Keswick Photographic Society

15th October 202615th October 2026

Mark Hetherington: ‘Cumbrian Landscape’, 14th October 2026

On 14th October our members were treated to a stunning presentation of local photographs by a full-time local photographer currently based in Penrith. Mark Hetherington is an Associate of The Royal Photographic Society and was the winner of the 2026 International Garden Photographer of the Year. His work has featured in The Times Newspaper, British Photographic Awards and in The Trail, Amateur Photographer and Outdoor Photography magazines.

For all of us who live in and around the Lake District, we are fortunate to be in some of the most spectacular scenery in the country, if not the world. However, most of us witness the scenery when it’s light and probably when it’s dry, too. Photographers like Mark, whose remarkable images we have just witnessed, seem never to be indoors when there is a sunrise, sunset or in deed any other phenomenon or spectacle to capture.

13th October 202613th October 2026

Basia Bogacka: ‘A Journey to the Arctic’, 7th October 2026

On 7th October we were treated to a journey to the Arctic by renowned fine art photographer, Basia Bogacka. The evening was split into two parts, the first featuring Greenland and the second Svalbard. Each section started with a fascinating telling of the very different history and geography of the two sets of islands as well as an insight into some of the current climate crisis, (not least demonstrated by retreating glaciers and sea pack ice), and geo-political considerations.

3rd October 20263rd October 2026

Gerry Coe: ‘iPhone Photography’, 30th September 2026

At our meeting on 30th September members were treated to a masterclass with a difference. There is an expectation that presentation images will have been taken with conventional cameras, however speaker Gerry Coe, a professional photographer from Belfast, showed a series of incredible images taken with his phone.

Gerry has 60 years experience of photography and is a Fellow of The Royal Photographic Society, a Fellow of the British Institute of Professional Photographers and a Fellow of The Master Photographers Association amongst others! He was the first person ever to gain a fellowship by submitting a panel of photographs taken on an iPhone rather than a traditional camera.

26th September 202626th September 2026

1st Open Competition, September 2026

Competition nights are always popular at our Club, as they provide the opportunity for judges to give constructive advice on how our photographs might be improved and also allow our images to be seen by other members.

Our Open competitions allow pictures from any genre of photography and are divided into two sections: mounted prints and digital images which are projected onto a screen (called Projected Digital Images or PDIs). Points are awarded for each picture up to a maximum of 20, then the judge states their favourite from certain genres, eg landscape, and chooses their overall winning image.

Our 1st Open competition of the 2026/27 season took place on Wednesday 23rd September and our judge was Maybeth Jamieson MPAGB from Dumfries camera club.

19th September 202619th September 2026

Alastair Marsh: ‘Wildlife Photography’, 16th September 2026

The latest meeting of the Society featured award-winning wildlife photographer Alastair Marsh. He visited us hot on the heels of multiple successes in the latest British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA). One of Alastair’s hedgehog portraits is featured as the front cover of this year’s BWPA book. His talk was subtitled ‘trying something different’ and was illustrated with stunning photographs of native species mostly close to his home in North Yorkshire. The images were outstanding both in their technical quality and the inventiveness of his compositions.

The inventiveness came from the ingenuity with which he arranged the photographic set-ups used to capture unique aspects of animal behaviour. The overriding aim was to remain as unobtrusive as possible so that the animals acted in a natural manner. To achieve this, much of the photography relied upon the remote triggering of the silent shutter of a camera that was often positioned inches away from the subject. He also subtly exploited remotely-triggered low level flashlights to illuminate either the subject or its immediate surroundings to produce evocative naturalistic images.