Photography Club

[MarkBarbieri]

Are you a member of a photography club? Would you like to be?

If you are, what does your club do that you like? What sort of outings do they go on? What do you dislike about them?

 

[KrazyPete]

There is photography meetup (meetup.com) group that meets in the next town. I went to one meeting a couple of weeks ago. They usually have a couple of assignments between meetings and some of the meeting time is spent critiqueing the assignment photos.

They took a trip to the mountains to shoot waterfalls a few months ago but I don't think they have regular outings.

Personally, I don't want a club that meets in a room to talk about taking pictures. I'd rather be a part of a group where every meeting was out on location somewhere actually taking pictures, swapping gear and talking about technique. We can critique the photos later on Flickr.

 

[Groucho]

Not a member, not really interested in joining. I'm not much of a "club" guy, the only real club I'm in is the local Lotus Cars club, because it basically consists of having breakfast together on Sundays in the summer and talking cars. Pretty low-key.

There is what they call a "Community Darkroom" locally, and I'm pretty sure there are a couple other clubs, but just haven't been interested, beyond taking a class at the former some day. I just don't have the free time (heck, I don't have time for the assignments on here I'm sorry to say) and I'm not sure what I'd gain. I'm pretty content moving at my own speed, in terms of educating and improving myself.

 

[jann1033]

i'm more like groucho...not really the joiner type but i am trying to get together with a friend to take photos if the weather and everything else would cooperate when we both could go...husband sometimes works with and we are friends with a guy who is a great photographer (even thou he uses Nikon ) but so far i am to ashamed of my photos to get together with him but maybe some day.

i wish there was an online class at one of the local colleges since snow will be coming and i hate driving in blizzards but so far nothing offered....

 

[fitzperry]

I've looked into it a bit. Unfortunately though the club that looks most interesting to me meets weekly and I don't see how I can fit that into my schedule at the moment. As some others have said, I haven't even been able to do the assignments on here the past couple of months. We do have a local art center that hosts some workshops and shorter term classes, so I'm thinking of doing some of those.

Why do you ask? Thinking of traveling around the country starting up photo clubs?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I ask because I've been involved in a few photography clubs and none has been as good as I'd like it to be. I was curious about other clubs and what people thought of them.

My current club, "The Woodlands Photography Club", meets once a month on Monday night. We also have several outings. I joined mainly for the outings, but I don't make it to as many as I'd like.

Here are some of the things that I like about the club. First, they have great outings. We get in to places like the zoo and butterfly museum before they are open to the public. We get special access to restricted areas, like the pro shooter area at the horse track. We get access to places not open to the public, like a private car collection.

It's a good way to meet other shooters. It's not altogether different to conversing here, except we meet face to face and can share ideas, impressions, and equpiment more readily.

It's a good way to learn new stuff. We've had speakers on topics like shooting high school sports (technical aspects, business aspects, legal aspects), shooting in Africa (equipment, travel arrangements, what it's like), scanning slides (tools and techniques), and 3d shooting. Some speakers are members and others are guest speakers.

It has also been a good way to keep up with local events like photo workshops, contests, etc.

There are some things that I find dull. We have 2 major contests each year. Each contest involves a meeting for display, judging and crtique. I find those meetings to be deathly dull.

Like some others have mentioned, finding time to attend and go on the shoots is hard. I seem to be able to make it to the meetings but not many of the outings. Those usually occur on weekends and I usually have family activities I'd rather do.

We're going to have an AMAZING speaker give a Lightroom presentation next month. I'm sure it will be the best presentation of the year. I just have to find time between now and then to put together my presentation.

 

[0bli0]

We're going to have an AMAZING speaker give a Lightroom presentation next month. I'm sure it will be the best presentation of the year. I just have to find time between now and then to put together my presentation.

lol! good luck. maybe you can do another one as a webex and invite external parties

 

[Code]

I was thinking the other day about how I could move past newbie/amateur enthusiast with my photography beyond just experimenting in my own little world, and the two ideas were an advanced photo class, or a photo club. I like the idea of a photo club that focuses on group photo expeditions more than the idea of taking a class, but I'm not really sure where to look for one I looked at meetup.com and there is only one group nearby, but not nearby enough. I'm guessing the best idea would just be to ask at a local photo store (Pictureline probably).

 

[Master Mason]

Code, you could also ask at the brand board, ie Nikonians if you shoot Nikon or Photography on the Net if you shoot canon....