Welcome back for another installment of my monthly Behind the Camera feature. If you are new here, this is a time when I pick a topic to speak about that either is designed to help other photographers or to give a little insight into my own photography. For those that are regulars here, I’m glad to see you again. This month I am going to talk about something that I probably should have brought up a long time ago, but it just never occurred to me. This one is kind of for the photographers out there, and especially for those that might be new to the craft. This month I am talking about camera clubs and kind of where they fit in the whole scheme of things.
I’ve had experience with being a member of a camera club as well as presenting for quite a few of the clubs in NC both in person and via virtual meetings. I’ve also gone the route of not belonging to a club so I’ve seen a lot of different angles when it comes to the topic. While I am certainly not the authority on camera clubs, I do have some thoughts about them and how they can benefit as well as hurt photographers. This really comes down to the individual photographer and what they are really hoping to get out of the relationship with a club. I’m just here to offer some insight into the different angles that you can look at things.
You may or may not know about the different camera clubs in your area. No matter where you are located, there is a good chance that there is some form of club within a reasonable distance from you. The most popular type of club is one that has regular meetings at a location which could just be someone’s house. These are local and usually opened to all kinds of different photographers. There are also virtual clubs where meetings are held online through something like Zoom and they have meetups where they occasionally go out to do photography together as a group. There are also regional clubs that are much more organized and have local chapters designed to keep things pertinent to the area that they are in. In pretty much all of these cases, there are dues of some sort to pay to finance the different aspects of the club, even it is just the refreshments or the online element of the meetings.
Most of the photography clubs out there are very relaxed and geared to all different types of photographers and experience levels. This is probably the area where we can see the most benefit to camera clubs. They are a great chance to talk with other photographers and see how they do things. One thing that I’ve found over the years of doing workshops is that no matter how long or short a time that somebody has been doing photography, everyone has a unique view of the world and a brand new photographer can teach a concept to a very experienced photographer just as easily as the reverse can happen.
It is connections like this which I think are probably the biggest reason that folks join photography clubs. While not difficult to learn, photography is one of those crafts which rely on finding methods that work for the individual rather than just following a set of directions online. We all know that the manuals that come with cameras have nothing at all to do with the actual pursuit of photography, just how the buttons work and where the menu options are located. Humans, being a social animal tend to learn in a group dynamic more efficiently than on our own. These clubs offer a chance to talk with other photographers and hear about their process. We have the chance to ask questions and then get feedback on what we have done. Whether the meetings are once a month or quarterly, we have a chance to grow as photographers by learning from others. Of course, there are also the friendships that develop through these clubs which will take the learning process even further and beyond the limits of the club meetings and outings.
I’ll be the first to admit, that this is a great reason to join a club and honestly, it was one of the reasons that I joined CNPA many years ago. The goal was simple, having just started back seriously with photography in 2016, after a three year hiatus; I was looking at improve my skills and find new places to visit for photos. Since I was primarily a landscape photographer at the time, this club made sense to me. It was a very large club with many different regional clubs around the state. They were primarily for landscape photographers and leaned towards those photos that didn’t have evidence of the hand of man in the images. I thought that this was what I wanted to create which made this the perfect club to be in.
I think I was a member for two years with this club and saw a lot of the camaraderie that I was imagining between the members and really felt hopeful about where I would fit into things. I attended the meetings, saw the photos from the other members and heard the presentations from the guests. I just never clicked with the group as a whole and never really got involved in the community aspect of the club. This isn’t to say that the club failed me. No, that wasn’t it at all. I’m just really much more of an introvert than I gave myself credit for being. I could look at the situation and see all the benefits right in front of me, but the reality of the execution was that for me to reap the benefits, I was going to have to become part of the group in more than just name. I wasn’t able to get myself to do this and eventually I just felt like an outsider within the group. Again, this was all on me and has nothing at all to do with the club or any club for that matter.
I started to see some of the negatives of a photography club at this point and while they specifically applied to me at this time, I feel that there are others out there that might feel the same way. It might just have been that this was a very specific club in terms of subject matter, but I felt that everyone’s photos were pretty much the same in subject and execution. The really great photos were the ones captured in far off places of locations that I’m sure were just jaw dropping on their own. There was no way to avoid the hidden message here that in order to get meaningful photos, I was going to have to travel all over the world and go on photo safaris with groups.
Then, there were the different competitions that they had within the local group and also with the larger organization. These competitions broke the categories of photos down into very specific types of subjects. Now, I was seeing that the group was pushing me to focus on very specific things while I was out looking for photos in order to take part in these competitions. I didn’t like the restrictions to my art, especially since I was starting to really explore my decay work at this point. Of course, the decay photography really had nothing at all to do with the core mission of this group.
These were the main two points that made me decide to let my membership lapse. I didn’t see myself embracing the group dynamic and I didn’t like the restrictions placed on my own photography. Both of those things were going to hurt my creativity rather than help it to blossom. This is not to say that I think that photography clubs are a bad thing, I just found that it wasn’t the route that I was looking for. I valued my time with the club, and I did learn a few things because of what I was taking in at the meetings.
Since that point, I have been a guest speaker at eight or more clubs over the years as well as returning to my chapter of the CNPA for a presentation a few years back. I’ve paid attention to the different clubs and the memberships at them all. I’ve seen how club business is handled as well as what kinds of outings they have planned. In one specific case, I was invited back to a club to judge a competition that they had based on a decay presentation that I did for them a couple of years before. I was able to look through something like 50 photos in depth, from the different members and see what they were doing with the theme. While none of this makes me an expert, I’ve gained a lot of insight into the different club dynamics and feel that I have a decent understanding of how they all work.
So, who are camera clubs for? I’ve established that they aren’t really for me, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t a fantastic resource for photographers young and old. One of the most compelling reasons to join a camera club is the camaraderie between photographers. How long can you keep talking about photography with your family? If you don’t know the answer to that question yet, you soon will. Every family has a limit to how much they care about what lens you chose for a certain scene, or how you had to stress so much over the light or the wind. They care because they love you, but this is not what they want to talk with you about forever. Camera clubs, on the other hand, don’t care what you had for breakfast, or why you didn’t mow the yard yesterday. They want to hear about that trip to the coast where you managed to photograph a dolphin jumping out of the water. They want to know why you decided to upgrade your camera. They want to look at your photos, and, in some cases, they might be able to give you pointers on being able to improve. Camera clubs are built around those that love photography and really can’t get enough when it comes to talking about it.
This is your chance to learn where to go for photos, how to capture them, what gear works best for certain types of photography, and how to transport what you need once you get to the places you want to be. Photography clubs are your chance to get honest feedback on your photos and to learn from what others are hearing about their own photos. It is a very relaxed photography class in a lot of respects where everyone learns from everyone else. There is generally quite a bit of respect among the members and from what I’ve seen ego doesn’t really last long in a photography club. Let’s face it, there will always be someone better, or a better photo made than yours.
In addition to learning during the meetings, you will also have access to group outings that go to locations with lots of potential. These outings are usually led by someone that is very familiar with the area and will get you into the right locations at the right times in order to get the best photographs. This is great for those photographers that have no idea where to go to get photos. I mean, that is a very typical way to start out as a photographer, and I remember those days when I had no idea where to go in order to find the right kinds of views that would work for photographs. This is your chance to get very familiar with the local area and some that are a bit of a drive away. In many cases, these outings are more like workshops as the one leading them is there to really help you with your own process. I’ve worked with a camera club once before and put together a decay workshop for some of their members. I think there were eight of them that came along that day and it was a fantastic experience for the club learning a type of photography that most had never heard of before.
That brings us to another benefit of the photography clubs that I really think is an excellent feature. The guest speakers that will come in and talk about their own experiences with photography. When I was with the CNPA years ago we had speakers come in to talk about storm chasing photography, travel photography, and wildlife photography. There was even a speaker that came in to do some pretty in-depth instruction in Lightroom. These were all very beneficial in a landscape photography group and each of these meetings were free to members. This is where the dues come into play and help to pay for these kinds of speakers. I’ve done presentations for many groups as well in reference to different aspects of my own photography. Each time, they were designed to ignite the creativity in the club members and give them motivation to hopefully try something new with their own photography. It was never about my photography in a vacuum.
Another great aspect of the photography club is that you will more than likely have a chance at entering regular contests among the members. From what I have seen, this is a pretty regular feature of the different clubs out there and it gives the members a chance to put their work up against their peers. It is all in good fun and usually it is designed as a learning experience for everyone. The nice thing is that these contests have no ulterior motive which I’ve seen happening more and more with other photography contests out there. That is a topic for another entry, but more often than not, the different competitions that you see online are all about building a stock image library for a business to use for free. Check those rules of entry and how you give them the ability to use your photo as they wish. Photography clubs won’t do that, and you will likely find out many of the potential traps that you will find yourself in as a photographer while attending these meetings.
Going back to the community aspect of the photography clubs, you will also make connections with folks that you can call anytime you have a question. This could be a great way to get out of a situation where you just don’t know how to get past a certain creative hurdle, or maybe you have a piece of gear malfunction. It might be a case where another club member will let you borrow some of their gear to get you past whatever hump you are experiencing.
One other great aspect of joining a photography club is that many times, the club has worked with local businesses to have member prints on display at those businesses. This is a fantastic opportunity for those folks that are looking to sell prints or make a business out of photography. Most of those arrangements are exclusive and if a business works with a photography club, they will not display other photographer’s work. This might be one of the absolute best aspects of the photography club experience, and it might be just the thing that you are looking for.
As you can see, there are a lot of great aspects to photography clubs. I’m sure I have missed several as well. I think that they are a great thing and I’m glad to see that there are so many out there so that folks can get involved with the art and craft of photography. That doesn’t mean that these clubs are for everyone though. It certainly doesn’t mean that every club is a good fit for every photographer. You might need to shop around a bit in your area to find the right kind of club for your needs. It is also possible that a photography club just isn’t for you. That is the case for me, at least at this stage in my life.
The arguments that I am going to make here are really gaged on my own personal experiences, but they might apply to you as well. One of the first things that I found that I didn’t like about photography clubs is how they tend to push the members into a certain direction with their own photography. What I mean is, clubs will usually be formed around a small group of photographers that like to photograph the same kinds of things. That group grows, but the creative direction with the leadership will stay the same with the club eventually falling into line. This was a very evident problem with the CNPA when I was a member, but it was a known element before I joined. Since it was a nature photographer’s club, that meant landscape and wildlife with no hand of man in the photos. That was a core notion of the association, and I knew it going in. Where that posed a problem was that around the same time that I was a member with them, I was starting to explore my decay photography. That was absolutely centered on the hand of man, but I treated the photos very much like the landscapes that I had captured before starting that venture. I felt that these photos were not really appropriate for the club in general, so I only focused on my landscape work which was getting more and more infrequent for me.
Other clubs that I have seen from the outside still have their themes that seem to be restrictive with all the different kinds of photography that are out there. It is the restriction on subject and style that possibly bothers me the most with the different clubs. It is almost like peer pressure without the externally imposed pressure. As a member of the group, you want to fit in and have your work liked and respected by the other members. In order to do that, you comply with the images that get the most positive feedback during the meetings. Eventually, your work starts to look like Mary’s work, who had fashioned her style after Bob who was her mentor in the group a few years before. Before too long, the entire group is doing macro shots of flowers, and before you know it, the group is going out to arboretums every Spring so that everyone can get new macro photos of the flowers.
The group outings happen to be another area where I grew disillusioned with the clubs. Originally, I wanted to join a photography club because I really had no idea where to go to get the photos that I was wanting. The idea of a group trip sounded great to me as it would take all the planning out of the equation. Then the reality of it all set in. I would be at a location with many other photographers on a day that was arbitrarily scheduled with no regard to the weather. We would all be lined up taking photos of the same thing and that just felt like cheating to me. My whole idea behind photography was to break away from the mold and do something that I could call my own.
What had become one of the biggest reasons for me to join a club had turned into one of the biggest turn offs. Even to this day, I much prefer to go where other photographers aren’t. I find my own peace through photography when I am working a scene all by myself and capturing what I know are conditions that are just mine. I really felt that by staying with a photography club for a long time, I would start being one of those photographers in the line capturing the same scene and then discussing why including that extra tree to the right was the right decision while Pat had shot something similar with a tighter crop which she felt was the better choice. This was a discussion that I didn’t feel like having or felt was even necessary. For me, the process of creating a photograph needed to be personal and that was hard to do in a group.
This was also the time when I really had to face my introversion head on. I’ve been an introvert my entire life. I have had very few friends even as a child. My hobbies included building plastic models which I did all by myself in my bedroom, and eventually tinkering with my vehicles which was also done by myself. I did play clarinet and saxophone in band class in middle school as well. I took private lessons on both which I enjoyed, and I got fairly good at playing along with the different bands from the swing era that my grandfather had on records (we didn’t call it vinyl back then). However, when it came time to go to the next step, I was invited to join a local band that played big band music. While I loved the music, this was not as much fun for me, and in very short order I quit playing both instruments so that I could have my peace by myself.
It seemed that joining a photography club was kind of the same kind of affair for me. I liked the idea of it on paper, but the execution of it was a bit too full of people and interactions for my tastes. To protect my love for the craft, I decided it was better to keep this a solo endeavor and protect my own inner peace along the way. I do occasionally think about possibly joining another club or even forming my own here in the Wilkes County area, but the more I think about working around so many other people on a regular basis, the less I want to do it. The biggest draw for me at this stage in my life is that connection with the local businesses that would allow me to hang some of my work up at those businesses. It is enough to keep me interested, but not enough to make me actually join up.
While photography clubs aren’t for me, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t a good choice for you. Think about it and if you haven’t tried it out yet, join a club in your area and see what you think. It might be just what you are needing to further your own photography. Maybe, like me, you will join and realize that your photography is already pretty good, and you have your own creative vision to chase. There is nothing at all wrong with deciding that you might hamper your own development by joining in with a group of other photographers. This is not to say that those other photographers don’t have anything to teach you. Quite the contrary, but I did recognize that I would be reluctant to explore my decay photography while in a photography club that celebrated nature photography.
While on the topic, it doesn’t matter where you are in your own photographic journey, there is always something to learn from other photographers whether they have done it longer than you or are just starting out. Some of the best ideas that I’ve gained from other photographers have been from those photographers who had hired me to teach them about photography. In just about every case I can think of, I have come away with something new to consider because of a question that was raised, or a technique that I saw being used. Everyone has something to add to the conversation, and I do think that photography clubs are a great place to have those conversations.
For me, I have chosen the route of self-discovery and finding my own path. The progress has been slower than if I had been around other photographers, but I can really say that I have 100% dictated my own direction and how I like to create my work. I go where I want to, when I want to, and capture the scenes as I want to. I don’t have to pretend to justify it to anyone and I don’t have to please other members in a club. I just have to create what I love and for those that pay me to create photographs, I have to meet their expectations or exceed them. That makes it all so simple and allows me to stick with the creative end rather than stressing too much over the technical side of things which camera clubs tend to focus on.
So, what do you think about camera clubs? Are you a member of one, thinking about it, have decided against it? Let me know where you land on the topic. It is one of those questions that I think every photographer should ask of themselves from time to time.
Thank you for joining me for another installment of this monthly feature. I’ll be back again in October with another topic that I hope you will find interesting.
Until then….
