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Thirteen years ago, this week, I asked if anyone belonged to a camera club but the people who responded are not (at least I think they aren't) the same people who post here now and of course, the camera world has changed so much since back then and how club members meet has changed, too. I asked about what percent of the members were shooting with film vs digital and now I might ask, about what percent of your club shoot with cell phones or mirrorless or drones. So, I have modified or eliminated some questions.
Do you belong to any camera club or photography organization? If no, would you join one? Why/Why not?
If you do belong to one (or more), can you tell us something about it? You don't have to address the questions but for example you might want to consider mentioning:
How often do you meet? In what type of location do you meet? What's a typical meeting like? Do you have guest speakers from outside the club? How long is a meeting? How long has the club been in existence? Dues? Approximately how many members?
Do you use Zoom or something like it for meetings or in addition to meeting in person?
Does the club have a website and/or a Facebook page? A newsletter?
How did you learn about the club?
What is the skill level in the group, as a whole? Can all levels of experience join?
Is the club one type of photography (example: nature, portrait, travel, urban, etc.) or mixed subject?
About what percentage of the club still shoots with film? Shoots with cell phones? Uses drones? Also does videos?
Do you have competitions? How often? If so, what is a competition like? Is it theme oriented? Is it digital only, digital and print, print only? Who judges the competitions? Does the judge (or judges) explain why they chose the photos at club meetings? Are only winning photos selected or do you have first to third place and honorable mentions? Do the judges know the names of the photographers who took the photos when they judge?
Do you ever go on group photography outings? What are they like?
Do you do any type of teaching events for club members (examples: Hands on how to use XYZ photography related software, How to take action photos at sporting events?)
Does the group gather for any type of annual social event?
Do you set up club tables at any type of town event?
From your observation, what subject do members in your group most like to photograph? You know, at competitions does one type of photography get more entries than others?
Does your club have projection equipment for digital shows/presentations at meetings/salons/competitions?
I belong to the Bay Area Bird Photographers club. It's affiliated with the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society.
There are presentations every month by a featured guest. The guest is normally not a member of the club. The presentations are done via Zoom and last about an hour to hour-and-a-half. I don't know how many members in total, but I think about 50 attend the presentations.
There are no skill level requirements. I don't know what the others members shoot with. I've been a member for about 8 months and I haven't seen any competitions. I suggested a critique night and that is being considered. No in-person gatherings so far, but it has been tossed around.
While the main subject is birds, we're all wildlife photographers too, so we'll occasionally post photos of bobcats, otters, foxes, etc.
I joined a meet-up photography group. There were a lot of members, but few participants and it died after a few months. The idea was to explore the state for interesting locations, but nobody seemed interested.
Our biggest problem with the clubs is we wanted to go out with others to shoot and learn about places we didn’t know about .
Both clubs sponsored few winter outings …the clubs were different groups of friends who went out on their own more often than not and no one else was told or invited.
To much time was spent on competitions as well which we had no interest in
We find just going to popular places to shoot have us meeting and chatting with others .
We exchange thoughts many times and learn other ways of doing things or places to go ..
We find we much prefer it to any clubs we tried.
We were out birding two weeks ago and through talking to someone else we learned about the Laowa line of magnifying macro lenses…
So we looked in to them and bought one last week ….I am still playing with it but it is really nice for small flowers and bugs as you can get so close that you have not a 1:1 shot but a 2:1 ….
It focus’s so close that you are almost touching the subject with the lens hood if you have one on …yet the same lens can focus out forever as a normal lens would.
You can focus anywhere with in up to 2:1 .
So this is really why we looked in to clubs but we found we never really got what we wanted to out of them
I belong to 2 camera clubs. The first one is in my town, population around 30,000. It has been in existence since the end of World War 2. We meet the second Tuesday of the month in a room that's like a cross between an auditorium and a lecture hall at the local community college in my town. Dues are either $15 or $20 per year (can't remember which). Right now we are still having hybrid Zoom and In Person meetings held over from Covid when we just met on Zoom. That Zoom piece will end very soon. Besides a website the club has a Facebook page that I never go to since I refuse to join Facebook. No newsletter. Just an e-mail once a month. Learned about the club after taking a beginners photography class in 2007. The skill level of the club is mixed but now leans advanced hobbyist. We do all kinds of subject photography. We lean older in age so most of us use cameras not cell phones for photography. The club does not discuss videography so I don't know if anyone makes videos. Some do use drones but not many. We alternate monthly meetings with a competition and a judge from outside of the club and a presentation. We met yesterday evening and the meeting presenter's topic was “Smokies Creatures Great and Small" referring to wildlife in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park accompanied by his photos. He lives right near the park. In addition to the every other month themed digital competitions, we have an annual salon. Three judges judge a digital division, a color print and a black and white division so one judge doesn't judge your photos. You can enter 2 photos in each category in each division. The categories are: Action, Architecture (any kind of structures), Creative, Abstracts, Inanimate Objects, People, Landscape, Macro and Wildlife. Plants will probably return this year. The good thing about the competitions is the critique of the entries by the judges. That's how I learn. There are no group outings or group social events but they did conduct a three weekend class on Lightroom, recently. When I first joined the club the big interest category was People/Portraits but now the hot category seems to be Landscapes. Many of the people who live in my town are scientists and engineers or retirees from those jobs (we have a National Lab, a Nukes facility and the Department of Energy) and a slew of contractors that do work for them. So, they predominate the club membership.
The other photography club I belong to is a nature photography club in a nearby large city and the club is celebrating their 30th anniversary. They meet at a church facility. This club specializes in nature and travel photography. We stopped the Zoom meetings last winter. They have regular local outings. Anybody can suggest one and lead one. You just show up at the location at the designated date and time. The club has had outings that include in an arboretum, at a university gardens, at a dam to photograph eagles, at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and there is an upcoming one at a greenhouse. A guest speaker makes a presentation at every monthly meeting. Within the last year there were presentations on Backroads to Americana, Zambia, Photographing Insects, Blue Ridge Parkway, etc. The club also has an annual digital and print salon (at a restaurant/catering hall) but the categories are all nature or travel related. The big interest in this club is also Landscape/Scenic Photography but no or very little trace of man in the shots and the Wildlife categories are Mammals, Birds, Other and the Travel categories are US east of the Mississippi and US west of the Mississippi and out of the country so if you take a road trip to another state you aren't competing in the Travel category with people who go on African Safaris or to Greece, for example. We also have a Panorama category, People in Nature category, Abstracts in Nature, Plants. Don't know how many people are in this club but last year we got about 545 entries for the digital-only salon (because of Covid).
A number of photographers are getting into night photography/astral photography. Not me. We have had guest speakers talk about it.
I think joining a club is good and I like both the guest speakers and the competitions. I also like talking to people before meetings to see what kind of photography they have been doing or to hear about some new piece of equipment they are using.
Since I live in a metropolitan area, there are a variety of camera clubs around here. Since I'm in the Bay Area Bird Photographer's group, I haven't considered joining a club lately, but I'll reconsider it.
Years ago, I read a member of a camera club write that they had regular competitions, but the same advanced members kept winning them, so it got repetitive and frustrating for the lesser-skilled members. I can see critiques being helpful to photographers of all levels though.
Like mathjak, I've been able to build a network of contacts just from talking to other photographers.
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