On Dec 18, 2011, at 21:24 , Christine Aguila wrote: >> From: David J Brooks >> >>> An acquaintance of mine (his wife is a bus drive so we have meet a few >>> times) is slowly starting a photography club here in Stouffville. He >>> is not really promoting it just yet, wants to keep it small until >>> things get going next month and then go from there as far as growing >>> the club. >>> >>> I am thinking hard about joining. I would think this might help me get >>> going again. >>> >>> I know some of us here have been or are members of a club, just >>> wondering what the consensus is of these things. >>> >>> My fear is that these people stay up later than i do and my want to do >>> sunsets.:-) >>> >>> Dave Brooks > > > I tried a camera club, but it didn't work out for me. I wish it had. The > club was small, the people nice, but I never could commit to it completely. > Time was part of the problem, but I felt I didn't fit in (of course, you > might argue I didn't give it enough time for me to fit it), and, while I did > see some very nice work at the weekly meetings and competitions, overall, > much of the work didn't inspire me much. When I compare the experience to > PDML, I find PDML of greater value--a wider range of work to learn from, > helpful comments, and despite the fact we're all over the world and seldom > see each other, a stronger sense of community.
When I lived in West Seattle for many years, the only camera club I belonged to wasn't one, as such. I was a member of the Mountaineers Club of Seattle. It's many hundreds of members range from climbers of Everest, North and South pole visitors, and around the world sailers. I'm sure most of them belong to the Sierra Club and WWF too! Having at their core the recording of these adventures was photography. Because it was a very large group of basically photographers with "other hobbies" (and deep pockets), they were able to book the best professionals to speak, share experiences and wonderful slide shows. There was only one other member I know of who shot Pentax, of course. Until it got so I could no longer hike the trails, or go hunting for flora and fauna to image in the semi-wilderness that are the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges, separated by the lovely Puget Sound, I tried to keep up with these adventurers. There are several camera clubs around Everett that I could join. I feel I have so much on my plate now that I really cannot afford the time and energy to participate. I have many years worth of work I want to get finished before I can no longer participate. I might attend a meeting (it's only blocks away) to donate tons of darkroom equipment that would be too painful to put in a landfill. However, they probably don't have a darkroom! In closing, I think clubs of any kind can be very rewarding when you are fairly new at what you want to do. Us older folk drop a lot of good knowledge on you. For those who feel they have a good basic foundation in photography, if you need the social interaction, then join up and learn, or better yet, teach. For me, I stopped going to Nikon "school" 20 years ago with my PZ-1p, because they bored me. Attending workshops of sorta well known photographers I at times ended up on the stage (with my Pentax) educating both the attendees and presenters on one point or another, not necessarily about Pentax's technological capabilities, but some of the film and chemical tech they were shaky with (back in the old days). Remember keeping up with the quarterly page changes in your maroon covered Photographers "Bible" Guide? Threw mine out finally 5 years ago. :-) I am once again without anything to back up my knowledge… Joseph McAllister Lots of gear, not much time http://gallery.me.com/jomac -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
