Castleton & Hope Valley Photographic Society

We had a fairly informal evening sharing a glass and some photo’s at the Angler’s Rest on Monday. the discussion was lively and i know i took a lot from the evening with new angles and techniques. here are the images we studied all taken by our own members.

Jason gave details of one of two potential dates for a visit to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, when the leaves will be turning from greens to rich reds and golds. The  dates dates on offer are either 3^rd or 10^th October. Please contact Jason, giving him your preferred date and also if you’d be prepared to share your car with other members.

Last Monday’s evening at the Angler’s Rest, organized by David Allwood, was another success, where a group of members shared images of musical instruments and talked generally about photography. I’ll put these images on our website in the near future. The next social evening where members can meet, share images and discuss photography will be Monday November 2^nd at The Anglers Rest. The theme will be ‘movement’ and various ways of expressing speed, blurring of images, etc., to create the best artistic effect. 

David, Ian S, Bea, Alison, Erica, Kate & Nick, showed members their images in a ‘Beat the Clock format – with the ‘gong’ sounding after 10 minutes. David ‘s theme covered ‘Street scenes”; Ian’s thee covered the deciption of movement and speed;Bea showed 90 images all taken in her house or garden.

 

 

 

Alison showed images of her holiday in Botswana; Kate treated us to a selection of images she’d taken on a ‘photographic day out in Liverpool; Erica covered images taken in and around Monterey in California.

 

 

 

 

 

Nick showed us images of concerts he’d attended. Often taking images in very low light at ISO 12,000. Then Nick played us an extract of his favourite group – Girls band – leaving us with the impression that Nick’s a middle aged groupie!

I’m deeply saddened to announce the sad loss of Catherine, a past member of our Photographic Society. Catherine was the much loved wife of club member David, and mother to her young sons Robert & Freddie. Catherine lost her battle with a long illness on the morning of Friday 4th September. Our thoughts go with  David, Robert & Freddie, along with Catherine’s sister Erica, Jason and the family.

Catherine’s funeral is to be held at 11.30.a.m on Wednesday 16th September at Hathersage Church of England Church (the one on the hill near the school) . Catherine requested that people DO NOT wear black – she wants the service to be a Thanks Giving and Celebration service not a memorial service.

Catherine requested NO flowers from friends, she would like people to consider giving a donation instead. Parking is going to be restricted at the church so if possible please can people park elsewhere in the village and walk up to the Church either via Baulk Lane or via Church Bank.

The service is to be followed by Tea and Cake, which will be held at Hathersage Memorial Hall (next to the swimming pool and opposite the main car park). Catherine requested that people bring cake – she did not want this to be a catered event and believed that her family and friends would be able to supply cake.

It is with deep regret that we have to pass on the sad news of the death of Pauline Payne. Pauline, a resident of Castleton, had been an active member of our photographic society for many years. Pauline had been receiving care in Ashgate Hospice, where she had been fighting a long illness. Our thoughts go with the family, Barbara & Sheila.

Pauline’s funeral will be held at 1400, Wednesday 2nd September at Castleton’s Methodist Church

 

Jason was ill, so Erica made the announcements:

The Whatever the Weather social meeting at Hope Sports ground on 10^th August was well attended, with perhaps untypical August weather for the Hope Valley, as it was both warm and mainly sunny. The raffle was a great success, with a quite a number being successful in the raffle by winning EyeFi wireless camera memory cards, donated by EyeFi through Alan Hinchcliffe.

The photo-opportunity/social meeting at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park will take place on either Saturday the 3^rd or 10^th October.

Ian & Christine will be on holiday for the next meeting at The Anglers’ Rest, thus please forward your images of Musical Instruments to Jason, rather than Ian.

The main event of the evening , a photo-exchange, was a great success and will hopefully be repeated next year, as 40 superb slideshow images from Finger Lakes Photographic Society were shown, followed by another slideshow, showing all 91 images entered by members into our 2015 competition

The exhibition at St Barnabas Church was a real success, with 994 votes being cast by members of the public. Here are the top 10 public votes

Architectural:

Ian Stanyon – 53 votes                                    Steve Elliot – 46 votes                 Richard Clemons – 41 votes

        

Pat Fowler – 32 votes                              Alan Hinchcliffe- 26 votes

                 

General:

Les Nixon – 42 votes           Phil Sproson – 36 votes                                David Allwood – 30 votes

    

Erica Dietsch – 24 votes                                                                 Keith Brown – 23 votes

            

 

 

Ray Fowler, assisted by Keith Brown worked hard to mount all 91 of our ‘annual competition’ images, then labeled, mounted on stands  and transported the competition images to St Barnabas Church, Bradwell, in time for Bradwell’s Wakes Week festivities on August 1st 2015. I’d printed out voting slips and was encouraging members of the public, who were visiting the church, to give their votes for the Architectural and General image they liked most.

Half an hour into the day I approached a gentleman with a camera slung around his neck, and asked him if he’d like to cast his votes. The gentleman said “No. I’ve already voted.” This confused me, as I hadn’t seen the gentleman cast his votes. Then all became clear when he said “I was the person who judged your annual competition.” It transpires that this was Peter Yeo, FRPS, DGAGB, APAGB! Peter has travelled all the way from Gainsborough, Lincs, to view our exhibits, take some photographs of the beautiful Peak District AND give his own personal prize to Ann Smith, who won our best image in the General class. Ann was’t at the church, so the first that Ann knows that Peter visited and gave her a prize will be when she reads this web-post!

Here are low resolution images of our 2015 competition, plus the results: Members who’d like a to view the images in a PowerPoint slideshow display should contact Ian.

Richard Clemons  – Reims Cathedral  – Third prize architectural section

Ray Fowler – Living architecture – Commended, general section

Pat Fowler -Hooray for DisneyRay Fowler – Classic Proportions – Commended, architectural section

Hazel Watson – Memories

Janis Ibbotson – Light of my life

Pat Fowler – It’s all Greek to me – Commended, architectural section

Jessica Hinchcliffe –  A bit of toy photography

Hazel Watson – Is it or is it not

Janis Ibbotson – Abracadabra

Alan Darlington – Quiet backwater

Ian Stanyon – L’amore – Commended, general section

Alan Darlington  – The Shard – commended,  architectural section

Janis Ibbotson – HMS Dulux

Alan Darlington – Shard reflection

Barbara Wilkinson – Mad Hatter’s tea party

Ian Stanyon – Cutting the Night Air – Second prize architectural section

Pauline Payne – Whalebone & Abbey, Whitby

Ian Stanyon – With cheese on top

Pauline Payne – Runswick Bay

Alan Hinchcliffe – The Tin Caterpillar

Stephen Elliott – Sunset over Carhead

Alan Hinchcliffe -The Secret Garden

Stephen Elliott – Solomon’s candle

Alan Hinchcliffe-  The Cottage

Erich Dietsch – Dawn at Dunstanburgh Castle

Stephen Elliot – Hope Works at Night – Commended, architectural section

Erica Dietsch – Steaming in Scottish sunlight

Jason Dietsch – Glass and stone

Jason Dietsch – Steps over – Commended, general section

Erica Dietsch – Glass, girders & a Gherkin

Jason Dietsch – Embleton footprints

Sheila Reynolds – Home

Sheila Reynolds – Glow Worm

Sheila Reynolds – Bridge

Joan Clough – Flodden

Catherine Allwood -Berlin Government Offices

David Allwood – Sea Eagle fishing – Commended, general section

Catherine Allwood – Chimneys

Axel Chatburn – Pilatus summit

Catherine Allwood – Birmingham Library lift

Alison Johnston – Morning dew

Joan Clough – Braxton Church

Alison Johnston – Frozen water

 

David Allwood – Main station, Berlin – Commended, architectural section

 

Alison Johnston – Bavarian street

 

David Allwood – Sony Centre roof, Berlin

 

Peter Harrison – Boot camp

 

Axel Chatburn – National Arboretum

Peter Harrison – Storm over Steel City

 

Wendy Butler – Prayer beads

 

Ann Smith – Morocco window

 

Roger Moore – Singapore skyline – Commended, general section

Ann Smith – Morocco wall – Winner, architectural section

 

Phil Sproson – Taking in the view, a Winnats Pass sunrise – Third, general section

 

Wendy Butler – Passing time

 

Phil Sproson – Knuckle-stone grabbing the sun – commended, general section

 

Wendy Butler – Post Office Tower

 

Phil Sproson – What can you see. Reflections

 

Roger Moore – Hindu God Ravana, Balanjaneya Temple

 

Les Nixon – The Hoodie – Winner, general section

Roger Moore – Castillo San Cristobel- Second, monochrome section

Les Nixon – Tropical paradise

 

Bea Deacon – Lift up thine eyes

 

Paul McGreavy – Into the falls Second in G class

 

Bea Deacon – Beast or beauty

Susan Hughes – Bowler Hat

Susan Hughes – The Musican – Third, monochrome section

 

Bea Decon – Whilst plodding back from the piste

Les Nixon – Chatsworth Magic

Susan Hughes – Katarina

 

Paul McGreavy – Ausgang – Commended, monochrome section

 

Nick Chalkely – In the den- Winner monochrome section, Commended, general section

Paul McGreavy – To heaven

 

Nick Chalkley – Powder Keg at Dawn, May 1st

 

Nick Chalkley – Interior of Blue Fin building Commended, architectural section

 

Ian Ord – Last of the summer sun

 

Ian Ord – ABCD (A Bath Crescent Digitised)

 

Ian Ord – Bound for junk-bond city

 

Christine Ord – New distortions

 

Michel Waquet – Hatter’s delight

 

Michel Waquet – Icicles

 

Kate Brown – Tree spirits

 

Keith Brown – the eagle has landed

 

Keith Brown – Matching curves, Bodnant

 

Kate Brown – Wayfarer’s Arcade, Southport

 

Keith Brown – Thomas & friends

 

Keith Brown Approaching the Old Chapel, Cwmorthin

Carnival season is upon us again and this year we decided to move a little closer to our base at the Peveril Center in Castleton, with our annual stand displaying images from previous competitions. Last year we pitched our gazebo at Hathersage, this year we moved to Bamford. Given the interest in purchasing prints at last years event we decided to sell prints this time, with permission of the owners of course. Also this year one of our members Alan Hinchcliffe used his influence with the wireless SD card manufacturers Eye-Fi to have them donate some of their wireless SD cards for us to give out as prizes while promoting CHVPS. This generated lots of interest in our raffle while also allowing Alan to demonstrate the Eye-Fi product to all those people who share the passion of photography. Those members who were unable to attend Bamford Carnival, there will be another opportunity for members to win one of these fantastic wireless sd cards at our “Whatever the Weather” event on the 9th on August. If anyone would like to purchase one of the Mobi Pro cards Alan has negotiated a Member discount of 20%! If you would like more information about this offer, you can contact Alan via his website or via email alan@hinchcliffephotography.co.uk

 

The weather for the day was a little chilly and breezy to start, but that didn’t stop some optimistic or brave souls from turning up in shorts; but this didn’t improve the weather! Our army of volunteers had the marquee (maybe a little generous exaggeration) up in no time at all and our pictures were quickly on display. After erecting the gazebo, many members elected to snack on a hog roast bap, or a selection of cakes supplied by Megan’s cake stand – or both! feeling We had a good spot, near the entrance, which made our stand one of the most visited carnival stands. A number of visitors expressed an interest in joining us as new members of the club – we look forward to meeting them at the next meeting in August. There seemed to be a lot of interest in the wireless SD cards, with Ian, who bought a 32GB card in June, and also winning a 4Gb in the raffle, being an enthusiastic convert. With the sale of prints and the proceeds from our raffle we made a profit of  £136, with £25 costs for the pitch being deducted from this figure – another welcome boost to the Club’s funds. You can view the rest of the photos from the days events here

 

 

Jason welcomed all to the 2015 Exhibition review and judging meeting including three visitors. The following announcements then followed.

18th July Bamford carnival

David Allwood will be putting together and manning a CHVPS stand at this event. David would like prints from club members, plus volunteers to help set up on the day and raffle prizes. David needs 4 volunteers from about 11 am to 1 o’clock. If anybody can help or has prints, please contact David.

Steve Elliott exhibition

Steve Elliott has an exhibition in Castleton visitors centre up to the end of July.

Next year’s  (2016)  theme will be: “Street scenes”.

Further Details will be given later.

CHVPS annual exhibition

The exhibition will be held from 1st Aug to 8th Aug in Bradwell Church. We will need stewards to cover this time. Please let Jason know if you can help at any time during the week. The Stewarding slots on each day from Sat 1st to Sat 8th are:  10.30 to 12.30   12.30 to 14.30  14.30 to 16.30

Our 2015 competition – judging and the results:

Jason introduced Peter Yeo FRPS. DPAGB. APAGB. as the judge for the 2015 exhibition. Peter introduced himself as a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society,  having begun to learn this photographic skills while serving in the RAF. Peter lectures all over and has done lots of judging, having to judge as many as 6500 images in just as couple of days. It was Peter’s first time visiting CHVPS, he thanked Kate and Keith for their hospitably and meal. Peter also thanked Keith and Jason for their photo day out at Chatsworth.

Peter judged the 46 images in the general category and the 45 in the Architecture category. He also judged the Denis Thorpe monochrome category. Peter made reference to the high standard of all the images across the wide range of images. HERE ARE THE RESULTS:

Architecture 

1st “Morocco Wall” – Ann Smith

2nd “Cutting the Night Air” – Ian Stanyon

3rd “Reims Cathedral” – Richard Clemons

Commended “It’s All Greek To Me” – Pat Fowler

Commended “The Shard” – Alan Darlington

Commended “Hope Works By Night” – Steve Elliott

Commended “Ausgang” – Paul McGreavy

General 

1st “The Hoodie” – Les Nixon

2nd “Into the falls” – Paul McGreavy

3rd “Taking the view – a Winnats Sunrise” – Phil Sproson

Commended “Steps Over” – Jason Dietsch

Commended “Sea Eagle Fishing” – David Allwood

Commended “Singapore Skyline” – Roger Moore

Commended “In The Den” – Nick Chalkley

Commended “Knuckle Stone Grabbing the Sun” – Phil Sproson

Monochrome (for the Denis Thorpe trophy)

1st “In The Den” Nick Chalkley

2nd “Castillio San Cristobal, San Juan, Puerto Rico” – Roger Moore

3rd “Musician” – Susan Hughes

Commended “Interior of Blue Fin Building London” – Nick Chalkley

Commended “Classic Proportions” – Ray Fowler

Commended “Main Station, Berlin” David Allwood

Commended “L’amore” – Ian Stanyon

Jason gave the vote of thanks to Peter, adding we had all learnt a lot from his description and judging of the images.

Jason thanked Kate and Keith for their help with the evening moving the images around making the evening go smoothly.

Keith put a vote of thanks to Ray for all the hard work he had done mounting the images.

As our 2015 Chair Jason is on holiday, our Vice-Chair Kate Brown stepped into the breach. If you missed the meeting here’s a synopsis of the most important things you missed, including Roger Moore’s presentation on Blurb, which shows how you can prepare a Blurb printed book for yourself or your family. To view Roger’s Presentation CLICK HERE: RKM_Blurb-talk

• V.I.P. Now that we have 88 of the 91 2015 competition images captured digitally, we need a short sentence about each of the members’ exhibition pictures to go with the images to New York. Information about where each image was taken would also be appreciated. Please email this information to Keith Brown as soon as you can!
• Kate told everyone present that our meeting’s venue (The Peveril Centre) has had new equipment installed, including an automatic screen, a projector and a sound system. Members were invited to visit the new centre during the break to see the installations. So if you missed the meeting, visit the centre in the adjoining room and see the new equipment at the next meeting.
• There is a Morris exhibition in Sheffield on Saturday 13^th June, with dancing in Tudor Square, outside the cathedral and Town Hall between 10am and 4pm, and also in the Winter Gardens 10 – 11.45am and 2 – 4pm. There is also a photographic exhibition on Morris in Sheffield Cathedral – enter by the main door.
• Sue Hughes has won first prize in the Wilkinson Cameras Wilki Weekends Abstracts category with an excellent architecture image. (Editor’s note: 6 weeks ago I attended a meeting at Chapel Camera Club, to see Sue winning the ‘advanced section’ of the competition with a stunning image. This bodes well for Sue when our 2015 competition images are judged at the next meeting.).

The main focus of the evening were ‘workshop presentations’, starting with Prof Roger Moore, ARSP, who gave a PowerPoint type presentation on making your own photobook/book using the American company ‘Blurb’. Roger prepares a Castleton & Hope Valley Photographic Society YearBook every year, but based on Roger’s presentation and notes, I suspect I won’t be alone in trying to make my own photobook! A bit of advice: postage costs for sending books from Holland to the UK can be in the region of £7 or £8 per shipment So order as many copies as you need to be shipped in one consignment. Look for discounts offered on Blurb’s website as from time to time Blurb give substantial discounts!              

 

 

 

 

Our Hon Vice-President Ray Fowler gave a fascinating insight, along with lots of hints and tricks, on printing your images, including the best type of printers to buy to print either A4 or A3/A3+ images. A3+ printers are more expensive, but A3+ best quality paper is cheaper than A3 sized paper. So remember the maxim – a good bigun is better than a good littlun! It’s clear that Ray gets as much pleasure printing his images as he gets from composing and taking images. Ray’s a mind of information and is always available, if you’d like to ask Ray for guidance or technical tips.

Finally, Nick Chalkley aided by our ‘technical wizard’ Alan Hinchcliffe, gave advice on using off-camera flash. Nick is a natural, and always captures his audience’s attention with a Tommy Cooper-like style. Alan synched Nick’s camera to the computer and projector so members could see the results of changing the positions of the flash units, flash intensity, etc.

In his own inimitable Tommy Cooper-like way Nick showed how some off-camera flash tricks worked ‘just like that’; with others not quite working as planned. I could listen to Nick all night, as his laid back style demonstrates his gift and understanding of  photography.

 

 

Our Secretary Ann rounded off the evening by thanking all three presenters, plus Alan, for making the evening so informative and enjoyable.