Knutsford Photographic Society

Current News & Results

Click here to see all KPS Annual Competition Results 1957-present (and some of the winning images)

News Highlights (incl. Competition Results info. & relevant links)

to the News & Results archive (from 1995 up to what follows below)

Christmas Knockout 2007 - yes again this year the wine and mince pies were to the fore and provided more than adequate sustenance for club members during this year's fun knock-out. As ever a good time was had by all. Many congratulations to George Littler for wining the slide contest with his wren and to Margaret Gillan for her gate. Happy Christmas!

November 2007 - Alan Mitchell Trophy. Well members were particularly challenged this season as the subject of this year's  project was "A Summer Day". Despite the fairly dire weather we had in the summer (remember the floods?), members nevertheless rose to the challenge and submitted an interesting array of images. The results were as follows :

- First place - Mark Lenderyou with three prints entitled 'The Seaside'
- Second - Anthony Macdonald Smith with seven prints entitled 'A summer day afloat'
- Commended - Carol Sparkes with a montage of about 25 images
- Commended - David Gillan with four prints entitled 'A summer's day at the sports'
- Commended - Roger Hume with four slides entitled 'A walk over Pen-y-Ghent'

Well done to Mark for finding some sufficiently clement weather for his Seaside shoot.

Summer Outing 2007 - well not quite a washout, but nearly! A small band of members wrapped up their cameras and ventured out into the "summer" evening to try a shoot some sailing shots at Redesmere Sailing Club (RSC). Some of the more intrepid members even left the cosy comfort of the car heater to try a few pictures! Thanks to George for the pics below.

Here, Carol and Mark (right), your webmasters, manage to identify something in the gloom...   ...whilst (below) for Fred tries to put safety first in an unsuccessful attempt to abide by RSC's club rules by donning a life jacket!....well, we tried!

And just to prove that more of the sailors braved the elements than did photographers, here are a couple of dinghies out on the water that evening.

August 2007 - Yet again, the club's month-long exhibition in Knutsford Library has been a great success. As usual, many visitors to the Library have taken an interest in the exhibition. Here are some Knutsfordians enjoying the Exhibition - photos taken on Saturday 25th August.

The KPS webmaster thanks these members of the public for allowing us to use these images on our website.

Summer 2007 - L&CPU Success.
Many congratulations to Terry Heath, who has had his slide "Island Grasses" accepted for the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union (L&CPU) folio, which will tour the L&CPU member clubs over the forthcoming year.

April 2007 - Knutsford Photographic Society Annuals Awards announced.
Click here for the full set of results and some of the winning images. 

Also click here to see the Competition winners and the members who attended the end-of-season social (all in our Rogues' Gallery).

May 2006 - A First for the club! - Knutsford Photographic Society proudly announces its new CPAGBs - well done George and Fred!
The society is delighted to report that Fred McDowell and George Littler gained the CPAGB award at an event hosted by the Yorkshire Photographic Union  at  Selby recently. The award was based on the assessment of six judges of their 10 print submissions. Fred and George each had to submit 10 exhibition Quality prints to a standard where they could be expected to receive an award in an external Club Exhibition/battle. The 10 prints had to achieve a total of over 200 marks out of a possible 300.  George's achieved 230 and Fred's 240. They are both now members of the Photographic alliance of Great  Britain and entitled to put after our names CPAGB when operating in the photographic world . This is a first for members of the  Knutsford Photographic Society - fantastic news!

April 2006 - Knutsford Photographic Society Annuals Awards announced.
Click here for the full set of results and some of the winning images. for the full set of results and some of the winning images.

Also click here to see the Competition winners and the members who attended the end-of-season social (all in our Rogues' Gallery).

January 2006 - Club features in the Knutsford Guardian. the 4th January edition of the Knutsford Guardian featured a report on the recent Alan Mitchell trophy competition (see November's news below). To see the Knutsford Guardian article about the competition and also to see Terry Heath's winning slide "A Gay Day" and Carol Sparkes's winning Farnham print, click here.  

December 2005 - Christmas Knockout. As is traditional (and really as an excuse to send an evening consuming wine and mince pies), the annual KPS Knock-out Competition signalled the club's final meeting of 2005. The Prints knock-out was won clearly by Peter Spooner's "Spitfire", whilst Richard Olbrich won the slides with his lake scene (closely pursued by Jean Emsley who won both 2nd and 3rd places). Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!

November 2005 - Alan Mitchell Trophy The subject for the competition for this year's trophy was 'Street Photography'. As usual, this produced a wide variety of interpretations, giving the judge a difficult task.

There were seven slide entries, totalling 34 slides. The judge chose an entry from Terry Heath, entitled 'A GAY DAY', as the best of the slide entries. This was a striking series of studies of performers and onlookers at a Gay Pride event, which combined good photography and humour. Another notable entry was Roger Hume's 'A WUXI STREET', with seven slides illustrating aspects of life in a busy street somewhere in China. Roger's other entry was series of images of the main street of Shanghai, mainly by night. The remaining entries were mainly of people seen in streets.

There were 14 print entries, ranging from conventional photographic panels of three or four prints to large collages containing, in one case, some 30 or 40 images. Unlike the slides, only four or five featured people in streets; the rest were concerned with buildings, street furniture, or other inanimate objects seen in streets. The judge, Colin Douglas from St. Helens Camera Club, awarded first place to Carol Sparkes for a monster collage of Farnham, with another of her collages, of the village of Street, and a panoramic street view from Geoff Hughes, as runners-up.

To see Carol's winning image of Farnham, click here. To see the Knutsford Guardian article about the competition and also to see Terry Heath's winning slide "A Gay Day", click here.  

September 2005 - in the News!! the Society was the subject of a full half page feature in the Knutsford Guardian on the 7th September. It focused on news items featured on this web site below (August). This is great publicity for the Society and we thank the Knutsford Guardian. The article can be seen here and a transcript follows....

Local artists' work is chosen by BBC for national archive - Photographers put UK in the picture

by ANDREW  McCREADDIE

A DIGITAL picture of Britain has been created with the help of two amateur photographers from Knutsford. Pictures taken by Carol Sparkes and Gwyndaf Roberts have been included in the BBC's gallery of amateur images from across the country. 'It seemed like a good opportunity to contribute to something that they're hopefully going to keep as a national archive," said Carol, a history graduate who is also an IT expert.

The BBC chose 22 images from Carol's collection to appear on their A Digital Picture of Britain website. They included images of a Ferris wheel in Warrington , Chinatown in Manchester "and a bay in Caernarfon, North Wales . There is also a picture of the White Bear Pub and glowing streetlights in Canute Square , Knutsford, which was taken at night in the rain. "I had to include one of Knutsford of course" said Carol, 44. " Carol grew up in Knutsford and took up her hobby when she was a child. Her dad was a keen photographer and they went on trips together to find the best images.

She has now been a member of Knutsford Photographic Society for more than 20 years. I can't remember when I haven't had a camera," she said. "When I was young I had a little plastic camera and I used to go down to the Moor to take pictures."

Carol's favourite photo in her Digital Picture of Britain contribution shows a ferry at a dock in Hull . The picture was taken when it was dark and lights from the vessel and the shore can, be seen reflecting in the water. "I like the lighting because technically it was taken in quite difficult conditions," she said.

The BBC also chose 22 pictures from 71 year-old Gwyndaf's collection to appear on their website. They selected several images of Wales including a steam train near the River Dee, a sunrise over Cregennan Lake and Nant Gwynant in Snowdonia. There is also a picture, taken at daybreak, of the 250ft Lovell telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory near Goostrey. "It's good that the general public have been asked to contribute to this gallery" he said. "It means it's the view of ordinary people that's important."

Gwyndaf worked at photographic firm Ilford in Mobberley before he was made redundant and began a job at Booths supermarket in Knutsford. His interest in the hobby started when he was a teenager and now he regularly searches for inspiration on the news or the Internet. "I saw something about slate quarries the other day and straight away I wanted to get my own pictures of that," he said. "You also quite often see something and stop the car to get a better look. Gwyndaf's favourite picture from his Digital Picture of Britain entries shows a 240ft waterfall at Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant in Wales . The photograph was taken during bright sunshine after a week of rain. "Everything was perfect," he said. "There was a lot of water coming over because there had been a lot of rain and the wind was blowing the spray about.".

For more information about Knutsford Photographic Society visit www.knutsfordps.org.uk or call George Littler on 01565 633961.

To see the other images on A Digital Picture of Britain visit www.bbc.co.uk/arts/apictureofbritain

August 2005 - members' successes!! Congratulations to club members Gwyndaf Roberts and Carol Sparkes for each having 22 photos accepted into the BBC Picture of Britain gallery. You can see their entries by going to www.bbc.co.uk/arts/apictureofbritain  and typing either name into in the box against 'Photographer's Name' and clicking 'Search'.  

Gwyndaf has certainly been busy - not only has he had one of his photographs of the Great Western Steam Gala at Llangollen published in a recent issue of Steam Railway magazine but he has additionally won the 2005 Inland Waterways Photographic competition. The Inland Waterways verdict was "after much discussion this set of images from Mr Gwyndaf Roberts was selected as not only the best set of four for August, but it was felt they best fulfilled the brief and so were the best set overall in the competition, and the winner of the Olympus digital camera. Congratulations!"- well done Gwyndaf. You can see Gwyndaf's Waterways shots at http://www.photocompetition.co.uk/2005entries.htm

August 2005 - have you seen the club's exhibition in Knutsford Library? There's still time left - it's on until the end of August....or why not take a sneak preview here? (use the back button on your browser to return here)

April 2005 - Knutsford Photographic Society Annuals Awards announced.
Click here for the full set of results and some of the winning images.

Also click here to see the Competition winners and the members who attended the end-of-season social (all in our Rogues' Gallery).

January 2005 - The Society were very pleased to have been featured in the January edition of the Knutsford-Middlewich-Holmes Chapel Community news.

Here is an OCR scan of the article (which included a photograph of club members on a trip to Crich Tramway Museum (taken by Carol Sparkes (webmaster) and a photograph of Melchett Mere taken by Roger Hume (Vice President): 

Technology sees club membership soaring By Diane Inglis A NEW age in technology has brought a surge of interest in one of Knutsford's thriving clubs. Knutsford Photographic Society has seen membership soar, thanks to advances in digital camera technology and the world of communic­ations. "Like most clubs nation­wide, we were losing mem­bers until five years ago when the growth of digital photo­graphy rejuvenated interest in the subject," said vice president, Roger Hume.

"Now our numbers have risen from the mid-20s to early 30s and we attract people from all ages and back­grounds, including some teenagers, which is always a good sign."

The club, which was formed at the end of the 1940s by the late Hal Whitaker, who ran his own photographic shop in Princes Street, now meets every Tuesday at 7.45pm at Stanley House in Bexton Road.

Meetings, lectures and com­petitions run from September until April and include visits to other North West clubs for some friendly rivalry.

"Photography is a creative art form and we aim to help people develop their skills, whether they start as keen beginners or more advanced photographers," said Roger. "We cover everything, from how to fill a frame to using colour, and we offer a full pro­gramme of events for our members."

February is no exception, with a packed diary of talks and meetings starting with a selection evening on Febru­ary 1 for landscape scenes for next year's calendar produced by the town council.

On February 8, members will be entertained by guest speakers, Marion Waine and John, Rowell, whose topic will be The World Of Audio Visual.

The following week is a trip to rivals, Chapel Photo­graphic Society, to put work forward for this year's High Peak Trophy.

"This is an annual contest of prints and slides between four clubs - Knutsford, Mac­clesfield, . Chapel and Bramhall. Chapel has won for the past few years, so it would be lovely to beat them this time, but despite being a com­petition, it is also great fun and a friendly event," said Roger.

The month rounds off on February 15 with the Lan­cashire and Cheshire Photo­graphic Union Clubs' competition, followed by Knutsford's own monthly members' competition on February 22.

Anyone interested in going to any of the meetings should just turn up, ring Roger for more details or log onto the website at www.knutsfordps.org.uk.

14th December 2004 - Annual Christmas Knockout - this year saw a continuation of the innovation introduced last year where members had not only a slide knockout on which to vote but also a print contest. Congratulations to Sue Heath for winning the slides knock-out with "Hen Cloud Woodland" and to Don de Marco for doing the print honours with his "Traction Engine Wheel Detail". Thanks to our master facilitators Anthony, Nick and Terry for keeping track of what was "in" and what was "out"!!

We' also like to take this opportunity to wish all members and friends a very happy Christmas and happy shooting in 2005.

23rd November 2004 - Alan Mitchell Trophy competition  - Competitors for this year's trophy had to enter a set of three or more images (prints or slides) on the theme of rotation....

There were seventeen entries (4 slides, the rest prints) from ten different authors. Predictably, the favourite theme was fairground rides (4 entries). One of these was outstanding - a set of three prints of the Frisby ride at the May Day fair on Knutsford Heath, by Peter Spooner. They were top-quality photographs, beautifully printed and presented; this entry was one of the final three from which the winner was chosen. Another of the final three was a set of eleven images titled 'Domestic Rotation', by Carol Sparkes. This showed a number of different domestic items which rotate - clock, electric toothbrush, CD, lemon squeezer, even water rotating as it goes down the plughole. The last of the top three, and the eventual winner, was 'Musical Chairs' by David Gillan. This was three prints, each showing the same three people, but sitting in a different order in each of the prints - rotating their positions.

Four entries showed items of machinery, but were let down by their failure to show any evidence of actual rotation - they all looked rather static. Other entries included 'Olympic Spin' - three prints of gymnasts at the recent Olympic Games. In his enthusiasm for rotation, the author had applied a rotational blur effect so enthusiastically that the audience appeared to be rotating more than the gymnasts. These were photographed from a television. Another entry - 'Summer Windmills' - was a montage of nineteen prints of a wind farm near Kendal; and 'Circling to Music' was four prints showing the covers of Victorian sheet music, with dancers gaily rotating. Three entries showed prints of a small circular building in a garden; one set was 'Rotation of the viewpoint', showing the building photographed from six different positions; another was 'Rotation of sun and shadow', with five prints taken from the same position at different times of day, with the shadows moving accordingly; and the last was 'Rotation of the seasons', with views of the building in the four seasons. All these were commended for the author's imagination, but were let down by bland skies and some photographic faults. The external judge was George Beaumont, who was very thorough, and made many valuable comments. After the judging, some of the authors talked about their entries and how they had been made. All in all, everyone agreed that it had been a good competition and an enjoyable evening.

The webmaster thanks Anthony Macdonald Smith for the above excellent write-up.

November 2004 - an interesting month for the club! Our oldest member, Dave (who joined in 1949) celebrated his 83 birthday during a club evening, whilst two of our long-standing members (Geoffrey and Beryl) moved away down south to be near their family - their summer parties for the club will be missed as will their ongoing support for the Society over the years - we wish them well and success in finding a new photographic society soon. Turning to remaining members, congratulations to Carol Sparkes for having 2 photographs published in this month's Cheshire Life magazine. The club was also pleased to welcome the President of the L&CPU, Keith Suddaby for a very entertaining and motivating evening in November.

September 2004 (2) - a sociable start to the new season! Yes, the nights are starting to draw in, so it must that time of year again. The club witnessed a great turn out for its fist meeting of the season and also welcomed a few new faces. Could the attraction have been the opportunity to see the 5 slides and prints brought in by members as a gentle introduction to the start of the season, or could it have been the cheese and wine on offer - we'll leave you to draw your own conclusions after seeing these grab shots from the evening. 

August 2004 - once again the Knutsford Photographic Society Exhibition is on display in Knutsford Library - why not take a look!. Reminder - the new season starts on Tuesday 31^st August.

July 2004 - Very many congratulations to our members who have had photographs retained for the L&CPU portfolio. Jean Emsley & Jane McHarry both had slides retained whilst the L&CPU have kept a slide and a print from Terry Heath. Also, well done to Carol Sparkes for her first place and second places in this year's Lymm Festival.

April 2004 - Knutsford Photographic Society Annuals Awards announced.
Click here for the full set of results and some of the winning images.

23rd March 2004 - Club Monthly Competition - see our Monthly Competition Results page

24th February 2004 - Club Monthly Competition - see our Monthly Competition Results page

20th January 2004 - Club Monthly Competition - see our Monthly Competition Results page

9th December 2003 - Christmas Knock-out - in a new departure this year, the traditional slide knock-out was extended to include prints, to enable our increasing number of digital workers to participate. Thus two winners this year : (prints) "Zebras" by Don de Marco; (slides) "Change in Weather" by Jean Emsley.

2nd December 2003 - Club Monthly Competition - see our new Monthly Competition Results page

25th November 2003 - Alan Mitchell Trophy Project - congratulations to Jean Emsley for winning this year's project contest on  the them of "The Weather". Jean's enigmatic collection of 4 slides depicted an approaching storm, leading to a black sky with the sun peeping through the cloud. Well done Jean.

21st October 2003 - Club Monthly Competition - see our new Monthly Competition Results page

August 2003 - KPS Annual Exhibition - once again the club's annual exhibition in the (now

new) town library is yet another success. 

Why not come down to the library and see the best of our members' current work?

... or for a sneak preview, why not take a 3D virtual tour of the exhibition (Quick Time/other .mov player required   ..... just use your cursor to explore!).

6th July 2003 - KPS Summer Outing - to Crich Tramway Museum in Derbyshire. A fantastic day was had by the many members that turned out.  Read the full story (with photos) here.

13th May 2003 - Wine & Nibbles - Members of the Knutsford Photographic Society were entertained by members Beryl and Geoffrey Gardiner at their home in Knutsford. The event is becoming a key event in the calendar for the club and, as ever, the evening was a great success. The weather was not too kind but the hospitality made up for this shortfall. Geoffrey and Beryl are long standing members of the club and as such their contribution to a social event for the Knutsford P.S. is appreciated by the members. Geoffrey is keen to exploit the virtues of the Digital world and the conversation around carefully selected bottles of wine provided members with the opportunity to discuss many facets of this developing aspect of photography.

Many thanks to our host and here's to next year!

April 2003 - Knutsford Photographic Society Annuals Awards announced.
Click here for the full set of results and some of the winning images.

Also click here to see the Competition winners and the members who attended the end-of-season social (all in our Rogues' Gallery).

April 2003 - AGM - at one of the best attended AGMs for a number of years, the Society Officers (including the retiring President) and many club members reflected on a very successful year, which saw a notable increase in club membership and a highly praised syllabus; pictures here!

4th February 2003 - Alan Mitchell Trophy won by Peter Spooner. This year's subject for the annual project was "Nature's Colours". Peter submitted a panel of 3 photographs depicting yellow, magenta and cyan flowers on the nature's colours themes. Good efforts by Anthony Macdonald Smith and Keith Knowlton made it, respectively, into 2nd and 3rd places. Anthony's entry consisted of 4 still life images each consisting of fragments of garden plants artistically arranged on a stone with 3 conkers. Keith's entry, entitled "Nature's Spectrum" used 7 shots of flowers, together with a white flower on a black background, to depict the colour spectrum. Excellent work all round and commiserations to the other unlucky entrants. Better luck next year!

10th December 2002 - Christmas Knock-out Contest Success  As ever the festivities were in full swing with the usual merriment (no doubt caused by the wine and mince pies that were being consumed!). After a hard fought battle and some taming of the two projectors in use, 3 photographs survived the rounds and made it into the top 3. 

Congratulations to Keith Knowlton for his winning "Little Squirt". See the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place pictures here.

May 2002 - Society Exhibition in Booths Supermarket, starting 13th May : "Knutsford Shops - then and Now"..... KPS follows its Art Exhibition in the Civic Centre with one in Booths Supermarket starting on the 13th of May showing photographs of shop premises in Knutsford taken in 1908 compared with prints of the same shops taken in 2002, taken from as close to the same view point as possible. The change over the years should create a lot of interest.

April 2002 - Knutsford Photographic Society Annuals Awards announced.
Click here for the full set of results and some of the winning images.

Click here to see the Competition winners in our Rogues' Gallery.

April 2002 - Society takes part in local Art Exhibition  ....... Knutsford Photographic Society has supported the Art Exhibition which is being held in the Knutsford Civic Centre over four weeks in Aril. The Exhibition features a mix of modern and traditional paintings as well as jewellery and ceramics, and the KPS arranged for members photographs to be exhibited along side the art exhibits. The prints represented a cross section of the work of the members and covered both digital, colour and monochrome prints. The exhibition has generated a great deal of interest and the opportunity to see the work of KPS members has, also resulted in favourable comments, as has the work of the artists. Terry Heath, the Society's Competition Secretary, organised the exhibition with help from his wife Sue; other club officers George Littler and Peter Spooner arranged for the photographic prints to be displayed. The exhibition has resulted in a number of enquiries from potential new members wishing to join the Society next season and this has been quite rewarding. 

to the News & Results archive (from 1995 to above)