June Meeting 8/6/23

This month the focus is on the annual exhibition which will be in St Peter’s Church Hope starting on Saturday 24th June 12-4pm. With that in mind Ashley Franklin (AshleyFranklin.co.uk) was the guest at the meeting and reviewed the submissions, offering valuable tips on how the photographs could be improved. Ashley also selected his favourite photos and later in the year there will be a chance to present the photographers in each of the two categories with certificates and also to award the Dennis Thorpe trophy and the Catherine cup.

There is a list of the photographs and photographers at the bottom of the page and here are two photos of Ashley talking about his choices in each category.

A webpage cannot do justice to these excellent photographs, you need to see the printed version but the images below give you an idea of the creativity of the photographers.

  • General category 
  • 1st “Hot and Cold” Steve Elliott
  • 2nd “Four faces” Keith Brown
  • 3rd “Solitary vigil” John Sampson
  • Highly commended “Light portal” Stephen Elliott
  • Commended “Lilac-breasted roller” John Sampson
  • Commended “Check your mirror” Ann Smith
  • Commended “Afterglow on Stanage” Stephen Elliott
  • Themed category Beatles song titles
  • 1st “Help” Wayne Hallam
  • 2nd “Here comes the sun” Nick Chalkley
  • 3rd “Mind games” Wayne Hallam
  • Highly commended “I want to hold your hand” John Sampson
  • Commended “Watching Rainbows” David Allwood

Ann concluded the evening with thanks to Ashley, congratulations to all the photographers and a reminder that the meeting on July 13th is the “scavenger hunt”.

This is not as photographically odd as it might sound as the aim is for participating members to wander around Castleton taking photos on a specified theme. The meeting itself involves viewing all the submissions on the screen and evaluating the submitted photos to see who has fulfilled the theme with the greatest accuracy/creativity.

May Meeting 11/5/23

The evening began informally with the collection of prints for the annual exhibition. This year the themed category is for photos inspired by the “Beatles” or a member of the band in the years when they were making music as part of another group or indeed on their own.

Ann introduced the more formal part of the meeting with a reminder of the successful Denis Thorpe exhibition recently staged at the Adventure Cafe in Hope. Denis generously donated a print of his photo of the Ribble Head Viaduct for the club to use in generating funds. Raffle tickets will be on sale at club meetings to give members a chance to win this wonderful print.

Ann broke with the club tradition and announced the theme for next years exhibition “Man at Work”. As usual members can give this theme a wide interpretation to embrace the idea of man/human/men/women. etc.

For 2023 the appraisal of the exhibition will take place on June 8th so if you would like to see some fine prints please come along. Ashley Franklin is our guest for the evening and no doubt he will provide us with an interesting evaluation of the exhibition as well as a fascinating insight into his own work. www.ashleyfranklin.co.uk

The first speaker for the evening was Axel Chatburn who presented images from his Pennine Way Adventures

Many of the miles were done alone and in every kind of “Pennine Weather”. Long car journeys featured in the south most stretches.

Further north wife and children could not be such a major part of the experience but other friends were willing companions.

Axel gave us a fascinating glimpse into a Pennine “journey” much as Alfred Wainwright would have experienced it.

The second speaker of the evening was our previous chair, Keith Brown.

The title for his presentation was “2022 – A Busy Year Of Photography” Keith then showed us a variety of images taken from several trips he had been on in 2022 as well as some images from the two club nights aimed at refining the participants skills in portraiture.

1. Dean and Lynda at Edwardian day in Castleton

2. Graham Currey at Portrait night

3. Yorkshire Sculpture Park

4. Eiger Monch and Jungfrau – Switzerland

5. Hard Days Night Hotel – Paul McCartney suite.

6. Hepworth Gallery

7 Thiepval Memorial – The Somme.

8 Lauterbrunnen Valley – Switzerland.

9 Raging Bull – Commonwealth Games Birmingham

Ann closed the meeting with thanks to our two excellent presenters and a reminder that the next meeting is on June 8th.

I should also remind members to let Roger Moore know if they would like to order a year book and of course that a raffle ticket could be your chance to win a Dennis Thorpe photo for only £5.

April Meeting 13/4/23

This month’s meeting involved two club members sharing their photos and thoughts. Introduced by our new photo society chair Ann Smith.

First up was John Sampson.

Mining for Gold in Burkina Faso.

Here are a couple of images from the huge number that John used to explain the many processes from extraction through processing to the final product. Along the way there were photos of memorable locals, staff and some of the wildlife. Memorable in other ways were the guards and some interesting precautions that had to be taken in such a volatile situation.

Open Pit Mining

Processing Plant At Night

Our next talk was Alison Johnson

Experimenting with an Iphone Camera.

Here are three of the images that were part of the talk

Alison showed numerous images from her travels with stunning landscapes such as this one.

At the end of the evening Ann reminded us that the May meeting was the hand in date for everyone’s exhibition photos.

That evening we will also involve presentations from Axel and our previous chair, Keith.