Camera Clubs

Sorry Mannesty, this is something I could never do in a million years. I always seem to find that established groups can be very cliquey and being shy I find them hard to break into.

I have been keeping an eye on their website and it isn't making me want to rush out and join. I have picked up their programme of events and the Winter Meeting Programme includes:
"Flora and Fauna my way"
Competition - Street Life (I think PaulyRichard should join and win this one :lol
"From Pursuit to Passion to Profession"
"Balloons over Derbyshire"
"Audio-visual The Digital Way using Proshop Producer"
Critique Evening - projected image set "Rain"
"Architectural Through the Viewfinder"
Competition - Meal Time
Competition - Boot Sale.
amongst others. At £43 subscription I can't see myself joining.

I'm sorry you aren't nearer to us and can't experience our warm hospitality.

New members are the lifeblood of any club and are ignored at the peril of the future. Today's newcomers will one day be running the club.....

I would recommend going along to a few different camera clubs as a guest, and see how friendly they are, and what they do.

I would also suggest that you check their programme to make sure that you go along on an evening where there is a lecture that interests you. There's nothing worse than going along on a duff evening, even the members will admit you get a few of those

You can find a list of most of the camera clubs in Britain here link and click on member federations. (The federations websites are pretty dire, don't let that put you off, just look for the list of member clubs).

I joined a club 14 months ago and I think I have improved a lot, other people may beg to differ

My improvement has been through going on all the trips they organise, talking to lots of people, visiting photographic exhibitions, showing people my images and asking for critique, and entering all of the competitions.

You may find that camera club images are of a quite different style from the images you see elsewhere and from the type you currently take.
If you look on my Flickr gallery (link in signature) most of my images were taken for camera club competitions.

All the best whatever you decide to do.

Tried to see if there was any others out there in N. Ireland who would want to meet up. Not one reply

Why is that?

I'm not aware we have many (any other than your good self) members in NI - a few in the RoI. Not sure why that should be - maybe Pentax cameras aren't very easy to get hold of in your neck of the woods?

Now they just brag about their D300's and Canon Mark III which spends more time in the shop. The camera club I used to belong to seemed to have professional photographers. To them, if you sold one picture, they called themselves a pro. I have sold a few and I am no pro.

It is no use arriving LATE to a Club after the meeting has started as it is rude of members to talk to visitors when there is something going on , especially a visiting demonstrator. I have seen new faces arrive and look through the glass of the inner door and see the room in semi-darkness and they do not open the door to slide in quietly but just go away never to return, then people complain that Club members never talk to them -- it's their own fault for being late !
try Brentwood & District Photographic Club here : www.bdpc.co.uk

I was quite interested in joining my local Photographic Society about two years ago, and went along to a few of their meetings as a guest, although naturally contributing the nominal fee for the coffee and biscuits.

I went to a studio session, a Photoshop lecture, and a slide show of a member's pictures set to music.

There were about 15 people at each session, all perfectly friendly, a variety of ages, men and women. No one else at the studio session had a Pentax camera, but there was no trace of brand snobbery. A couple of them were interested in my K10D as a novelty, and one guy was very happy to lend me his infra-red trigger for the studio lights.

I didn't join in the end, mostly because I came to the conclusion that the studio sessions, in which I was the most interested, would ultimately be very frustrating - a couple of five minute sessions with a model once a month with everyone else watching, wasn't my preferred learning environment. And it turned out that there was no members access to the lighting kit other than on the studio nights.

But that was the only reason. All groups of people you don't know look like cliques from the outside, but that's usually an illusion that disappears as soon as you start to get to know them.

Have read the above and thought I would add my views on the subject or question. I purchased a Pentax K10 two years ago and new nothing about photography so I looked in to joining a photography club, Fran and I visited about five in the West Yorkshire area and they all had their good and not so good points. From a selfish point of view all I wanted to do was take from the clubs in terms of their knowledge of how and why. When I realised that there were lots of other people with different needs I realised that reading a few books and getting out and taking pictures would be a good starting point for my personal learning, so that I would at least know how my camera worked and develop some basic photography skills. I think I have come a long way from two years ago but I still have a lot to learn, joing a club is a great way to meet people who like photography some will brag about their cameras, some will not get their cameras out of their bags, some will help answer questions, some won't. I guess in short you just have to give clubs a go and find one that you fell comfortable with and enjoy photography.

Fletcher8

I agree with your comments

Gareth, you have a PM