Tag Archives: cumbria

Annual Print Competition, 27th March 2024.

The club’s 23-24 season is drawing to a close and that means it’s time for the annual competitions.

Wednesday saw the Annual Print Competition, judged by club friends Sheila and Daryl Giles from Lytham St Annes Photographic Society, which is one of the biggest clubs in the North West.

Print nights are always well attended and for the Annual Competition members enjoyed images in Open Colour, Open Monochrome, Nature, People and Portraits and The Cumbria Panel Competition.

Shelia and Daryl had a previous sight of the images for consideration before the judging on the evening. As always it was an entertaining evening in which members could enjoy the images and listen to the judges’ comments on the images presented.

The Colour section was judged first by Daryl and the winning image on the night and the Trophy winner was ‘Enchanted Lake’ by Laurie Thurlow.

Also held in the final selection were ‘Piper’ and ‘Old Boat’ by Laurie Thurlow, ‘Steam at Garsdale’ and ‘Harbour Sunset’ by Ann Dallaway and ‘Redwoods ICM’ by Bill Pickard.

The Monochrome section was judged by Sheila.

Images held were ‘Red Stag’ by David Poole, ‘A Balanced Performance’ by Gavin Lowe, ‘Sheep Under a Tree’ by Russell Millner . The winner was ‘The Cob, Lyme Regis ICM’ meaning this year’s Monochrome Trophy goes to Bill Pickard.

After the coffee break Sheila and Daryl judged the Cumbrian Panel Competition together. For this competition members present three images that complement each other on a subject or theme. It is important that when viewed together the images are cohesive.

For the Cumbrian Panel Competition all the images must have been taken within Cumbria and are about the Cumbria Landscape, Wildlife or Cumbrian traditions and life.

In first place was ‘Weird Trees’ by Laurie Thurlow, with Jeff Bagnall’s image ‘Buttermere High” achieving 19 out of 20 points and Maureen Smith’s image ‘Cumbria Red Squirrels’ achieving 18.

Sheila next judged the Nature section. The Trophy went to ‘Little Egret Feeding’ by Gordon Mills which Sheila wished was an image she had taken herself.

Also in the final selection of leading images was ‘Squabbling Chaffinches’ by Gordon Mills, ‘Sparrowhawk on Pidgeon’ and ‘Aggressive Buzzard’ both by David Poole and ‘Purple Heron’ by Peter Kennedy.

Daryl judged the final and smallest section of the evening which was People and Portraits.

Three images were held back with ‘Playing the Blues’ achieving the win and trophy for Maureen Smith. ‘Waiting’ by Jeff Bagnall and ‘The Engineer’ by Maureen Smith were also considered in the final selection.

The club would like to thank Sheila and Daryl for their considered comments and advice about the members’ images. We look forward to seeing them again in the future.

The Full Score Sheets are in the member’s section of the website.

Next week is the the Annual PDI Competition, which is available on Zoom and at Castle Street. Visitors, as always, are welcome to come along and meet members, so please join us especially if you are considering joining the club when the next 24-25 season starts in September 2024.

To come as a guest please click on the link https://kendalphotographyclub.co.uk/about/membership/guest/

PDI Competition Night – Curves

Wednesday January 24th 2024 saw the fourth PDI competition of the club season. The competition theme ‘Curves’ was an interesting challenge, but as always members presented a varied selection of images.

The judge for the competition was Erica Oram, CPAGB AFIAP BPE3 of Sheffield Photographic Club. Erica gave great critiques of the entries with advice on how to improve images. Members appreciated her advice and hope to welcome her back to the club in the future.

In the Monochrome section members submitted 38 images. The winner on the evening was ‘Staircase’ by Phil Drayton with 20 points. 

Maureen Smith also achieved 20 points with her image ‘Shell’ for 2nd place. In third place with 19 points was Bill Pickard with his image ‘Spiral’.

After the coffee break Erica judged 38 images in the Colour section. In first place was Ann Dallaway with ‘Going up’. 

Gavin Lowe also achieved 20 points with ‘Round and Round’. 

Maureen Smith and Dave Nelson both achieved 19 points for ‘Looking Down’ and ‘Red Arrows-Tornado’.

The full scores for the competition are in the members section of the website. This week all images have been added to the members protected section at thumbnail size (800×600). Members can review the images at their leisure if they wish. Feedback to Maureen on this method of sharing of images would be appreciated.

Next week is Editing night available on Zoom and at Hall and as always visitors welcome.

Members Prints Competition Results 22/23

The final prints competition of the 22/23 season was held on February 8th. The competition was Judged by Phil Hodgson of Poulton le Fylde Club. Phil gave us an entertaining evening and some wonderful images were presented by members for judging.

In the Colour Club Competition Karen Caruthers was leading the seasons league table going into the final competition. Karen finished the season with a winning image ‘Sunlit Fungi’.

Karen finished the season as overall winner in the Club Colour Competition having achieved 3 wins this season with ‘Splash of Red at Glenridding’, ‘Winter Sunshine Tarn Hows’ and ‘Sunlit Fungi’ achieving a total of 108 points.

In the Club Mono Competition the nights winning image was ‘Fisherman’s Huts Lindisfarne’ by Martin Rowe.

This win took Martin into joint 1st place in the season’s results. with Martin having had a previous print win with ‘Mining Museum Roof Detail’. Karen Carruthers shared overall first place with both members finishing on 104 points.

Moving onto the Advanced Mono there were 6 images which received a maximum 20 points on the night.

Dave Nelson achieved a maximum 40 points for his abstract images ‘Drought’ and ‘Frozen in Time’. Laurie Thurlow also achieved 40 points for his images ‘Scout Scar’ and ‘Rydal Lonely Tree’. ‘Scout Scar’ was given the overall winning place in the nights competition.

Also achieving 20 points were Maureen Smith for ‘The Look’ and Peter Kennedy for ‘Southport Pier’

First place in the season’s Advanced Mono Competition was closely fought but finally the win went to Peter Kennedy by 1 point (total 108) with Maureen Smith 2nd place (107) and Kim Rigg 3rd place (105).

Finally, we come to the Advanced Colour Competition which had 5 full point images on the night. Laurie Thurlow with ‘Ullswater Expanse’, ‘The Famous Boswell’ by Russell Millner’, Bill Pickard with ‘Break in The Ice’ , ‘The Famous Boswell’ by Russell Millner’, ‘Night Heron Skimming’ by Peter Kennedy and ‘Winter Scene’ by Jeff Bagnell.

The win on the night was given to Laurie Thurlow for ‘Ullswater Expanse’.

Laurie has presented stunning images this season and took the overall 1st place with 112 points. 2nd place went to Peter Kennedy (108) and 3rd place to Maureen Smith (102).

Full competition results are in the members area of the website.

Thank you to all members who entered the print competitions this year. Your images are always appreciated and enjoyed by the membership and we hope you had fun. Keep entering your images next year.

Next week is a talk by Warren Alani called ‘Through the Years’ available on Zoom or at the Hall. Visitors always welcome see the membership page for details.

Kendal v Morecambe Annual Photo Battle 2023

This year the battle was held at Morecambe Camera Club. Thirteen Kendal members made the journey to Heysham Library for the event.

Each club submitted 30 images divided into 3 categories Open Colour, Open Mono and Nature. The competition was expertly judged by David Gibbins of Beeston Camera Club.

First Round was Open Mono and was a close competition, with three images for Morecambe and three images for Kendal held into the final judging. Both clubs achieved an 18 ,19 and 20. Kendal’s winning images are below.

  • Egg Heads 20
  • Airborne Attack 19
  • Lake Manyara 18

The total scores in the Mono round placed Morecambe in the lead with 168 points to Kendal and 172 to Morecambe.

The Second Round to be judged was Nature. David had a very difficult task as the standard of the images was outstanding. This was reflected in 10 images being held to final judging with five from Kendal and five from Morecambe.

Kendal’s Leading images were:

  • Dalmatian Pelican and Fish         20     
  • Arctic Dreams 19        
  • Brown Pelican     19        
  • Barn Owl         18        
  • Dalmatian Pelicans Feeding 18

The round was extremely close with the Kendal achieving 178 points to Morecambe’s 173.

After a well organised coffee and tea break with good biscuits and a raffle, it was the final deciding Colour Round.

The standard of images was again very high with David holding 7 Images into the final judging. Kendal was doing well with 6 of the 7 images held and it was all looking very good for a possible overall win.

Kendal’s images achieved;

  • Wintering         20        
  • By dawn’s early light         19        
  • The Horse Box 19        
  • Hot Dog         18        
  • Trees framed         18        
  • Rocky staircase         18     

These strong images gave Kendal a Colour Round score of 176 points to Morecambe’s 163 .

The overall win went to Kendal with a total score of 522 to 508.

A big thank you goes to David Gibbins for his time in providing considered comments on the images and for judging the competition. A thank you also to Morecambe Camera Club for their warm welcome and hospitality.

Morecambe Club have also provided a link to a zoom video of the evening which can be accessed for a week. The link is in the members area of the website along with the full score sheets for the event.

Thanks to all members who attended Morecambe, it was a very enjoyable evening.

Next week it is the final Club Open Print Competition of the season. This will NOT be zoomed and members are asked to bring their prints on the night to the hall. The Judge is Phil Hodson of Poulton le Fylde.

Members are also reminded that entries for the next and Final PDI competition of the 22-23 season are due in by Wednesday to Dave .

‘My Journey in photography so far’ by Kylie-Ann Martin

On Wednesday the 2nd November we were joined via zoom by our guest speaker Kylie Martin with her talk “My Journey In Photography….So Far”

Kylie took us on her photographic journey from her first image in 2006/7 upto the present day, below is just a small selection of her images.

Despite barriers due to health restrictions, which have impacted on her photography Kylie-Ann has earnt a number of distinctions, EFIAP, BPE 2 and LDPS.

The talk was well attended in the hall and via zoom with Kylie-Ann sharing her images which contributed to all the exhibition acceptances and some of the stories behind them.

Kylie-Ann explained some of the techniques behind how she created one of the award winning images and ended the evening sharing her CPAGB panel.

Despite a few technical issues in the hall we all enjoyed a very eclectic mixture of photographs and no doubt some of us will be trying out some of the techniques in the near future. A big thank you to Kylie Ann for a very enjoyable evening.

Wednesday 9th November

Next week we will have our 2nd Monthly PDI competition with a subject ‘Minamalistic’ which will be judged by Caroline Preece.

If you would like to join us as a guest cost £3.50 please follow the link below. https://kendalphotographyclub.co.uk/guest

Please note Ann Street will now be closed for up to four weeks

‘Wood’ by Daniel Bridge

On Wednesday 26th October we were joined by our guest speaker Daniel Bridge for his talk titled “Wood”

Daniel Bridge is a full-time professional photography tutor and nature photographer running photography workshops and provided private photography tuition helping around 300 people a year get more from their photography.

Daniel’s love of woodland inspired the talk, which was not only based around the plants and animals found within them but also the wood itself, either in its natural state, or used as a building material. Talking about the techniques employed, and the reasons for shooting,

Daniel showed us over 120 photos, covering macro, wildlife, abstracts and more, talking about the techniques employed, and the reasons for shooting them.

A big ‘thank you’ goes to Daniel for a very enjoyable evening which was enjoyed by members at the hall and via zoom.

Below is just a small selection of the images from the evening

Wednesday 2nd November

Architecture, Exposure to Edit with Richard O’ Brien

On Wednesday 26th September we enjoyed a Zoom talk by Richard who shared his architectural photography with the club. Richard’s work can be seen on his website http://www.richobphoto.co.uk/.

In the first part of the evening we enjoyed images from around the world including public and religious buildings. Richard gave information on the equipment he used. He shared tips for capturing great images in camera.

During the second part of the evening Richard demonstrated live edits of two of his images using Lightroom and Photoshop. He shared his workflow and gave tips and tricks to improve efficiency when editing images.

A big ‘thank you’ goes to Richard for an informative and enjoyable evening.

Richard has provided pdf. notes of his talk, which are available in the Members Protected Area of the website.

Competition Time

Next week is our first competition of the season. Members, please bring your mounted print images on the night. Two colour and two mono images will be judged by Nick Hilton, DPAGB EFIAP BPE5*

Also remember PDI images for the first PDI competition must be email to the PDI Competition Secretary by Wednesday. kendalphotographyclub@gmail.com

Summer Break

On 13th April we held our Annual Print competition for the first time in two years, having previously been unable to meet in person due to Covid restrictions. There were no leagues, with all members competing equally, and 4 categories: open colour, open monochrome, nature and people.

Due to the competition being for physical prints I sadly have no digital images to show you, but huge congratulations go to all our winners which were:

  • Open Mono
    Bill Pickard with ‘Maasai Warriors’
  • Open Colour
    Gordon Mills with ‘Sunset Klong Muang Beach’
  • Nature
    Gordon Mills with ‘Dalmatian Pelicans Lake Kerkin’
  • People & Portrait
    Ann Bench with ‘We Can All Be Different’

In addition, we hold an annual Lakeland Trophy competition which consists of a panel of 3 prints depicting Lakeland or Cumbria, and our 2022 winner was Jeff Bagnall with ‘Wansfell ponies’ – well done Jeff!

Our season has now finished and we are embarking on a summer break. Although formal meetings won’t be taking place, Club members will be meeting regularly in small, informal groups for days out and details can be found on our private Photoshoots Facebook page.

Our 2022/23 season starts in September. Details of the new programme will be available on the programme page of our website shortly. In the meantime, we hope you all have a wonderful summer – fingers crossed the weather will be kind and we can get out and about with our cameras!

Competition: Annual PDI

On 30th March we held our annual Projected Digital Image competition judged via Zoom by Caroline Preece. There were no leagues, with all members competing equally, and 4 categories: open colour, open monochrome, nature and people.

Starting with the nature category, big congratulations go to Gordon Mills whose adorable image of a ‘Grey Seal Pup’ stole the show.

Next up was the monochrome category, won by beginning photographer Kim Rigg with her image of ‘The Boxer’ – well done Kim!

Following a short break, we resumed judging with the open colour section, which was won by Jeff Bagnall with his stunning landscape shot ‘Wintering’.

Last, and definitely least with only 4 entries, we finished with the people category which was won by Jo Knight with ‘Evacuee’, although she says it was a hollow victory with so few images competing.

Our thanks to Caroline for her excellent critique of our images, which contained a carefully considered mix of positive attributes and constructive ways of the improving each shot.

This Wednesday we are joined by speaker Vincent Scothern who is talking ‘From The Other Side Of The Fence’. The first half of the evening will concentrate on sports photography, and the second half covers Vincent’s DPAGB entries alongside wildlife, landscape and people photography so there’s something for everybody! Guests are welcome, either at the community centre or via zoom – see our membership page for fees and how to join in. See you all on 6th April 😊.

Competition: Panels

Club favourite Gerald Chamberlin EFIAP DPAGB of Morton Photographic Society was our zoom judge for this year’s Panel competition, held on Wednesday 9th March.

Members had clearly taken on board all the recent advice offered on how to build a successful panel and we saw well balanced images, with matching tones and saturation, which told strong stories in creative ways.

I’ll start this week with advanced colour, where the top spot was shared between Bill Pickard with ‘Dancing on water’ and Gordon Mills with ‘Brown Pelican’. Both superb panels and well deserved winners. Second place went to Dave Nelson with ‘Ready Steady Go’ and third place was shared between Maureen Smith with ‘Sunrise on Meathop Moss’ and Jo Knight with ‘A Disabled Experience’.

Dancing on water by Bill Pickard
Brown Pelican by Gordon Mills

In the Club colour section, first place was shared between Peter Kennedy with ‘Sunflowers’ and Bill Lowis with ‘Who ate all the seeds’ – well done both! Second place was awarded to Kim Rigg with ‘Mary’s Shell’ and third place to Suzy Braye with ‘Swaledale Barn’.

Sunflowers by Peter Kennedy
Who ate all the seeds by Bill Lowis

After a half time brew we resumed with Club monochrome, where big congratulations went to Suzy Braye with ‘Old Gang Smelting Mill’. No second place was awarded, but 18 points went to Kim Rigg with ‘Splash’.

Old Gang Smelting Mill by Suzy Braye

Last but not least, we ended with Advanced mono where Bill Pickard scooped his second 20 points of the night with his panel ‘Shades of Blackpool’. Second place was awarded to Maureen Smith with ‘Storm’ and third place went to Jeff Bagnall with ‘Getting ready to play’.

Shades of Blackpool by Bill Pickard

Our thanks to Gerald for his careful consideration and constructive critique of our images 😊. This Wednesday prepare to get wet with our competition on the theme of ‘Water’. Look forward to seeing members and guests (click here to attend as a guest) at 7.30pm, either on Zoom or at Castle Street Community Centre.