Camera Clubs

I was out judging again tonight, this time at Prestwich CC. A great bunch of people, and it struck me that there are plenty of good camera clubs out there. They really do help people to improve their photography, be it by competition or by simply seeing the work of others and talking to like minded photographers.

I know that sometimes camera clubs in general get a bad press, as do judges for that matter, but it's worth trying out more than one until you find the one that gels for you.

My local club is very good and has a very broad spectrum of users. link

Best regards

I'm Chairman of ADAPS, in Atherton near Manchester, and we've been looking for an overseas club who might like to have a "battle" competition via the internet or via exchanging CDs even.

This isn't the place to discuss that, but if you'd like to see if your club is interested then drop me an e-mail or PM and we can discuss it.

Our camera club is only five years old and has already got over 100 members and still rising. Not bad for a medium sized town with other more established clubs within a short radius. Many of our members had previously tried other clubs but found them unwelcoming to beginners. We have a New Members Secretary whose role it is to look after new and prospective members on their first couple of visits to the club. Only rarely have we had a prospective member not become a full member.

Rugeley & Armitage Camera Club

The very reason I stopped entering the Pentaxuser 3 monthly competition, you don't know why you have failed and therefore improve. I was shot down by a lot of members over thaT.

If you want feedback, the competitions on Pentax User that offer that are the weekly and monthly ones. The quarterly one is run like magazine competitions used to be - winners shown, but no correspondence entered into!

Just because you don't win doesn't mean you have failed, it could simply be that others did better or the judge had preferences. Don't take pictures for others to criticise, take them for yourself.

What an excellent approach to potential new members. First impressions count. I went to my local club (at the time) in the late 80s for one evening, and I have never been through the door of a camera club since.

I'm well aware that time has moved on, and internet searches of my now local clubs appear all to be excellent towards new people, and I hope they adopt the methods of your club.

I do take photos for my own pleasure, but it would be nice to know why your photo failed in a competition in case you are making an error you had not spotted.

I fully agree - whether it's a competition or any other reason for posting a photo, I'd rather hear "that's a bit blurred" or "you could improve that by doing xxx" than total silence. I haven't entered any competitions, but I guess the more the entries, the more time it would take to give feedback on all of them and so much is just down to a matter of opinion - one person's "quirky" is another person's "badly framed".

I was talking to a chap that's part of a local camera club and did think about joining, for me the main issue is that their meeting is on an evening when I'm already doing something else. Another local one used to hold regular exhibitions in the library but don't seem to do that now, perhaps because the library closes at 1pm on Saturdays, their last one was somewhere else in town but not advertised anywhere other than on the door to the (slightly out of the way) venue.