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| Press Release 31/1/2012 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012
The third open competition of the season was last week’s entertaining activity. This was a chance to see the best photographic efforts from an increasing number of contributors, drawn from the ranks of both new and old members. These would receive a sympathetic assessment from the judge for the evening... Richard Spiers from Carlisle, an old friend of the club and a judge of national stature. The first group to be examined were the prints and a rise in standard soon became obvious, resulting in a relatively large number of commendations. However as usual, time and space allow only a description of the final selected few. In third place was ’All Dressed Up’ from the peripatetic Rosamund Macfarlane. Taken in Ethiopia, this was a traditional portrait of an Afar girl from the precarious Danikil region. Her elaborately coiffed hair had caught the light, producing a halo-like effect, which together with heavy silver earrings and a vividly coloured dress had created a festive, almost formal atmosphere. However it was her eyes that were the outstanding feature..... huge, dark and liquid, they reflected only surface images; but seemed to mirror something deeper and more permanent. Illuminating stuff from the heart of darkness ! Next and in second place was a landscape from Ronnie Gilbert. Despite the unambitious title of ‘Glacial Ice with Volcanic Ash’ this finely printed image provided a real communion of all the high mountain elements. A pristine snow dome and a misty rock ridge floated ethereally above the blackened surface of a sprawling glacier. Crawling relentlessly through the middleground to an inhospitable sea, it gave birth to a final upheaval.... calving off a jumbled mass of pointed seracs, speckled with erratic rocks and volcanic detritus. Through this spectacular foreground incongruously paddled a few Eider ducks....a touch of serenity amongst primordial chaos. In first place was ‘Red Squirrel’, a fine portrait of this ever popular and endearing rodent, which came from nature aficionada Carol Minks. Classically composed and fairly static it offered no great surprises, but…as they say… the devil is in the detail ! Razor sharp focus and an element of backlighting revealed even the most delicate features with startling clarity. Against an unadulterated background, the creature’s perch, a curved and lichen covered branch, offered a perfect frame. In fact the judge stated that it was just about the best squirrel picture that he had ever seen…. Rich praise indeed.! After the break and a chance to look at the prints more closely, it was the turn of the projected digital images to be seen. Again high quality material was plentiful and in third place came ‘The Chat Seller’, a nifty bit of drive-by shooting from Keith Snell. Graphically and chromatically attractive this image was recorded in the city of Harar, heartland of the Islamic region of Ethiopia. It was the profile portrait of a moslem girl with characteristically modest demeanor, clad in a lilac hued chadar … on her head was balanced a red-stemmed bundle of chat ( a street legal narcotic, chewed by many). Recorded sympathetically and with a necessary element of tact, this was travel photography at its most engaging. The final two places both went to Carol Minks. ‘Capercaillie Displaying’ was a difficult and elusive subject, deftly handled by a photographer well used to dealing with the unpredictable manifestations of male sexual behaviour. However the winning image was ‘ Grey Wolf’, a duotone study of a fine specimen in a wintery forest setting. Well camouflaged amongst snow laden branches and veiled by gently falling snowflakes, only penetrating yellow eyes and a black nose were immediately visible. A great environmental study of a threatened species and an allegory in grey and white to this survivor from the northern latitudes. At the final count thirty- six Commended and Highly Commended images emerged, some measure of the quality of work on show. In conclusion Richard was thanked for all his hard work and carefully considered analyses. Despite the volume of material he managed to say something original, constructive and encouraging about each image examined. Dave Nicol |
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| Grey Wolf - Carol Minks DPAGB |
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| Press Release 17/1/2012 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012
A pleasing turnout of keen photographers greeted our second meeting of 2012. Many had been persuaded to bring along a panel of three prints, sharing some sort of theme, and throw in a few pertinent comments. Indeed an opportunity, for those interested, to show examples of their work, perhaps for the first time, to a relatively large audience. In the event twenty-six took the plunge and stepped up in turn to the display unit. Painted black with subtle directional lighting, this could have been the amateur photographic equivalent of the Mastermind chair. As the evening progressed it became obvious that travels to foreign parts would numerically dominate the proceedings. New York, Niagara, Nepal and Namibia (2 visits) partially opened the doors of perception, whilst the mysterious hinterland of Ethiopia clocked up the most air miles (3 visits). Bhutan and the Bernese Oberland provided a mountain backdrop, whilst the hills of the Lake District appeared but once. Wildlife and Nature failed to produce its usual high body count, but we did see tigers in Sri Lanka, butterflies at the bottom of the garden and propping up the rear end of the evolutionary scale came bacteria and algae which coloured the steaming waters of Yellowstone. Only one piece of work, a study of the Coptic Church, came anywhere near the original religious definition of a triptych; but the aesthetically inclined were catered for with indecipherable graffiti, rusted chains and complex abstract patterns. A surprise ingredient was that we would have to choose a winner. Now some psychologists say that choice is a delusional concept and in this case it appeared to be true, as we were led inexorably and inevitably to a very clear winner. This was Tricia Rayment with her calm and reflective studies of swans. Probably taken within a mile of her home, this extruded a carbon footprint about a micron wide and was in marked contrast to the long-haul perambulations of many of the other contributions. Fittingly in second place came David Woodthorpe who had put together the whole evening, with some unusual night shots of the rejuvenated Liverpool Docks. Dave Nicol |
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| The Gooseberry. Author - P L Rayment |
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| Press Release 7/12/2011 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012 A team exercise in photo image assessment was the surprise constituent of last week's programme. It had been billed as 'Members Night.... Judge for Yourself' and marching under this enigmatic banner,, Ronnie Gilbert and Carol Minks had devised an interesting foray into the world of audience participation and the fine tuning of critical skills. A masterly demonstration of logistical dexterity had enabled our capable organisers to assemble six laptops and load them with the same selection of forty images and a full magazine of Double O cartridges. By drawing lots... six teams were assembled and then stuck in front of a screen. Their task was essentially simple---examine each image carefully and reach some sort of consensus as to its merits and eventually calculate an individual score. In fact --not so simple at all, as the dynamics of each group and the tastes of each member varied considerably. Ultimately each score would be compared to that given by a judge of national stature. Actually the array of images on show were extracted from the annals of the last Anglo-Scottish club competition, in which Keswick played a prominent part. It must be said that the images available were particularly interesting and ran through the whole spectrum of what might be generously called... the upper end of Northern Club photography. Eventually the marks given by the judge from the event; John MacVie from Dumfries were disclosed. Often they varied considerably from those awarded by some of our groups, however one suspects that the variations between individuals within a group were sometimes even greater. This gave rise to some speculation as to the origins of aesthetic values and to the ultimate meaning of taste, style, fashion and so on..... In conclusion the evening was pronounced a success and a credit to the organisers. There was lots of enthusiastic participation and bags of vibrant interaction and indeed some appreciation of the difficulties faced by judges in different judgemental environments. There was certainly a feeling at the end of the event that similar evenings should be included in future programmes. Dave Nicol |
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| Press Release 29/11/2011 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012 Last week club member Carol Minks gave us a superbly illustrated lecture about her latest trip to Yellowstone National Park. This iconic destination is visited by large numbers of tourists during the warmer months, but Carol's visit took place during the depths of winter, when high snowfall and low temperatures are encountered and only a few facilities are open or available. Transport within the heart of the park is also restricted to a limited number of tracked vehicles. Carol's main interest is in wildlife which is found in profusion in the park, but she is also adept at constructing landscapes with a creative difference. Carol and her group first flew to Jackson Hole, ski-resort and up market western town.... situated at the extreme southern edge of the high Yellowstone plateau. From near here we saw some fine shots of the snow plastered Grand Tetons taken from across the Snake River. A classic view but endowed with a special quality of light when photographed at dawn in sub-zero conditions. They then travelled up into the main part of the park,, passing and photographing elk, big-horned sheep and a delightful roadside pygmy owl. Most of Yellowstone lies around a massive caldera above the magma chamber of the largest supervolcano in America. Continuously active, it is due by most accounts, to blow up again any day... or at least in the next few thousand years. As a consequence to all this magmatic activity about half the World's geothermic features with geysers in particular, occur in Yellowstone. This makes the obvious photo target in winter to be the interaction of large mammals with the heated pools, streams and rivers. Carol had some great images of bison which, quite sensibly stand in the warm water overnight. Steam condenses on their fur, freezes and then becomes encrusted in a ghostly mantle of hoar frost..... a daunting sight in the morning as they emerge through clouds of vapour and start to root around in the snow for whatever vegetation they can find. Carol recorded many of the more interesting volcanic features and we saw multi-hued clear pools, streams colonised and coloured by different types of heat-seeking algae and spurts of boiling mud. Apparently each geyser has its own idiosyncratic behaviour, involving the unpredictable qualities of superheated water, Before discharging there were large holes that apparently rumbled and small ones that whistled. The famous Old Faithfull geyser blew on time but was almost obscured by clouds of steam; a product of cold winter weather. Returning at night to a Motel that seemed to be covered by a large snow drift.......the expedition continued, travelling always in a substantial tracked 'snowcoach'. Day by day the temperature dropped, reaching an impressive -40 C. Carol outlined the problems inherent to photography at such low temperatures; for example limited battery life, slower shutter speeds, frozen zips, frozen fingers and the need for a good supply of thermo-nuclear underwear. There then followed a great series of mammal portraits. Elk were still numerous together with the Grey Wolf which had been introduced to control their numbers. The curious mating habits of the wily Coyote were revealed and the reclusive Bobcat was caught, hot on the trail of a Kangaroo mouse. We saw Pronghorn,, the fastest animal in the World over long distances and even some Bear, which normally hibernate in Winter. Despite the low temperatures, their seemed to be a good variety of birds on show. There were Ravens which could undoe rucksack zips, Chicadee, Bluejays and Grosbeaks. A fine Eagle perched on a dead tree and Trumpeter Swans floated around the warm waters of a small lake. Along the way some impressive landscapes were produced at the highest point in the park and an abandoned mining town was scoured for suitably dilapidated images. Carol finished off her presentation with music and a short AV sequence highlighting her favourite Yellowstone moments. Perhaps everyone's favourite was a short time lapse set showing a fox stalking, pouncing and then emerging from the snow with a small mammal in its jaws. Finally Carol was thanked by Ronnie Gilbert for providing such a pictorially lavish and informative evening. Technical skill, an analytical approach and above all unquenchable enthusiasm are things she brings to her photography and is very capable of passing these on to her audience. Dave Nicol. |
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| Press Release 23/11/2011 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012 The second open photographic competition of the season was held last week and the judge was Pax Garabedian from Carlisle. He had taken on the somewhat daunting task of looking at 140 prints and projected images prior to the event and then offering an opinion and judgement of each on the night. Pax is a regular contributor to our programme with his popular travel lectures and is a very experienced judge. The prints were the first to be examined and a general high standard was encountered...... with difficulty some sort of ranking was chosen. In third place was highly chromatic offering from Brian Sheard entitled 'Autumn' It's most distinctive feature was a wide path, deep in golden fallen leaves, which plunged straight into the heart of the frame. On one side some trees still held onto an amber hued foliage, alternatively shaded and illuminated by an almost harsh sunlight. On the other the vegetation still retained a residual vivid green. This was a sort of communion of autumnal elements, boiling the colours together to something primal and essential....... creating a quite potent and satisfying image. In second place was ' In Corley Woods' by Dave Nicol; a colourful but not unusual study of deciduous forest awash in a sea of bluebells. This had been transformed into something distinctly abstract with the copious application of weapons-grade filters of varied type. This sort of treatment is much easier these days using the appropriate software, rather than in camera at the time of capture..... and the results can be quite startling. However the winning print came from Jack Bamford with 'Tiananmen Square Guard'. This was a head/shoulders portrait of a serious young member of the Peoples Liberation Army, transported seamlessly to guard the front of the Great Hall of the People. Incidentally this building bears a strong resemblance to the new Sainsbury's in Penrith; perhaps the architects of supermarket policy have been inspired by the success of the recent Chinese economic model! The background had been de-saturated to a homogenous grey and the finely focused soldier with green uniform and red insignia, remained effectively displayed. Indeed a topical subject, carefully put together and well printed. Equally meritorious were the prints that received commendations; they came from Ruth Holden, Carol Minks, Mandy Redburn, Jack Bamford, Brian Sheard, Mike Kidd, Ronnie Gilbert and Dave Nicol. After the break and a chance to examine the prints, came the prodigiously numerous projected image section, and in third place was Derek Poulton with one of his imaginative mountainscapes. Entitled 'Moonlight' it depicted the Helvellyn range from Clough Head to Dolywaggon Pike. The upper reaches of the hills were covered with a substantial layer of snow which under a prominent full moon...glowed with a soft but eerie radiance. The much darker valleys still held some definition and the whole image had been endowed with a distinctly saturated look that was most effective. Derek Poulton featured again in Second place with something completely different. In 'Come into my Parlour' we saw a large spider crouched in its lair in the centre of what appeared to be a funnel shaped web. The whole structure was smothered with suspended water droplets, each of which caught the light and reflected a myriad visions of the immediate environment in a quite spectacular way. It appeared as if this arachnid could be the deadly Funnel Web spider, but this is only found in Australia and most of the photographers who tried to feature a close-up image in their portfolio are dead. Unfortunately Derek was strangely absent this evening and was thus unable to enlighten us as to its origins. The winning image showed a riveting piece of avian action and came from John MacFarlane.. An Eagle Owl was captured head-on.... at the moment of lift-off from a field of glistening snow. A flurry of powder and ice-crystals marked the point of departure and strong light revealed great feather detail with assorted implements of destruction ie curved beak and talons. However it was the eyes that dominated the image......... febrile and dilated, they seemed to blaze with a predatory fury. To a small rodent somewhere along the immediate flight path it would be a vision straight from hell. Again a number of commendations were awarded, this time to Tricia Rayment, Pam Gaunt, Carol Minks, Rosamund MacFarlane, George Kitchen, David Rayment, Ronnie Gilbert, John MacFarlane and Gordon Lightburn. Finally Pax was thanked for all his hard work and carefully considered analyses. Despite the volume of work he managed to say something instructive, positive and original about each image. |
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| Press Release 9/11/2011 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012 The Club activity last week was a practical demonstration in Image processing using Camera RAW and was presented by Simon Allen from Dumfries. No stranger to our group... Simon as well as being something of a technical expert is also a photographer of considerable talent, being an International judge and a very well known exhibitor. With a laptop, digital projector and large screen, Simon was able to illustrate every facet of the process with great clarity. The technicalities of this subject are such that they are not really suitable for a general account; therefore these notes will of necessity be somewhat brief. Many digital cameras, including an increasing number of compact models---- give you the option of saving your shots as Raw files, in other words it saves all the image data that is initially captured by the camera sensor. If you save in any other format such as JPEG.... the camera itself will edit the image and discard most of the initial information, leaving little scope for improvement and modification. This evenings demonstration was using the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) editor.... the powerful plug-in which comes with later editions of Photoshop and Elements. However many cameras come with their own Raw programme, sometimes just enough to convert it and then take it into Photoshop. In practise shooting Raw means that you have a much fuller tonal range to work with, images preserve much more detail in shadows and highlights and you have a richer range of colours to play with. Also Raw files, like traditional negatives, remain unaltered by any edits and adjustments. Simon spent this session going step by step through the entire ACR workflow and showed us, using a variety of images how to improve dramatically their tone, exposure and colour. We were also shown many of the amazing options for fixing flaws, retouching and creative editing. At the end of this very well prepared and comprehensive lecture, Simon was thanked by Secretary David Woodthorpe for exposing to those not familiar with them, the many advantages of shooting Raw files and graphically demonstrating how to process them in ACR. Those who already used this system were shown much of the full potential of this powerful processing tool. At the Western Area image competition , which involves ten photographic clubs and was held last Sunday in Carlisle, Keswick did well to gain first place. Dave Nicol |
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| Press Release 1/11/2011 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012 'Ten prints from Ten members in Ten minutes'(each) was the objective for last week's programme. This had the promise of being a triple distillate of fine images of some potency and could highlight the work of a number of members whose work was not familiar. The title itself had a satisfying glow that rigid decimalisation can generate amongst the hyper-meticulous and mildly obsessive, characteristics occaisionally found amongst members of medium sized groups such as ours. In the event the contributors became nine, though the allocated time may have stretched to eleven minutes; thus giving the slightly modified format a weird, but effective symmetry. First to step up and be counted was Carol Waterhouse, who started confidently with two well-balanced but comprehensively differing images. In the first... two women wearing the claustrophobic bonnet sported by females of the Puritan sect were seen labouring at a task said to be candlestick making. This was followed by the nude portrait of a young woman; quite well lit and not lacking an element of eroticism........ a brave and well conceived juxtaposition of conflicting periods and morals. Carol continued with a sort of Odyssey through the seasons and again finished with some originality, combining her last print with a reading of some of her own enjoyable poetry. Mike Dawson was next in line and as is often the case had ploughed one of his aesthetically lonely furrows, with a panel of prints of the bizarre composite plants known as lichens. Unfortunately he was unable to attend, but with some help from Mike's notes, Austin Coote came forward and eloquently paraphrased and interpreted his thoughts on the place of these so-called primitive plants in the biological scheme of things. All were interesting and impeccably printed,, but the one that stood out illustrated vividly the different varieties found in the littoral zone at the edge of the sea. The types encountered factored around mean tide levels, splash zones and other esoterica and appeared to thrive on a bleak quartzitic substrate. One could almost visualise the virtually sterile shoreline of some incredibly distant Pre-Cambrian sea, inhabited only by these precursors to the momentous life changes to come. Barry Evans was a self-confessed Monochrome specialist who still utilised traditional darkroom techniques. His graphic prints certainly contained some original perspectives and a penchant for shooting against the light enhanced what might have been quite mundane subjects. Some backlit sheep on a lonely hillside were quickly transported into the next print, located at a show in Builth Wells, where only their freshly washed and groomed backs were visible. Another neat idea was an image entirely filled with only the fetlocks and hooves of numerous horses, the arrangement was such that a very low shooting position and considerable patience must have been involved. A winter morning on the top of Whinlatter Pass was probably the most atmospheric of his prints. Through a quite heavy mist the headlights of an approaching car picked out the regular shapes of coniferous trees and the faintly shining surface of the road. Close examination revealed a very grainy finish which added an intriguing dated look. Following Barry was Jack Bamford who in contrast was a colour enthusiast----often very bright colour, sometimes combined with abstract shapes. Not having seen a great deal of his work it seemed that he often layered idiosyncratic technique over hard common vision, but the results, as soon became obvious, remained surprisingly accessible. This aside, the prints he showed were remarkably varied. Standing out was a subdued cameo taken in Hong Kong harbour of a wooden junk with dark maroon sails, which incidentally provided the only strong colour on show. In a body of water which should be teeming with activity, the junk set a lonely course, seemingly abandoned by the rest of Asia and left to drift in a spectral sea. The effect was enhanced by an indistinct grey backdrop of giant monolithic buildings with a myriad empty windows------only dimly seen through a sort of unrelated urban haze. This in one of the most heavily populated areas in the world. A classic, alone worth the trip to HK . Frank Stirrup next entertained us with some of his classically styled landscapes, most of which had been recorded on traditional film. His work often favoured Scotland and the Lake District, and two of his images of Wasdale were chromatically very powerful with an almost overwhelming mix of reds ,blues and whites, an effect not common in a location more noted for mists and mellow hues. Nevertheless it was his portrait of the Grand Teton Range of Wyoming which got the thumbs up. Under an acrylic sky with white clouds, the huge proto-granitic spires of this iconic mountain group were strongly reflected in the extensive waters of Beaver Creek. They seemed like glittering lighthouses whose foundations were submerged in a sea of cerulean blue. Marylyn and David Woodthorpe had put together a joint account of their recent expedition to Namibia. Indeed it was a tangled tale of forgotten love or Compact Flash Cards, or something like that...... set amongst the burning sands of South-West Africa. With the aid of only ten prints we certainly got a comprehensive picture of what was on offer in this sparsely populated part of the World. We saw a fine Rhino trotting alongside his own reflection in a large waterhole, and lion cubs and the planets most congested gannet colony competed for our affection. Against competition from poverty stricken townships and the famous red dunes of Sossvelei, the most potent image was Marylyn's simple study of drifting sand in the collapsed doorway of a long-abandoned house. Taken in the ghost diamond mining town of Coleman's Kop it was technically excellent. The action, so to speak was cleverly backlit from a reflective wall and delicate tongues of grey sand seem to climb inexorably up the detailed woodwork and decaying plaster, eventually to fill all available space. Keith Snell restricted his selection to some aspects of the Mojave Desert National Reserve and introduced his prints with an appropriate quote from Edward Abbey; literary sage and guru of the American South-West. Keith's images particularly favoured the plant life found in this arid part of the country with colourful illustrations of species that he had caught just at the right time. Anything that grows wild within 100 miles of the California border will be at least, mildly hallucinogenic and no doubt the Pre-Columbian inhabitants of the region liked to party on... far into the night. An image of the Desert Blister beetle was striking; and with its black abdomen and virulent orange head and thorax, one was suitably alerted as to its potential for painful stings. It contains a toxin that if taken internally is considered to be an aphrodisiac as it can cause priapism. Even more interest was raised when Keith told us that in a mega-concentrated form the toxin was so lethal that a wine bottle full could terminate half the population of Los Angeles. I think I'll cancel that tour of the Highlights of Southern California and go to Somalia instead ! Brad Cheek provided the penultimate offering, again producing a generous helping of versatility. Although not immediately obvious, evidentially quite a lot of his work consists of composites of photography and line-drawing and some engaging images had emerged. With a moistly glistening cornea, a close-up of a horses eye had immediate impact as it gazed implacably at the photographer. In an Athens shop window two plaster-caste models seemed to engage in conversation. Slight overexposure and empty streets seemed to suggest the heat and glare of midday..... probably the wrong time of day for riots and other socio-economic mayhem. One of the most enjoyable prints was a multi-layered sort of construction recorded in a madrasa in Marrakesh. With a regular alternation of patterning, the highly polished tilework of the floor reflected intricate lobed arches, suggesting moslem Spanish architects, though being Marrakesh the work probably dated from a later period. The final layer was the reflected images of onlookers, though they had the look of people drawn from the ranks of the unbeliever, and not of religious students. Carol Minks finished off the evening with a heady brew created on her last three trips to Scotland. She started off strongly with one of those sweeping white beaches, with tranquil seas and endless skies that characterise an outer Hebridean nirvana.....the one that only exists in a parallel universe, in other words the one that some of us seek but never find. We were also shown eagles, stags and capercaillie etc., complete with all the strongly flavoured highland trimmings. To the real aficionado of fast moving water, the end product of fractured terrain, copious rainfall and gravity can form an infinite variety of waterfalls. They constantly seek out the supreme example, and Carol had come up with strong contender of very modest size behind a hotel in Central Scotland. It possessed all the right ingredients....with complexity but without too great a volume of water. It contained rivulets of varying size that continued to divide and reunite to form an intricate lacework. The whole lot being frozen in time with the perfect shutter speed. Chair Rosamund MacFarlane thanked each photographer individually as the evening progressed and in conclusion thought that this new item on the programme had been a most successful enterprise. Dave Nicol |
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| Press Release 11/10/2011 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012 ‘Photography My Way’ fun at its best with Bas Montgomery AFIAP, PPSA from Ennerdale. In the absence of our customary scribe, who may well be dangling at the end of a rope on a steep mountainside in Italy as I write this, I have been detailed to tell you about our great evening last week, courtesy of Bas Montgomery (www. basmontgomeryphotoimages.co.uk). He is clearly a man of many photographic parts, demonstrated in the first instance by his consistently humorous creative montages. Bas had an enforced period of immobility in his life (leading to a "Pyjama" series of pictures) and this, coupled with a phenomenal imagination and inspiration from the pictures by artists such as Magritte and the futuristic dystopian world of Salvador Dali, led to the production of montages where pigs can fly, ducks can zoom around the sky with jet trails extending from their tails, and, in "Coming up for Air" frogs, eyes bulging above the surface of a puddle, use snorkels. In a slightly more macabre, but nevertheless amusing vein, Death features in Made-up and Road Hog (see above). | |
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Bas describes his default mode as cartoonish. He admits the process is very time-consuming and requires meticulous planning, sketching and pre-visualisation, followed by the use of Photoshop tools such as selections, layers and layer masks. He is a past master at creating the shadows which anchor the imported items into their new contexts, and, as a result of deliberately confusing perspectives, ambiguity results. By way of contrast the next part of the evening was devoted to Bas's beautiful photographs of birds in flight. His 2% success rate demonstrates the difficulty of capturing birds flying past at speed in sharp focus. Some of his pictures were taken locally at Trotters World of Animals, where the shapes of falcons with extended wings were frozen in time, but he has also explored Caerlaverock, the Bass Rock (home to 150,000 gannets), the Isle of Man, the Farne islands and the Coquet Islands. My personal favourite was a delicate white Arctic Tern performing an aerial ballet pose, wings above its head, each feather separated from the next, trail spread, and bright scarlet beak and jet black eyes giving a focal point to an exquisite portrait. Bas has also experimented with a comparatively new technique in digital photography called HDR (high dynamic range) imaging, which combines several different exposures so that a "perfect" exposure is obtained in all aspects of the pictures - detail is revealed in the dark shadows and the brightest areas. It is a technique that has to be employed judiciously, otherwise one ends up with a surreal picture. Finally Bas showed us the panoramas that he puts together and sells to model railway enthusiasts. Photographically speaking, there is considerable skill involved in taking and merging pictures across a landscape whilst retaining a uniform exposure. Altogether it was a most stimulating evening, both in terms of its diversity and also because it demonstrated Bas Montgomery's amazing and unique skills. He really is a one-off!! Rosamund Macfarlane (Chair) | |
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| Press Release 24/9/2011 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012 Last week's meeting was an opportunity to look at the prints accepted for the Northern Counties Photographic Federation International print Salon 2011. These had been transported and were then to be presented by Alan MaCormack with help from his wife Mavis, both members of Hexham Photographic Club. Alan is a well known photographer and judge and was able to accompany the prints with a lively commentary and interesting insights into some of the material seen. The whole was broken down into more easily digested chunks by virtue of country of origin rather than the subject material. The full spectrum of modern photography was represented with as usual, landscapes, portraits, creative nature etc., both in monochrome and colour. However the creative section had this year grown exponentially to overlap and envelop some of the other categories, blurring the boundaries and highlighting many images that were sensorily elusive and hard to define. This result is of course totally subjective and due to the tastes of a small panel of judges. From an entry of two thousand only three hundred were accepted; all of which we were to be shown. Impressions therefore were somewhat fleeting, with often only a few seconds to process what was seen. Alan started off the evening with a stack of prints from around the world, in other words from everywhere except England. They included acceptances from Turkey, Hungary, USA, England, Scotland and Wales and in particular China..... Alan tirelessly manipulated the prints from boxes to the viewing stand, with invaluable help from his charming assistant, whilst simultaneously extolling the virtues, nuances and background of each. RikkiO'Neil from Scotland had some interesting images on show. He came to the club a few years ago and gave a memorable, indeed seminal presentation of his work. Since then his tastes have evolved somewhat and he appears to have become a fully paid up member of the School of geometric abstractists. His ' Balance of Life' looks as if it could have been strongly influenced by Salvador Dali.........glance at 'Soft Construction with Boiled Beans' to see where we are coming from !. Like Dali, Rikki has obviously got a good sense of humour as well as a vivid imagination. 'Dancer in White' was another engaging piece of work and featured a model who used the professional name 'Ivory Flame' (info from Alan) Indeed Miss Flame was all flying red hair, long white limbs and diaphanous floating garments... all suspended in a matrix of low-key pixels; almost too exciting, artistically speaking, for some of us ! Another large body of images lay in a sort of aesthetic twilight zone, something akin to those dimly remembered dreams... grasp the vision immediately,or it drifted away like smoke from a guttering candle. Landscapes ,portraits etc. nothing was immune from the siren calls of this insidious but seductive approach. No such ambiguity lay within the material coming from the second largest contingent of photo artists, those from China, and in particular those from the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. Why so many from HK apply for a Salon in the North of England in not known, even Alan could not come up with an explanation. Of course someone, if they had a smattering of Cantonese, could get on the blower to Kowloon; but that aside............... All of their creations seems to have a certain quality of sameness (i.e. read-- uniformly brilliant) with a hard-edged feeling of reality and an impressive heavy duty clarity. Usually everything is in motion; , people, animals, sheets of spray, torrents of water and skies that flow like molten lead......a change from the past, as their photography does not invite any comparison with the flawless, but heavily stylised landscapes of classical Chinese painting. Since the success of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese seem to be promoting, through their exciting photography, a whole new range of competitive sports. We were shown images of Turkey fighting and duelling buffaloes in the unmanned classes, plus bull racing , Bactrian polo and Camel hockey, complete with perspiring but inscrutable oriental riders. None of that arty smoke and mirrors stuff here.....plenty of smoke though... and clouds of choking dust too! . A few moments passed and we were again riveted by the spectacle of five tigers in a snow drift, fighting over the carcass of a huge Golden Pheasant. Amazing... where do they get this stuff ? As Tina Turner once sang 'All systems on overload'.! Next onto the print stand were selections that had originated in the North of England---- well up to global standards and featuring a number of photographers well known in the Club. Even better known was Keswick member and wildlife meister Ronnie Gilbert with 'Open Wide' which stood out against the few other Nature acceptances. Two iridescent Kingfishers, faced off-- and perched beak to beak on a log, against the backdrop of a tranquil body of water. They shared a single fish and formed an avian cameo of considerable originality, a revelation to those of us who have never even glimpsed this elusive bird. After the break Alan introduced the most highly rated selections i.e. those that received the supreme accolades from the NCPF and its small band of judges..... these together with ribbons and medals awarded by such august bodies as the Royal Photographic Society and the Photographic Society of America. For many of us, it was hard to see that these represented a meaningful rise in standard from the rest of the exhibition. However it is probably difficult for we relative laymen to distinguish between the superb and the merely excellent and after a final flurry of gold, it was left to committee member John Macfarlane to draw the evening towords it's inevitable conclusion. He first thanked Alan and Mavis for travelling so far in such appalling weather and was full of admiration for their dexterity in handling hundreds of prints and showing them to their best advantage. Alan was praised for his entertaining commentary and fascinating revelations, all delivered with a fine sense of humour. In the digital image section of the same NCPF Salon, Keswick member Carol Minks did very well to have four wildlife shots selected. Shown with this article is one of these..... a spectacular image of a Golden Eagle landing. The next meeting on the 28th September is 'Scandinavian Wildlife' with Mick Durham, followed by 'Photography My Way' from Bas Montgomery on the 5th October. Dave Nicol Press Officer |
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| Press Release 18/9/2011 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012 Keswick Photographic Society. Meeting 14th September Last week we were pleased to welcome Libby Smith from Carluke who had brought along her presentation.... intriguingly entitled 'Before and After'. Libby is the holder of numerous prestigious photo awards and an international judge and exhibitor, having an enviable tally of gold medals. For some reason Carluke has produced an impressive number of creatively successful photographers---probably nothing to do with the Scots diet or the presence of radon gas in Lanarkshire cellars; more like the presence of a nurturing environment within an artistic milieu. Libby introduced her prints, her favoured medium, by saying that she was ready to attempt any subject except Nature, which she finds too time consuming. We were first shown a series of landscapes recorded in Glencoe and Yorkshire. Our immediate reaction was one of surprise at the startling clarity of what we saw.....this was the result of their enhancement with an technique known as HDR( High Dynamic Range); normally applied using specialised software. Essentially, dark areas become lighter and light areas become darker, in effect extending the range that the camera can detect. The current climate of opinion leads us to believe that HDR is suitable for many subjects, but not Landscapes.... except in very small doses. Libby seemed to have no such inhibitions, with the result that her landscapes appeared impressionistic rather than realistic. There was an image that had been taken at Brimham Rocks where a figure could be seen climbing upon a crenellated pinnacle of millstone grit. He seemed transfixed by a cloudscape of such biblical (HDR) intensity that he could have been Moses, astride the summit of Mount Sinai, awaiting the final consignment of tablets of stone! Much, though not all of Libby's work had received the total HDR treatment, many were composite images of considerable complexity; built from ingredients that had imported from various sites. Seemingly Edinburgh Festival was good for faces and foregrounds and Blackpool a rich source of backgrounds and so on.... A monochrome print 'The Bouncers' was creatively unambitious but very enjoyable. Set against the backdrop of a night time Blackpool casino... three tuxedo clad men, complete with shaven heads and sunglasses, attempted to sustain a menacing look..... an amusing pastiche of gangland bravura. Libby was not afraid to inject a note of pessimism into her work, Many of her images were portraits of young women, carefully rebuilt cosmetically and adjusted to form models of female angst; meticulous productions these, which displayed a range of expressions and emotions, passing from dispassionate, through depressed to the almost distraught. We were also shown alternative material which lay in a no-man's land between photography and art. In 'Made in Britain' a male torso, in union jack trunks, faces a kidney-shaped swimming pool, an ornate bandstand and a strip of artificial sand. Produced in primary colours of mineral hardness.... one could see a footprint of surrealism, a hint of Magritte. A transparent enigma perhaps, but whose meaning remained opaque...... Clever, thought-provoking stuff! The break provided the opportunity to examine more closely her work and admire the quality of the printing. Following this Libby embarked upon a somewhat technical discourse which she called 'Before and After ---- the secrets behind the images.' Using Laptop, projector and screen, Libby ran through and demonstrated the use of her basic tools, i.e. Camera Raw, Adjustment Layers and masks, HDR, selective colour and composite images; in other words the bricks and mortar which built and held her work together. We had already seen in the first half of the evening that Libby had a proclivity for and a fascination with decaying northern holiday resorts and their unassuming infrastructure. Now with a convincing demo of composite work Libby created, around a typical promenade shelter, a tiny universe in which people, dogs and waste bins etc. were moved around, cloned and restructured. New subjects were introduced from alternative continua and integrated with the whole. One was left impressed but a bit bemused as if one had witnessed a minute rip in the fabric of time and space......... and all this as an aid to better composition! At the end of this fascinating study of relative phenomena it was left to Chair Rosamund Macfarlane to thank our impressive guest for her equally impressive display of imagination and technical ability, all delivered with admirable clarity and a wry sense of humour. The next meeting on the 21st will feature the NCPF International Print Exhibition. On the 28st. We will host Mick Durham from Dumfries with 'Scandinavian Wildlife' Dave Nicol Press Officer |
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| Press Release 8/9/2011 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012
Keswick Photographic Society.....Meeting 7th.September 2011. New Chair Rosamund Macfarlane kick-started the season 2011-12 with a warm welcome to old and new faces and a preview of the pleasant and interesting photographic things that will be happening over the next seven months. Rosamund introduced, with a brief resume, the five members who would be showing examples of their work. This was planned as a free-wheeling display of no fixed subject, though shared interests exerted a gravitational pull which drew some of their material together. First out of the blocks was Dave Nicol who elected to show prints following a loose theme of 'Trees'. Apart from their obvious totemic significance, trees offer a wide variety of material which can be exploited by the photographer... both as an isolated subject or as an integral part of the landscape. On show was a varied mix of monochrome and colour images; usually printed on heavy matt paper using a conventional ink-jet printer. A few however languished in the past and had been commercially printed as glossy Cibachromes. Much of the work reflected the season, with changing colours, late-autumnal leaf fall and a stark portrayal of a series of skeletal trees under the harsh conditions of last winter. Ruth Holden displayed her successful panel of ten prints which gained her a Credit of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (CPAGB) This is one of several arcane awards available to the interested and committed photographer. The images have to be presented individually to a group of judges, scored and a total reached which if sufficient results in the relevant award. All of Ruth's work was created locally with several items emerging from her own garden. These included a delicately hued rose with a single point of focus and a baroque arrangement of flowers rebuilt in Photoshop into a very attractive construction approaching that of a stained glass window. Amongst her eclectic choice of material was a totally abstract rendition of 'Gardeners World' which we all enjoyed and a fine group of our canine friends enjoying the camaraderie of what was probably a local dog show. On another print we saw a tightly bunched group of racing cyclists powering along the upper reaches of Shap and the A6........ not quite the Col de Lauteret, but the taut faces of the riders suggested that this was an intense enough experience without the added burdens of precipitous drop-offs and the insidious effects of altitude. It was now Ronnie Gilberts turn to entertain us with 'Snippets of 2011', an overview of his photo-travels so far this year... and with four months still to go! He started off modestly enough in the snow covered Grampians of January, in search of the Blue Hare which is actually white. An element of athleticism and a modicum of luck is probably necessary to record this creature as they either hare away (80%) or remain as sitters (20%). Mission accomplished with fine images and next on the list was the elusive Capercaillie. His Scottish results were not perfect so working on the old adage that it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive... he re-located to Sweden. The spectacular images again produced were a revelation to those of us who thought Capercaillie was a rather expensive brand of single malt whisky. Iceland came next with an unusual beach/seascape constructed from black lava sands and an intricate pattern of white breaking waves. Finally his travels took him to the esoteric backwater that is central Slovenia. Lipizzaner horses were secretly photographed on a former royal stud farm before he filled in as a wedding photographer on the shores of a mountain lake. After the break John Macfarlane showed us the prints which gained him, in turn, the CPAGB. The audience were given a pro-forma score sheet and invited to mark his work and compare their results with those actually achieved. This panel of prints was quite heavily weighted towards wildlife, though good images of a shepherd in the Indian Himalayas and some geo-thermal activity in Yellowstone indicated other interests as well as suggesting an interesting lifestyle. The wildlife shots were environmentally varied but geographically enigmatic, and receiving high marks from the audience as well as the PAGB was 'Gannets Necking', which had a pleasing symmetry as well as lots of charm. 'Lynx in a Birch Tree' was indeed a splendid creature having an air of suppressed energy and latent power...... something like a coiled spring adorned with wonderful tufted ears. 'Pelican fishing the Rapids' was unusual and the birds posture was dynamic, despite having recently had a tumour removed from its neck (in Photoshop that is, not surgically). However the highest scoring image was 'Wolf in Winter Woods', this creature surrounded by atmospheric woodland of sub-arctic appearance, produced an aura of brooding lupine menace. This despite the rumours, probably apocryphal, that wolves survive mainly on a diet of mice. The last presentation of the evening came from Rosamund Macfarlane who talked us through the trials and tribulations of attempting the next award in line by degree of difficulty i.e. the DPAGB, in which she was ultimately successful. Rosamund eloquently described her emotions as the whole process unfolded. The dynamics involved were not for the faint-hearted and in order for ones images to fulfil their potential it was essential to meet, on a consultative basis, with expert photographers and experienced judges who were conversant with the PAGB ethos. Opportunities were provided at intervals in the Northern area and the images that Rosamund put forward were meticulously dissected and re-assembled, with small but seemingly important changes and modifications; of these she gave us a number of examples. The iconic movie director Kurosawa said that the essence of successful film was showing people what they wanted to see; ignoring what the judges hoped to see would almost certainly be an unnecessary nail in the coffin of one's aspirations. Rosamund then ran through her chosen fifteen prints and again her choice leaned in the direction of wildlife. Images that did well included a bear emerging from a winter den, a riveting image of a merlin in the snow and a lynx in purposeful motion. However all of her work appeared to be of a high standard, at least to our less than expert eyes. Most the audience liked 'Siberian Huskies'..... a protective knot of working dogs, curled into a hole in the snow. Low winter light and great print quality revealed every detail of the dogs' fur and the colourful sledging harness. So tightly entwined were the two animals that the image provided an interesting exercise in interpretation and analysis. Surprisingly this received a relatively low score and one can only surmise that the judges didn't have enough time to really examine it. Vice-Chairman Roland Harries then thanked the five speakers for their hard work and for providing what was undoubtedly a successful first meeting. The next meeting on 14th September will be a presentation. 'Before and After' from Libby Smith of Carluke. On the 21st the NCPF international print exhibition will be displayed. Dave Nicol Press Officer |
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| Press Release 30/8/2011 Keswick Photographic Society. Season 2011-2012
September marks the start of the season 2011-2012 for Keswick Photographic Society. Time now of course to ruminate over and digest upon the work done in the summer and anticipate the new photo-challenges that invariably materialise during the winter months. The first meeting commences 7.30 pm at Southey Street Methodist Church hall and will feature the work of five society members.....displaying some of the facets of print photography as practised within the group. These meetings will continue each Wednesday until next April. Jack Bamford, the new Programme Secretary, has put together a varied selection of considerable interest involving leading practitioners and talented speakers drawn from the more rarefied levels of Northern and National Club photography. This programme will also feature competitions of different types, outdoor photo-shoots and instructional sessions aimed at all levels of experience. The Annual Exhibition of members’ work will be on view at the Theatre by the Lake during late October-November. The Society inevitably has a strong digital following; whilst still retaining a considerable reservoir of knowledge and experience along the traditional paths of slides and hand-printing in colour, monochrome and infra-red. We extend an enthusiastic welcome to visitors and to potential new members of any photographic ability. Dave Nicol Press Officer |
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