Keswick Mountain Festival Photo Winners Revealed

The 2008 Keswick Mountain Festival is now on and the organisers have just revealed the winner of the first Cumberland Ale Keswick Mountain Festival Photo Competition.

Both amateur and professional photographers were invited to submit images that 'represented Alfred Wainwright's love of the Lakeland fells' with the images being judged by Sir Chris Bonington and mountain photographer Tony Riley along with Sean Crawford and Cathy Colam from the Keswick Mountain Festival.

With almost 100 photographers entering images, competition was fierce, but the eventual winner was Keith Firstbrook from Kingswinford near Wolverhampton with a view of Derwentwater taken from Surprise View above the lake.

The judges described the image as 'unique and fresh' while Keith himself summed up the view as 'one of the best in the world'. We reckon the image below has an almost oil-painted feel to it.

To be honest though, we think many OMers will relate more to the runner up, Martin Lawrence's shot It's a Dog's Life featuring a borrowed canine beneath Catbells. Yep, it's hard work being a photographic dog...

More details plus full information on the Keswick Mountain Festival which runs until Sunday 18 May at www.keswickmountainfestival.co.uk