Castleton & Hope Valley Photographic Society

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

Third                            Ian Stanyon        Ghost story

Commendations       Ann Smith           Summer holiday view!

Roger Moore      Autumn Impression

Roger Moore      Woodland Wisps

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 by Ian 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

Here’s our Chairman’s Chatter for the March 2022 meeting:

Thursday 10th March  – This was a first for our club as not only were we able to meet up face-to-face, after a very long time, but we also provided a link via Zoom for those members at home who were not able to attend. 

Our lecturer was Robert Falconer from Chesterfield who presented his lecture ” Derbyshire in Digital”. Robert told us that he has been doing photography since he was 12 and did 4 years study of photography after school. His first love was steam photography but landscapes and also nature have grabbed his passions. He has been all over the world but Derbyshire is still his favourite place. He has been a member of Clay Cross Photographic Society for 9 years after joining Bolsover Camera Club when he was 13.

Robert treated us to a wonderful evening; taking us all over Derbyshire and included all his photographic passions : landscapes through the seasons, natural, villages, towns, sport, Lancaster bombers and of course his excellent photographs of steam trains.  Here are five of the many images Robert presented:

The Zoom link worked well and it was a truly memorable evening, so many smiling faces, happy to be meeting up again (22 in the hall and 6 on Zoom) and of course Robert’s superb photography.

Subs – At the AGM the subs were agreed to remain at £30 – payments can be made direct into the clubs Bank Account (details below) or by cheque to John Sampson – you can obtain details of our bank account from Ann Smith OR within the body of Keith Brown’s email dated 1645 March 12th.

C&HVPS Exhibition – Ian Stanyon has circulated the Rules and Guidelines and if members do have their prints ready, you do not have to wait until the handing in date in May – contact Ian Stanyon or myself and we will receive the prints for mounting, if required. Thank you to Ian Ord for offering to mount prints in the pre-cut mounts only. The rules for this year’s Exhibition are shown as a separate header at the top of pour website

2021 Year Book.  The year book will be coming soon ; Roger has been very busy with the return to face-to-face teaching etc, so it’s running later than usual. Thank you Roger.

Margaret Swithenbank .  It is with much sadness that I pass on the news that Margaret passed away a few days ago. It was lovely to see her at our meetings with Jim and I know she got a lot of pleasure meeting us all and seeing the lectures. Our thoughts and condolences are with Jim and his family at this time.

Hopefully this Zoom meeting will be the last Zoom meeting for a very considerable period of time. As it’s now been agreed that ‘with luck and a fair wind’ our March 10th meeting will be a face to face meeting, in our traditional venue – Castleton Methodist Church. Where we will be entertained by Robert Falconer displaying his images – entitled “Derbyshire in Digital.”

Breaking with tradition our AGM was conducted on the second month of the new year. The meeting was opened by our our President – Ray Fowler. After agreeing Minutes and the Accounts, our 2021 Chair Roger Moore, handed over to our incoming Chair – Keith Brown. During the AGM Margaret D and Paul H joined the Committee replacing Jason Dietsch and Joan Clough, with last year’s non-committee officers offering to continue their roles for 2022. Members agreed that the subs for this year should remain at £30. President Ray closed the formal part of the AGM by announcing that he was awarding his President’s Prize to our outgoing Chair, Roger M.

Keith announced that Sheffield Photographic Society’s Knockout will be held on Saturday 19th March. Members are encouraged to send images to Keith in order that the committee can select five images to represent the club. Members should contact Keith if they would like to attend the Knockout Competition. The first 12 members who would like to attend will be allocated places. This years Sheffield PS’s annual ‘Exhibition’ will be held at Sheffield Cathedral from Saturday 26th March until Sunday 3rd April.

Keith also announced he had been in contact with an actor/model Graham Currey who could provide, lights, triggers, modifiers, and backdrops – for a Portrait Evening. Graham would also bring costume changes and make up. Total charge would be £120 – (which we would divide amongst those attending) and we would have to add hall costs. details to follow.

After the break our Keith, our 2022 Chair, showed two Audio Visual’s: “Great Fun” – his tribute to Kate, shown at her memorial service. Followed by “Capturing the Moment”. A selection of still images from Keith’s AV’s are shown below. Click onto an image to see it in greater detail – use the arrow key to move from image to image:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

After welcoming a new member (Sue S)- Roger, our Chair gave an update covering current news and upcoming events. Roger told us that one of our members, Barbara Wilkinson, sadly passed away last week. Then C&HVPS kicked off the New Year with a wonderful evening of landscape photography by our own member (for many years) Stephen Elliott.  A master of sunrises and sunsets, and unperturbed by the rain “siling it down“, Stephen gave us an authoritative and instructive illustration of how to manage the light to capture stunning images of North Wales, Anglesey and the Lake District.

2021 YearBook A final reminder that each C&HVPS paid-up member for 2021 is invited to submit a single image for the 2021 YearBook.  It could be one of the photos selected for the annual exhibition, or it could be some other image.  The only constraint is that it should have been taken between 1st January and 31st December 2021.  So if you haven’t already done so, please send your photos to Roger by 16th January 2022.

February Meeting Our next meeting – on 10th February – will be the Society’s AGM. Followed by images that our new Chair – Keith Brown FRPS – will show to entertain us.  It’s too early to say whether we’ll be able to meet face-to-face or have to continue on Zoom.  In the meantime, we are asking for members to consider taking an active role in the running of the Society. Our Chair will be asking for nominations in the near future.  

Here’s a synopsis of Roger’s opening presentation, covering club news and upcoming events:

Here are a selections of photos Stephen took in North Wales & the English Lake District. Click on an individual image to see it in greater detail and use your arrow key to scroll along and see each image in a larger format:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Our Chair Roger opened the evening by welcoming all our Zoom members – hopefully our last Zoom meeting for some considerable period of time, as our next meeting will be a face to face meeting in Castleton’s Methodist Church Hall.

We spent an exceedingly enjoyable evening viewing ten very different audio-visual presentations.  The AVs had been prepared by six of our members: Kate Brown, Keith Brown, Richard Clemons, Stephen Elliott, Ian Ord, and our Chair Roger Moore.  Many thanks to Keith Brown for organising and curating the event.

Roger reminded C&HVPS paid-up member to submit a single image for our 2021 YearBook.  It could be one of the photos selected for the annual exhibition, or it could be some other image.  The only constraint is that it should have been taken between 1st January and 31st December 2021.  As in previous years, the 2021 YearBook will be published in A4 horizontal format (using Blurb).  This means that differently proportioned images (such as verticals) will have to be reduced in size to fit the page – so please bear this in mind when selecting your photo.  As usual, we will be including a photo gallery of all members.  Note that you can appear in the members’ gallery even if you don’t wish to submit a main photo for the YearBook.  So, if you wish to be represented in the CHVPS 2021 YearBook, simply email Roger an image, the title of the image and your name.

Roger reminded members that our final event of 2021 will be the Christmas dinner at the 1530 Restaurant on 9th December.  Menu selection and booking instructions can be found on the header to our website (see above) entitled ‘Christmas Dinner 2021 details’.

Click onto any image if you’d like to see it in greater detail, then scroll through the images. Remember that these are screenshots of images presented at our Audio Visual Zoom meeting.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

As anticipated, our ‘Beat the Clock‘ Zoom meeting was a varied and entertaining mix of photography where seven members each showed their work for 10 minutes. Before members displayed their ‘Beat the Clock’ images (where the presenter has 10 minutes to display their images), our Chair Roger made a number of announcements, summarised below:

Keith Brown kicked off with “Golden Wedding“, showing the exquisite interior of the St. Pancras hotel; Ray Fowler followed with “Return to 2019” and made a strong case for us to have a portrait evening next year; Jim Swithinbank mixed science and photography with “Bent Light Dreams Come True“; Ian Ord had prepared a video entitled “On a Wing and a Prayer” explaining how you can achieve a LRPS qualification; David Nicklin showed us an insider’s view “Around Chatsworth“; Jason Dietsch was ”Looking Back” into activities during the pandemic; and Roger Moore showed some “Impressions of Reality” as an illustration of next year’s exhibition theme.  Unfortunately, Ian Stanyon and Nick Chalkley were unable to present due to family medical issues, but we hope that they’ll have another opportunity to show their work sometime next year. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•