Camera Clubs

[Photofarmer]

anyone in one i guess like all everything in life you get good and bad.

maybe sites like this negate the need for clubs?

went out with a retired proffesional talking about a local club 40 kms away with about 50 members. avoid it like the plague he said unless you have latest and greatest and certain level of skill your a second class citizen.

but another club 80kms away is great topical friendly doesnt matter if your camera is 30 yrs old and your skill level is zero

 

[Kwazy]

How does it work? Do they all go to a location with their cameras and hang out together?
All things are online these days.

 

[Photofarmer]

One i may visit meet twice a month.
Have competetions tutorials field trips all sorts of stuff. might have a night on filters for intance then another night on various editing programmes showing each one. Might have a pro come in and talk about composition etc etc basic stuff for some interesting for others.

 

[JustUs7]

A local one is just starting up at my local library. I went to the first meeting. It’s a very open style where the resident pro is perfectly happy with folks joining that want to learn great phone photography even if they don’t have a “real” camera. The guy has been a pro for years and seems to be tired of of the “rules”. He even does phone photography workshops for family’s and encourages kids to be involved too.


I’ll give it a bit and see how it goes. I’ve never been in a club before.

I heard the more established club in the main city near here is much more traditional. But I’ve never been.

 

[Kwazy]

That all sounds great.
Maybe I should look into it.

 

[YangMills]

Camera clubs quite common in the UK. Typical format: Meet once a week with a talk on some photography related subject. Once a month there is a print and digital competition on a set subject or open judged by an external judge. Several inter-club competition nights during the year. Club sends its best prints and digital images to regional exhibitions and competitions. An annual exhibition of prints and projected images in a local hall. Some clubs have outings to interesting places to photograph (stately homes, sporting events etc). Many clubs also have a fortnightly or monthly studio night with a professional model. Friendliness varies from club to club but many (most) will welcome new members with little or no experience.

 

[Only RF]

I tried a few about ten years ago. Both ends of the scale. From you the know when you stepped into a bar where the band stops and everyone looks at you. You know you will never really fit in. Then the open arms clubs. The thing about online sites is I don't have to wear pants.

 

[Chris Summers]

I am a member of 3 clubs in my area, north of Houston, Texas. My local community club is the first one I joined 4 years ago. I'm a retired pro and still take a lot of pictures and wanted to see what a club might offer in the way of speakers or field trips, etc. because I miss the interaction I had when I was in the business. They were quite excited when I introduced myself at the first meeting I attended and within a few months they asked me to do a presentation at one of their monthly meetings. Now I am the membership chairman and a mentor for those wanting to learn more about Canon gear as well as Adobe Lightroom and a few other things. During the pandemic I helped organize a Front Porch portrait project in the community and we all took turns photographing families in front of their homes when we were all being advised to not venture out, the families got the images for free and it was a lot of fun. We do workshops that are open to the public, just had one on infrared conversion cameras and next weekend one is being done on Smartphone photography. My community was popular for people in the upper end of the oil and gas corporations and most of our members are retired but worked for companies like Shell, Exxon, BP, etc. Most did quite well in life and have money for nice gear and a lot of them do international photo workshops so the level of the work is pretty good.

I also joined 2 clubs in a community about 30 miles from where I live, they are similar with meetings, workshops. speakers and field trips and one does a juried photo competition; the winning entries are printed and matted and hung in a local gallery which as been a lot of fun.

For me the clubs offer interaction with others I don't get like I did when I was working. It's photography networking I guess.

 

[benpk2]

For the amateur photographer, photography clubs are a great tool. Full disclosure - I judge club competitions in the UK and sometimes wider. Most of the clubs I visit are places for those who enjoy photography to improve their skills. Nothing like a little friendly competition to push you along. Many clubs also have interesting speakers visit who can inspire and educate. I found it interesting that the pandemic caused clubs to switch overnight to online meetings, however almost all are now meeting back in person.
On the flip side, the age range for most clubs is retirement plus - with some honorable exceptions. As with all club activities, there will be little groups within the club and it can feel like a clique at times. New/prospective members need to insert themselves accordingly. This typically isn't deliberate on the clubs part, purely that photography is an introverted activity.
Also it is not a school for photography - some come to clubs to learn the very basics and typically clubs assume some existing knowledge. I've visited clubs that are genuinely encouraging to their members, arrange opportunities to create images and share knowledge. In short I highly recommend giving your local club a go, but shop around if you don't get a good feel from the first one.

 

[YangMills]

For the amateur photographer, photography clubs are a great tool...

Couldn't agree more with all that you wrote in the post above. By the way, you were the judge at my club's 2022 annual competition and exhibition.

 

[Only RF]

My all time favourite was a site called Digital Image Cage. I joined in about 2006 and it went under a few years after the 2008 crash. Daily online photo contest. Limited advertising and it had several categories. Scenic, B&W, Macro, People, Wildlife, Still Life, etc and Photo of the day. There was also photo of the month and those went in for photo the year. There was also a digital art category where you could do anything you wanted. As for the other entries. No over processing, in focus, level horizons, no dust, etc.

No big money to win. Just modest prizes from the sponsors for photo the month and year. What I liked. There was no waiting. You woke up, got your coffee and opened the site. You were either on the front page winning one of the categories or not. Very simple. Once you got 10 wins they would ask you to be a volunteer judge for a month. Each day you were assigned a different category. You sure learn what you up against judging between 300-400 images a day. Then your pick had to get past the head judge. We didn't now the names of members who entered.

I learned so much from that site. I used to shoot a lot of still life and urban scenes. Over time I switched to wildlife/birding because of the challenge. I still try to shoot still life, etc but it just does have incentive it used to.

I tried other sites but you have to wait a week, dig through pages and lots of advertising to try find if you won and so on.

 

[dmanthree]

Clubs allow face to face interactions, field trips, live meetings, etc. no web site will ever replace clubs.