Camera Clubs - what do you want from them ???

kev2010 said:
Wow. Lots of stereotyping right through this thread. I have to say that I have never been to a camera club but the suggestion that it is common in clubs for some members to be asked to take their clothes off I find very sad. I bet if the majority of camera club members were to read this they would be horrified. I would be surprised if this is indeed common and I think it is highly unfair to tar everyone that attends a club in such a way. Horrific.

But on a positive note. This thread has prompted me to search for a camera club and there is one 6 miles away that I did not know existed. The annual schedule looks a good balance of competition, education and trips out. But it looks good so I think I will pop along and see for myself.

So a big thanks to this thread. :)
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Actually, I suspect it is very rare for any normal member to be asked to strip - so hopefully you'll be safe at your new club :)

Enjoy

Dave
 
I think in a lot of clubs that have had the same members for ages stagnation creeps in. They are oblivious to it but to new members it is clear that change needs to happen.

There are two aspects of the club i frequent that really bug me. First is the clique mentality. Im sure it is evident in many clubs, especially those whose committee members have been in the role for many years. It's like some secret society that you need a password for. Better than it was but it still rears its head on occasion.

Secondly is the people who are happy to pick your brains about everything, kit, places to go, etc but will never offer anything in return. I will help anyone with anything, with no reward expected, if possible but reciprocation is nice sometimes.

As an example I have an engineering background and in recent times have made a gimbal head and recently a strong clamp for mounting big lenses in bird hides. They have drawn a lot of comment at the club and the chairman asked me if I would make him one. He had the courtesy to e mail me and offer to pay for my time. I happily made him one for the cost of materials.

It was lying on the table waiting for him to pick it up the other night at the club when I was asked if I fancied making a "thing to join two studio backgrounds together" as the individual couldn't find one on the net. I said I wasn't really interested in making something sight unseen but if he brought them to the club i would have a look. That seemed to be too much trouble for him and he seemed quite aggrieved that I had said no.

I said no for two reasons. Firstly a lot of people come up with ideas that are totally impractical and will give you a sketch that turns out to be completely useless and my time is too valuable to waste on that sort of rubbish.

The main reason however was the fact that in the 3 years that I have been a member this guy had never even spoken to me!!
 
Just read through the whole thread - very interesting ideas.

I joined my local camera club a couple of years ago after many years of avoiding it. This was after talking to the new chairman who I met at their annual exhibition. He explained how he had changed it from the stereotypical club, and to be honest that was the first year I had viewed their exhibition and thought that there were some interesting shots there.

Got to the first meeting of the year and was put next to one of the members who would "talk to me" and get me settled in. After a few words and learning that she didn't actually take photographs but came with her friend, she proceeded to ignore me and talk to her friend for the rest of the evening. The talk being given was also extremely boring. At the break I did talk to a couple of people who also seemed lost as they were also new, and had the obligatory tea and biscuit. They did have a table where people brought in old issues of photography magazines for others to take away and read which I thought was a good idea.

The second week I went along (it was a competition) and took a few of my old magazines along and put them on the table. The competition judge was extremely monotonous and didn't like anything vaguely different from the "standard", and at the break I went along to the table at the back of the room and discovered two of the more senior "experienced" members going through the magazines. They got to the copies of BJP I had left there and immediately grabbed them as they had "never heard of this one before". I didn't bother with the tea and went home. Never went back again.

And it isn't an age thing - I am 60 this year - it is an attitude thing, and the wrong attitude can be held at any age.

I do like the idea of Dave's club though, that is something I can see being something I would want to go to. Might have to find some local people with similar ideas and get one going.
 
Bythesea said:
I do like the idea of Dave's club though, that is something I can see being something I would want to go to. Might have to find some local people with similar ideas and get one going.
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That may well be the answer :)

Despite a lousy night of weather something like 25 people turned out for my Leeds photoshoot last night, 5 of whom are potential new members and two of whom formally asked to join via Facebook last night after they'd got home

It occurred to me that we are attracting an awful lot of real newbies who haven't a clue but are keen to learn, so as our club actually meets at our venue (pub) only twice a month we are looking to now add a 3rd night each month purely on a basic introduction to photography and how your camera works - sort of thing. I spoke to a few last night about this and all thought it a cracking idea as the quicker we can get newbies to a decent level of basic understanding the more inclusive other presentations will be

Dave
 
Bythesea said:
Just read through the whole thread - very interesting ideas.

I joined my local camera club a couple of years ago after many years of avoiding it. This was after talking to the new chairman who I met at their annual exhibition. He explained how he had changed it from the stereotypical club, and to be honest that was the first year I had viewed their exhibition and thought that there were some interesting shots there.

Got to the first meeting of the year and was put next to one of the members who would "talk to me" and get me settled in. After a few words and learning that she didn't actually take photographs but came with her friend, she proceeded to ignore me and talk to her friend for the rest of the evening. The talk being given was also extremely boring. At the break I did talk to a couple of people who also seemed lost as they were also new, and had the obligatory tea and biscuit. They did have a table where people brought in old issues of photography magazines for others to take away and read which I thought was a good idea.

The second week I went along (it was a competition) and took a few of my old magazines along and put them on the table. The competition judge was extremely monotonous and didn't like anything vaguely different from the "standard", and at the break I went along to the table at the back of the room and discovered two of the more senior "experienced" members going through the magazines. They got to the copies of BJP I had left there and immediately grabbed them as they had "never heard of this one before". I didn't bother with the tea and went home. Never went back again.

And it isn't an age thing - I am 60 this year - it is an attitude thing, and the wrong attitude can be held at any age.

I do like the idea of Dave's club though, that is something I can see being something I would want to go to. Might have to find some local people with similar ideas and get one going.
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I've often left at the break if the speaker is boring. One guy spent the first half of his talk on landscape photography talking about the importance of tripods, the rule of thirds and showed less than 5 photos, all mediocre. I didn't bother with the second half.

That said, I've got three talks lined up at clubs this year, just hope my talk isn't as boring as his! Or people don't get completely switched off by my pictures, as they're not your regular camera club material!
 
I've been following this thread with great interest as a club member and committee member of said club. I see why many people would like to see clubs offering more PP instruction, but the issue we have with this is finding the right level to pitch any talk or instruction. There are a number of different software packages available, our members use them to different degrees and have varying levels of expertise. So, if we engaged a speaker to spend an hour and a half talking about PP, where would he/she start?

A talk on Photoshop wouldn't be relevant to a member who only uses Lightroom and vice-versa, we have a few members who are exceptionally good at PP and happily answer questions if asked. Some who are really only just starting out and getting to grips with the basics. It's a tough one really. If anyone has any ideas how we could offer or present meaningful instruction to a varied audience and engage with all of them, I would be very happy to hear it. If you split our 42 members into those who use photoshop (or Elements), those who use Lightroom and those who use something else entirely, or nothing at all, and then subdivided those groups into beginners, intermediates and advanced, we would have to have a dozen speakers giving 12 different talks simultaneously! It's simply not possible to strike a balance.

As a club, we try to make sure our events have the potential to be of interest to the majority of our members. As such, we have a varied programme of talks, practical sessions and the inevitable comps in the winter season. Then we have a 3 month summer season comprising 12 outings to places of photographic interest. As such, we bring our gear along to some events and leave it at home for others. On the events where our cameras come with us, there is as much swapping technical tips with each other as there is picture taking, lots of folks swap lenses, try out tripods and other stuff belonging to other members and generally go home wiser for the experience.

I think we're getting it about right, but always have more to learn. This thread has been a real learning experience for me, therefore, and it's comforting to know we seem to be a lot better than many other clubs of similar size.
 
To answer the original question and judging by some of the comments my main requirement would be ----

A pulse
 
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Quicksnapper said:
I've been following this thread with great interest as a club member and committee member of said club. I see why many people would like to see clubs offering more PP instruction, but the issue we have with this is finding the right level to pitch any talk or instruction. There are a number of different software packages available, our members use them to different degrees and have varying levels of expertise. So, if we engaged a speaker to spend an hour and a half talking about PP, where would he/she start?

A talk on Photoshop wouldn't be relevant to a member who only uses Lightroom and vice-versa, we have a few members who are exceptionally good at PP and happily answer questions if asked. Some who are really only just starting out and getting to grips with the basics. It's a tough one really. If anyone has any ideas how we could offer or present meaningful instruction to a varied audience and engage with all of them, I would be very happy to hear it. If you split our 42 members into those who use photoshop (or Elements), those who use Lightroom and those who use something else entirely, or nothing at all, and then subdivided those groups into beginners, intermediates and advanced, we would have to have a dozen speakers giving 12 different talks simultaneously! It's simply not possible to strike a balance.
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Perhaps there is a better way than talks, which implies a one-way communication. Perhaps your members could start working collaboratively.

For example, perhaps your more advanced members could spend some time contributing to a more interactive approach with small groups of members. I described the approach I take in an earlier post in this thread. Alternatively, or perhaps in addition, you could get members to gather together in small groups and work collaboratively, with an exploratory and sharing approach, perhaps with input from time to time from more advanced members, perhaps pre-briefed about particular issues or roadblocks a group has come across. This would allow the advanced helpers to prepare and make best use of their time, helping people who through their previous discussions and problems are well prepared to receive and make good use of some focused practical advice on issues that matter to them.

Using a big-ish IPS screen that can be viewed from wide angles I have found five people to be as many as is practical, because with PP you really do have to be able to take a close look at the screen. I tried a (calibrated) projector but found it unsatisfactory. (A projector, or more people looking at a screen, is ok if all you are doing is showing which buttons to press and which sliders to slide, but to see the effects of PP, especially subtle effects, I have found getting people near to a screen is the only way I can get to work satisfactorily.)

I imagine such sessions being in someone's house, where they can use their normal PC/screen setup and can hopefully control the ambient lighting. I subdue the daytime ambient light when running my sessions, again to enhance visibility of the effects of PP. I would not like to (in fact I would not) lug my PC and screen out to a hall or whatever, where controlling the light might also be a problem.
 
Interesting discussion! I just joined my local camera club this year. The median age is 50 (but apparently this is a 'young' local club!), it has many many competition nights, I've never entered. There are some genuinely decent people there. I can't say I get a lot out of the club just because in truth I probably have a better grasp of technique and processing than many people there. These are not professionals, these are people who love their photography and love the social aspect, and it's great for them! The club has used my images for local and county competitions this year and mine have done very well. So I do feel a little like a fish out of water, but it is the local club, and the nearest thing to a gathering of people with a similar interest to myself. I was very intimidated at first with all this stress on competitions but they've been perfectly ok with me not doing these and doing my own thing.
 
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This is an interesting thread and as Sec of a camera club, several of us at the club, have been looking at where we are and where we want to be.

I have noticed, like many, the average age of members is about 50. In many ways this is because we are have the time and money that a younger family can put the dampers on.

I'm at my second local club, the first one seemed obsessed with competitions, my current club less so. As a new member at both clubs I firstly felt a little inadequate that I didn't have a suit case full of camera bodies, lenses and gadgets, I lacked photoshop and couldn't afford the trips to either Africa or the arctic to obtain the competition wining natural history images. However, I did feel that some of my images were equal to and better than some of the long standing members and did win POTY.

My current club is the fortunate position of having its own premises which includes a studio. Yet we still struggle to reach out for new members.

My views are that many new members feel their equipment is inadequate, many guest speakers refer to PS all the time. We have tried to address this with presentations by members on using manufacturers supplied software and other editing software.

To embrace a younger membership, camera clubs need to embrace phoneography, tablet editing apps and the like. Not assume that all those who wish to join are experienced photographers and offers tuition.

I recently joined a MeetUp group and I'm beginning to feel that these are going to take over from traditional clubs in the longer term. At my club there are Some who are looking for change but anticipate this will meet resistance.
 
Our club has launched a separate Facebook Group dedicated to teaching to those newest to photography and after 4 weeks it has 26 members - though only a few are under 40

Our focus will be on meets out & about to discuss photo capture techniques rather than PP, and (for now at least) the main subjects of traditional technique based capture is defo of more interest to those one their first camera

Dave
 
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