The annual Assembly General of our photo club takes place tomorrow evening. I want to present some ideas to liven up its activities as it is getting a bit stale. It has been going for two years and at the start we did a few photo walks, and we have an exhibition each year, and there is also a village photo competition each year. Mostly the meetings involve the president lecturing us on some technical aspect of photography. At the last one I attended, on the various autofocus methods of Canon and Nikon cameras, I fell asleep (literally, I fell off my chair). Three of us take photos in to present them sometimes, but really we need more interaction and more involvement than just listening. There are about 16 people in the club and meetings usually have between 5 and 8 people. We have a room, a PC and a large screen. I've noted down a few ideas below, but I wonder if you could tell me of activities that have been successful at your own photo club.
- monthly competition(s), subject(s) chosen by different member each time, with a small prize.
- member presentations (photo projects such as holidays, their equipment pros/and cons, their own specialist subjects & themes)
- photo assignments (local markets, local castles & history, vineyards, orchards, summer beaches, carnivals and fetes, tall ships and sailing regattas)
- editing RAW files with different programs (interactive)
At my photoclub we have a competition every time we meet. The one who wins gets the honour and the photo presented on our website until next meeting. The "looser" of the voting gets the honour of chosing the subject for the next competition.
I would like more discussions about our shots but people are very afraid of saying something that might be considered "hurtful". Anyhow, I keep my hope for improvement.
We have monthly themes where participants can share 3-5 photos that fit that theme. We do outings when people step up and lead a group somewhere. We also have some kind of presentation at each meeting (monthly) as well as a photo tip of some kind. Then every November, participants can share a photo essay. Knowing it comes up every November gives people plenty of time to put one together.
At the one i attend the committee come up with a programme based on suggestions from members and then we play\experiment and help each other. We're a 'self help' group, no stressfull competions, no affiliation to organisations, and we're about a year old. Will take note about things getting stale. We've 'done' light painting, macro, bojeh, portrait, ocasdionasl walkjs and a guest next month. @sunshinepix what is a photo essay???
In New Zealand there are a number of clubs around the country all affiliated to a national photographic body, so they have a round robin of judges to pick from who will look at monthly submissions on a theme and give grades and critique, we also have inter-club competitions which are a lot of fun, competing for trophies which have been up for grabs for many years, i think your pool of people is very small, so perhaps linking outwards and recruiting for new blood will help. Lectures can get boring if they are always technical, light painting , food photography and flash photography workshops at my club were hands on and lots of fun, as was night photography , we had 'treasurehunts' at a location, to find various things to photograph, also local history outings to such things as local graveyards, mining areas, historic park, and also trips away to various locations for landscape photography and wildlife. we had an outing to a waterfall to learn about slow shutter and nd filters, and such. Guest speakers can always give a slideshow and talk about different aspects of photography than your existing pool of talents. our club sometimes put out an end of year book or zine. or calendar.
another fun meeting was about suggesting titles for photos, @ingajohansson at our club feedback offered was given in the manner of the critique sandwich .. ie. give pne positive point, one 'could do better next time' comment and a final encouraging comment. when everyone has this idea commenting goes a lot better, i personlly got a lot out of it, both having to find things to comment on and listening to feedback given on my own photos.
@30pics4jackiesdiamond Here's Wikipedia's definition: "A photo-essay is a set or series of photographs that are made to create series of emotions in the viewer. A photo essay will often show pictures in deep emotional stages. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small comments to full text essays illustrated with photographs."
Although, our photo essays aren't so much "emotional," More of a collection of photos around a theme or project, put into a slide show, sometimes to music, sometimes not. You could google for examples to get a better idea.
@sunshinepix Thank you for your ideas. I think the photo essay idea is very relevant to our region, as we are very influenced by the seasons - vineyards, fruit orchards, beaches and tourists etc. Just had to think a bit about translating it into French - I think 'étude photographique' (photo study) would cover it.
@30pics4jackiesdiamond Thanks for your reply. Your club seems to have the interaction that ours lacks, so I don't think you need to worry about getting 'stale'.
@kali66 Thanks for replying with all these great ideas. I think the 'critique sandwich' is a brilliant idea, and also it is easy to translate into French ('sandwich critique')!
I currentaly help lead two photo clubs and they different from each other. One club is assciated with the PSA and 4C's with competition each month, each quarter, and annual. This club does not have field trips or exhibits. The other club is not about compeitition, but we have crtiques, exhibitions, and field trips.The one thing both clubs have is a speaker each month. This is usually a well accomplished photog sharing what they do in their speciality.
The club without competition is about 3 times larger than the other one. It is my conlcusion that people with cameras are not attracted by competition, but they want to learn and shoot.
I went to a photo club meeting once and decided it was not for me, what about a bottle of vino or two. I bet there is some really good local produce and after you guys polish it off you could do an exercise in defocusing.
Remember what Groucho Marx said " I could never be a member of a club that would have me as a me,member" Sorry Tim but this is all I got in the way of advice ..
Most of the activities our club does have been covered by the members contributions above. I am the webmaster for our club, so feel free to have a look at our website which shows off our activities.
Our club is a bit larger than yours, but we have monthly get-togethers that we call "Shoot-outs" that usually have up to a dozen people. Some of our larger meeting fair that you could adapt would be a Scavenger Hunt. This is a friendly competition we have with another club. There are eight topics we attempt to find pictures of in a limited amount of time and a judge picks the winners. You might just want to make a game of it and share your pics with one another instead of making it a competition. Our club also likes having "round table" discussions. Members choose a subject they'd like to cover and we set up several tables where people can sit and talk about them. We usually have several topics going at a time, but for your club you might just have one topic which one of your members volunteers to research and then share their findings. We also have 'workshop' nights where we set up different stations for people to photograph. We've done macro, water drops, oil and water, refraction shots, fairy houses, light boxes, and more. It sounds like you've done something like this already. Our shoot-outs have run the gamut in subject matter too. We try to stay local and low cost. We've gone to museums where photography is allowed (the car museum is the most popular for that), waterfalls, an alpaca farm, a cave, an historical village, explored light writing, moon shots, star trails, slo-mo water and more. It sounds to me like it might be a good idea to have a brainstorming session with your club to see what they'd be interested in. As president of our club for the last two years, my idea was to get more people involved in a "user-friendly" manner and it really helped to expand our membership. There's a new president now (basically I served as long as our by-laws permitted!) but I'm still involved with a number of things so I'm enjoying the time off. Oh, and we are always looking for places to display our photos- that's another aspect of the club that gets people involved. Best wishes to you and your crew!
@chapjohn Thank you for replying. I will take on board your comment about competitions. My aim is primarily to get people showing and discussing their photographs.
@ellida Thank you for the link Graham. I was particularly interested in the Competitions you have and the list of your events. We are a long way from being as busy as you.
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I would like more discussions about our shots but people are very afraid of saying something that might be considered "hurtful". Anyhow, I keep my hope for improvement.
@sunshinepix what is a photo essay???
Although, our photo essays aren't so much "emotional," More of a collection of photos around a theme or project, put into a slide show, sometimes to music, sometimes not. You could google for examples to get a better idea.
Model Nights , where we shoot under studio lights with some guest models
Show and Tell , We all bring a few images to the club and present them to other members
Night Time Photography, we do a city walk in the evening with our tripods
Critique Night : We critique each others shots
AV Nights : We bring our audio visual (pictures to music) and share them with the group ,,,about 5 mins per AV
Guest speakers on various topics
http://www.arnoldanddistrictcameraclub.org.uk/programme.html
The club without competition is about 3 times larger than the other one. It is my conlcusion that people with cameras are not attracted by competition, but they want to learn and shoot.
Remember what Groucho Marx said " I could never be a member of a club that would have me as a me,member" Sorry Tim but this is all I got in the way of advice ..
Copelandphotographicsociety.co.uk
https://sjobofotoklubb.com/manadstavling/manadstavling-2018/2018-mars-minimalistiskt/