January 2021 – Castleton & Hope Valley Photographic Society

Yet again, Covid19 meant that this was a virtual meeting, courtesy of Zoom. So for those who couldn’t attend (neither in spirit, nor in body) here’s a synopsis of what’s what and who’s who in this new year. I’ll pop this year’s programme onto our website when it arrives. Joan – our outgoing Chair – thanked everyone who has helped to keep the Club and Zoom meetings going through this most unusual year. Ray, our President then went through the AGM formalities, including voting in officers for 2021 If you’d like to see full details, scroll down to the bottom of this web-post.

So now that I’ve reported the formal bits, here are names and images of those who did well this year.

**Ian Stanyon was justifiably proud of being awarded a NEMPH Highly Commended – and such commendations are only awarded for exceptional images**

**You’ve got to have lots of talent and done lots for our club to be awarded an Honorary Life Membership of C&HVPS**

**Stephen is one of the very best landscape photographers in our region**

**Wayne’s creative image won him the Denis Thorpe Trophy**

It’s a tradition that the second part of our AGM for each new photographic year is opened by our incoming Chair – entertaining us with some of their photos/images. As well as being an an acomplished photographer, Roger is an academic, well practiced in making presentations. Without exception, since Roger joined the Club 16 years ago, he continues to be a fascinating and entertaining presenter.

**A screenshot of Roger and a selection of virtual attendees as our 2021 Chair gave his Zoom presentation.**

Roger broke down his presentation of “My Photographic Journey” into parts. Firstly talking about and showing us images he’d taken over the years in and around the Jurassic Coast, where Roger spent his formative years; West Malvern where he and his family live; their holiday home in Castleton (the base Roger uses for the department he heads up as a professor, at Sheffield University. Roger also paid tribute to Kate Brown, who passed away in December 2020) and Kate’s love of flowers by showing a mosaic of images he’d made from Kate’s images.

Roger showed lots of other fascinating images, including the panel he’d made for successful submission to the RPS for his ARPS. Towards the end of his presentation Roger showed two of his audio visuals, including an AV he’d made at the Orchid Garden in Singapore. A fun evening that transported us temporarily away from our homes and lockdown.