Of and on a photography club

[parv]

<p><i>A long winded rant with club activities follows.</i>

 

<p>"... most members in camera clubs aren't that interested in

photography to begin with" wrote Ton M in thread <a href="http://

photo.net/casual-conversations-forum/00XsEL">Looking for camera

club program</a>.

 

<p>That annoyed me enough to ask why anyone would join a camera

club then. I was fully expecting a reply that that was already answered

on the lines of discussing techniques & similar. Then Ton's reply

surprised me a little in which he wrote that a camera club meeting was

more of a social gathering.

 

<p>Ton's second reply caused me to search photo.net for "camera club". On the first attempt I got useless results via Google

consisting of member profiles, not the subject of "camera club".

Somewhat better results were obtained after tacking "photography" in

the search query. :-} Most pertinent (result) came out to be "<a href="http://

photo.net/casual-conversations-forum/00Wzro">Any camera club

members?</a>". Since there is a dearth of results from photo.net on

the subject ...

 

<p>I currently belong to a "Hilo Photography Club" in Hilo, Hawai'i,

USA. Dues are US$ 15 per year. There are more members than

35-40 who regularly attend a monthly meeting in the evening. It has a

board, by laws, etc. Meetings are held in a large room in a senior

center, rent free. Membership include people from all levels, beginner

to master, hobbyist to retired professional, occasional photographer

to serious.

 

<p>There is not much on the <a href="http://hilophotoclub.org/

Home.html">current website</a> (<a href="http://hiphoto.org/">old

one</a>), <a href="http://hilophotoclub.org/

Newsletter_Archive.html">newsletters</a> may be more informative.

 

<p>Two-three people are responsible for refreshments on a rotating

basis. Club funds provide for disposable plates, cups. Food break

occurs after an hour. A meeting lasts from 7p-9p; tail portion consist

of business meeting. People come & go.

 

<p>There are equipment & techniques demonstrations; free & fee software & photography classes & workshops; visual presentations by guest & member speakers. Additionally, there is a "15-minutes"

segment in some of the meetings in which a person shares their

photographs and/or derived images; questions are either asked at the end or during depending on the presenter.

 

<p>Once in a while, there is critique session of 2-3 images per person In the beginning, critique, critic and opinion were from the whole of

attendees; that later moved to random two persons' opinions. During the November 2010 meeting that I missed critiques were read from a (or two) external judge(s) accompanied by ribbons distribution (though no

winners or losers). This development I do not like at all. I wanted the

critique, opinion to come from the general club population, mainly

from the beginners, so that people not only develop thick skin but also feel free to say just what exactly they think of the visual.

 

<p>I think my efforts to make beginners or otherwise shy

people to show their work (personally or during meeting) or share their critiques have failed. More or less same small set of people keep rotating when it comes to member presentations, presentations heavily biased towards scenery.

 

<p>Then there are competitions in which sometimes judges are from

local community, sometimes from the club, sometimes imported,

sometimes members of another club. Entries are sometimes

of digital files, other times prints, even other times a mix of the two

(say, preliminary round of digital files followed by smaller selection

from the prints). A frustrating thing I find is that most, myself

included, won't know the comments made about the images|photographs. Lacking the comments, it is no surprise that winner(s) confound me. Actually, even more frustrating situation of a competition is when winners are chosen via simple majority vote; to win in this is to present an image that would be most popular.

 

<p>Outings, tours are arranged around Big Island; as these mostly start

in the morning so I pass on them. Thankfully outings have been heavily

oriented toward scenery so far. Once I managed to get a total of three people, myself included, to come to a fencing shoot. I would like to have a photo shoot, result of which would be shown at least to each other for comparison & learning, but not kept in dark from others as was the case after the fencing shoot.

 

<p>Club had organized a portrait shoot of old people using the senior

center. Apparently it ran for 2-3 days. Senior center members were

sometimes accompanied by their family members. I can't say how

did the photographs turn out as people being photographed asked not

to display them.

 

<p>In October or November <a href="http://hilophotoclub.org/

Newsletter_Archive.html">newsletter</a>, <a href="http://

redskiesatnight.com/">Eric J</a> <a href="http://

redskiesatnight.com/2010/10/09/on-cameras/">mentioned that the

club name has "photography" not "camera"</a>. That gave me slight

chuckle. Why, you ask? Every time I ask somebody what she|he

shoots, I am told about the camera (model|system). Then I have to

make it clear that I was not asking about the equipment but what

subjects does a person photograph. During presentations, audience

would invariably ask about the camera model & lens (in addition to

aperture, shutter speed & tripod use).

 

<p><i>Any</i>way ... <a href="http://hilophotoclub.org/Newsletter_files/

HPCDEC2010.pdf">Dec</a> 20 outing is in the *night* around <a href="http://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/craterrimtour_jaggar.htm">Jaggar Museum</a> to shoot the moon & lava plume. That gives me an excuse to visit a restaurant around the area. Rain & sulphur may make this a sour visit which in turn will turn a long drive into a useless drive.

 

[steve m smith]

<p>I am a member of a camera club on the Isle of Wight, England. It is fairly similar to yours being a good mix of social gathering, competition, critique and technique training and has a mixture of members from beginner to expert.</p>

<p>http://www.ssdcc.org.uk/about/</p>

[robert_k1]

<blockquote>

<p>... there is a dearth of results from photo.net on the subject ...</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Did you come across these threads in your search?</p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/casual-conversations-forum/00Wzro?start=0</p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/casual-conversations-forum/00XRZM</p>

[parv]

<p>Robert, I certainly did. Somebody was asking specifically about image submission at the first URL -- a very narrow subject. At the second, old club memories|experiences were wanted for somebody's thesis, of which I did not want to be a part of.

 

<p>

(<i>The count of 3 pales in comparison to multiplicate queries of people asking about digital cameras, and/or lenses for such, meeting various criteria over short span of time. Just pales.</i>:-J)

[Mattman944]

<p>"Without honest evaluations or competitions, a club will degrade into grandparents sharing snapshots of their grandchildren". Someone told me that once and I agree. A serious club requires a process that strongly encourages members to improve. </p>

<p>My club has monthly evaluations and critiques using 3 of the better members as judges. Points are earned based on your results. We have 3 classes so beginners can be successful and are motivated to improve and move up. </p>

<p>Once a year, we have a competition using outside judges. Plaques are awarded to the winners. The most prestigious award in the club is the "most improved".</p>

[brian_m.1]

<p>I used to belong to a camera club in the early 90s. I had just bought my EOS 650 and was rapidly adding lenses for my portrait photography. I won a contest or two too. I stopped going long time ago but the camera club is still there, meets at the same time, on the same day at the same place. Of course, back then it was all film, prints and slides so I never was how the club took to digital imaging. I wonder if there is a film camp and a digital camp, with expected arguments back and forth. I might just go back to find out!</p>

[gyuker]

<p><strong>Parv</strong>,<br>

What an interesting thread. I joined a young club (Lightcatchers) here in Wisconsin about eight months ago. The club is now 14 months old now I think. Twenty to thirty five members attend monthly. Currently there are no dues although that has been discussed. We have a President and a Vice-President, no other formal structure.<br>

The club member composition is similar to yours except I'm not sure any of us would consider ourselves to be masters. We meet one night per month in an art center that allows us to use the space rent free for our meetings and also provides wall space for displaying members work. We are also blessed to have a member who is very accomplished in creating a wonderful newsletter for us.<br>

We have volunteer committees to make decisions regarding upcoming topics/speakers, website creation, and wall display/theme who meet for 1/2 hour prior to the regular meeting. The regular meeting is scheduled to last for 1 hour but it is not uncommon for it to go longer. I lead the topic/theme committee. Topics and themes have consisted of guest and member presentations as well as theme based photo sharing. I have not been able to incorporate a 'critique' portion yet. We are focusing on photography basics to help the less advanced members improve. We have not yet had any 'in club' competitions but members are made aware of different competitions in the area. The club has had one successful field trip to date and has more scheduled for 2011.<br>

Finding ways to encourage less advanced members to participate fully in the various club activities is continually on my mind, so I share your concern in that regard. Overcoming members 'shyness' in displaying their work is a challenge, especially when the more advanced members have very nice work.<br>

<strong>Matthew</strong>, I agree that with your statement that "a serious club requires a process that strongly encourages members to improve." Hopefully our club never looses sight of that.</p>

[parv]

Steve S, I got the impression that club places emphasis on derivate images or heavy manipulation as much as or even more than plain photographs when few days ago I looked around the website. Is that correct?

 

 

Matthew M, I will raise that points suggestion next year. Thank you.

 

 

Brian M, do update if|when you would have visited the club again. (At the time I joined, the club was transitioning to digital media (entries, presentations) unofficially. About after a year, club had officially chosen digital files as the preferred media. There are people who still use film cameras and present the prints, but sadly they are not as much as visible as they used to be. There are also people who can't fathom that someone would still be using film willingly.)

 

 

Guy Y, "Lightcacthers", rather ambitious name that is. :-) All the best for the success of the club & its members. I hope people understand the copyright, licensing, and usage issues when participating in competitions. Carolyn W used to put these issues on her website ( http://www.photoattorney.com/ ), which she has moved to Twitter. Old stuff should be still there.

 

Do keep the newsletter maker happy by supplying usable material. Ours' complaint is lack of articles & images now & then; he gets a pouring of images when an email is sent for them.

[parv]

Well, I had stopped going to the meetings since few months ago. And have not renewed the membership by not paying the dues, however small.

 

In other news, some of the club members have started a mentoring program of sorts in which people (would) sign up to be mentors & mentee for 1-2 hours long session over variable number of days.

[gyuker]

<p><strong>Parv - </strong>Sorry to hear that you have lost interest in the club. We also just recently had a mentoring session. About four hours at an organizations property with whom we have partnered in the past. Although the event was modestly attended, those that did attend gave the effort high accolades. I recieved several notes of thanks.<br>

The most challenging thing for me is to keep coming up with ideas, events, presentations that will keep the club members interested and learning, which is my where I focus all of my energies. So far it has been working. The club is two years old this month.<br>

The newsletter is still going strong. Published every other month. Yes members have to be reminded to make contributions and yes only a few members offer articles. Never the less I am still very enthusiastic about the newsletter. Our editor does a phenomonal job with it. I brag it up to everyone. Regretably it is sent only to members and not available on line. There was one edition published to the blog. The blog really isnt going anywhere but if one wanted to see that issue the blog address is here.<br>

<a href="http://viewfinder.lightcatchersphotoclub.com/">http://viewfinder.lightcatchersphotoclub.com/</a> <br>

By keeping the focus on improving members skills we have been able to keep and grow an increasing number of members.<br>

Best Regards,<br>

Guy</p>