Tag Archives: photography

Guest Speaker: Macro & Jumping Spiders

On Wednesday 7th October the Club spent a captivating Zoom evening with guest speaker Stewart Wood who shared his passion for macro photography, in particular Jumping spiders.

I admit I’d never heard of Jumping spiders and was expecting something enormous and scary like a Tarantula, but most were only a few millimetres in size and, as an arachnophobe I can’t believe I’m going to say this, they were really quite cute!

As well as being treated to Stewart’s amazing close up images, he also talked us through his macro technique covering everything from lenses, to lighting, to post processing and even discussed keeping Jumping spiders as pets. Our thanks to Stewart for a really informative night and we look forward to his talk on water droplet photography in the future.

Our next Zoom meeting is in the company of Club member Amy Bateman, who shares her life of ‘Farming & Photography’. Amy is a multi-award winning and exhibited photographer, British Life Photographer of the Year 2019 and is a current Sony Alpha Creator. I hope you can all join us via Zoom for what promises to be an intimate and evocative view of life on a Cumbrian upland farm.

We welcome new members or if you’d like to be a guest just for the evening you will find details on our membership page.

Open Competition 30th September 2020

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Our first Club competition of the new season took place via Zoom on Wednesday 30th September and was judged by North Fylde Photographic Society. The evening was split into colour and monochrome sections with two leagues – Club for beginners & intermediate, and Advanced for more experienced photographers.

Members of North Fylde had previously spent an evening viewing our images and scores were a group consensus. Apparently there had been lively discussions with sometimes polarizing opinions but the Club had been impressed with the quality of our images, particularly in the monochrome section.

Paul King CPAGB and Dave Bibby CPAGB EFIAP BPE3* represented North Fylde and passed along the Club’s comments during an entertaining evening. Critique was positive and helpful with some really good tips on improving our pictures. It was particularly nice to see new members entering their photographs, which we all know from experience is terrifying the first time you do it!

Congratulations to Alvina Labsvirs who received the top score of 20 points for ‘Kingfisher’ in the Club colour section. Alvina also scored 19 points for ‘Night Watchman’, alongside Elaine Elrick’s ‘Passing Through’.

Alvina continued her winning streak in the Club monochrome section, scoring 20 points for ‘Fishing’, with Elaine Elrick’s ‘Night Reflections’ receiving 19 points. There were some cracking images in the club section, well done all!

Fishing by Alvina Labsvirs
Night Reflections by Elaine Elrick

In the Advanced league, congratulations go to Jo Knight who was awarded the top score of 20 points for two images, ‘Life Behind Bars’ & ‘Painted Lady on Thistle’ in the Colour section, while 19 points were awarded to both Dave Nelson for ‘Fell Ponies’ and Russell Milner for ‘Polar Bear Resting Before The Next Swim’.

In the Advanced Monochrome section, Jo was awarded another 20 points for her ‘Swaledale Sheep’ sharing joint first place with Gavin Lowe’s brilliantly titled ‘The Big Wobbly Thing’, with 19 points being shared by Dave Nelson for ‘Allium Red Mohican’ and Dylan Reynolds for ‘Lambretta in Mono’.

Our next event on Wednesday 7th October is a talk by Stewart Wood on macro photography, in particular jumping spiders. Extreme macro is a difficult technical subject and I’m sure we’ll all learn a lot, even if the arachnophobes amongst us will be watching from behind a cushion 😱

All are welcome to attend this Zoom event. It’s never too late to become a member of the club, or if you’d like to be a guest just for the evening you will find details on our membership page.

Club evening: Open Competition

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Club member Jo Knight treated us to a “brilliant”, “fun”, “inspiring” and “thoroughly enjoyable” evening via Zoom on Wednesday 23rd September. She kicked off with advice on how to use layers and masks in Photoshop, then went on to demonstrate two popular plug-ins, the results of which impressively took 30 years off her age – if only we could all do that in real life!

Our next club evening on Wednesday 30th September is our first competition of the new season, with an Open theme. Our images have already been assessed by North Fylde Photographic Society and representatives from North Fylde will give us their verdict and scores live via Zoom.

This is a great opportunity to see over 80 images in both colour and monochrome produced by club members with skills ranging from beginner, through intermediate to more advanced workers.

All are welcome to attend. It’s never too late to become a member of the club, or if you’d like to be a guest just for the evening you will find details on our membership page.

We look forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday for what promises to be an interesting and entertaining night!

Tutorial: Photoshop & Plug-ins

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Our 2020/21 season kicked off on 16th September with an inspiring Zoom talk from Laurie Campbell. Laurie is a fine art nature photographer based in Northern Ireland and a member of the successful Catchlight Camera Club.

Laurie turns ordinary images into stunning fine art pictures with her use of textures which she says “covers up a multitude of sins!”. Despite admitting to lacking confidence and being incredibly self effacing, Laurie presented a wonderful evening of creative images which left us eager to try her techniques on our own photographs.

Our thanks go to Laurie, and also to Keswick Photographic Society with whom we shared the night.

Our next Club event is via Zoom on Wednesday 23rd September, with member Jo Knight AFIAP DPAGB BPE1* QPSA discussing layers and masks in Photoshop and her favourite editing tips and tricks.

Responding to requests from our recent members’ questionnaire, she will also demonstrate two popular plug-ins and the ways in which they can be used to dramatically, but simply, enhance our images.

Non members are welcome to join us for the evening as a guest for a small fee. Please visit the Membership page of our website to register. We look forward to seeing everyone next week!

New Season

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After we had to abruptly end our last Club season early due to lockdown, we are delighted to announce that our new season starts on Wednesday 16th September, running through until 28th April 2021. We meet at 7.30pm each Wednesday, with a 4 week break in December for Christmas & New Year. Unfortunately for now, however, due to Covid-19 restrictions we will not be meeting in person at our usual Castle Street venue. This situation will be reviewed at the end of the year.

Instead, members have been meeting via Zoom as a trial during our summer break which has proved to be popular and successful so we will be continuing our programme of events online. This includes speakers, competitions, workshops, editing advice, terrible lighting, dodgy backgrounds and plenty of banter! Here are a few of the motley crew on one of our summer Zoom meetings:

There is the opportunity to ask questions or have a chat with other members at the beginning and end of each Zoom meeting. During competitions and demonstrations, however, members’ sound will be automatically muted so as not to distract the judge or speaker if your doorbell rings or your dog starts barking 😉.

If you are thinking of joining Kendal Photography Club we realize it can be daunting to come along to a club where you don’t know anyone, and even more so to join in a Zoom meeting. But we were all new once too and are confident that whatever your area of photographic interest, experience or level of skill, the club will provide a great focus for your photography.

Don’t worry if you’ve never used Zoom before – it’s been a learning curve for most of us. You will need either a phone, tablet, ipad, laptop or computer with a webcam and microphone (they usually come built-in). Download either the FREE Zoom app from the play store on your phone/tablet, or download Zoom for laptops and desktops here (choose Zoom Client for Meetings). The software will install automatically. Each week, you will receive an email from the Club with a link to our meeting – simply click the link, making sure you choose to share your video and audio when prompted.

Please either email a committee member, comment on this blog post, get in touch via Facebook or use our website Contact form if you have any problems or questions. If you’re interested in joining Kendal Photography Club, either as a member or guest, visit our Membership page for details.

We look forward to seeing old and new members alike 😊.