Author: Ian Ord

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:

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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:

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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.

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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. 

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Or Chair, Roger, opened our Zoom meeting welcoming our presenter – Gareth Martin AWPF CPAGB, then gave an update on future events – shown below in this synopsis:

Then Garath treated Zoom attendees to a sumptuous evening of personal photography.  Gareth spoke to us from his home in Port Talbot, and his talk “Location Location Location” took us out and about in his part of Wales.  He showed us many examples of how he turns a relatively straightforward photograph into an exhibition-quality image with only a modest amount of post-processing.  He also treated us to a wealth of personal stories, all delivered in his wonderful Welsh accent.  At the end, he encouraged people to get in touch via his Facebook page.

Here are a selection of Garath’s images. Click onto an image if you would like to see it in greater detail:

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It been a tradition for some years that Chris(tine) O arranges an annual Whatever-the-Weather at Chris & Ian’s house in the Edale valley (but we live in Hope – especially when rain is forecast ). With only two exceptions to date we have been blessed with either warm or hot, or in 2017 very hot, weather. But it poured cats and dogs for our July 2019 WtW, so we were hoping for a dry warm day for this year’s WtW, as Covid19 put paid to last year’s WtW social event. But we were wrong – it bucketed down in the morning, then the sun briefly came out at midday, only for the weather to start to worsen again.

Due to inclement weather, illness and some reservations about meeting indoors due to Covid19, numbers were down to 26 – well down on recent numbers. Never-the-less everyone enjoyed socialising whilst we munched on Chris O’s home made cheese scones, or other scones made with her redcurrant jam, topped off with clotted cream – along with cakes, sandwiches and all sort of other goodies generously and thoughtfully provided by our 2021 WtW attendees.

As per usual Chris arranged a quiz, with part of the quiz being a treasure hunt to find objects secreted all around the downstairs of our house – nothing hidden in the garden this year! Robert and Freddie Nicklin, aided by their gran, searched high and low and came out victorious. Adding to the points that they gained in the quiz. Two of the quiz questions related to the names of the Roman and Greek sun-gods. So Chris & I will be calling upon these gods to provide warm and dry weather for the 2022 Whatever-the-Weather.

Perversely, just as the last few socialites were leaving, the rain stopped and the sun broke through. Giving sufficient time for Nick C to dry out, as Nick had walked in from the centre of Hope – deliberately wearing shorts to allow his legs to dry out quicker. But our traditional annual social event is called Whatever-theWeather for a reason:

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Here’s a section of the photos covering the our 2021 WtW (Click on to the images to view them in greater detail, and use the arrow keys to move from one image to another:

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Thank you Chris O for your hard and effective work in making a success of yet another WtW, and thank you to everyone who attended. It was really great to meet up again after too many months isolated in our homes. Had it not been for the excellent Zoom meetings arranged by Roger M, Ian S, etc., today may have been the first time our happy band of photographers and partners had met up since our March 2020 meeting (when speaker Jean Walker Warden talked about her exploits travelling to the North Pole).

Here’s what Roger, our 2021 Chair has said about our July 8th meeting:

Well, what a sumptuous evening of local landscapes we enjoyed thanks to our own Stephen Elliott.  Both visually stunning and technically informative, we were treated to a fabulous array of Peak District locations, with a high proportion of photos being taken well before dawn.  Stephen claimed that he’s very lucky with his photography, but as Thomas Jefferson said “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it”.

Social Sub-CommitteeRay Fowler is looking for a couple of lady members to balance the male contingent already signed up for the social sub-committee, and Ian Ord is wanting to get an idea on who might be attending ‘Whatever-the-Weather’ at Orlecar Cottage on 8th August and the Christmas Dinner at the Blind Bull, Little Hucklow on 9th December.  Please contact Ray or Ian as appropriate.

Theme for 2022: “Impressions of Reality”It is a tradition that the incumbent Chair sets the theme for the following year’s Exhibition.  So, I have chosen a topic that is close to my heart.  What I’m hoping for is a creative mix of abstracts, rhythms, shapes, patterns, textures, etc.  I look forward to some inventive and inspirational submissions.  Let your imagination run wild!

Next Meeting (12th August) Our plan for the August meeting is to meet up in-person, so we have arranged two outdoor activities: evening landscape photography lead by Karen Frenkel, or photographing inside and outside Roger Thorpe’s garage.  If you’re planning to attend either, please let Keith Brown know which group you’d like to join.
Photography Quote of the MonthScott Lorenzo: “The picture that you took with your camera is the imagination you want to create with reality.”

I have included a selection of Stephen Elliott’s breathtaking images from his Peak District Light. I’ve added Steve’s images in random order. If you’d like to see more of Stephen’s work visit https://www.stephenelliottphotography.co.uk To see any image in greater detail, click onto the photo and use the arrow keys to move right or left.

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This, our 2021 Annual Exhibition evening, may be our last or penultimate Zoom meeting of 2021, held digitally to meet Covid19 rules.  Our Chair Roger welcomed online members and our online guest Robert Falconer, who appraised our 2021 Exhibition images. Here’s a screenshot covering the main points Roger covered, before the meeting moved on to viewing this year’s Exhibition images:

We were treated to a masterclass in how to appraise photos constructively by local landscape and steam train photographer Robert Falconer, who reviewed the submissions for our Annual Exhibition.  Robert gave careful and considered feedback on each and every image, with lots of helpful suggestions on how they might be improved. 

Here are those images Robert selected for places in our 2021 Exhibition General Category:

First ‘Open wide’ by John Sampson

Second “Singing Carmine Bee Eater’ by Alison Johnston

Third ‘Night song’ by Stephen Elliott

Commendations – General: ‘Still standing’ by Roger Moore, ‘Industrial Dawn’ by Stephen Elliott, ‘Faces’ by Roger Moore.

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Here are the images Robert selected for places in our 2021 Exhibition Theme Category – Bridging the gap:

First ‘Roman Bridge – Penmachno’ by Stephen Elliott

Second ‘Jumping the gap’ by Richard Clemons

Third ‘Spanning St Pancras’ by Keith Brown

Theme commendations – Bridging the gap:

‘Between Dark skies and a dawn landfall’ by Ian Ord, It’s a connected world’ by Roger Moore, ‘Sabretooth Bridge’ by Ann Smith

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Catherine Cup for best colour image ‘Roman Bridge – Penmachno’ by Stephen Elliott

Denis Thorpe Trophy ‘Spanning St Pancras’ by Keith Brown

May Meeting This was our second members’ evening of the 2021 season and, as always, it was varied and informative.  Joan showed us how she’d enjoyed her photography despite the COVID-19 restrictions, Hazel took us on a worldwide tour of rocks, reflections and close-ups, and Keith explained how to get into making audio-visual presentations with super examples by Kate and himself. Keith has compiled some useful information  about how to get started with audio-visuals and PTE-AV-Studio, and if you’d like a demo of PTE contact Keith or Ian O. Thanks to all three for an excellent evening of photography.

Members’ Survey We’ve received a good number of interesting responses to the Society’s on-line survey. If you haven’t completed it yet, you have until Friday 21st May to express your views about the running of the Society.

Mentoring/Critique Group One of the initiatives arising from the survey is to set up a mentoring/critique group, and the best way to do that right now is on-line.  If you wish to be involved (as a mentee or mentor), please send our Chair Roger an email and you will be added to the Group.  You will then be able to post images for comment by other members of the Group or comment on other members’ images yourself.

Exhibition during Hope Wakes Week We have an opportunity to mount a physical exhibition in St. Peter’s church during Hope Wakes Week (26th June to 4th July).  All members are invited to submit one or two prints, especially any that are already mounted on foam backing.  Contact Keith Brown if you wish to take part.

Members’ Contact Details Several people have commented that they don’t have an up-to-date list of members and their contact details as the usual printed programme wasn’t able to be handed out at the AGM this year.  So, we’ll shortly be emailing a contact list for those who have completed the GDPR form.

Next Meeting Our next meeting is on 10th June, when Robert Falconer will be appraising our exhibition entries.

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