Informal Gatherings - Good For Film?

There seem to be an ever growing list of informal get-togethers showing up. I for one see these a a very positive way to celebrate film photography, and a great way to meet up with other like-minded folks.

Maybe it's time to start a seperate forum just for these get-togethers, just a thought. Right now they appear in the regional fourms, or at least most of the time they do.

Here is a short list of the ones I can recall -

Texas Alt Photo Weekend (occurs every couple of years - OK there have been two so far)

The UK crowd seems very good at this, having one spring/fall each year (you guys seem to do a great job by the way)

Then there have been a few in Ireland (really wish I could make one these)

Per has been having several each year it seems (these all look so good)

The NorthLight group is really growing, and think Bill said 50 attended the last one.

Then I see outings with the NorthEast/New England folks pretty often, and seems I recall something about one in the NorthWest US also.

The point is, these range from an afternoon to share work and visit, to those with Wetplate demos, and full blown workshops. In many ways it is just the natural eveloution when the right people are involved - they not only share their work, but what they know. It gives the new folks a chance to see some really outstanding work, and learn from some very talented people that are on this site. It also gives those talented people a chance to give back.

The best part is these can start (and stay) informal or they go grow with full workshops, etc. Maybe even pick up a sponsor or two.

So what do you guys think? I know Sean had said sometime last year, that he did not see a formal APUG conference, but more regional gatherings and this seems to be what is happening. The next step might be to start a forum just to list these events, not sure if everyone stops by to read the different regional forums. Thoughts, Sean.

I travel sporadically. So it would be nice to coincide travel with yet another opportunity to spend hours behind the ground glass. A central forum would be nice.

These can be a reoccurring problem if you are not careful. We had twenty in our back yard for five days at the NE Ohio Gathering last September, six camping down by the garden. We made so many mistakes that ten came back for a remedial Fall Color weekend in October. They made such a mess of it that eleven came back a month later for Dim Sum at our favorite Chinese restaurant and a tour of my museum show. Be very careful what you start with this crowd. You can end up having fun all year long, visitors from afar, talk photography day and night, and you may even take time out to shoot some film.

Thank you all who came. People made such an effort to clean up afterwards. Everyone pitched in for the Porta Potty rental. People brought beer and food to share. We really hope to have another. Like so many things in life, you get back multiples of what you put into it.

John Powers

We've had quite a few of these in the New York area, some associated with the Traveling Portfolio, some LF get-togethers that seem to be organized between the LF forum and APUG.

The regional forums (click "Regional" on the tab bar toward the top of the screen) seem like the sensible place to announce these, and they show up in everyone's "New Posts" lists like posts in the regular forums. I'd say this has in fact become the main function of the regional forums, along with the occasional inquiry about photographic locations or travel, so maybe the thing to do is to add a description under the Regional Focus Groups headings along the lines of--

"These forums are for organizing regional APUG gatherings, group shows, discussing local conditions for photography and travel, and anything that might depend on discussion with APUG members from a specific geographic region."

You are probably right David, the reional fourms may be the right place. Maybe a calendar that people could post their events to - so at a glance someone could see if something is going on. Or make these events 'Sticky' so they stay at the top, at least until the time the event occurs.

Just thinking out loud, maybe it works just fine the way it is - so far the feed back indcates this.

Thanks for the input, would like to hear from more if there is interest.

It's a great idea. I've put together a few evenings near Toronto and I think most people found them fun..... it might make it easier to get the word out.
-Rob

Yeah, but I see David's point. And if there's no coverage a new regional group can always be created. For those travelling they can browse those destination groups and check out what's going on.

See, that's why they get paid the BIG BUCKS ;P

Local forums OK BUT...

Some Gettogether / Workshops are not local in nature!

When I began doing free Workshops in 2001 most people thought I was nuts. After all, quite a few photographers were making a fair amount of money from the workshop "circuit". My concept on the other hand was that if film was to survive it was important to involve people from all aspects of photography. It was especially important to offer gatherings that would be inexpensive and structured such that it would be attracting many who otherwise could not afford to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Apparently the idea worked. From the first small Gettogether / Workshop in Joshua Tree in 2001 (with 5 people incl. myself) we are now looking at 35 people participating in the upcoming event in Joshua Tree.

As many of my free workshops have taken place outside our local area (in Canada, Northern California, Utah, etc.) and with participants coming from as far away as Dubai, British Columbia, Denmark, China, Toronto, Florida, New Jersey, Missouri, Washington DC and Washington State, the term "local " no longer fits.

Therefore I suggest to keep the present workshop forum the way it is.


Per Volquartz



Dead Link Removed

I would very much like to see this happen in Raleigh.

The most film action I get is with the local Flickr group, among people who are mostly using Whizbang 2000's or some that prefer Whizbang 2000's but bring a film camera out to an event, perhaps as a curiosity. I know very few people around here that prefer film and would say that film-centric socializing is pretty much nil.

It was through a regional forum here that I got to meet some local folks with like interests, resulting in going along on a "film crawl" last Saturday. Got to meet some great people, and we all had fun, taking our time, running film through our various and mostly old cameras. I highly recommend it. Pizza and beer at the end of the day put a nice cap to the whole experience.

Best,

Michael