Camera Clubs

Looking for a fun way to improve your photography.  Check out your local camera club.  I recently joined the North Shore Photographic Society here in North Vancouver and am enjoying my experience very much.

One of the challenges to improving your photography is knowing if what you are doing is working.  Asking friends and family their opinion on you images is a start but very often they won't tell you the whole truth.  They are your friends after all, and they don't want to hurt your feelings.  It is also likely that they are not artists or photographers, so they are unsure what to tell you.

A camera club is a group of like minded people who want to practice and share their photography.  As such, they are a great source of subjective feedback - especially the folks who have been there for a while. Clubs will have monthly slide and print critiques, making feedback is a huge component of what they do.

Another fun aspect of a camera club is that they arrange field trips and guest speakers to come in and share their knowledge or special technique.  So, you get a chance to photograph things that you may not otherwise get a chance to photograph and hear about different ideas, all on a regular basis.

Camera clubs can not replace professional photography organizations, and I will always recommend that you belong to them.  Nor will they replace professional print competitions. But I do recommend them non the less.

Photolen