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For this week’s meeting we were pleased to welcome some members of the Bristol-based Reflex Camera Club. They were spending the week photographing around Keswick and agreed to come along and show us some projected digital images from their club members. Their chairman, Maurice Thompson MBE, started off by showing us images of the club’s activities including studio portraiture and still life sessions in their meeting hall as well as models photographed on location in bars, stately homes and ancient monuments. There were also macro photographs of creepy crawlies taken in their hall and fighter planes taken at a local viewpoint where the photographer was at eye level with the aircraft on their training manoeuvres. Maurice continued by showng images of his own and from other club members who were not present for this Lake District outing.

We were then given short presentations of images by those members present, which proved to be very diverse and thoroughly enjoyable. Examples included landscapes of Machu Picchu in Peru, the Hobbit village in New Zealand where the Lord of the Rings films were made, the annual hot-air balloon festival in Bristol, the gardens of Stourhead and beach scenes local to Bristol and further afield.

Portraiture and people, both posed and candid, featured frequently and perhaps the most striking was an extremely creative series of selfie images in which the photographer was reproduced in various multiple guises and poses in the same image – a plane filled with himself as all the passengers and titled ‘I Wonder Who Is Flying The Plane’ illustrated the humour behind this approach. More familiar to the Keswick Society members were wildlife images of native bird species; less familiar were photos of pet rats! Alison Davies showed us a series of images of her many cocker spaniels (especially Otis, Tilly and Bazil) in various situations, including on the shores of Derwentwater

 

and which had featured in popular magazines and had won her numerous lucrative prizes.

Julie Kaye’s images took us under the seas to feature not only exotic colourful fish but also abandoned wrecks and their cargo on the seabed. All superbly photographed with her sophisticated underwater equipment.

 

 

After the break some members of Keswick Society showed the visiting club samples of our photography. Richard Jakobson led off with photos of Morocco, each one shown in colour and in monochrome and demonstrating how each format could be superior depending upon the subject matter.

 

Keith Snell followed on with landscape prints taken using intentional  camera motion or mutiexposure techniques to create impressionistic effects.

 

Finally Ken Rennie showed landscape images which were based around minimalist compositions, demonstrating that less can definitely mean more in photographic artistry.

November’s first meeting was a competition for members who had submitted printed images on the theme of “Hard at Work”. This theme had been chosen by our Chairman, Keith Snell who also took on the task of critiquing and scoring the images.

At the outset Keith said how much he had enjoyed viewing the breadth of subject and the quality of the images. He then explained that he had judged the images based on their photographic quality and also on how well they expressed the idea of “Hard at Work”. He had been fairly liberal when assessing the latter but admitted his liberal stance was a little tested at times!

A total of 23 images were submitted with a range of interpretations of the theme including portraits of various professions “hard at work”, several images clearly with an ironic slant on the theme, street scenes in various locations, images of wildlife working hard and some photo journalistic action shots.

Keith had clearly taken time and effort to review the images and was able to offer for each one submitted advice on what may have improved the photograph and what he found particularly pleasing. He also fulfilled an educational remit in advising the audience of the details of some of the more obscure professions depicted. eg a “scudder” being a leather worker who cleans the hides after they have been tanned.

The images were scored out of 20 and three received top marks; “Hard Day’s Night”

 

and “Charcoal Maker” by Alan Walker

 

and “The Caulker” by Richard Jakobson.

 

Keith was impressed by the exceptional composition of “Hard Day’s Night” with a sharply silhouetted figure and the arching fluid separated from the background but echoing its curve. He liked the subdued toning of “The Charcoal Maker” which emphasised the workers distinctive face. “The Caulker” showed a boatyard worker sealing the cracks between the planks of a wooden hull. Keith thought that the backlighting was effective but the image still managed to show the details in the workers face.

Other high scoring images included “Under Pressure” by Ed Richardson

 

“The Jewellery Shop” by Tony Marsh ;

 

and “Clean Sweep” by David Rayment;

 

Images of all the submitted prints can be viewed on our gallery page:

Hard Work Gallery

At the end of the meeting Keith presented this year’s “Chairman’s Award for Outstanding Service” to Tom Stenhouse. This was made in recognition of Tom’s hard work and dedication over recent years as Programme Secretary. He brought new ideas and enthusiasm to the role and was unstinting in his commitment to ensuring every meeting was set up and ran smoothly.  Keith’s thanks was echoed by the subsequent applause from the members present.