From: Lon Williamson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
A few of you have mentioned recently that you belong to or once belonged to camera clubs.
What's it like?
Lon, your question is too broad<g>.
Camera clubs are all over the place in their procedures, goals, and activities. Our club meets twice each month, taking a hiatus in July and August. We have 35 or so active members, most of whom are 'serious advanced amateurs'. We have seven internal competitions annually and participate in several more salon competitioins and gallery shows. e also have a few group outings (shoots).The internal competitions (which include Open and a Topic) are juried by invited judges. The remainder of our meetings are photo-educational and sometimes just photo-entertaining. Although most members are well-supplied with equipment, most are avid photographers, and not just gearheads. Insofar as competition success is concerned, the group is friendly and mutually supportive.
Our group is dominated by 35mm, although a few of also use medium format. Film capture outnumbers digital capture by a wide margin. The club is almost evenly split between men and women. The age ranges from 25 to old - at 68, I am well above the median.
We are fortunate to have our meeting room furnished without charge by a local private club.
You may be interested in our competition judging, which is perhaps a factor in our almost exclusively good relations among members. We no longer ask judges to rank images by 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Honorable Mention. Instead, images are awarded Merit, Special Merit, and Honor Image. Thus, a judge is not forced to choose among good quality but drastically different images.
My years in the club have taught me much about applied photography; I have also learned that camera clubs vary greatly from group to group.
If any PDML'er passes through Indianapolis on the second or fourth Thursday of the month, I would like to have him/her as my guest at a meeting. Just e-mail me here or at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Regards, Ed
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