What happens at a camera club?

I've pondered joining a camera club many times. Thinking of turning up to my local one tonight, although the agenda doesn't look very exciting: "Open Competition, Judged by Peter Yeo FRPS DPAGB APAGB from Gainsborough".

What goes on at camera clubs? Are you expected to take your camera? Do people talk gear all evening? Is there a hazing ritual? Do people chuck their keys into a large bowl on arrival? Etc etc....

Camera Clubs, or Photographic Societies, vary as much as personalities do.

I'm Chairman of ADAPS and we have weekly meetings of lectures and competitions. Sometimes we have events such as an upcoming Victorian Lantern Slide Show. Some members may even dress up....then there are Photoshop demos and other nights covering workshops on a varying frequency.

So, we have portrait nights and studio space in the clubrooms. We travel out, hiring a coach several times a year. Recent trips have been to Beamish, Lincoln, York, Whitby for Goth weekends, etc.

Add to that a web presence with a club website, an active club forum a bit like this one, and pages on Facebook, Flikr and YouTube. Something on every viable platform we can find.

Membership is from 16 years onwards, both male and female, and full of very active photographers.

But not every club is as active, and you may find that the stuffy, cliquey, male dominated clubs of yesteryear still exist.

Will, go and take a look and keep an open mind. I think a lot of people expect and want different things from clubs. The important parts that often people overlook is that people need to put something into a club not just take from it. in my opinion a good club is open to ideas with people willing to plan and facilitate events and activities that may go well or may not go so well, its the learning and sharing that makes a good club, but I have been to a few that are stuck in time and will eventually end if they do not embrace new ideas and welcome potential members.

What's the usual format of judging nights? I presume you don't sit in embarrassed silence while the judge does his rounds? Are members invited to chip in?

Mine has a mixture of competition evenings, presentations and a monthly workshop on a wide mixture of topics. No-one takes a camera and "gear talk" is almost non-existent, except at some the workshops where it may be appropriate, e.g. one held last year on macro technique. It has a wide ranges of ages from 90+ (and still very active!)to around mid 20s.

I've found it very useful, and it is definitely helping me to improve my own photography.

However, the first local club I tried didn't suit me as it was a bit like that described in John's final sentence - so I tried another. I would suggest that you give it a try and if you don't like it - don't join.

the prints and digital images are handed in on a club night then usually a fotnight later the judge attends the club with the images that he/she has reviewed and gives their decision and reasons as to why each was judged the way it was, at least that is how ours works.

Is anyone here a member of "The Camera Club" in London founded 1885?
http://thecameraclub.co.uk/

They used to have one in Manchester until the 70's... all we ever did was photograph models from Lucy Claytons and Pam Holts once a week plus actors/actresses off Corrie who wanted free prints. Because it was licensed it eventually became the local for the Granada crowd and the Camera Club broke up, when the studio became a restaurant.

Edit: This was the place....
http://www.manchester-forum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4801.0
Those were the days when you had to step over Peter Fairclough on the floor to get to the bar



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Cheers... I think I'll possibly wait for a lecture that interests me, and use that as a 'way in'...

I joined a camera club and it got me to where I am today, however there are poor clubs so you need to choose wisely and be willing to try another if the first one or so doesn't suit.

I didn't get where I am today by joining a camera club.


RIP, RIP.

You run the risk of boring talks from the likes of me - he he!!!

This question pops up on the Forum every now and then and quite a few Pentax users say they have had boring experiences or experienced older members set in their ways and unwilling to accept new ideas at the camera clubs they have tried in their home areas. But there are many first class camera clubs. I wrote the following comments in reply to a critical comment on camera clubs earlier this year. I'll just repeat it now.


Its depressing to read some of these comments on camera clubs. Thank God mine isn't like that. At Durham PS there's a buzz as you walk through the door. Half an hour before the meeting starts the room is already nearly full of people. An average Thursday night meeting attracts around 70 members.
We have lots of competitions and many these are for beginners to encourage our newer members. We also get lots of great visiting speakers. Last night we had Ann and Steve Toon, professional wildlife photographers and journalists who showed amazing pictures taken in Africa.
Because we are the biggest camera club in the Northern Counties Photographic Federation with a membership of more than 100 we can afford to pay for better class speakers and often team up with the Royal Photographic Society to share the fees for big names touring the North.
Our activities are not restricted to Thursday night meetings. We have monthly digital imaging workshops and a monthly assignment outing to a location with photo opportunities. Tomorrow we are off to Middlehaven, the modernised area of the old Middlesborough docklands.
We have coffee together, meet up for lunch and everyone chats; this helps new members and old hands get to know each other. We have an annual print exhibition in Durham Cathedral, another in Durham University's Botanic Gardens and regular mini exhibitions in local libraries and Durham Town Hall.
The photography from all our members is terrific. Our beginners constantly amaze us with their fantastic images. We regularly get images accepted in international exhibitions and for the second successive year Durham PS has qualified to represent the NCPF at the annual projected images competition run by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain at Warwick University.
In the recent PAGB club championship Durham PS was placed 12th among all the competing camera clubs in the country.
As for other camera clubs in the North East, I can say from personal experience that Hexham PS, Ryton CC and Whitley Bay PS also have a great atmosphere when you walk in to one of their club night meetings.
So not all camera clubs are dead on their feet, run by old fogies stuck in their ways.
One final thing, there's no equipment snobbery in our camera club. We are more interested in the images people produce than in the camera equipment they use.David
PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/davidtrout
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Photobucket http://s799.photobucket.com/albums/yy273/Davidtrout2/
Last Edited by davidtrout on 08/03/2013 - 11:10

Perhaps I ought to be asking - what excellent stand-out camera clubs are there in the East Midlands - say in a triangle between Chesterfield, Nottingham and Derby? The one I have my eye on is simply the nearest, and I am particularly interested in the work of one of the photographers there (Geoff Hicks). I regret not getting involved in some of the reputable camera clubs e.g. Smethwick when I was living around Brum.

same question for the harrogate, leeds, york area?

looking at websites doesn't tell me much

If you send fatspider a pm he will tell you about his Leeds club which is apparently great!(well he was the president I think)