Is there a forum about local Photography clubs?

jh2

jh2

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JH
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I just wondered what's peoples experience of local photography clubs and what the best things you've done at them?

I've been a little disappointed with my local club, as it became to much of a club, with meetings, pdi's, raffles, agendas, prizes, committees etc and seems to have lost sight of just having fun and learning about photography. Any body got any ideal photography club ideas or programmes that have inspired you, as I'll look for this in a club (I just want to learn from people who are much better than me) rather than people who are 'interested' in photography.

Cheers for your thoughts
 
what country are you in?

my camera club was a bore.. nearly fell asleep a couple of times with talks on landscapes and black/white photogrpahy..
 
I'm a member of two - one fairly serious & competition driven with about 120 members - great speakers, we run an "international salon" every year, and lots of experienced club members that have helped me improve my photography exponentially! Perhaps 'fun' isn't the first word I'd chose about this club, but I love the variety of images and the excitement of the monthly comps, and yes, there's a few fun nights but not many.

The other club I belong to has 40 members, not such interesting speakers (club doesn't have so much funds as the bigger one) but it's very friendly, fairly relaxed, and is always fun because there's always some disaster / drama / mishap that we all laugh about and rib the committee members about, and it's all taken in good heart.

The best things I've seen are (and not in any particular order) people with compacts winning a 'seal of merit', some really amazing speakers (Viveca Koh, Gavin Hoey, Joan Blease), a bank of knowledge that I can pick on, winning 'pdi of the year' in my class, meeting lots of interesting people from all walks of life, having regular 'workshop' nights with models, lighting etc, and seeing lots and lots of interesting images that have all been an inspiration to me in one way or another...

Both clubs are great in their own way, but very different - it just depends what you want from a club? perhaps the one you've joined isn't quite right for you - there are plenty about, what part of the country are you in?
 
In my own personal experience, I'm not sure a camera club is the best place to learn photography. It may help you to advance (I certainly did, to a point), but I'd go on a nightschool course in the first instance.

Not all clubs are made equal though - I'm no longer a member of one, but I do talks at camera clubs across the north and have encountered a large variety of approaches. Might be worth checking the PAGB website to see who your local regional association is as they will have a list of local clubs, I know the L&CPU site does.
 
KIPAX said:
what country are you in?

my camera club was a bore.. nearly fell asleep a couple of times with talks on landscapes and black/white photogrpahy..
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The UK, East Sussex. Yes I agree, we had one on Wedding photography.......o my goodness just stop with the pictures already.
 
HopefulM said:
I'm a member of two - one fairly serious & competition driven with about 120 members - great speakers, we run an "international salon" every year, and lots of experienced club members that have helped me improve my photography exponentially! Perhaps 'fun' isn't the first word I'd chose about this club, but I love the variety of images and the excitement of the monthly comps, and yes, there's a few fun nights but not many.

The other club I belong to has 40 members, not such interesting speakers (club doesn't have so much funds as the bigger one) but it's very friendly, fairly relaxed, and is always fun because there's always some disaster / drama / mishap that we all laugh about and rib the committee members about, and it's all taken in good heart.

The best things I've seen are (and not in any particular order) people with compacts winning a 'seal of merit', some really amazing speakers (Viveca Koh, Gavin Hoey, Joan Blease), a bank of knowledge that I can pick on, winning 'pdi of the year' in my class, meeting lots of interesting people from all walks of life, having regular 'workshop' nights with models, lighting etc, and seeing lots and lots of interesting images that have all been an inspiration to me in one way or another...

Both clubs are great in their own way, but very different - it just depends what you want from a club? perhaps the one you've joined isn't quite right for you - there are plenty about, what part of the country are you in?
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Thanks for the thoughts. I'm into street, people pictures, etc. I want to get much much better. The guy who ran it was a fantastic photographer, but stepped down as got tired of the admin, also the new chairman has also just stepped down due to lack of time. Best stuff I did with them is just going out on semi organized shots and comparing my stuff with other peoples picture of the same subjects, was a big learn.
 
viewfromthenorth said:
In my own personal experience, I'm not sure a camera club is the best place to learn photography. It may help you to advance (I certainly did, to a point), but I'd go on a nightschool course in the first instance.

Not all clubs are made equal though - I'm no longer a member of one, but I do talks at camera clubs across the north and have encountered a large variety of approaches. Might be worth checking the PAGB website to see who your local regional association is as they will have a list of local clubs, I know the L&CPU site does.
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yer, I agree with you (though I'm probably well enough advanced not to go to night school unless it was very specific) My mother in law goes to a club in London where half the club are judges, she say their work is amazing. Kinda need this kind of club. (not in London though) I was also thinking of doing some Leica street stuff with one of the leica stores, little pricey though.
 
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Might be a bit far for you but Chichester Camera Club is rather good - a great set of speakers coming up, quite a progressive club in terms of competitions (club local, national, international), has about 140 members of all different levels of experience, and they also have their own exhibition (I think it's still on in the Town Hall)

Hope this helps!
 
HopefulM said:
Might be a bit far for you but Chichester Camera Club is rather good - a great set of speakers coming up, quite a progressive club in terms of competitions (club local, national, international), has about 140 members of all different levels of experience, and they also have their own exhibition (I think it's still on in the Town Hall)

Hope this helps!
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Thx, a bit far away though :)
 
Start your own or join an existing group on flickr in the category you're interested in. You'll learn more than a club probably.
 
I hope not.
 
Clubs have their place, but as you can see from the comments here they vary in what they offer, and depends on what you seek from them. Where I am, Leicestershire, there are two or three good clubs. They offer a great variety of speakers, often photographers who have been successfully published and accomplished in national and international competitions. What they also do is get in guest judges for competitions who offer (mostly) excellent teaching critique. I've found this to be invaluable particularly when I see the crappy feedback offered on photo websites and Facebook much of the time critiquing images the size of a postage stamp on a phone. Clubs teach you the art of printing and presentation. Standards are slipping a little though, I'm seeing even in established clubs competitions moving more to pdi as less people seem to want to print to A3plus where you see the true beauty of a mounted print in mono or carefully crafted colour. Some clubs offer workshops for people to learn printing, various apps, macro, studio etc. As a generalism, it is mostly men in v necks, mostly late 40s up, but that doesn't always mean the work is stuffy. There are some excellent images and of a high standard. I notice you like Street, and that is where I get frustrated because mostly competitions don't lend themselves to that genre. Often the winners of competitions seem to be re enactment portraits, a motorbike, a landscape or a composite creative. It would be great to see true documentary photography or street images, even in street competitions :) I look at it though there are a good group of people all with a joint interest and there is a chance to learn. Many people joining a club aren't shooting and presenting to a standard you will see in your first competition and few have ever critiqued their own images in the way a good helpful judge points things out. If you get the competition bug of course the bigger clubs are affiliated to bigger organisations. I think it's worth a go.
 
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I am going to throw a spanner in the works having never been to a camera club but have not heard of any good ones. From what I have heard it is more a case of my picture is better than yours clubs. The best way to learn is to go and do it yourself and be critical of your own work. Accept advice that you find helpful and reject the other 95% as most is a case of how they do it not how to do it.
 
I just read the original post again and I find the comments rather odd. Successful clubs generally grow, need funds to pay good speakers, book venues, have equipment to project and display images, people to manage competition entries internal and external, the club website etc.. With that comes responsibilities and decisions, committees to manage funds etc. all things that make the club attractive and keep members. With a big club there are often formalised sub groups, maybe studio / model nights section, a beginners tuition or whatever. The purpose of a club is to bring photographers together, with that you eet other people who maybe have the same interests who for into small groups of friends, landscapers, re enacters, birds, the motorspors fans, those still shooting film. The alternative is to join a smaller group of people, perhaps through Facebook or a local meeting place. There may be no formal structure and you end up with a handful of phoographers who just go out together. You may then wonder what to do with your pictures. No competitions (certainly not yours pictured against 70 others), no annual display in the local community centre . Clubs don't suit everyone and they don't suit all genres of photography, but most people who are artists do it to display the end result ad perhaps hae it compepte aginst others.

I don't recognise the description of clubs from Realspeed. As you suggest you have never been a club member so consequently you are basing your comments on the stereotypical view of any type of club member just like the local gardeners club member growing the biggest marrow every year. Ive actually found club members to be helpful and encouraging to others. Yes, people would like to win the trophies, but also people want the winning image to be deserving of the prize and happy to see the best image win. A lot of club members give up time to run the sub groups to teach others and run aspects of the club for the benefit of others. With regard to the self critique then that depends on the person. Experienced club judges soon made me look at things differently, noticing distracting little features, suggesting better ways of cropping an image, noticing subtle colour casts...things that may have narked me at the tie, but on reflection I'd agree they are absoluty right. People should do photography for themselves primarily, but I think most of us learn from mistakes and seeing how we could have done it better.
 
Where I live there are no photographic clubs and even if only a few miles away. I would not be able to get to them as I have been prevented from driving by the Eye surgeon I am under
 
I'm a camera club judge for the Yorkshire Photographic Union and obviously I've been associated with clubs of various kinds for quite a while now

Some are great, some are boring

Larger clubs tend to be more interesting but then as they try to accommodate everyone some nights are boring too, other nights FAB, so pick & choose your evenings

I helped start a club that went from zero to its 50th member in less than 12 months, all due to the power of Facebook and sharing images and organising lots of trips out to shoot stuff

What many really need is just a bunch of photo-buddies to go shoot stuff with and Facebook is an easy way to get that going & sharing, you can also avoid all the usual club stuff of admin, insurance etc. that way. The only problem being that if you don't have a few really good photographers to learn from then you'll hit a plateau together and eventually get bored, which is kinda what happens at normal club level for many

As a social event clubs can be great as most photographers shoot alone and hence it can be a lonely hobby

Clubs are not for everyone, but I too have not seen what Realspeed refers to as I know several good clubs and no 'bad' ones; though I guess its all about what you want from them so good/bad is (like photography) highly subjective

Try whatever's close for a bit, start your own club/group/buddies if it doesn't deliver what you need :)

Dave
 
BlackCloud said:
I just read the original post again and I find the comments rather odd. Successful clubs generally grow, need funds to pay good speakers, book venues, have equipment to project and display images, people to manage competition entries internal and external, the club website etc.. With that comes responsibilities and decisions, committees to manage funds etc. all things that make the club attractive and keep members. With a big club there are often formalised sub groups, maybe studio / model nights section, a beginners tuition or whatever. The purpose of a club is to bring photographers together, with that you eet other people who maybe have the same interests who for into small groups of friends, landscapers, re enacters, birds, the motorspors fans, those still shooting film. The alternative is to join a smaller group of people, perhaps through Facebook or a local meeting place. There may be no formal structure and you end up with a handful of phoographers who just go out together. You may then wonder what to do with your pictures. No competitions (certainly not yours pictured against 70 others), no annual display in the local community centre . Clubs don't suit everyone and they don't suit all genres of photography, but most people who are artists do it to display the end result ad perhaps hae it compepte aginst others.

I don't recognise the description of clubs from Realspeed. As you suggest you have never been a club member so consequently you are basing your comments on the stereotypical view of any type of club member just like the local gardeners club member growing the biggest marrow every year. Ive actually found club members to be helpful and encouraging to others. Yes, people would like to win the trophies, but also people want the winning image to be deserving of the prize and happy to see the best image win. A lot of club members give up time to run the sub groups to teach others and run aspects of the club for the benefit of others. With regard to the self critique then that depends on the person. Experienced club judges soon made me look at things differently, noticing distracting little features, suggesting better ways of cropping an image, noticing subtle colour casts...things that may have narked me at the tie, but on reflection I'd agree they are absoluty right. People should do photography for themselves primarily, but I think most of us learn from mistakes and seeing how we could have done it better.
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Which clubs do you have positive experience of in Leicestershire blackcloud?
 
Leicester Forest and Leicester and Leicestershire both have excellent reputations. There are smaller clubs around e.g. Sileby but don't know much about them
 
Thx for the thoughts on this everyone, seems i'm not alone. The best things i enjoyed were the pratical things, so 1 was a photo shoot of local fishermen and after we all compared our shots. This was great as you could see how others veiwed the same subject. I learnt allot that day. This is what I want from a club.
 
Folks,

Interesting feedback on Camera Clubs and I guess it just goes to show how different the CC world can be based on which club you go to.

I tried one a good few years ago and decided it wasn't for me as the average age was probably 65+ and nobody even came over to say hello when i attended.

I was then persuaded to visit my current club.

Reasonably diverse audience, they go to the pub afterwards and there was a decent amount of fun and banter so I joined.

I was dragged onto the committee and from there ended up as president :( for which role I am just starting my third year)

As per DG's comments above, one of the most interesting things for me were the competitions and the judging. To get decent structured thoughtful comments from both a positive and negative perspective on my imagery was a revelation. Listening to different judges over a few competitions judging both print and PDI competitions was hugely educational of what worked, what made a good image etc..

I got roped into judging for the Chiltern Association of Camera Clubs (CACC) which I love to do and is a learning experience on its own.. However, it does also let me look at other clubs and the way they operate, many are still like the first club I went to so not inspiring, but others are great fun and have a vibrant membership.

So my advice is go poke your head in the door, do they have a reasonable number of women?, are they ethnically diverse? are they of widely varying ages?

If you answered mostly yes, go give them a go......



Just to plug Watford Camera Club :) we have about 50-60 members, we have a varied programs that covers many areas and includes a social program for trips out etc...
  • Talks (all sorts from nature to techniques to building panels, printing etc..)
  • Hands on evenings (PS and LR, studio, macro, light painting etc.. (we even had snakes and a massive Alligator Snapping Turtle at the club one night)
  • Competitions (Print and PDI each one with open and Set subject sections)
  • Interclub comps
  • Quiz nights (fun night at Christmas etc..)
  • Members evenings (members talk about their photography , what inspired them etc...)
  • Trips out with review and compare nights (we recently did a 1 lens challenge and we will be running a proper comp with the images members took)
  • Exhibitions and shows
  • Photo trips out (Street, light trails, landscape, Hawk conservancy, The Rut etc..)
  • And this year we are adding extra support for people with Panels and qualifications.
Oh and did I mention we go down the pub after :)

Go try one, you might be surprised.....

Martin
 
F1.2 said:
The RPS have national groups

http://www.rps.org
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Can I ask you something. Rather than join a club, do you think you could get more out of joining the RPS and going to some of the group sessions? Just wondering what to plonk my money/time into. Cheers
 
jh2 said:
Can I ask you something. Rather than join a club, do you think you could get more out of joining the RPS and going to some of the group sessions? Just wondering what to plonk my money/time into. Cheers
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Personally yes I do as you can choose where to go and what seminars / groups to attend ,also get involved on line , even combine one event with a holiday ,
 
I've just joined one in West Sussex - it'll be interesting to see how it is compared with what you say your first one was like. There does seem to be a focus on competitions etc, but they also arrange trips out it seems (which I'm going to miss due to 2nd son being born).
We meet every Thursday evening, which is nice, as some of my other local ones meet really randomly.
 
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