[Peter Zack]

I used to be in a much bigger club in Halifax. It even had a name that sounded aloof. Nova Scotia Photo Guild. But it has been around a long long time. I think they had around 300-400 members and usually 60-100 at each meeting. But there were members from beginners to pros like Sherman Hines.

We had photographers like Courtney Milne and Freeman Patterson visit and share their work. It was fun and a real learning experience.

So even big lubs can be a great place to go. But there has been a change over the years without question. Back then the gear wasn't a big deal. Sure you would drool over somebodies Hasselblad you could ever afford but it was more about the photos. Today it can sometimes be more about the "I've got a Canikon XXXX. Mines' bigger than yours". In fact I'm the only Pentax shooter at my club and there's a jerk who always refers to my cameras as "A Shitty Pentax" ( a play on words of Asahi Pentax). I just ignore hm and the last 2 years, I've won best in show of our judged photo exibit. (350 photos with 3 judges from the local University and art college).

So there can be jerks in some clubs, overall the experience is very positive.

[Ratmagiclady]

I used to be in a much bigger club in Halifax. It even had a name that sounded aloof. Nova Scotia Photo Guild.

Guilds could possibly be a darn good idea, come to think of it. I've always thought photography, particularly as a trade, was best learned on sort of an apprentice system, (Certainly a better model than what has been going on a long time with a lot of people using equipment anyone with the money could buy to denote some kind of status. ) Could be some useful ideas to adapt, there.

I've been thinking a lot lately of trying to apply the rather successful 'bicycle co-op' model to photography: brick and mortar retail's pretty much gone the way of Schwinn dealerships, and the situation's actually pretty similar.

It's long been a sort of idle dream that 'Well, if I hit the lottery, maybe I could keep a shop alive, even if it just breaks even."

A co-op could probably support a retail shop, at least for used things and all those accessories and such we're mail-ordering all over the place, probably an analog and decent digital darkroom, printers of varying qualities, a repair/machine shop, studio space, all manner of things everyone's spending fortunes to buy redundantly. And in the process have a social place to get together and ...well, have some purpose to it other than brand wars.

I also like the idea cause I don't think it's likely that even if capital suddenly appeared, I could really manage even a little shop on my own.

Wouldn't be a bad town for it where I am, ...it'd help revitalize the town center, here: the only problem is that the propertied companies are keeping the rents on downtown properties jacked up at boom-time levels, because if they do that they can take a major tax break on the 'losses,' thus profiting off strangling the town center and choking small business.

It's another reason to hope my sweetie and I can go settle somewhere else, though. Something like this with a few of the right kinds of people could really turn around a lot of the problems that photo people and towns in general have been sort of helplessly-not-facing.

So even big lubs can be a great place to go. But there has been a change over the years without question. Back then the gear wasn't a big deal. Sure you would drool over somebodies Hasselblad you could ever afford but it was more about the photos. Today it can sometimes be more about the "I've got a Canikon XXXX. Mines' bigger than yours". In fact I'm the only Pentax shooter at my club and there's a jerk who always refers to my cameras as "A Shitty Pentax" ( a play on words of Asahi Pentax). I just ignore hm and the last 2 years, I've won best in show of our judged photo exibit. (350 photos with 3 judges from the local University and art college).

So there can be jerks in some clubs, overall the experience is very positive.

I've never understood in some ways why people would want to get all brand-bullying in that way. They can't win: if they put so much stock in equipment names, it proves nothing if they make good photos, and it only makes them look silly when you blow their doors off.

[ChrisPlatt]

You went to one meeting and rejected it?

Yes, many years ago. They were a bunch of old men more concerned with procedure, protocol and the pecking order
than with photography. Today I too am an old man but you will never, ever catch me hanging with a crowd like that.

Chris

[TaoMaas]

Yes, many years ago. They were a bunch of old men more concerned with procedure, protocol and the pecking order
than with photography. Today I too am an old man but you will never, ever catch me hanging with a crowd like that.

Chris

I can totally understand that feeling and you shouldn't give in just because Joe Blow doesn't like your pics.

---

Last edited by TaoMaas; 03-01-2010 at 12:28 PM.

[jpzk]

I used to be in a much bigger club in Halifax. It even had a name that sounded aloof. Nova Scotia Photo Guild. But it has been around a long long time. I think they had around 300-400 members and usually 60-100 at each meeting. But there were members from beginners to pros like Sherman Hines.

We had photographers like Courtney Milne and Freeman Patterson visit and share their work. It was fun and a real learning experience.

So even big lubs can be a great place to go. But there has been a change over the years without question. Back then the gear wasn't a big deal. Sure you would drool over somebodies Hasselblad you could ever afford but it was more about the photos. Today it can sometimes be more about the "I've got a Canikon XXXX. Mines' bigger than yours". In fact I'm the only Pentax shooter at my club and there's a jerk who always refers to my cameras as "A Shitty Pentax" ( a play on words of Asahi Pentax). I just ignore hm and the last 2 years, I've won best in show of our judged photo exibit. (350 photos with 3 judges from the local University and art college).

So there can be jerks in some clubs, overall the experience is very positive.

This is my take on clubs: (and I am talking from personal experience).

1. Large city > large clubs which include pros and amateurs > lots of different "brands" > lots of very good advice in general. Agreed that there always will be some "cliques" in which you will never belong. That's a hard fact.

2. Small city > small clubs > generally of the "look-at-my-gear" personality > you don't get advice, you get "the looks" ... well, that's what I found out when I visited this small club near where I live and being the only Pentax owner ... you get the point. That is what we have here in this small city.

3. Village club! That's my favorite! There is this very small photo club in that small "town" (village it is) nearby. The folks there are of the artsy type; they usually don't have much expensive gear - lots of point and shooters - but it is amazing how they can compose a shot, even with a lowly 4MPx camera and very used at that!
There, you won't hear much about the "technicalities" of taking photos, rather you will hear a LOT about composition angles, point of view, foreground/background, light, light, light!
And guess what: most of these people are "loners", not lonely, but real loners who will spend hours in one single spot until they have the "right light".
The laws of attraction being universal, you are bound to meet these people one day or another.

JP

[res3567]

And Rupert the only thing I want to shoot squirrels with isn't a camera so forget about coming over here.

George,George,George,.......we love you!!!!!


Signed


Squirrels all over the world.

George,George,George,.......we love you!!!!!


Signed


Squirrels all over the world.

Like everyone always says"to know me is to love me"

[res3567]

Like everyone always says"to know me is to love me"

AND YOU KNOW THIS!!!!!

AND YOU KNOW THIS!!!!!

For a fact. After women see the offspring I produced they want to have my baby. And I don't care about the guys. I need to start a poll though. How many of your wives let you have a girlfriend. Mine won't.

[res3567]

For a fact. After women see the offspring I produced they want to have my baby. And I don't care about the guys. I need to start a poll though. How many of your wives let you have a girlfriend. Mine won't.

Poor thing....how you get over that?

Poor thing....how you get over that?

What she don't know.......

[res3567]

What she don't know.......

Gotcha.......

[yucatanPentax]

Rupert,
I hear you.
In my past, I lived in a town of 900 people and our family were the numbers they needed to pull them out of the 800s.

Needless to say, there wasn't any two of any one for a lot of various interests, whether particular cars, photography, music or whatever.

But there was one thing: socializing at the coffee shop / diner. Somehow, most of America has retreated into their living rooms and away from regular socializing with others over coffee (not sitting in a Starplucks tapping on keyboards oblivious of each other's existence, but socializing!), of an after work beer at the corner bar, etc. Part of the reasons are listed above by lots of people: shift work, frequent moves, family responsibilities, etc.

But there was a time when it would be odd if we had not socialized with a lot of various people outside of work. Today, that is the exception all to often, rather than the rule. We work. We go home. We eat, watch TV, sleep and repeat.

At least these online forums provide some sort of outlet. Today, I've been fascinated and moved by Bob's photos from Vietnam (just found the thread). Other days, I've met people here with the same interests other than photography. (Mayan ruins, for example, on my first day here).

No one's that deep down depressed I hope, but just in case, there's an old poem that always gets me through the rough time. You gotta keep a sense of humor...:

Razors pain you;
Poisons cramp.
Acids stain you;
Rivers are damp.

Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give.
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

-- Dorothy Parker