Castleton & Hope Valley Photographic Society

The second speaker of the evening was Wayne who explained how he used Photoshop to great effect when enhancing images. Amongst the numerous examples and techniques Wayne showed us were three that he had created for previous exhibition entries.

Following a tea break and accompanying biscuit or two the members re-assembled for 3 more presentations with the titles of;
Depth of Field, Macro Photography and Making the Most of It.

A short presentation on Depth of Field from Paul. Introducing the idea that members that almost always use the camera on “Auto” might try Aperture Priority to try photographs with a large aperture and hence a narrow depth of field.

Mike showed a number of Macro Images taken on a trip to Bulgaria with Judy. The photos almost all utilised a narrow depth of field to help emphasise some great images of insects. Spending so long on your knees in wet grass at the crack of dawn certainly deserved the reward of the stunning photos Mike had to show us all.

Keith closed the evening with a presentation of photos taken on a trip to Switzerland. Despite the tourist board showing many photos of blue skies over the Alpine peaks, the weather on the trip was rather different. Snow and mist featured extensively hence the title “Making The Most Of It”. A particular view of the Matterhorn involved waiting for half an hour and hoping that the cloud might lift from the peak.

This meeting was all about the annual exhibition and for the first time all the exhibition prints were on display so that members could vote for their favourites. As well as a popular vote the club had the pleasure of welcoming Erica Oram from the Sheffield Photographic Society once more. Erica agreed to appraise the prints submitted by members and provide some helpful feedback on their good points whilst indicating possible ways that they could be improved. She also pointed out her own favourites which allowed the club to award the Catherine Cup and the Dennis Thorpe Trophy.

(Results of the vote and the prints that Erica thought were exceptional to follow shortly.)

The exhibition always has a general category so that members can exhibit their favourite photo taken in the previous 12 months and a category that provides a bit of a challenge. The theme for this exhibition was “Man at work”.

General Category

Theme “Man at Work”

General Theme in order of popularity	Theme “Man at Work” in order of popularity
Mother and Child – John Sampson	Framing the Fog – Stephen Elliott
Bolts Over Blue – Stephen Elliott	Curious Seagull – Keith Brown
Clash of the Giants – John Sampson	Sit! – Margaret Drabble
In Prayer – Keith Brown	Concentration – Alison Johnson
Serenity – Alison Johnson	Danish Royal Lifeguards – David Allwood
Branch Manager – Zoe Sampson	Man, Dog & Sheep – Ann Smith

The exhibition is on display at Hope Church until Friday 28th June

Our chair Ann Smith explained the purpose of this months meeting which was in part to collect entries for the annual exhibition and secondly to take part in a photography activity which is refered to as the “Scavenger Hunt”. The exhibition will be appraised at the next meeting in June by Erica Oram CPAGB. AFAIP BPE 3 and all the members attending will get the opportunity to vote for their favourite photo. Erica will award the Catherine Cup and the Dennis Thorpe Trophy for the best colour and monochrome image.

For the Scavenger hunt Ann explained that each participant had to take 5 photos on the theme of “Circles”. Everyone had to be back within 45 minutes and hand in their photos after which we all had a well deserved cuppa. After the break each set of photos was displayed on the screen and after several times through, a simple vote was taken in which each member nominated the set of photos that they thought were the best.

Congratulations to Zoe Sampson who won the members vote

At the beginning of this months meeting there were a couple more certificates to present from last years exhibition. After Ann wished us all a jolly welcome she handed over to our vice president Keith to present two certificates to Wayne (1st & 3rd in the themed category) and one to Nick (2nd in the themed category).

Following on from this jolly start to the evening came a presentation from Paul with the title “The Mass Trespass”. Combining a little bit of the history with a lot of photos, the talk focused on the route that the 1932 trespass took from Hayfield up along Kinder Edge and back down into Hayfield. Further photos covered the route that the Sheffield walkers might have used from Edale up onto Kinder Edge via either Jacobs Ladder or Grinds Brook. The conclusion of the presentation showed some old black and white images of a few of the trespassers that were arrested and later imprisoned.

After a short tea break we re-assembled for a talk by Wayne with the title “Brace Yourself”.

Few of us knew that Wayne was a highly qualified and technically adept dental technician with decades of experience in the field. Designing and creating braces, dentures and various other dental devices provided some fascinating photos and a very interesting presentation. The technical nature of the work, along with the variety of techniques require to manipulate metals and plastics have given Wayne a set of highly versatile skills. Photographs of some jewellery that he made as well as various decorative silver bowls, ladles and a wine coaster left the audience in no doubt of the ability and versatility that Wayne has acquired.

Castleton was gripped by a snowy blast on this Thursday and so, not surprisingly attendance at the AGM was reduced to eleven hardy members. However, it was a good evening with the agenda being dealt with by the interval and Ann entertaining those attending, once were refreshed, with “Windows, the Good the Bad and the Ugly”

Minutes of the AGM

1. Apologies for absence:- R Fowler J&M Smith A&T Noon H Watson N Fowler S Elliot K Frenkel J Deitch I&J Holmes Z Sampson W Hallam N Chalkley R Clemens
   Attendees 11
2. Approval of the Minutes – Proposed AS Seconded PH
3. Matters arising from the past year – None
4. Ann Smith gave the Chair’s Report for 2023
   As it was the 20^th anniversary year two events in particular stood out. The raffling of the Denis Thorpe photo “Ribble Head Viaduct” at the 20^th celebration. Also the autumn meal was well attended and Roger Moore provided a taxing photo quiz to help the evening along. In 2023 the annual exhibition was erected very successfully on three occasions, Hope and Bradwell churches, followed by our own coffee morning in Hope Old School. The “Scavenger Hunt” was another success as were the numerous presentations by club members and guests throughout the year.
5. John Sampson gave the Treasurer’s presentation of accounts for 2023 and concluded by saying that although we have a slight surplus the club will need to plan to replace the club laptop in the coming years. John also reminded members that the subscriptions for 2024 will remain at the 2023 cost of £35 (£60 for a couple and £5 per meeting for non-members).
6. Election of Officers for 2024 – No nominations were received & committee members agreed to continue for another year, apart from Jason Deitch and Nick Chalkley. President – Ray Fowler continues in office. Chair Ann Smith Deputy Chair Paul Hatt Secretary Paul Hatt Program Secretary Margaret Drabble was accepted and Keith Brown volunteered to help her in the role Treasurer John Sampson Committee members Roger Moore and Ian Stanyon (two further committee places remain unfilled).
7. Any other business a – Addition to the constitution. Keith was accepted as Vice President, Ray Fowler being unable to attend committee meetings. The following addition was accepted to the clubs constitution.
   5.1 The Society shall be administered by a Management Committee consisting of the President/Vice President, the Officers, and not more than two other elected members. 7. Role of the Vice-President 7.1 The duties of the Vice-President are to: a. support the President; and
   b. substitute for the President as and when required. 7.2 The Vice-President shall be appointed at a General Meeting of the Society. 7.3 The term of appointment for the Vice-President is undefined but may be terminated at any time by the post holder or at a General Meeting of the Society

Just before the evening came to a close Keith/Ann presented some of the certificates awarded to members as a result of the exhibition.

For our first meeting of 2024 it was decided that the committee of the society would each present photos on a Winter theme.

Unfortunately Ray was unable to attend so Ann introduced eight comittee members in the following order.

Margaret, Jason, Paul, Ann, Ian, John, Keith, Roger.

The next meeting will be the AGM in February when the chair and treasurer will report and the new committee will be announced.

What could possibly follow that, of course our chair will be pressed into service to entertain the audience once more.

Early December and the final meeting of 2023, the club has had a good year with several highlight such as the rainy outing to Bugsworth Basin, a delightful autumn social in Castleton village hall and of course the 25th anniversay celebration in September.

Apart from national newspapers, New Scientist and BBC Wildlife magazine, Alex has had images used by publications all over the world. If you are interested to learn more I would recomend a visit to his website (AlexHyde.PhotoShelter.com) where you will find the images shown below and a whole host of other fantastic work.

The photographs were amazing and the commentary was enthralling, thankyou Alex for a great evening to conclude 2023.

Karen entertained us for over an hour with a huge variety of sunsets, sunrises, rainbows and misty mornings. From sunshine and rain to snow or frost, there was a Peak District photo to captivate the audience. Occasionally there would be photos of seascapes, particularly at sunset and these were often in places Karen has walked and camped in Scotland. This website cannot do justice to the wonderful evening so I’ll just say “thankyou Karen” on behalf of the audience.

With the chair and the programme secretary unavailable for the meeting, committee member Margaret gave out the notices:-

5 places left on the portrait night, email : keithbrownfrps@btinternet.com or phone 01433 621072;

November 9th our presenter is Karen Frenkel;

A month left to sign up and pay for the winter meal (23rd November).

Our second presenter was Wayne Hallam who gave us photographs on 3 distinct themes.

Another committee member, closed the evening with a warm thankyou to our 2 presenters and a well deserved round of applause.