Author: Ian Ord

We welcomed several visitors to the showing of this special event run by Kate and Keith Brown of their audio visual presentations.  In particular we were privileged to welcome Roger Thorpe of Castleton Garage and Les Lennon of William Lennon and Co. – boot makers. Both of whom were stars of the audio visual presentations called ‘Grease, gaskets and gears’ and ‘These Boots’, respectively shown during the presentation.  We also welcomed other visitors locally and from Sheffield.  There was an excellent turn out with the hall being all but full.

We were treated to a wide selection of AV’s, some of which have been aired before and a couple of new ones to the audience.  As usual these all went down well and feedback from the audience was that it was probably the best AV showing yet.  Some of theAV’s spoke for themselves images accompanied by music, other AV’s being narrated.  The audience was clearly appreciative and from earshot it became clear that some members are tempted to have a go at making their own AV too.

The interval saw us treated to not only biscuits but also cakes as well.  Things are definitely looking up; the society is well attended with prospective new members in the sidelines, a good range of presentations from visitors and members and we have also recently purchased a new projector and better display stands which means we can show off members’ images to their very best.

As a reminder, there is an informal evening arranged for Tuesday 17^th September at the Anglers’ rest in Bamford.  If anybody would like to go, can they please let David Allwood know before Monday 16^th.

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A night of four parts: Firstly our Chair for 2019 – Ian Stanyon – opened the meeting and using his innovative monthly calendar, projected onto a screen, gave details of activities and things to see/visit over the coming month:

Ian then presented the certificates to members who had achieved recognition in our Annual Competition. With the exception that Ann Smith had to step in and present Ian with the certificate that related to his image. The results and some of these images were shown an earlier post (scroll down to the synopsis of June 13th’s meeting to see the results). MANY thanks to Club President Ray for producing (as usual) top class certificates, which included a copy of the relevant winning or commended image.

Bob Stone, who has lived in the famous ‘plague village’ of Eyam for 10 years, showed images from a project he’s running for 2019, to illustrate all of the many community events that run from New Year’s Day onwards.

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After a break for a chat and coffee, Wayne Hallam, who is an accomplished cricketer, visiting many many cricket matches each year, presented a collection of ‘decisive moment’ bowling, batting and catching (or dropping the ball) images.

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Here’s a few images to illustrate what happened during the evening:

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Denis, showing off his new Honorary Life Membership Certificate, flanked by our 2019 Chair (Ian S) and Club President Ray

C&HVPS’s ”Whatever the Weather’ social event has, according to tradition, always been held at Orlecar Cottage. Six years ago my wife Chris(tine) named the event ‘Whatever the Weather’ to take account of the unpredictability of Hope Valley weather. Over the past five years every WtW morning in our garden has dawned bright and sunny. But we knew our sixth annual social event on Saturday 27th July was likely to defy the fair-weather odds; as that morning it started to rain, with the rain increasing in intensity by the hour. So Chris & I decided to alter plans and set the fallback ‘wet weather’ indoors routine in place.

This year’s event was graced by a special guests: Denis Thorpe and his daughter Lucy. Denis, a renowned, respected and now retired award-winning Guardian photojournalist, has covered assignments across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, China, India, the Soviet Union, etc. Over the years Denis has given three presentations to members and guests of our photo society, filling the hall to bursting point each time. Recently Ray (our Club President) came up with the idea of inviting Denis to become an Honorary Life Member of our Club. We were delighted that Denis accepted this invitation.

Chris had worked hard, baking cupcakes and scones – ladling on clotted cream and her home-made redcurrant jelly onto these scrumptious scones. Other guests brought cakes and edibles, as shown in some of the photographs. Chris had also prepared her traditional quiz – this year requiring the eagle eye of competitors as they searched for clues indoors – instead of being scattered around our garden. The friendship and fellowship of our members and their partners counteracted the grey day and heavy rain.

There were two special events during our WtW afternoon. The first being President Ray’s presentation to Denis, of his Honorary Life membership. Ray Had thoughtfully purchased (at his own cost) a silver frame, enclosing the membership certificate. The second was the presentation by Denis, of his Denis Thorpe Trophy to this year’s winner – Keith Brown. Given good luck and a fair wind (and hopefully sunnier weather) next year Denis will present his trophy to the 2020 winner of the Denis Thorpe Trophy – possibly in sunshine in our garden at next year’s Whatever the Weather.

The man himself, presenting Club Vice President Keith, with his Denis Thorpe Trophy for the best monochrome image entered into our 2019 annual competition

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We welcomed Erica Oram CPAGP, AFIAP, BPE2 as our speaker for the evening giving her print presentation titled ‘Making the most of any opportunity’.  Erica is a well respected photographer from Sheffield PS and was our judge during the previous year’s competition so well known to our members.  She planned on splitting the evening into two subjects, street photography and landscapes.  Being the enthusiastic talker she is, we only managed to get through her prints showing her ventures into street photography, leaving us with an opportunity to invite Erica back to talk about her landscape images at a future meeting.

It seems that Erica is able to take her full size DSLR into any situation and somehow not be noticed.  Some of the images she showed would have been difficult to take with a discreet compact yet alone the larger DSLR.  What really pleased the audience was the handing around of prints after first showing them on the front stand.  It gave us a real opportunity to see the photographs close up and to see exactly the detail that Erica was talking about.  Perhaps this is a format we could adopt with our own images at members presentations, it certainly went down well and sparked fruitful dialogue between Erica and our members.

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Our Chair opened the meeting by welcoming members and guests, particularly our judge Peter and his wife. We couldn’t have been honoured by a more qualified judge as Peter Cheetham Hon PAGB. Peter and his wife have both been Presidents of the PAGB, with Peter also being President of NEMPF! Peter told me that he’s been judging for 40 (yes 40) years! If you look at the snaps I’ve inserted in this web-post you’ll see that Peter must have started judging as a young man.

Before getting down to the judging, Ian announced forthcoming events, encapsulated below.

The first half of the evening was devoted to Peter judging the “General Competition” images, followed by tea/coffees, before Peter judged this years competition theme” ‘It Gives Me Joy’. I was impressed with the time that Peter spent in examining each competition image – giving shrewd and positive feedback, whilst also giving hints and advice on how a slightly weaker image could have been improved. Such feedback is invaluable, as it allows the exhibitor to see how her or his image is viewed and appraised by a more experienced eye. I’ve included a selection of images, both showing Peter casting his eagle eye on each competiton image, as well as Peter’s final sift of those who were awarded a 1st, 2nd or 3rd, as well as commendations. We now have two addition categories: The Catherine Cup, awarded this year to Stephen Elliott for the best colour competition image, and the Denis Thorpe Trophy awarded this year to Keith Brown FRSP for the best monochrome competition image.

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I’ve attached a list of the competitors and results below.

It’s been a sad time for everyone in our Club. As nearly two weeks ago Pat Fowler, the wife of our President Ray, passed away. Joan Clough gave a moving tribute covering Pat’s time in our Club and so many other parts of Castleton life. Pat had been a member of our Club from its formation. Working behind the scenes (as well as behind the camera) in so many ways; including serving tea/coffee and biscuits for so many years during the break in our meetings. Pat was a pillar of Castelton; for example Pat was either President or Secretary of our local WI group for 40 years.

For the first part of the evening Alison gave a presentation covering her recent safari. Sarah, the wife of one of our members had lived in Kenya for 17 years, remarked that she was deeply impressed with Alison’s images, and how close that Alison had been to some of the game. Being completely quiet and not moving a muscle, rather than relying on long reach lenses. Alison has more courage and nerve than me, as I’d have been running in the opposite direction from lions, leopards, elephants, etc.

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The second half of the meeting was presented by Erica, who talked us through the process of assessment days, for those who want to qualify for the RPS Licentiate Distinction.

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It was the first Pizza night of the year but we did manage to discuss some photography topics too.  A select crowd made up of Alison, Bob, Susan and Ian S. managed to fill the evening out talking about portrait photography and while we originally intended to do some actual photography we instead looked at a selection of Ian’s images to offer both critique and learn the different qualities we might expect from portraits.  It was agreed that we would like to put on a session for taking portraits and we will endeavour to set up an evening or weekend date to that end.

It was interesting to explore the use of lighting, whether natural light or additional light sources.  We all agreed that natural light has a really lovely quality compared with electronic sources but that additional second and even third light sources can help balance a picture where the single light often gives the Rembrandt look.  We even started projecting images onto a reflector which gave some very interesting results; perhaps a theme for a future evening?

The next informal evening is Monday 17^th June.  So make sure its in your diary and we will look forward to seeing you there.

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The evening was led by Ian Stanyon reading out the usual notices, not least of which was a reminder to members to get their competition photographs ready for hand in at the next meeting on May 9^th. Here’s a diary of upcoming events:

Prizes were handed out to members who won the peoples vote for their images at the Angler’s Rest exhibition.  Congratulations to Nick Chalkley and to Ian Ord. 

Ian introduced Jill Stewardson from Stewardson’s Bespoke Picture Framing, a picture framing company based locally in Thornhill.  Jill expertly took us through the benefits of adding a frame to our images both protecting the original and also enhancing it with the correct choice of frame.  She introduced us to the different types of glass used which led to a lively debate about glass versus acrylic.  Discussion also evolved around the different backing materials available which gives us food for thought about how we as a society may wish to hang future competition prints and exhibitions.  Finally, Jill demonstrated how to correctly add a card mount to our images and the correct materials to use.  Of course, Stewardson’s are always available just along the Hope Valley to offer the service for a very reasonable price along with the expert knowledge that they bring as part of their service.

The second half of the evening was handed over to members who volunteered their own images for the purposes of discussion.  We were treated to photography by Keith Brown, Joan Clough, Paul Hatt, Wayne Hallam and Sue Hughes.  There were images from the original Stevenson Rocket, Sunsets, Cricket, from the top of Swiss mountains and also from the north east of England.  Lively debate and offers of techniques and solutions were well received.  Thanks should be given to the above for volunteering at short notice to give their presentations and also to Jason Dietsch, Bob Stone and Beryl Brown for also volunteering.  We ran out of time to see everybody’s contributions but look forward to inviting the members who missed out to present at a meeting later in the year.

Our 2019 Chair, Ian Stanyon opened the meeting by welcoming two visitors, along with our guest speaker Ashley Franklin. Ian talked about upcoming events – illustrated below.

Then Ian announced the public votes for our ‘exhibition’ in St Peter’s Church and the Angler’s Rest.
Church exhibitions: General category: 1^st ‘A Ray of light’ by Wayne Hallam 2^nd ‘Raining fire’ by Stephen Elliott 3^rd ‘Sunrise over Bamford edge’ by Alan Hinchcliffe

Song title: 1^st ‘Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone’ by Alan Hinchcliffe 2^nd Private Dancer’ by Ian Stanyon 3^rd ‘Those magnificent men in their flying machines’ by Richard Clemens; = ‘Don’t burn the bridge’ by Ian Ord; = ‘Ba Ba Ba Barbara Ann by Ann Smith; = ‘Me and my Shadow’ by Nick Chalkley

Angler’s Rest exhibition General category: ‘Outside, Inside’ by Ian Ord Song title: ‘Me and my Shadow’ by Nick Chalkley

Our speaker, Ashley Franklin made a presentation in two parts. The first covering the period from Ashley becoming interested in photography (all film in those days), followed by the work that he now does as a professional photographer. The selection of images shown below illustrates the scope of Ashley’s work:

After his presentation our Chair, Ian, gave a vote of thanks, exclaiming that Ashley’s presentation had been a ‘tour de force’. I’ve raised a mosaic panel illustrating a selection of images Ashley presented.

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Ashley’s presentation took us back 35 years, when he was a young but inexperienced amateur – learning from books and images and publications by world-wide distinguished photographers; members of his camera club; experimenting with different films, lenses, filters and film effects – to his time as a professional photographer illustrating and writing for journals such as Derbyshire Life; a book cover illustrator; wedding photographer; illustrator for calendars; advertising assignments, etc. Ashley has a gift with words as well as a gift for high-level creative photography. I’m sure that I can speak for all who attended, that members & guests enjoyed every minute of Ashley’s presentation. I for one look forward to receiving another presentation by Ashley, perhaps covering images he’s taken of his beloved Tuscany.

Well actually not many people brought along their Christmas presents.  However, we had a great turn out with 12 members and a couple of partners joining in.  The evening was held in the Café end and it looked really good with the walls being adorned with members’ photos from our last competition Song titles and General images on show.

We were treated to some fantastic photography by Stephen Elliott from a recent visit he had to North Wales.  He has this uncanny ability to make what appears to be a depressing slate mine in Welsh rain into really interesting photographs that we all enjoyed seeing.  We also had viewings of images from Nick Chalkley, David Allwood and Ian Stanyon covering quite a mix of photographic genres.

The next informal evening is in April and is on Tuesday16th, so coinciding with Pizza night.  A theme has not been agreed yet, if anybody has any particular ideas they would like to suggest, please let Ian Stanyon know.  We look forward to seeing you at the Angler’s Rest, Bamford in April.

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