Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2017/10/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Digital shutterbug surge fuels local camera clubs By Jean Lang BOSTON GLOBE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER 27, 2017 In photospeak, you might say amateur camera clubs are in burst mode. The recent explosion in digital photography ? by one estimate, some 1.2 trillion such photos will be shot this year, up from 400 billion just six years ago ? means that fewer hobbyists are hunched over processing trays in darkrooms these days, but many, many more are out there in the light shooting away. And a lot of those amateurs, wanting to get better at their new hobby, are clamoring to join camera clubs. Take the Duxbury Camera Club, for one local example. It is pretty much filled to capacity, straining to keep membership at 90. In addition to monthly meetings from September through June, the club has established several ?focus groups,? smaller gatherings held separately, some in the afternoon, others in the evening, usually in members? homes, at which participants ?gently critique?? each other?s work, as one member put it. Many of those groups are full. ?Since the advent of digital photography,?? said club president Chris Ruggio, ?it?s really revolutionized things, and people have been able to do a lot more with their photography. You aren?t limited by the number of photos you take anymore.? Ruggio, by day a risk and compliance manager for State Street financial services , said the club had responded to the great demand by organizing a second black-and-white focus group and was establishing a portrait one. ?Especially with Facebook these days,?? said Ellen Barry, who handles publicity for the club, ?people post so many photographs, and I think people just are interested in expressing the things they see around them in pictures. Plus, the club is a great way to meet people.? On a recent Saturday, more than 50 people streamed into the Duxbury library?s Merry Room for the club?s first general membership meeting of the season. There they admired photo displays, many of them set to music and organized by themes such as night photography, panoramas, and those taken with camera phones. Attendees voted on which photos to choose for the month?s challenge: ?Capturing Duxbury.? The winners might end up on the Duxbury town report. Among those in the crowd were Tara Cartee, who used to accompany her daughter Marissa before she headed off to college this fall. Marissa, in fact, helped schedule the club?s guest speakers. This time Cartee brought along her 11-year-old daughter, Miranda, whose attention seemed divided between the photos and a Michael Crichton book. Ruggio said the club encourages young people to participate, giving $500 scholarships to select college-bound members and waiving the $40 membership fee for those 18 and younger. Still, for a club that was revived only about a decade ago after an earlier one faded, finding new members is hardly the problem these days. Amateurs wanting to get better, many of them baby boomers, seem to find what they?re looking for in the monthly meetings, focus groups, and workshops. Beyond all that, some members? works are framed and mounted for an annual show, and almost all efforts are uploaded and displayed online. Then there are the field trips, such as the one held Sept. 16 at the O?Neil Farm in Duxbury, at which club members, most of them boomers, had a field day of their own, taking pictures of everything that moved ? cows, goats, bees, and certainly people. Most of the shutterbugs were doing so with cameras, the members? general preference, said Ruggio, though cellphones are gaining in use as they improve and might soon merit a club workshop or lecture. ?The best camera,?? said Ruggio, passing along a saying he likes, ?is the one you have on you.? Duxbury is one of more than three dozen Massachusetts camera clubs listed as members on the website of the New England Camera Club Council, a nonprofit umbrella group of more than 70 clubs and Meetups, casual get-togethers of like-minded people facilitated by the online Meetup app. Another local member of the New England group is the South Shore Camera Club, in existence since 1934. It meets at the Quincy Point Congregational Church on Washington Street in Quincy. Its president, Suzanne Larson, who lives in Scituate, said she was on a waiting list for a few months before getting in around five years ago. Larry Fay, a past president and Milton resident, said when he joined around 10 to 11 years ago, there were approximately 75 members who presented their work in slides or prints. As digital photography became more prevalent, he said prints and slides diminished, but membership soared. He said the club tries to keep membership at around 200 so everyone can fit comfortably in the meeting space. ?We don?t want to see people stand for two hours,? he said. In addition to the weekly meetings in the church, the group is active with road trips, whether it be an impromptu drive to Scituate Light or a journey to Quebec City or Scotland. Larson, who enjoys night photography, said a road trip to the Cape or elsewhere to shoot the Milky Way was in the works. Fay said both the accessibility and complexity of digital photography have boosted participation. He said some cameras are so complicated people are afraid to turn off the automatic setting. Others are looking for guidance with software applications such as Photoshop Lightroom. But with the reduction in costs, and many equipped with cellphone cameras, more and more people feel they, too, can be shutterbugs. ?Everyone?s a photographer,? said Fay.