What the club does…
A typical annual season consists of several types of event:
- Internal intra-club competitions amongst members for print, digital projected image, and audio-visual.
- Guest presenters who talk about their own photographic work and technique.
- Educational lectures from a skilled presenter on a specific photographic technique.
- External inter-club competitions between WCCC and other local camera clubs.
- Members’ images displayed at local fetes and events.
- Summer day-time and evening events.
- Christmas and other social get-togethers.
From the above, the intra-club competitions, the guest presentations, and the tutorial lectures are conducted at the regular club venue on the regular club meeting night. A typical season consists of 35 club-venue evenings from September to May.
The inter-club competitions, member’s image display at fetes, and summer day and evening events take place on a more ad-hoc basis at other locations.
See below for more details of each type of event.
Intra-club (“Internal”) Competitions
Competition events are approximately 1/3 of the total season’s regular events. Each season includes 5 rounds of print league competition and 5 rounds of digital projected image league competition. There are also other special trophy competitions for e.g. a panel of printed images or best-print-on-the-night, set subject or genre as well as one audio-visual competition. Any club member can enter into any of the competitions. The images are openly critiqued and scored by a visiting judge, and each member’s scores over the year are summed and the members ranked at the end of the season. One of the print or digital projected image evenings is devoted to a special set-subject where members are invited to submit an image on a theme chosen each year by the committee from amongst members’ own suggestions.
Members are grouped into two divisions, with division one being for the more experienced members. Division two is for newer and less-experienced members (as well as members who have been demoted from division one due to achieving lower scores during the previous season; this keeps everyone on their toes!). Division one images are also critiqued against a slightly higher standard. There are trophies awarded for the highest scoring members, and those in division two with the highest scores move up into division one for the following year.
One event per year is a dedicated to audio-visual submissions from members, combining still and moving images, with a sound (musical and/or audio narration) into a short film-like clip.
Based on total scores achieved, the club awards trophies for Photographer Of The Year, as well as divisional trophies for highest scores for print and digital projected images. Members loan each physical trophy for a period of one year.
Guest presentations on photographic work and technique
Throughout the season there are regular presentations from guest presenters who (for example) may persue a particular genre of photography (wildlife, landscapes, night-time, street, etc.,), or a particular technique (macro, high-speed flash, HDR, compositing, etc.,). The presenters share both their images as well as anecdotal comments from their photographic endeavours. Occasionally, one of the club’s own members may be the one making the presentation.
Educational lectures on photographic technique
The club also on occasion (perhaps one evening per year) arranges for an educational tutorial on a specific aspect of photography or tool. This might include for example lectures on wildlife photography, working with layers in Photoshop, or similar.
Inter-club (“External”) Competitions
Throughout the September to May season, the club particpates in a number of external competitions. These may be for example match-an-image competitions, or print or projected image competitions. Images are selected from members own images entries in the previous season’s internal competition events. In these externl competitions, the club’s score for all its submitted images is added up and ranked against the other clubs also taking part. Club members can attend and cheer the club along. The recent successes page highlights how we have been geting on of late.
Members’ image displays
Throughout the year the club supports the local Camberley community by particpating in events such as fairs and fetes, where we display a selection of members’ (typically print) images.
Summer day and evening events
Through the summer-period, the club arranges perhaps one day event and three evening events at a local Surrey/Hants/Berks location. These events provide both photographic opportunity as well as a chance for a catch-up with other members.
Overall
The club should not be perceived as a photography school. In practice the club is as much a social club of like-minded individuals as a photography club. Certainly there is photographic learning, but it is not delivered as a series of tutor-led lessons about cameras and photography, rather via the fun of friendly competitions with judge’s critiquing, combined with presentations from visitor guests.
The current season’s full programme can be seen here: Season Programme