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First the admin – if you are looking for details for our forthcoming Christmas party, click here:  http://www.hopevalleyphotosociety.co.uk/?page_id=1723

And now to details of our meeting, where everyone enjoyed a new style of evening at the club when members were asked to submit 5 pictures on a theme of their choice. We had an excellent response and a variety of themes were submitted, from 14 members, making for a very enjoyable evening.

The themes were projected in alphabetical order of title and the identity of the authors remained anonymous until after the break. The three Chairman: Past (Jason ) Present (Kate) and Future (Ann), were asked to make comments but sadly Kate was dismayed to miss the meeting, but it had been strongly suggested, by Weston Park Hospital, that she stay with them overnight! Kate’s husband Keith stood in for her.Here’s one example of each of the five images submitted by:

Autumn by Jason Dietsch

Back(s) in Indochina by Ian Ord

Charolais Cows by Alison Johnson

Daylight Robbery at Silverton by Ray Fowler

Grandchildren by Pat Fowler

Infra Red Landscapes by Roger Moore

Landscapes by Les Nixon

Light Painting by Steve Elliott

Macclesfield Salt Mill by Janis Ibbotson

Portmeirion by Keith Brown

Waterfalls as Watercolours by Erica Dietsch

Wonders of Nature by Ian Stanyon

Yorkshire Sculpture Park by Kate Brown

After the break the authors names were revealed and they made their own comments on their choice of themes and photographs. Steve Elliott surprised everyone and we were delighted when he offered to demonstrate his stunning Light Paintings to the club next season. Thank you to all the authors; to Ann and Jason for their comments and to Alan for projecting the photographs.

Images by Les Nixon DPAGB BPE4*

Kate, Ian S and Erica made the following announcements:

Arrangements will be made to allow members of our club to enter the NEMPF 2017 competition. Images from the 2016 competition can be viewed at the NEMPF exhibition at: Patchings Art Centre, Calverton between 7 Jan 2017 & 19th Feb 2017.

Rules for the 2017 competition are posted on our website under the following link: http://www.hopevalleyphotosociety.co.uk/?page_id=1709 these rules will be displayed in the first line of our website’s menu bar until the date of handing in competition entries.

The next meeting on Nov 10th will be 5 Pictures on a Theme – These will be images taken by members, following the theme shown above. The five pictures must be related to each other in some way. Please give the set of five images a Title.   We want the authors to remain anonymous so please do not put your name on the filename, just the order you would like them projected and then the title. e.g. (a) Autumn in Castleton, (b) Winter in the Hope Valley., etc.

Kate, Ann and Jason (or their nominees) will make comments on the images. After all the sets have been shown Kate will reveal the names of the authors who will be invited to tell us something about the pictures if they wish to do so.   Submit digital files (not prints) to Keith either on memory stick, CD or by email (Max 1 mb per image) keithbrownfrps@btinternet.com. If this is not possible please bring your images on the night with each image filename correctly annotated as above. If you have any questions please contact Keith by email or phone – 01433 621072.

 
Ian S announced that the next informal meeting of members will be held at the Angler’s Rest Bamford on the evening of 15^th November. The theme will be ‘Creative lighting’. Click on this link if you’d like to see images from the last informal meeting: http://www.hopevalleyphotosociety.co.uk/?p=1693

Erica gave details of the Christmas dinner, to be held at The Rising Sun on 8^th December – members and their partners are eligible to celebrate this party – please send Erica your orders by or on 10^th November, as Erica needs to send orders to the Rising Sun by November 11^th. (Note from Ian O – I’ll pop the full details onto the website in the near future.)

Les Nixon DPAGB BPE4* then entertained us to his presentation entitled: ‘A Golden Ticket – 11,000 miles in 6 weeks’.

The surprise (for me – and others) being that all of these images were all transparencies (shown on a 25 year-old projector) taken 52 years ago, when Les and his wife drove an incredible 11,000 miles around the USA in a hire car. Les & his wife made their epic drive around the States in summer 1964, starting and finishing at New York, visiting a huge number of national monuments and national parks en-route. Les told us that when the agent for the car hire company checked the hire car’s mileage on return of the hire car, he nearly passed out!

We’ve all seen and enjoyed seeing Les’s DPI’s and competition prints in the recent past, and all members know that Les is a highly skilled photographer, with a real eye for a picture. But what many of us didn’t know that Les had already developed his photographic technical skills and his eye for a picture over 52 years ago.

Sadly I can’t show you my favourite picture, taken by Les at 0600 from a tent in Monument Valley, at the height of a storm. Two lightening strikes fell each side of a mesa, with low glowering clouds lit by the lightening, and the mesas silhouetted against the stormy sky. A testament to Les’s skills are that he took this using Kodak 25 ASA film – I doubt that given 100 attempts on my modern digital camera I could have produced an image with 5% of the quality or visual impact of Les’s image.

Filling the Frame – September 2016

A good turnout as usual with members and guests alike braving the violent thunderstorm and spouting drains to look at ‘Filling the frame’ images for the evening. Pretty much everybody enjoyed devouring the pizzas available from the travelling pizza oven, even those who turned up later could not avoid eating one.

The evening was split into two halves as usual looking at a range of photographs from the club’s members Alison, Janis, Ian S, Sue, Nick and David and the opportunity to offer critique, a useful tool to see how images could be shown differently.

There was the usual vote to select the next theme; after some discussion and modification the next meeting’s theme is to be: ‘Using light in the image’. This could be flash, natural light or any other way in which the author could use light to enhance their image.

All society members and their guests are welcome to join in this low key, fun evening over a pizza and a drink accompanied by lovely images and general banter and gossip.

 

 

 

 

Please pardon our mess, we are recovering from a nasty accident with a Hard disk drive. Normal service will resume shortly!

Anything below this post may have incomplete data!

 

           Summer fleetingly reached the Hope Valley, thus members arrived in sunshine to view the AVs, DP images and prints presented by our speakers Judy Smith LRPS, DPAGB, BPE3* and Mike Smith – both members and past Presidents of Sheffield Photographic Society.

Before the presentation our Chairman, Kate Brown, announced that next year’s annual competition will cover the ‘General’ category and the 2017 category of ‘Small prints’ (with a maximum size of 75 square centimetres).

Further details, including the monochrome section for the 2017 Denis Thorpe Prize will be given later. Kate recommended that the small prints should be mounted on card. I’ll give a demonstration on cutting and mounting small prints on cards during a meeting early next year, OR your prints could be mounted for a cost of £2.50 – £3.50 per print by Joan & George Stewardson at The Old Chapel, Thornhill, Hope Valley.

Ray offered to give free lessons on the basics of photography to less experienced members – with a maximum of three members at a time. Contact Ray if you’d like to learn more about basic photography and using your camera.

Keith announced that St Peter’s church had donated £25 to the club in recognition of the part our club played in displaying panels with our 2016 competition prints, in the church, during Wakes Week.

I announced that Judy & Mike Smith had kindly declined payment for their AV and DPI presentation, in recognition of all of the work that Kate & Keith Brown had played over the years for Sheffield Photographic Society. Which brings me onto the highlight of the evening – Judy & Mike’s presentation: Mike & Judy presented a mixture of Audio Visual presentations and a selection of digitally projected images on various themes. Including their visit to Yellowstone National Park in wintertime and the herd of elephants currently on display all over Sheffield.

After the presentation Roger Moore gave a vote of thanks, remarking how much  he and other members had enjoyed the evening. Roger hoped that Judy & Mike will return one evening in the not too distant future, to make another presentation of their work. The loud applause from members confirmed how much everyone had enjoyed the evening.

Preamble – scroll down to the bottom of this page for specific info on upcoming events offering photographic  opportunities.

Our Chairman, Kate Brown, warmly welcomed our 2016 judge, Marilyn Roberts, DPAGN, BPE1. Last month Marilyn had carefully looked at each of our 2016 competition prints, and now visited our club to ‘talk everyone through’  this year’s competition images and announce the winners and those to whom she’d awarded commendations. If you’d like to know the results click onto:  http://www.hopevalleyphotosociety.co.uk/?page_id=1445

Kate then thanked all those who’d been involved in arranging our presence at the Hathersage Gala and our annual exhibition at St Peter’s Church Hope. Jason announced the winners of our Annual Exhibition’s ‘Public Vote’, as visitors to St Peter’s Church were asked to cast their votes for the images they like most. The public votes for the General section were: 1st, Bea Deacon ‘The long walk home’, 2nd, Keith Brown with ‘Cwhorthin Slate, 3rd, Steve Elliott’s ‘Catching the bus’. The public votes for our themed section, Street scenes, were: 1st Steve Elliott’s ‘Red Carnation’, 2nd, Axel Chatburn’s ‘Cycle’s End’, 3rd, Ray Fowler’s ‘In the Shadows’.

In addition to announcing those to whom Marilyn judged to be worthy of first, second or third prizes in the ‘General’ and ‘Street Scene’ categories, Marilyn also Awarded Ian Stanyon the Dennis Thorpe Trophy for the best monochrome entry of this year’s annual competition. (apologies Ian, I hadn’t realised I’d ‘snapped you with your eyes closed):

Kate also thanked David Allwood for another of our informal member’s evening at the Angler’s Rest – the next informal evening will be at 1900 13th September, with the theme being “Filling the Frame”. Pizzas will be available to purchase, then the evening will commence.

Here’s some low resolution snaps as Marilyn  ‘talked us through’ her thoughts on this year’s competition images:

Local announcements

Ian S announced that from 1800 onwards on 20th August, Sheffield’s main city centre roads will be closed for a ‘Cycling Grand Prix’. Ian will be attending the Grand Prix, thus  those interested in this photo opportunity could meet Ian S at the corner of Brown’s in the Peace Gardens at 6pm.  Note – you may wish to walk or take a bus to the city centre as many roads will be closed. Please email Ian S (details in our 2016 Programme), or contact Ian on 07791 907434.

 

Ian S has also given notice of dance workshops, 23rd July and 20th August, with up to three photographers being invited to attend. NB – please liaise with Ian S in ordfedr that he may forward on the names of those who’d like to attend the dance workshop.

Ian’s also sent me details of another interesting event: Brutalism and Parkour Photography Workshop at Park Hill with Andy Day, Sat 30th July: There’s a few few places left for a one-day workshop with renowned adventure sports photographer Andy Day. Participants can learn the skills of architectural photography by shooting the iconic Brutalist Park Hill, as well as an opportunity to photograph the urban sport of parkour. Tickets can be purchased via the link below. Participants must bring their own camera. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/photography-workshop-brutalism-and-parkour-photography-tickets-26031087684?aff=erelpanelorg

Summer has arrived in the Hope Valley, which for once gave us an opportunity to conduct our meeting with the doors open. Ann, our Vice Chair conducted the meeting, stepping in for our Chair Kate, who had to stay in hospital overnight, following treatment earlier that day.

 

Guest Speaker. Our guest speaker was Peter Yeo FRPS, DPAGB, APAGB, and last year’s judge for our annual competition. I’ve popped an account of Peter’s inspiring presentation and some of his images within the body of this web post.

Digital images of 2016 competition images. The majority of members haven’t emailed me the three images they have entered into this year’s competition. Please email me digital un-compressed  images, one at a time, to iangord@icloud.com. These images will only be used inside the club and will not be distributed elsewhere unless they have been heavily compressed (to prevent unauthorised copying/use).

Whatever the Weather. Chris(tine) has agreed to hold another Whatever the Weather event at our house and garden (set at the foot of Lose Hill) some time in mid August. The event is primarily an opportunity for members and their families (including children) to have fun and socialise. There’ll be snacks and cakes, soft drinks and games for the children (or those who are still young at heart). Further details will be emailed to members, via Ann.

2016 Exhibition. As per previous years, when we exhibit our competition images we will need stewards. This year our exhibition will be at St Peter’s Church, Hope, during Wakes Week. I’ll send further details to Ann, who will email them to all members. So have a look in your diaries to see if you have any free time between June 25^th to July 2^nd to act as a steward, for two-hour slots,

Ian Stanyon made a number of announcements:

• Photographic opportunities at the Sheffield Grand Prix cycling race, to be held on July 20^th.
• A presentation by an outstanding landscape photographer (Colin Prior) at Buxton’s Pavilion Art Centre on 16^th 7.30 p.m. Fuller details are shown below my notes on Peter’s presentation.
• Ian is working on arranging a visit to the Sheffield Dance Network to one of their workshops, which would give a limited number of members an opportunity to work with dancers to capture interpretive dance movements?  Details to follow should Ian be successful in securing a date.

Our guest presenter – Peter Yeo.

I’ve been following Peter and his work, via the web, and know how popular Peter’s presentation ‘Everything is connected’ is and has been. Thus I had some insight into what to expect, as I knew that Peter is an innovative and talented photographer. Peter’s presentation was through the medium of A3 sized prints – all printed on Fotospeed paper (as Peter is also a Fotospeed sponsored lecturer).

The first part of Peter’s presentation mainly consisted of monochrome prints, with the second half mainly being in colour prints. I’ve attached some example of Peter’s work within this web post.

I already knew that Peter was a creative photographer/ What I hadn’t known is that Peter is also a talented speaker, full of humour and insightful explanations, as he presented his prints.

There were at least four aspects of Peter’s photography, which captivated me (echoing the numerous photographic honours Peter has  been awarded):

1. Peter’s eye for a picture and the way he so carefully composed each image/scene;
2. The interest Peter generated within his images; often from opportunities which would evade the vast majority of photographers;
3. The stories behind so many of Peter’s images – sometimes taking advantage of fleeting opportunities, and at other times reflecting the time, care and attention Peter took in composing an image;
4. The pin-sharpness of Peter’s images and the beautiful way that they are printed – on different types of photographic paper to complement the mood of his images.

In-depth details of the announcements Ian Stanyon made:

 

Photographic evening and a few beers at Sheffield Grand Prix – cycling event 1800 onwards on July 20^th. See http://www.sheffieldgrandprix.co.uk/ for further details.

Ian is willing to organise the Sheffield Grand Prix evening, which from previous experience is a great evening.  Watching the races from different locations around the circuit, the opportunity to experiment with multiple passes and plenty of chances to enjoy a bite to eat and /or have a sociable drink.

An option is for members to come into Sheffield by bus or train and we can meet up at a suitable location.  There would be no limit on number but Ian said that it would be helpful to know who would be attending and possibly contact numbers? Thus either phone or email Ian (Ian’s contact details are shown in our 2016 programme).

A talk by the landscape photographer Colin Prior   November 16^th, Wednesday 7.30 pm at Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton Opera House, Buxton. www.Buxtonadventurefestival.co.uk   Members should book independently.  However, if people did go we could arrange shared lifts and a beer? Tickets 17.50 / £12.50 (concessions). Again contact Ian by phone or email.

Colin Prior is one of the world’s great landscape photographers, capturing vast sweeping panoramas from around the globe. He has been the subject of a BBC1 documentary, titled Mountain Man (2015), which covered a four-year project to document Pakistan’s Karakoram Mountains. And he travelled more than a million miles to 40 different countries to capture some of the world’s most dramatic landscapes as part of a British Airways commission. Colin pioneered the use of panoramic photography for clients in the travel, lifestyle and leisure sectors in the 90’s and has since published seven photographic books, frequently focusing on the Scottish Highlands.