Join a camera club, develop new friendships

rosey · Dec 18, 2008

I have been writing a column/blog on toledoblade.com since I retired in May from the staff of the Toledo Blade.

My column/blog this week is about photography, especially as it affects senior citizens.

My items are posted under the title "A Senior Moment."

Here is a link to my photo musings:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081216/BLOGS06/812150273

Click on the link or cut and paste to see it.

Comments are encouraged and may be made directly to me with a link at the bottom of the column/blog or by posting here. You can also access earlier efforts.

As a secondary issue, I have used the avatar from somebody on apug to illustrate my item. I am hoping it is a piece of clip art. I spent a long while searching for the initial user to ask permission, but I copied it months ago and now do not know whose it is.

If the fellow apug member wants it removed, I shall immediately do so.

Meanwhile, please read my comments about film use and let me know what you think.

thebanana · Dec 18, 2008

Interesting column, but in my experience, camera clubs aren't interested in film photography anymore.

rosey · Dec 18, 2008

I agree with you, for the most part. However, there are camera clubs that have great numbers of retirees like me and still project slides for bragging rights and friendly competitions. Of course, most clubs prefer digital gear, but the film users can always find a home.

Paul Cocklin · Dec 18, 2008

If I'm not mistaken the avatar is a portion of a Bill Waterson (Calvin and Hobbes) comic strip. That's Calvin's dad trying to get a family portrait shot.

I'd love to find a photo club in the area, but I don't think Sacramento really has any that would be friendly to film.

ny_photog · Dec 18, 2008

My experience too has been that walking into a camera club with a film camera is the modern day equivalent of back in the day when I walked into my HS cafeteria wearing pants with "rain catchers" (i.e. cuffs).

Isn't that why sites like this exist.? So we "film nerds" don't have to go out for public ridicule?

Vaughn · Dec 18, 2008

You never know -- the local camera club wants me to take them out for a day of 4x5 shooting..though I am sure there will some digis out there!

Vaughn

Christopher Walrath · Dec 18, 2008

It is indeed Calvin's father. He had Calvin dressed up in a collar and tie and Calvin blasted about ten faces in a row before he gave up in disgust, relinquishing his son to his tiger and his imagination (mandibles of death and all).

Mike Kennedy · Dec 19, 2008

I checked out my local camera club this summer.
The only thing they were interested in was "Who's is bigger" (pixels)

colrehogan · Dec 19, 2008

I am the lone film user in my camera club. They think it is neat what I do. I use mostly large format and when I print at home, I do pt/pd prints. I do have to go to a lab get b/w silver prints made however.

Jeff Kubach · Dec 19, 2008

The local camera club I belong to is quite small. Two or three members are mostly film. The others are half and half.

Jeff

semeuse · Dec 19, 2008

I am the only film user in my local club. What I find hilarious is that all the digital "experts" in the club asked me to do the club's website.

Jim Jones · Dec 19, 2008

The Wyandotte Camera Club in Kansas City, KS, has more digital than film users. However, we aren't giving up on tradition: we are for black & white photography only. It must work, as we celebrated our 70th anniversary last year. There are other clubs in the area for color.

Robert Brummitt · Dec 19, 2008

Portland Photographers Forum has a nice mix of film, digital and hybrid users. From a results of a survey a call for a more younger members came out. We have been looking to how to entice younger photographers but with not much success.

Shmoo · Dec 19, 2008

I recently joined a club locally after moving here, and they're a mix of both digital and film. The only designation they make is between color and black&white. Doesn't matter how you got there...just the results which is probably the best part about it. No one criticizes. Good group of people.

Mike Wilde · Dec 19, 2008

My only beefs with camera clubs that I attend sporadically are:

a) the move to projection of digiatal images, with rarely a print made. I know in the past there were great slide competitions, but you knew that was the medium presented.

Now it is -lets see what you have brought in, and they all pull out USB sticks. Print competitions, and they get all bent out of shape that the colour profile at Costco etc. doesn't match what they saw at home - no concept of colur management for most of them.

b) the killer turn around times that digital has enabled. Get a topic to build a photo essay around, and some groups expect that you have results to show at the next meting, two weeks hence. Hell, some times I love the print that I made last week from a negative I shot more than 10 years ago. If I was retired I might find the time, but I am pressed to shoot the subject, process the film, proof it, and then make the print. I guess I should get a scanner and half joing thr pack.

The benifits are that the longer term members who have gone to the D side frequently have traditional camera equipment, darkroom equipment, and consumables that they practically give to you when they see that you still use film and print your own work.

.

viridari · Dec 19, 2008

Almost everyone I know in the local photography community I met through Flickr or ModelMayhem.com. Film is certainly a niche with this crew. There are some that prefer it, some who dabble in it, and still others that work with it exclusively.

Only a couple of others seem to regularly work in medium format, and I don't know of any of them that work in large format. So when I start going down that road in '09 I'll be on my own.

memoryofadream · Dec 19, 2008

I for one have been avoiding "camera clubs" like the plague. Even the term itself "camera clubs" as opposed to, say, _photography_ clubs is a big red flag as far as I'm concerned. Not to mention the whole idea of photography competitions.

Plus, I just don't play that well with others. Especially when they want to discuss mega-pixels, resolutions, test charts, and such.

I am a part of a group of photographer-friends here in the bay area. This works a hell of a lot better for me.

Vaughn · Dec 19, 2008

Something (just heard it from a student) you might want to use at your next camera club get-together...

"It is only 6 megapixels, but they are good megapixels...)

Vaughn

Fixcinater · Dec 19, 2008

My local club has a few that have converted over to d recently, but we aren't a camera club, we are a photography forum. Our main activity is getting together to shoot or do workshops, and we don't care what anybody brings. RF, MF, digi, whatever. Digi is what gets discussed the most, of course.

rossawilson1 · Dec 19, 2008

I went to one once in my local area.. wow, I was 26 then, everyone else was what might be called an advanced retiree!

I liked the article!

Kvistgaard · Dec 19, 2008

My local camera club is 96% digital (I am the remaining 4%). At our general assembly a few weeks ago we decided to let the gear-talk take a backseat to actual photography - this actually met with a lot of support, and I am really looking forward to the 2009 sessions, where first 30 minutes of every club evening will be allocated to one club member presenting his favourite three images (taken by himself or by others), talking in depth about why he likes them from an artistic point of view. We also discussed having one club evening set aside to gear talk only - just to get it out of the bloodstream! That one did not get any votes, though .

juanito · Dec 19, 2008

Well... , In january 2009, I'm opening a photoclub exclusively for traditional photography.
It's not because I'm against digital photography it's because I love film photography.
This is my ad:
I let you know if that works.

benjiboy · Dec 21, 2008

I was a member of a Photographic society that folded years ago just before It's 100th aniversary, I was a member for more than twenty years, and made some lifelong friends there, about six of us who are all film shooters still meet once a month at one of our houses to talk photography.

raucousimages · Dec 21, 2008

Most clubs have little to do with photography, it is all politics. We formed a large format photography "group". No leader, bylaws, dues, officers or schedule. Just post what you are doing and invite everyone to come. So far it is working good and no drama.

SilverGlow · Dec 21, 2008

Rosey, I generally like your article, but it reeks way too much of film vs. digital. And is that your goal? I thought your goal was to pursuade senors to look to photography and perhaps a club as a great way to meet people and practice a hobby? And if so, what do you care if the media is film or digital? My 78 year old father makes lots of digital snapshoots with his old Kodak digital point & shoot, and so many other seniors. I see seniors all the time taking thier flash cards to Walmart for prints. And in that aspect, digital is faster, cheaper and easier for seniors them flim.

However if I find a senior that wants to shoot film, that loves film, then I will do what I can to support him/her in that endeavor. I would not try to convert him to digital, unless he/she himself brings that up. I do agree with you that film shooting and perhaps development and printing can be a great hobby for a senior, but suggest it without slamming digital.

And besides, the "negatives" you write of for digital could often be made against film too. I would remove the film vs digital aspect; just my opinion. You already have a great idea: film shooting and processing and the association in a camera club is a great thing for a senior.

Join a camera club, develop new friendships

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