature:

 

and ‘Listen very carefully I’ll say this only Once’ by Alan Walker:

 

Three prints were awarded 19 points, these being ‘Marsh Harrier’ and ‘Snowy Owl Landing’ by Ronnie Gilbert, ‘A Fishing Trip’ by Simon Roberts. Five prints were awarded 18 points. ‘White Tiled Sea Eagle Hunting’ by Carol Minks, ‘Hoopoes You can’t have it’ and ‘The Mittens Monument Valley’  by Tom Stenhouse, ‘A bit of Aggro’ by Keith Snell and  ‘It’s Mine’ by Marilyn Woodthorpe.

Fifty digital images were submitted for judging in the digital section. Three images achieved the maximum 20 points. ‘ White Stallion at Dawn’ by Alan Walker, which also achieved Best Landscape,

 

‘Sidecar Duo’ by David Price

 

and ‘Grey Wagtail with snack’  by Alan Walker.

 

Five image achieved 19 points. ‘Orange Tip on Cuckoo Flower’ by David Woodthorpe, ‘Young Bears play fighting in the mist’ by Ronnie Gilbert, ‘ European Otter’ by Carol Minks, ‘ Grazing on Luskentyre Beach’ by Sue Rugg and ‘Great Northern Diver feeding chick’ by Julie Walker. Five images achieved 18 points. ‘Third Change’ by Bob Given, ‘Line Dance’ by Annie Given, ‘American Red Squirrel scratching’ by Julie Walker, ‘Black veined white Butterfly’ by Carol Minks and ‘Leopard resting’ by Graham Smith.

All the entered images can be viewed on the Gallery Page

Members of Keswick Photographic Society were both entertained and inspired last Wednesday by a talk given on Zoom by Tommy Hatwell, a commercial and humanitarian photographer based in Plymouth, entitled: “All around the world and back again”.

The first half consisted of a description of Tommy’s life as an adventurer travelling around the world, often to participate in dramatic kayaking challenges, with a variety of odd jobs in between trips taken to finance the next one. This exciting and rather enviable lifestyle was mirrored by a growing fascination in the ability of both stills photography and video to portray people, places and, increasingly, messages.

 

His first realization of the power of a photograph came when he was working on a whale watching boat in New Zealand photographing clients as well as the wildlife when he captured a staggering, once in a lifetime sequence of shots of a Killer Whale chasing and killing a Pseudorca, (a type of Dolphin), by ramming it and shooting it and its baby way up into the air. Travels to India, and Vietnam gave him the opportunity to develop relationships with a wide variety of people who after a period of time would agree to be photographed in a relaxed and cooperative manner.

 

One of his early trips, in 2008, was to go kayaking on the White Nile in Uganda and he chose to return there towards the end of a BA Hons degree course in Commercial Photography to create a portfolio for his final major project. Although his trip was rather frowned upon by his tutors, most of his fellow students were taking studio photographs of perfume products and the like, he ended up with a wonderful portfolio of the lifestyle, people and adventures in the small village where he was staying.

 

Many of the friends he made and subsequently photographed were boys he had known when kayaking ten years before, and it was this long-term relationship, together with immersion in village life that allowed him to gain the trust necessary to create a wealth of charming and relaxed portraits.

 

He has returned to Uganda on an annual basis since then, (pandemic allowing), and continues to deepen his relationships and amass a wonderful selection of images including a significant portfolio for Soul Foundation, an NGO working in Uganda that provides help with Maternal Health, Education, Food Security and Women’s Empowerment.

He especially created a striking image of teenagers in an open sided and solar powered school house which was chosen, out of many thousands of entrants, to be one of the fifty photographs in the prestigious Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery.

What was so striking about Tommy’s presentation was how deeply and empathetically he involved himself in the lives and surroundings of his subjects and how the trust so gained resulted in such moving and “true” portraits. All of his subjects appear both relaxed and dignified and there is a celebration of a way of life rather than an over exposure of poverty.

 

The adventure continues to evolve with the organisation Think People Think Story, set up by Tommy and local Ugandan friends and photographers to deliver life changing projects whilst educating photographers to share their community stories and use their cameras to make a small living.

 

The Sleepwell Project 2022, will once again deliver brand new healthy mattresses to families who need them most. You can learn more at: thinkpeoplethinkstory.com.  An excellent and thought-provoking evening.

Tony Marsh