Castleton & Hope Valley Photographic Society

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.

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.

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.

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.

It’s not many of us that have the photographic skills to have one of our images accepted as an entry to an international competition. But our very own Stephen Elliott had his image of the Salt Cellar on Derwent Edge both accepted and then put forward as a finalist in The International Garden Photographer of the Year 2023. A round trip of three hours climbing up Derwent Edge to take a sunset image, when according to Stephen the  heather was at its most colourful he’s ever seen, paid dividends. Stephen must have walked thousands of miles, with his camera, on these ruggedly beautiful Peak District hills, so he knows where to set up his camera and tripod.  Congratulations Stephen, your skills produced a magnificent image that puts you at the top of the tree in respect of international photographic competitions. 

Because the AGM has now moved to February, this was the last meeting Keith Brown, our excellent, hard working and effective Chair presided this current C&HVPS year. Keith will hand over to our incoming Chair – Ann Smith, at our February 2023 AGM, to be held at our usual venue on Thursday February 9th. After our AGM formalities, Ann will make a presentation entitled “Short Walk – Short Legs”

Keith announced that the N&EMPF Exhibition 2023 is open to all of our members. so here’s a date for your diary, as Ian Stanyon and Keith Brown had some of their prints accepted. The awards were presented at  at Noon on Saturday 7th January. If you’d like to see these N&EMPF prints, they will be on display from Saturday 7th January through to Saturday 11th February in the Barn Gallery (above the café) and the Crew Yard Gallery. Here’s the address: Patchings Art Centre, Oxton Road, Calverton, NG14 6NU.

Keith also announced that after significant work in the background (well done Keith), that our Honorary member – the famous award winning Guardian Photojournalist ‘Dennis Thorpe’, is to present a selection of his stunning prints during opening hours at the ‘Adventure Cafe’, Edale Road, Hope on 14th to 29th March. Reception, to include a finger buffet, on Friday 17^th March – 7 pm doors open 6 30. All being well Denis will join us for the opening and will talk about his prints.

Then Paul Hatt made the first presentation of the evening, breaking his talk down into three sections. The first being images taken on various walks up to Kinder Scout, where Paul is involved with a Moors for the Future conservation project Here’s a selection of the images from the first part of the illustrated talk that Paul presented

After a break we were invited to see images Robert Nicklin had taken when he spent time taking photographs of couples, followed by photographs of families. Robert spent time living with two families, so he could produce a ‘fly on the wall’ record of family life. Robert took these images after being awarded a degree in photography. Robert made his presentation via Zoom, so I apologise for the quality of the photographs, as I simply snapped a selection of his images from straight from the screen.

Keith, our 2020 Chair opened the evening, giving various announcements (shown after the images below). Keith introduced the eight members who gave their ‘Beat the Clock’ presentations – restricted to ten minutes per presentation. We were treated to 8 presentations from our members providing a variety of photographic interests. A selection from the images presented by Margaret Drabble, Jeanette & Ian Holmes, Ray Fowler, Joan Clough, Wayne Hallam, Keith Brown and Ann Smith are shown below. Click onto any image if you would like to see it in greater details.

Portrait Night – Monday 17^th October with Graham Currey

We were joined by members of Sheffield PS for what was one of the most unique portrait evenings we have ever attended. Graham was an excellent model, with three costume changes. Graham also provided all the lighting, backcloths and still had time for each photographer; examining our images and giving us advice on how to improve the photograph .For those people who attended it was an unforgettable night and one we will do again.

Outdoor Portraits in Castleton – Edwardian Theme. Sunday November 13^th

This was the second of our two Portrait events this time outdoors in Castleton and once again we were joined by our Sheffield PS friends. The event was facilitated by Gareth Morgan who introduced us to Lynda and Dean – both are actors and models who dressed in Edwardian costumes which looked stunning against autumn colours.

Christmas Dinner

Our Christmas Dinner has been arranged for Thursday December 8^th at The George Hotel, Hathersage – 7.30 for 8pm. We have been offered an excellent three course menu at £32.50 and we have the use of a private room. Thank you to Ian Ord who has done a lot of work in organising this and if you would like to join us please contact Ian as soon as possible.

Castleton Christmas Tree Festival – Saturday 19^th November

If you are in Castleton in the run up to Christmas I can recommend a visit to St Edmunds Church to see and photograph their beautiful display of sparkling Christmas trees.Once again we have been invited to decorate a Christmas tree and thank you to Margaret Drabble for organising and decorating our tree.

Theme for 2023 Exhibition

The Committee have agreed that the theme for next year’s exhibition will be “The Beatles and Beyond” Your photograph should illustrate the title of a Beatles song or any song by the four individual members as solo artists.It should give you a bit of fun; using your imagination, and both myself and the judge, Ashley Franklin, will be delighted to see what you come up with

20^th Anniversary Celebration

Next year we will be celebrating 20 years since the formation of our society. To commemorate this event we will reserve a night on the programme and also we are planning to create a Multi YearBook covering the 20 years. Ian Ord has archive images going back to 2013/2014 but we would be very grateful if you could look through your own archives to see if you have any photographs from the earlier years; these could be: prize winning images or particularly social events. If you have any suitable images please contact Ian Ord, Ray Fowler or Keith Brown

Thursday January 12^th

The next meeting will be our Christmas Dinner and the first meeting in January will be presentations from our own members – Paul Hatt & Robert Nicklin. Please note that we have moved the AGM to February2023 to ease pressure on the administration and preparation for the AGM following the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

The evening started with our 2022 Chairman Keith introducing our own member – Nick Chalkley, who showed photographs taken on his iPhone camera.

Click onto any image to view it in a larger size

After the break we showed the winning photographs from the 2022 N&EMPF PDI section.

As expected these were of a very high standard and it was a shame that we didn’t have time to show all the images where we could have seen a greater variety of subjects.The award for the most successful entrant (who had 9 acceptances, including 5 awards) was given to a lady with an outstanding talent in producing “Photo Art” portraits. Her inspiration comes from mystical stories – a great deal of time is spent in Photoshop combining photographs, objects and the artistic use of brushes to produce stunning photographs. These are not to everybody’s taste but one can’t help admiring them.

And now for the notices – apologies there is a long list! 

Portrait Night – Monday 17^th October with Graham Currey

Members who are attending please arrive any time after 7 pm for a 7 30 start. No equipment is needed, only your cameras and a short/medium telephoto or standard lens. No tripods are needed as Graham prefers to work without them. £15 per person.

Outdoor Portraits in Castleton – Victorian/ Edwardian Theme. Sunday November 13^th – 1 pm to 4 pm. Meeting place to be decided

Together with Gareth Morgan we have organised what should be a very enjoyable late autumn outdoor photographic event in Castleton. Two friends of Gareth’s, Lynda and Dean, are actors/models who have done several sessions for Sheffield P.S. They dress in a variety of costumes and after discussions with them we have decided that dressing in Victorian/Edwardian costumes and choosing suitable locations in Castleton would provide an ideal photographic opportunity. Keith, along with Gareth; Lynda and Dean visited Castleton to look around and we have decided on three locations within the village:1. The beautiful tree lined driveway to Goosehill Hall – the owners, John and Helen Whitfield have agreed to let us use their driveway.2. Pathway towards Peak Cavern.3. St Edmunds churchyard. If we can get the interest of a minimum of 12 people the cost will be £10 each to cover Lynda and Dean’s expenses.

Unwanted Darkroom Equipment

Christine Ord has a friend who would like to do some developing and printing in the darkroom. If any of you have darkroom equipment that you would like to pass on please contact Christine or myself and I will pass on a message – thank you.

Photographs of Autumn

St Edmund’s Church in Castleton would like to put on a small display of autumn photographs as part of their Harvest Festival service on Sunday 23^rd October. If you have any suitable prints of autumn please give them to either Margaret Drabble or me by Friday 21^st – thank you.

Christmas Dinner 

Our Christmas Dinner has been arranged for Thursday December 8^th at The George Hotel, Hathersage – 7.30 for 8pm. We have been offered an excellent three course menu at £32.50 and we have the use of a private room. Thank you to Ian Ord who has done a lot of work in organising this – for further information or to book a place, please contact Ian O.

Theme for 2023 Exhibition

The Committee have agreed that the theme for next year’s exhibition will be “The Beatles and Beyond” Your photograph should illustrate the title of a Beatles song or any song by the four individual members as solo artists. It should give you a bit of fun; using your imagination, and both myself and the judge, Ashley Franklin, will be delighted to see what you come up with

Videoing meetings

We are continuing to experiment with producing a video of the meetings which can be viewed later but preserving copyright of the presentation. 

Thank you to Paul Hatt, who has been videoing our recent meetings and is using this to investigate how to make further meetings available with good images and particularly sound.

I’m sorry that I missed this meeting, as Keith – our 2022 Chair – had already told me about Richard’s remarkable skill as an Audio Visual photographer. So here’s Keith account of the meeting, along with six of the photographs Richard showed during his AV presentation:

Richard treated us to a superb evening of Audio Visuals which lifted all our spirits after hearing, just 45 minutes before the start of the evening, the very sad news that our beloved Queen had sadly passed away. We therefore started the evening with a minute’s silence of respect before Richard showed us 10 Audio Visuals – a variety of styles – and why he is regarded as one of the top Audio Visual workers in this country.

All 10 sequences showed Richard’s skill as a photographer, sound producer, script writer and narrator. These included: “Arrival” – (Birmingham)“The Burning of the leaves” – (a very moving poem) “And Never Cackled” – (Bletchley Park) “The Gasman Cometh – (Humorous Flanders and Swan song) “Denis Thorpe – the final frame” – (Denis’s friendship with LS Lowry and the taking of an iconic photograph following his death))“The ascent of Monte Baldo” – (stunning landscapes near Lake Garda)“Death of Steam” – (Scrap yard for steam engines in Barry Island)“Liquid Gold” – (The most expensive liquid – the ink for the inkjet printer)“Inside Outside” – (Surrealist sequence produced during lockdown)“In search of Christina”- (The story behind a famous photograph).

Two of the sequences are more than worthy of special mention:  “Denis Thorpe – the final frame”- Richard was deservedly awarded second place for this AV at NAVC (The National Audio Visual Championships) last weekend. “In Search of Christina” – this masterpiece was awarded first place at The International Audio Visual Championships in 2019 and at the NAVC, the President of The Royal Photographic Society, Simon Hill Hon FRPS, specifically asked if this could be projected after all the other sequences had been shown.  An honour indeed and enjoyed by us all as well as by our members last Thursday. 

Coffee Morning – from Margaret Drabble

We had a very well attended Coffee Morning on Saturday 10th September in the Old School, Hope. Several CHVPS members in attendance (as well as our regulars) and some even won a raffle prize! It was a lovely atmosphere considering the dreadful news we received on Thursday 8th September that Her Majesty The Queen had passed away.  Everyone chatted to each other and all admired the photographs on display. It was lovely to see Karen Frankel at this event – she hopes to join us at a meeting soon.

Many thanks to all who helped in any way – either before the event, or afterwards clearing up. We made a profit of £115 (£30 had already been paid for the hire of the room). It is certainly something we could do again. A lovely social event – the jigsaws were well received as well as the cakes! Margaret

Christmas Dinner 

Our Christmas Dinner has been arranged for Thursday December 8^th at The George Hotel, Hathersage – 7.30 for 8pm. We have been offered an excellent three course menu at £32.50 and we have the use of a private room. 

Thank you to Ian Ord who has done a lot of work in organising this – for further information or to book a place, please contact him at: iangord@icloud.com

Here’s a synopsis of our evening evaluating our mounted 2022 Exhibition prints. Our 2022 Chair, Keith B, opened the meeting and made various announcements that will be covered in his monthly Chairman’s Chatter email. Keith then presented Richard Clemons with his certificate for last year’s Exhibition, as Richard had been unable to attend an evening when certificates for last year’s Exhibition were awarded. Note – click on any image to see the image in greater detail.

Mike and Judy Smith from Sheffield Photographic society had been able to view our mounted Exhibition prints in advance. They had clearly spent a great deal of time examining and discussing the merits of every print before this evening’s meeting. Then during the meeting, as each print was displayed, either Judy or Mike gave carefully focussed positive advice and comments in relation to each mounted Exhibition print. Keith invited Mike and Judy to make a presentation to the club next year – I do hope that they will be able to visit in 2023, so we can see some of their (what I know to be) stunning images.

And here are some of the prints that gained awards, as they were placed on our display stands. On the left, below, the open part of the Exhibition, followed by the themed section (Impressions of reality) to the right of the screen.

Open category

Winner                        Ian Ord                    Ladybower light

Runner-up            David Allwood        Orange tip at rest

Third              Stephen Elliott       Afterglow on Higger Tor

Commendations       Keith Brown            Ladies In Waiting

 Margaret Drabble  Wildflower meadow

Ian Ord             Watching the boys watching the girls go by

 Ray Fowler             Peony shadows

Theme category (Impressions of reality)

Winner and Catherine Cup                    Stephen Elliott    Striking colour

Runner-up  and Denis Thorpe trophy               Ian Stanyon         Sidewalk

Third                            Ian Stanyon        Ghost story

Commendations       Ann Smith           Summer holiday view!

Roger Moore      Autumn Impression

Roger Moore      Woodland Wisps

Unusually the meeting started at 6.30pm, when members who wanted to take part in a Scavenger Hunt around Castleton. Participants were asked to walk around the village and capture images that could be used to depict an image relating to the letters CHVPS. There were therefore five themes for members to interpret by taking as many photographs as they liked that fitted a C, an H, a V, a P, and an S. My personal favourite related to the letter P, where one enterprising person displayed an image of a street sign that showed a sign depicting P for parking, alongside a sign that read WC! Participating members then handed their memory cards to Immediate Past Chair Roger M. Enabling the themed images to be shown individually and then as a panel showing each participants panel of images.

When Scavenger Hunt participants returned to our meeting room, along with non-participating members, our 2022 Chair Keith B opened the meeting, welcoming everyone – our first wholly live non-Zoom meeting since Covid struck! Then Keith presented awards to members relating to the 2021 Member’s Exhibition. Sadly, our President, Ray, was in hospital, after suffering heart problems. Thus on behalf of President Ray, our Vice President Keith (also this year’s Chair) presented the President’s Prize to our immediate Past Chair – Roger Moore, for the outstanding work Roger devoted last year, in initiating so many new ideas and procedures. Well done Roger – you worked so hard and so imaginatively – you truly deserve this year’s President’s Prize:

Then came the time for Keith to present the prizes and certificates relating to our 2021 Member’s Exhibition of prints (normally shown in non-Covid times during Wakes Week at St Peter’s Church, Hope). Many thanks to Ray for preparing all of these certificates. I’ll show images of these certificates being presented, in a gallery panel, below. However, I feel that first I should show images of Steve Elliot being presented the Catherine Cup for the best 2021 Exhibition colour image, and Roger presenting the Denis Thorpe Trophy to Keith for his monochrome image of St Pancras station:

Here’s a gallery of presentation of 2021 member’s Exhibition certificates. John Sampson & Richard Clemons weren’t able to attend the meeting, so I’ve shown their certificates within the gallery. Click on to each image if you would like to see the individual image in greater detail:

Now we come to the part of my web-post that depicts the gallery of individual set of Scavenger Hunt themed images. But first I’ll show the gallery that was selected as the best panel. Here’s Keith presenting a box of chocolates to Nick C, with his panel of images in the background, on the screen behind Keith and Nick:

And here are the remaining Scavenger Hunt panels – in no particular order: Click onto each individual image if you’e like to see it in greater detail:

Next month will be our Member’s Exhibition, where two appraisers from Sheffield Photographic Society, will select the images they most like, for awards and commendations, as well as for the Catherine Cup and Denis Thorpe Trophy. Finally, don’t forget that at 7pm, on July 2nd at St Peter’s Church, Hope, Keith B is presenting his traditional Wakes Week Audio Visual, entitled “Great Fun”. Keith will be showing a collection of his and Kate’s AV”s.