Midlands Solihull photography society

Well finally managed to get along to a meeting last night.

It was a competition being judged by an outside gent (forgot his name) and members had submitted some by print and digital files.

People were nice (at least the ones I spoke with). I'm forty and would say the average age of membership is a fair bit higher, but looks to be some really good and experienced people there, certainly operating at a level above me in most instances.

It was interesting to hear what the judge liked and thought of the submissions, although as always, opinions are highly subjective. Even me with my very limited knowledge could see immediately who were going to get commended and score points, etc.

There appears to be a competition held regularly at the club and that is not my scene currently. May pop along to another meeting to see what a normal meeting looks like, but I have zero interest in competitions currently.
 
Sounds about par for the course although there are i'm told (ad nauseum by one person) exceptions to the rule.
Not my scene at all and I'm a lot nearer the average age of these people than you.

My opinion is that the members of these clubs enjoy the way it is and have no desire to change.
Why should they and its up to other mainly younger people to organise something that appeals to them.

I don't care enough to do it, but people like yourself with some enthusiasm could get things off the ground.
If you don't the older traditional clubs will just cease to exist as the members die off leaving a void to fill.
 
There are a couple of interesting sessions (on face value) in the programme but between now and May there appears to be 10 more competitions. I suppose it is just a case of different people want different things from it. Those who have a high degree of knowledge and competence will not want to sit through sessions on how to use a camera...they will probably want more of the competition stuff..I am at the opposite end of the journey and spare time as a husband, business owner, father is rather limited, so need to pick and choose how I spend / invest that time wisely. I can't just disappear for the day to some remote location at a specific time to grab that elusive picture, then come home and spend two days editing it....just isn't going to happen.
 
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I feel for you Adam. I've tried half a dozen clubs over the years and apart from the occasional interesting talk or chance to meet a new friend, they've mostly been a bunch of old men comparing 'willy' sizes. :facepalm:
 
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I'm not a clubby sort of person, but I do sometimes feel it would be nice to just spend an evening chatting about photography and sharing war stories, looking at each others efforts informally, that sort of thing. Competitions don't do it for me - in fact I've noticed that so much in life seems to focus on competition and being better than other people, that it closes off a lot that is interesting.
I wonder what people do want from photography clubs?
 
I agree Lindsay, that's my idea of a club too (having run a few non-photographic clubs myself in the past).

However, competitions really are the biggest turn-off for me. :coat:
 
@lindsay

For me it would be more about studying a photograph, how it was taken, composition and framing. Perhaps look at the settings used, any areas of improvement, delve into the histogram, best practice and so on. Sharing ideas and knowledge - that sort of thing. Even look at how the individual had processed the image and why they had chosen to do it that way.

But, everyone is different and need / want different things from a club.

But there were only say 4 / 5 people there around my age...everyone else was older by some margin. What happens if things don't change at these clubs...or have these clubs always been like that? Who knows, it was pleasant and the people were nice.
 
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I am a member of our local camera Club and must say I do enjoy most of the weekly meetings and have learnt a lot from the more experienced members. At the moment the dreaded Covid is in the club so will not be going to the meetings for a while, we are due for a holiday soon and don't want to take any chances.
 
@Adamcski I agree. I think you can distil the essence from a competition to get members not to compete, but to exhibit their work, and then each talk about their images. Not for judging and winning purposes, but to share their workflow, methods, inspirations, as well as the technicalities in an image. They can then either laberl their presentation as "sharing" or "critique" as they wish, just as we do on here.
I think a more cafe-style club meeting would work better for younger members maybe, with some element of whole-club presentation/activity and some element of groups, so that people could group around genres one week, printing or PP or locations another, regularly changing the topics of groups, so that you don't end up with the old tables andf young tables. Just a thought.
 
The club scene was already dying out in the middle of the 1960s, when I started.

People were less likely to go out on a dark wet night when they had a nice warm fire and the telly to watch. Those who did want to go out had different desires and destinations to satisfy them. Even in London, the clubs I tried were seeing attendencies of ten or at most twenty, where a few years before, fifty had been considered a quiet night. There were more magazines on sale and many were presenting articles and pictures that related to practical uses of photography other than winning a gold star.

I think that forums like Talk Photography provide a much better outlet for peoples' interest and provide many more opportunities to discuss a much wider variety of interests than even the biggest and best clubs of the 1950s could manage.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
The club scene was already dying out in the middle of the 1960s, when I started.

People were less likely to go out on a dark wet night when they had a nice warm fire and the telly to watch. Those who did want to go out had different desires and destinations to satisfy them. Even in London, the clubs I tried were seeing attendencies of ten or at most twenty, where a few years before, fifty had been considered a quiet night. There were more magazines on sale and many were presenting articles and pictures that related to practical uses of photography other than winning a gold star.

I think that forums like Talk Photography provide a much better outlet for peoples' interest and provide many more opportunities to discuss a much wider variety of interests than even the biggest and best clubs of the 1950s could manage.
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Not sure where you get your figures from, but I did not join a club until 1980 and that club reached its highest membership by the late 80's and then slipped down; this was also true for some other local clubs. However, membership continued to fall so we ceased functioning in 1998. we all joined my current club which picked up remnants from 5-6 clubs which folded around that time. However, the digital era then gave a huge boost as many wanted to learn about digital photography and we provided training and many previous darkroom users came back to learn about digital. Given the club is now over 150 years old, the membership peaked in 2012 but has been slowly falling since then. I speak to many other clubs and almost all peaked just after Digital imaging started.

There is a problem that younger people are not generally stepping forward to take the reins or run new clubs or any clubs. My wife mentioned a local Women's institute which has 60 members but has just folded as they could not elect a committee. A local Music society has just folded for the same reason. When you ask them why they cannot help, the answer is often that they cannot fit it in as they work but then we point out that we have been doing this long before we retired. Another excuse is that they have children but so do we. What are they all doing?

Dave
 
lindsay said:
@Adamcski I agree. I think you can distil the essence from a competition to get members not to compete, but to exhibit their work, and then each talk about their images. Not for judging and winning purposes, but to share their workflow, methods, inspirations, as well as the technicalities in an image. They can then either laberl their presentation as "sharing" or "critique" as they wish, just as we do on here.
I think a more cafe-style club meeting would work better for younger members maybe, with some element of whole-club presentation/activity and some element of groups, so that people could group around genres one week, printing or PP or locations another, regularly changing the topics of groups, so that you don't end up with the old tables andf young tables. Just a thought.
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My daughter was in a photo group that met in the local hotel lounge/bar.
All very informal, had a chat and went out and about taking photos, different stuff like wire wool spinning.
I think Covid dealt a blow to it, not sure if they have regrouped yet, hope so.

Intended going myself, but family health reasons prevented it, sounded so much nicer than the tea and biscuits at half time mob.
Very mixed group including young women and one chap was the previous editor of a well known photo magazine.
Definitely no competitions, would quite like that myself, have a wander or chat over a beer or two.

Once my family health issues become settled I intend starting up the London wanders again.
Loads of ideas for photo opportunities tied in with a pub lunch, missed that sort of thing a lot the past couple of years.
Kings Cross redevelopment needs exploring for a start, Regents Canal stroll will hopefully be the first one.
Just bought tickets for a gig at Islington O2 Academy on Saturday April 22nd, might make a day of it.
 
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Exactly what I was thinking of Rich @tijuana taxi that kind of thing.
The London wanders would be good to see going again.
 
I was looking at the thread and was quite surprised nobody at all wanted to join in. If I lived nearer then I'd definitely be up for something. Years back there used to be meets organised on here that I attended. I had very little gear and often had to piggyback off the others, but it was generally good fun. Got a bit more stuff in my inventory now, but have fallen off the bandwagon and seem to have become somewhat sloppy with my technique :p
 
Dave Canon said:
Not sure where you get your figures from,
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Personal observation.

My work meant that I had to "settle" in various parts of the South and the Midlands for weeks or months at a time, so I took to seeking out local things to do in the evenings. Photo clubs were an abvious thing for me and I visited at least a couple of dozen over thirty years.
Dave Canon said:
What are they all doing?
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Things that interest them more, I imagine.
 
Adamcski said:
Yes, I was a bit surprised.

Youngsters can't step up if no bugger wants to meet up lol
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Being in Sutton Coldfield this would interest me. Mine is more wanting some people to go places with to take photos as much as sitting down discussing it. I guess we all have different needs and wants.

In terms of young people wanting to take stuff on I can only speak from my own perspective but I’m logging on to work at 7am every morning spending most of the day in draining MS teams meetings, logging off at 6pm doing my 1.5 hours othe cross trainer - 2-2.5 hours if I actually go to th gym with getting there and back then eating around 8-9 and my evening is gone and I’m knackered. Unfortunately this is the way of the world now it seems. I simply couldn’t fit it in. I’ve had to drop my evening language class (once a week) because I couldn’t keep up with the prep work and was far too tired to get anything from it. I a, sure others are the same.
 
My opinion on this is competitions give you a reason to go out or get your gear out and take some images , Most clubs have a syllabus 6 to 12 months in advance allowing plenty of time for you to get out and take images as required .
 
I was fortunate enough to be part of an excellent photographic group / club / collective for several years,at just the right point in me development. It was a small group of twenty or so folks of varying abilities - beginners through to regularly published photographers, regular sports to occasional wedding photographers. The group was led by two excellent fellows - one a fellow of the RPS and the other a teacher who was very hot on all the technical side of photography. Each session was informal and usually started with an hour on a specific aspect of photography, and then after a break a review and discussion of everyone's submitted pictures. A few times each term we had guests, and every few meetings we'd have a practical session - a model, a band, a location shoot. On top of this we would arrange days out to go further afield for whole days. On the whole it was a superb group and I learned a lot and made some great, and long-standing friends.
 
The terms syllabus and terms in the last 2 posts would put me right off personally. All to formal and makes it sound like a chore!
 
I have to admit that the description of @delb0y 's erstwhile group doesn't appeal at all to me but I can see that it would work well for many people - I'm just a bit antisocial I think!
However I do think there is a place for competitions, I just don't like the way it seems to be a major focus (pun intended) for camera clubs to have members competing with each other.
We have occasional competitions on this site, where we have obtained something to give as a prize from a company, but mostly we prefer Challenges, which give people the same theme target as a competition, but without the "mine's better than yours" context.
 
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