Have joined a photo society.

[Craftysnapper]

I keep thinking about joining the local one to me. But always chicken out.

Well don't be put off give it a try and allow time for settling in Kev, I don't regret the time I spent at them although it's been seven years since I went to one.

 

After my first two weeks at my first one in 1992, one of the members helped me to set up a B&W darkroom and taught me to develop and print, they are not all stuck up and some can be very helpful.

 

As one of the early Photoshop adopters I even taught it at my Photographic society when it started to catch on, it is now the norm at most clubs these days to have PS lessons.

 

Or perhaps my experience at the two clubs I have belonged to is not the norm.

Edited November 21, 2014 by OlyPaul

[Cathy]

Jeff good luck and I hope you enjoy the club.

I am now 7th in line on a waitng list to join my local club :)

[Thunderer]

I've tried two local clubs over the years but because I worked at Jessops all (and I mean ALL) I got out of them was earache and an extension of being in the shop. 

 

If I filter out that then the people were a bit clanny (my word and I'm sticking with it) for my liking with factions that were too deeply rooted in a particular point of view/style of photography/point in history or with darn weird agendas.

 

You got ancient, dusty, myopic tweed wearers who thought photography had its heyday when you still put a big black cloth over your head. You had slightly creepy middle aged men with beer bellies and an unusual love of darts who only turned up when there was a pretty (ish) young female model to shoot (drool over) who spent the whole night making inappropriate comments and taking more pictures than is healthy. Add to the pot the blokes who at home were dominated by a brick sh*thouse of a wife who only turned up to be on every committee going so they could have a say and feel important. You had the gear snobs who shot with a particular camera because they were convinced it was the best and anyone who disagreed was looked down upon and sneered at in a manner that was so condescending it would make a head teacher look normal. The other problem with clubs is the very fact that they are clubs - by which I mean they tend to attract people who are already socially inept, have god awful jobs that no one else finds interesting, holiday in the same place year after year, have a minuscule social life, buy clothes because they are practical, swap their branded camera strap for a wide one with a colourful pattern on it and who when they do find a group of like minded folk they fixate on the hobby and obsess about it to the point of becoming a bore.

 

Joking aside I hope you get something positive from the group you have joined.

Phew.

You had me going with that rant. Problem is I fit the description of a couple of the caricatures - socially inept and boring.

Jeff

[Black Pearl]

Just remembered - I've had a rant before:

 

 

 

I've tried two in the past but with working for Jessops at the time it was a disaster.  Every session became an extension of my being in the shop but without normal social boundaries:

 

"I don't like Jessops" 

"I can get xxx cheaper from xxx" 

"Jessops are this" 

"Jessops are that" 

"Can you get me discount?" 

"My brother in laws, mothers, aunties parrot went to Jessops once and they scratched one of the negatives and even though you weren't born then (the photo was probably crap anyway) I hold you entirely responsible" 

 

I left.

 

That was just the bit related to me personally. As has been said the clubs in general were too set in the past and in my experience had an almost pathological resistance to change. Weekly attendance was only good if there was a 'Model Night' which really just boiled down to thirty sweaty old men pointing as big a lens as they possessed at some poor, not always particularly attractive, young girl her undies. The competitions hadn't changed in a hundred years, the prints entered had done the rounds a million times and the winners were the same ones making the back of them a foot thick mass of rosettes. 

On the rare occasion they organised a trip it ended up a an endless series of toilet stops and tea breaks. If you did go along you had to do your best to separate yourself from the masses otherwise people might think you liked to carry a WW2 gas mask case with you everywhere or think that waving a walking stick at anyone under the age of 40 who dared to come close was acceptable behaviour. 

 

I have to stop as I need to go to work and frankly I'm reliving memories that have been suppressed for a reason.

[Craftysnapper]

Jeff good luck and I hope you enjoy the club.

I am now 7th in line on a waitng list to join my local club

That would not be Queens Park Camera Club would it Cathy?

[Cathy]

That would not be Queens Park Camera Club would it Cathy?

No it is Ayr Photographic Soceity :)