It’s not many of us that have the photographic skills to have one of our images accepted as an entry to an international competition. But our very own Stephen Elliott had his image of the Salt Cellar on Derwent Edge both accepted and then put forward as a finalist in The International Garden Photographer of the Year 2023. A round trip of three hours climbing up Derwent Edge to take a sunset image, when according to Stephen the heather was at its most colourful he’s ever seen, paid dividends. Stephen must have walked thousands of miles, with his camera, on these ruggedly beautiful Peak District hills, so he knows where to set up his camera and tripod. Congratulations Stephen, your skills produced a magnificent image that puts you at the top of the tree in respect of international photographic competitions.
Because the AGM has now moved to February, this was the last meeting Keith Brown, our excellent, hard working and effective Chair presided this current C&HVPS year. Keith will hand over to our incoming Chair – Ann Smith, at our February 2023 AGM, to be held at our usual venue on Thursday February 9th. After our AGM formalities, Ann will make a presentation entitled “Short Walk – Short Legs”
Keith announced that the N&EMPF Exhibition 2023 is open to all of our members. so here’s a date for your diary, as Ian Stanyon and Keith Brown had some of their prints accepted. The awards were presented at at Noon on Saturday 7th January. If you’d like to see these N&EMPF prints, they will be on display from Saturday 7th January through to Saturday 11th February in the Barn Gallery (above the café) and the Crew Yard Gallery. Here’s the address: Patchings Art Centre, Oxton Road, Calverton, NG14 6NU.
Keith also announced that after significant work in the background (well done Keith), that our Honorary member – the famous award winning Guardian Photojournalist ‘Dennis Thorpe’, is to present a selection of his stunning prints during opening hours at the ‘Adventure Cafe’, Edale Road, Hope on 14th to 29th March. Reception, to include a finger buffet, on Friday 17th March – 7 pm doors open 6 30. All being well Denis will join us for the opening and will talk about his prints.
Then Paul Hatt made the first presentation of the evening, breaking his talk down into three sections. The first being images taken on various walks up to Kinder Scout, where Paul is involved with a Moors for the Future conservation project Here’s a selection of the images from the first part of the illustrated talk that Paul presented
After a break we were invited to see images Robert Nicklin had taken when he spent time taking photographs of couples, followed by photographs of families. Robert spent time living with two families, so he could produce a ‘fly on the wall’ record of family life. Robert took these images after being awarded a degree in photography. Robert made his presentation via Zoom, so I apologise for the quality of the photographs, as I simply snapped a selection of his images from straight from the screen.
Keith, our 2020 Chair opened the evening, giving various announcements (shown after the images below). Keith introduced the eight members who gave their ‘Beat the Clock’ presentations – restricted to ten minutes per presentation. We were treated to 8 presentations from our members providing a variety of photographic interests. A selection from the images presented by Margaret Drabble, Jeanette & Ian Holmes, Ray Fowler, Joan Clough, Wayne Hallam, Keith Brown and Ann Smith are shown below. Click onto any image if you would like to see it in greater details.
Portrait Night – Monday 17th October with Graham Currey
We were joined by members of Sheffield PS for what was one of the most unique portrait evenings we have ever attended. Graham was an excellent model, with three costume changes. Graham also provided all the lighting, backcloths and still had time for each photographer; examining our images and giving us advice on how to improve the photograph .For those people who attended it was an unforgettable night and one we will do again.
Outdoor Portraits in Castleton – Edwardian Theme. Sunday November 13th
This was the second of our two Portrait events this time outdoors in Castleton and once again we were joined by our Sheffield PS friends. The event was facilitated by Gareth Morgan who introduced us to Lynda and Dean – both are actors and models who dressed in Edwardian costumes which looked stunning against autumn colours.
Christmas Dinner
Our Christmas Dinner has been arranged for Thursday December 8th at The George Hotel, Hathersage – 7.30 for 8pm. We have been offered an excellent three course menu at £32.50 and we have the use of a private room. Thank you to Ian Ord who has done a lot of work in organising this and if you would like to join us please contact Ian as soon as possible.
Castleton Christmas Tree Festival – Saturday 19th November
If you are in Castleton in the run up to Christmas I can recommend a visit to St Edmunds Church to see and photograph their beautiful display of sparkling Christmas trees.Once again we have been invited to decorate a Christmas tree and thank you to Margaret Drabble for organising and decorating our tree.
Theme for 2023 Exhibition
The Committee have agreed that the theme for next year’s exhibition will be “The Beatles and Beyond” Your photograph should illustrate the title of a Beatles song or any song by the four individual members as solo artists.It should give you a bit of fun; using your imagination, and both myself and the judge, Ashley Franklin, will be delighted to see what you come up with
20th Anniversary Celebration
Next year we will be celebrating 20 years since the formation of our society. To commemorate this event we will reserve a night on the programme and also we are planning to create a Multi YearBook covering the 20 years. Ian Ord has archive images going back to 2013/2014 but we would be very grateful if you could look through your own archives to see if you have any photographs from the earlier years; these could be: prize winning images or particularly social events. If you have any suitable images please contact Ian Ord, Ray Fowler or Keith Brown
Thursday January 12th
The next meeting will be our Christmas Dinner and the first meeting in January will be presentations from our own members – Paul Hatt & Robert Nicklin. Please note that we have moved the AGM to February2023 to ease pressure on the administration and preparation for the AGM following the Christmas and New Year celebrations.
The evening started with our 2022 Chairman Keith introducing our own member – Nick Chalkley, who showed photographs taken on his iPhone camera.
Click onto any image to view it in a larger size
After the break we showed the winning photographs from the 2022 N&EMPF PDI section.
As expected these were of a very high standard and it was a shame that we didn’t have time to show all the images where we could have seen a greater variety of subjects.The award for the most successful entrant (who had 9 acceptances, including 5 awards) was given to a lady with an outstanding talent in producing “Photo Art” portraits. Her inspiration comes from mystical stories – a great deal of time is spent in Photoshop combining photographs, objects and the artistic use of brushes to produce stunning photographs. These are not to everybody’s taste but one can’t help admiring them.
And now for the notices – apologies there is a long list!
Portrait Night – Monday 17th October with Graham Currey
Members who are attending please arrive any time after 7 pm for a 7 30 start. No equipment is needed, only your cameras and a short/medium telephoto or standard lens. No tripods are needed as Graham prefers to work without them. £15 per person.
Outdoor Portraits in Castleton – Victorian/ Edwardian Theme. Sunday November 13th – 1 pm to 4 pm. Meeting place to be decided
Together with Gareth Morgan we have organised what should be a very enjoyable late autumn outdoor photographic event in Castleton. Two friends of Gareth’s, Lynda and Dean, are actors/models who have done several sessions for Sheffield P.S. They dress in a variety of costumes and after discussions with them we have decided that dressing in Victorian/Edwardian costumes and choosing suitable locations in Castleton would provide an ideal photographic opportunity. Keith, along with Gareth; Lynda and Dean visited Castleton to look around and we have decided on three locations within the village:1. The beautiful tree lined driveway to Goosehill Hall – the owners, John and Helen Whitfield have agreed to let us use their driveway.2. Pathway towards Peak Cavern.3. St Edmunds churchyard. If we can get the interest of a minimum of 12 people the cost will be £10 each to cover Lynda and Dean’s expenses.
Unwanted Darkroom Equipment
Christine Ord has a friend who would like to do some developing and printing in the darkroom. If any of you have darkroom equipment that you would like to pass on please contact Christine or myself and I will pass on a message – thank you.
Photographs of Autumn
St Edmund’s Church in Castleton would like to put on a small display of autumn photographs as part of their Harvest Festival service on Sunday 23rd October. If you have any suitable prints of autumn please give them to either Margaret Drabble or me by Friday 21st – thank you.
Christmas Dinner
Our Christmas Dinner has been arranged for Thursday December 8th at The George Hotel, Hathersage – 7.30 for 8pm. We have been offered an excellent three course menu at £32.50 and we have the use of a private room. Thank you to Ian Ord who has done a lot of work in organising this – for further information or to book a place, please contact Ian O.
Theme for 2023 Exhibition
The Committee have agreed that the theme for next year’s exhibition will be “The Beatles and Beyond” Your photograph should illustrate the title of a Beatles song or any song by the four individual members as solo artists. It should give you a bit of fun; using your imagination, and both myself and the judge, Ashley Franklin, will be delighted to see what you come up with
Videoing meetings
We are continuing to experiment with producing a video of the meetings which can be viewed later but preserving copyright of the presentation.
Thank you to Paul Hatt, who has been videoing our recent meetings and is using this to investigate how to make further meetings available with good images and particularly sound.
I’m sorry that I missed this meeting, as Keith – our 2022 Chair – had already told me about Richard’s remarkable skill as an Audio Visual photographer. So here’s Keith account of the meeting, along with six of the photographs Richard showed during his AV presentation:
Richard treated us to a superb evening of Audio Visuals which lifted all our spirits after hearing, just 45 minutes before the start of the evening, the very sad news that our beloved Queen had sadly passed away. We therefore started the evening with a minute’s silence of respect before Richard showed us 10 Audio Visuals – a variety of styles – and why he is regarded as one of the top Audio Visual workers in this country.
All 10 sequences showed Richard’s skill as a photographer, sound producer, script writer and narrator. These included: “Arrival” – (Birmingham)“The Burning of the leaves” – (a very moving poem) “And Never Cackled” – (Bletchley Park) “The Gasman Cometh – (Humorous Flanders and Swan song) “Denis Thorpe – the final frame” – (Denis’s friendship with LS Lowry and the taking of an iconic photograph following his death))“The ascent of Monte Baldo” – (stunning landscapes near Lake Garda)“Death of Steam” – (Scrap yard for steam engines in Barry Island)“Liquid Gold” – (The most expensive liquid – the ink for the inkjet printer)“Inside Outside” – (Surrealist sequence produced during lockdown)“In search of Christina”- (The story behind a famous photograph).
Two of the sequences are more than worthy of special mention: “Denis Thorpe – the final frame”- Richard was deservedly awarded second place for this AV at NAVC (The National Audio Visual Championships) last weekend. “In Search of Christina” – this masterpiece was awarded first place at The International Audio Visual Championships in 2019 and at the NAVC, the President of The Royal Photographic Society, Simon Hill Hon FRPS, specifically asked if this could be projected after all the other sequences had been shown. An honour indeed and enjoyed by us all as well as by our members last Thursday.
Coffee Morning – from Margaret Drabble
We had a very well attended Coffee Morning on Saturday 10th September in the Old School, Hope. Several CHVPS members in attendance (as well as our regulars) and some even won a raffle prize! It was a lovely atmosphere considering the dreadful news we received on Thursday 8th September that Her Majesty The Queen had passed away. Everyone chatted to each other and all admired the photographs on display. It was lovely to see Karen Frankel at this event – she hopes to join us at a meeting soon.
Many thanks to all who helped in any way – either before the event, or afterwards clearing up. We made a profit of £115 (£30 had already been paid for the hire of the room). It is certainly something we could do again. A lovely social event – the jigsaws were well received as well as the cakes! Margaret
Christmas Dinner
Our Christmas Dinner has been arranged for Thursday December 8th at The George Hotel, Hathersage – 7.30 for 8pm. We have been offered an excellent three course menu at £32.50 and we have the use of a private room.
Thank you to Ian Ord who has done a lot of work in organising this – for further information or to book a place, please contact him at:iangord@icloud.com
Here’s a synopsis of our evening evaluating our mounted 2022 Exhibition prints. Our 2022 Chair, Keith B, opened the meeting and made various announcements that will be covered in his monthly Chairman’s Chatter email. Keith then presented Richard Clemons with his certificate for last year’s Exhibition, as Richard had been unable to attend an evening when certificates for last year’s Exhibition were awarded. Note – click on any image to see the image in greater detail.
Mike and Judy Smith from Sheffield Photographic society had been able to view our mounted Exhibition prints in advance. They had clearly spent a great deal of time examining and discussing the merits of every print before this evening’s meeting. Then during the meeting, as each print was displayed, either Judy or Mike gave carefully focussed positive advice and comments in relation to each mounted Exhibition print. Keith invited Mike and Judy to make a presentation to the club next year – I do hope that they will be able to visit in 2023, so we can see some of their (what I know to be) stunning images.
And here are some of the prints that gained awards, as they were placed on our display stands. On the left, below, the open part of the Exhibition, followed by the themed section (Impressions of reality) to the right of the screen.
Open category
Winner Ian Ord Ladybower light
Runner-up David Allwood Orange tip at rest
Third Stephen Elliott Afterglow on Higger Tor
Commendations Keith Brown Ladies In Waiting
Margaret Drabble Wildflower meadow
Ian Ord Watching the boys watching the girls go by
Ray Fowler Peony shadows
Theme category (Impressions of reality)
Winner and Catherine Cup Stephen Elliott Striking colour
Runner-up and Denis Thorpe trophy Ian Stanyon Sidewalk
Unusually the meeting started at 6.30pm, when members who wanted to take part in a Scavenger Hunt around Castleton. Participants were asked to walk around the village and capture images that could be used to depict an image relating to the letters CHVPS. There were therefore five themes for members to interpret by taking as many photographs as they liked that fitted a C, an H, a V, a P, and an S. My personal favourite related to the letter P, where one enterprising person displayed an image of a street sign that showed a sign depicting P for parking, alongside a sign that read WC! Participating members then handed their memory cards to Immediate Past Chair Roger M. Enabling the themed images to be shown individually and then as a panel showing each participants panel of images.
When Scavenger Hunt participants returned to our meeting room, along with non-participating members, our 2022 Chair Keith B opened the meeting, welcoming everyone – our first wholly live non-Zoom meeting since Covid struck! Then Keith presented awards to members relating to the 2021 Member’s Exhibition. Sadly, our President, Ray, was in hospital, after suffering heart problems. Thus on behalf of President Ray, our Vice President Keith (also this year’s Chair) presented the President’s Prize to our immediate Past Chair – Roger Moore, for the outstanding work Roger devoted last year, in initiating so many new ideas and procedures. Well done Roger – you worked so hard and so imaginatively – you truly deserve this year’s President’s Prize:
Then came the time for Keith to present the prizes and certificates relating to our 2021 Member’s Exhibition of prints (normally shown in non-Covid times during Wakes Week at St Peter’s Church, Hope). Many thanks to Ray for preparing all of these certificates. I’ll show images of these certificates being presented, in a gallery panel, below. However, I feel that first I should show images of Steve Elliot being presented the Catherine Cup for the best 2021 Exhibition colour image, and Roger presenting the Denis Thorpe Trophy to Keith for his monochrome image of St Pancras station:
Here’s a gallery of presentation of 2021 member’s Exhibition certificates. John Sampson & Richard Clemons weren’t able to attend the meeting, so I’ve shown their certificates within the gallery. Click on to each image if you would like to see the individual image in greater detail:
Now we come to the part of my web-post that depicts the gallery of individual set of Scavenger Hunt themed images. But first I’ll show the gallery that was selected as the best panel. Here’s Keith presenting a box of chocolates to Nick C, with his panel of images in the background, on the screen behind Keith and Nick:
And here are the remaining Scavenger Hunt panels – in no particular order: Click onto each individual image if you’e like to see it in greater detail:
Next month will be our Member’s Exhibition, where two appraisers from Sheffield Photographic Society, will select the images they most like, for awards and commendations, as well as for the Catherine Cup and Denis Thorpe Trophy. Finally, don’t forget that at 7pm, on July 2nd at St Peter’s Church, Hope, Keith B is presenting his traditional Wakes Week Audio Visual, entitled “Great Fun”. Keith will be showing a collection of his and Kate’s AV”s.
Thursday 12th May. We were given two excellent lectures by our own members : Drone Photography byIan Ord and Anything Goes by Roger Moore.
Ian showed his immense skill in using the Drone for still shots and video. We saw a variety of locations from unique viewpoints in the sky; stunning panoramas and a variety of short videos to show the versatility of the Drone. Using it to show the weather damage to the roof of his and Christine’s house, was inspired, and his neighbour in France mending his satellite dish on the pylon was nerve wracking.
It was very disappointing that we were unable to hear the soundtrack on Ian’s presentations; especially as he had put so much work into the music and sound effects. Despite the combined efforts of Ian Stanyon, Roger Moore and Paul Hatt the problem couldn’t be fixed. It seemed to be a combination of the Audio Visual equipment in the hall connecting to Zoom. We apologise for this Ian but the images were projected beautifully in the hall and members enjoyed them very much together with your script which I was happy to read out.
Hopefully Ian you will show us more on the 8 in 10 night when we will ensure that the problem is resolved.
Roger, together with Ian and Paul, worked tirelessly in the interval to devise a method whereby everybody could enjoy his presentation which as usual was very professional. We were shown how using the video option on our still cameras can provide a much more interesting record than just a still photograph; for example ripples on water or a passing snow plough.
We were then treated to patterns, black and white, textures and an amazing creative Audio Visual showing 120 pattern images from one single photograph of the bow of a boat. Roger finished his presentation with a short but very hard hitting Audio Visual showing discarded waste spoiling our beautiful countryside. This should be seen by the thousands who visit Hope Valley.
Thank you Ian and Roger for a very enjoyable evening despite all the technical problems.
Anniversary Outing 2023. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of our society and one of the events planned will be an Anniversary Outing. Our Social Secretary Ray Fowler, has suggested the following locations offering photographic opportunities. Please choose your two preferred locations and notify either Ray, Joan Clough, Ian Ord. or myself. The one with the most votes will be the one chosen. :
Lichfield Cathedral
Southwell Minster and Newark
Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Speke Hall and The Beatles homes (John Lennon and Paul McCartney)
Lincoln Cathedral
Exhibition 2022. This will be held at St Peter’s Church Hope from Saturday 25th June to Saturday July 2nd (AV Show by Keith and Kate Brown see below) Exhibition Stewards are Required – If you can help please contact Margaret Drabble – Ann will recirculate Margaret’s email
Saturday July 2nd – St Peter’s Church, Hope, 7 pm“Great Fun – Our love of A.V.s by Keith and Kate Brown”
Whatever The Weather. Ian and Christine Ord are once again inviting members and family to their home for this very enjoyable social event. Sunday 24th July. 2 pm. Orlecar Cottage, Hope. Please let Ian and Christine know if you are likely to attend for catering numbers.
Next Meeting . Thursday June 9th .Scavenger Hunt. Weather permitting this will be a fun outdoor photographic evening in Castleton, returning to the clubroom to look at your photographs The details will be circulated in due course. This will NOT be a Zoom evening.
This was the second of our 2022 combined face to face and Zoom meetings, with David Gibbins ARPS, APAGB, EFIAP/b, BPE5 due to give the presentation in person. Unfortunately David had contacted Covid19 and was unable to visit us to present his lecture “My Photography” . However he was able to present to us via Zoom and we were treated to an excellent lecture, beautifully constructed which kept us entertained all evening. The projection and sound system in the large hall was superb and it felt as if David was in the room with us. The members watching at home also were able to enjoy David’s talk and we saw many thumbs-up.
The evening was split into two parts. Part one; the pictures David loves to take – landscapes, patterns, trees, architecture. monochrome and Hull, interspersed with four superb Audio Visuals finishing before the break with a very moving sequence remembering Lockdown 2020.
After the break we saw some of his excellent photographs that helped him to progress from EFIAP to EFIAP/bronze. David showed us his images as taken in the camera and then visually revealed all the artistic work needed to produce the final images. His final image was a collection of Anthony Gormley’s statues on Crosby beach; a wonderful, prize winning image to close the evening.
David is a busy person, very involved with work for the PAGB and N&EMPF and we could see why David is such a popular lecturer. His explanations, about his own photographs, show why he is such a sought after judge. I am not surprised that, thanks to Zoom, he has been snapped up by clubs in Australia.
Thank you to our technical team of Ian, Paul, Roger and Alan and especially to David, for a memorable evening and hopefully we will see him again.
Here are the announcements that were made by our 2022 Chair during the meeting:
Exhibition. Following Ian S’s emails please contact him if you have difficulty with understanding how to size your prints or where to get them printed. If you have them ready for mounting please get them to Ian Stanyon or myself asap. The final date for entering is our next meeting – May 12th.
Year Book 2021. The Committee have seen a PDF of the Year Book and it is excellent – thank you Roger for producing another fabulous book. I members to consider buying a copy. he details as to how to go about that is in Roger’s email, circulated to members on April 15.
Social Outings. Ray Fowler has organised three outings, which were covered in an email sent to members on 15th April
Chapel Camera Club have an exhibition of images taken during Lockdown 2020. It is on until 2nd May at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery. If you wish to meet the photographers they will be there every Saturday during the exhibition from 2 pm to 4 pm.
Next Meeting Thursday 12th May. Two lectures by our own members. Ian Ord will be presenting “Drone Photography” and Roger Moore will give us “Anything Go’s”. Also this is the closing date for our exhibition and the doors will be open at 6 30 to receive your prints.
The competition was held via Zoom on the evening of Saturday 19th March. It was extremely well organised, and went without any hitches. The judge was Jonathan Vaines LRPS. AFIAP. CPAGB. 23 clubs competed, with each club submitting 5 images, plus a reserve. The standard was extremely high and I didn’t envy the job that Jonathan faced. However he did a very good job; his comments were both constructive and helpful – clearly explaining his reasoning when he eliminated an image. C&HVPS submitted images named: 1 Open wide by John Sampson. 2 A Thousand Words by Ian Stanyon. 3 Gone Fishing by Ian Ord. 4 Tubes by Roger Moore. 5 Spanning St Pancras by Keith Brown. Reserve Singing Carmine Bee-Eater by Alison Johnston.
1 Open Wide by JohnWe submitted a good entry to represent the society (the images are shown at the footer to this w
With such a very high standard, sadly, all our images were eliminated in the first round. But I thought they stood up well and was disappointed that they didn’t progress further. Here are the scores of the top placed clubs: 1st North Cheshire P.S. 21 points; 2nd, Bolsover C.C. 17 points, 2nd Sheffield PS, 17 points; 4th Chapel CC, 15 points; 4th, Newalk & District PS, 15 points.
Even though we were disappointed with our scores, it was a fabulous evening and all who joined the Zoom meeting were treated to a collection of stunning images, learning a great deal about what it takes to produce a special photograph.
As a society we have been supporting this event for many years; giving our members an opportunity to see outstanding images.If everyone agrees, we will take part again next year. So get photographing and we will be earmarking good images to represent the club for the 2023 inter-club competition..
Keith Brown, 2022 Chair of C&HVPS
Winner – Bolsover CC, Phil Newman “Faith” 7 points
Runners up:
Chapel C.C., Keith Gordon “Banded Damoiselle” 6 points
North Cheshire PS, Dave Boam “Bootlegger’s Last Run” 6 points
Clay Cross PS, Peter Jones “Female Cuckoo” 6 points
North Cheshire P.S., Aamir Sabzwari “The Lunge” 6 points 6
Here are the five images and the reserve image that C&HVPS submitted for the 2022 inter-club competition:
Spanning St Pancras by Keith Brown
Gone fishing by Ian Ord
A thousand words by Ian Stanyon
Tubes by Roger Moore
Open Wide by John Sampson
Reserve image –Singing Carmine Bee-Eater by Alison Johnston
