Things to consider Before you join a camera club
Before you join one you probably call it a camera club. Once you've been on the inside you might notice we call ourselves "photographic societies", perhaps in an (vain) attempt to convince the world we don't talk about gear all the time.
Early in my photography career (this is written by Emma), as an enthusiastic amateur in my 20s, I had two bad experiences with camera clubs that put me off (I thought) for life. In the first I was one of two women members and was excluded from most events which in those days were arranged in a word-of-mouth fashion through the old boys network (pre-internet). The second had a marginally better mix of members but I was patronised from day one and found it exhausting constantly having to prove myself.
A couple of years ago some AYWMC members implored me to try again. They explained they had found their local clubs welcoming and fun. So I did and my local club is indeed a world away from my early experiences. I was made extremely welcome on my first day and every day since. There isn't too much talk about gear. It's worth mentioning I'm in my early 50s and I'm still one of the youngest members. Women are in the minority but only just.
I've had a very good experience. All clubs are not the same though and before you jump in and commit to a year's membership fees for your local club these are some things I would counsel you to consider:
Competitions
Camera clubs (I still think of them that way) have competitions as their backbone. Competitions are cheap to organise compared to paying a speaker and easy to organise compared to finding volunteers to run alternative activities.
If you don't want to be involved in competitions, either as a spectator or as a contributor, don't join a camera club, or find a very rare one that has few competitions.
I joined my club specifically to force myself to enter competitions. I think the discipline of finishing a photograph to competition standard is a good one to embrace and hearing the judges comments on your own and others photographs is always educational.
Listening to the judges comments must be done with a spirit of openness. It's too easy to get angry and defensive when they mark you down. Even if the detail can be argued over there is always a grain of truth in what they say, however hard it is to hear. And if you are open to hearing the truth and acting on it your photography will only improve.
Diversity
I've been a member of my local club (in the UK) for over two years now and in that time all but one of the competitions has been judged by a white man aged over 50. I know that most judges are white men and so clubs have a hard time finding a diverse judging panel, but there is something wrong in the photographic community that means women, younger people, Black and ethnic minority candidates aren't coming forward to train as judges. The camera club community in the UK does not reflect society at large and clubs need first to acknowledge that and then decide what to do about it. Creative communities need diversity of thought, life experience and opinion if they are to grow, otherwise they risk dying out within a generation.
Rules
Don't join a traditional camera club to push the boundaries of creative expression. Competitions are judged to a published list of criteria that err on the side of "technically correct". For example:
use correct focus
don't blow the highlights
crop appropriately ("appropriate" seems to change with each judge)
use an appropriate aperture and shutter speed for the subject
don't over-saturate
don't over-sharpen
use a white border appropriately (not too big, not too small)
don't be too clever with your composition
don't shoot clichés but also don't be too adventurous
There is a whole separate list of rules for wildlife and nature photographers regarding editing and declaring if an animal is captive, and another set for correctly displaying print images. The club should have a published list online. If not, ask the club secretary for help and watch a few competitions to see how its done before you enter your first image.
If you want to do well in camera club competitions you have to play by their rules. Pick other competitions to try your deliberately out of focus shots, or your extreme minimalism. This has been my best performing (class-winning) shot; it is technically excellent but I wouldn't want it to be the shot I'm remembered for:
Southwold pier, successful camera club competition style: there's nothing for the judge to mark down and winning just depends on what else is in your class
How to join
Manage your expectations
What do you want in a club? Do you want to learn how to use your camera? Lots of social events? Trips to exhibitions? Erudite discussions about the history of photography? The opportunity to geek out about how many pixels your sensor has?
Do your research.
Look at members' work online - does it reflect what you want to shoot?
Look at the online club calendar - is it competitions every week?
If we are still in pandemic times - do they offer remote access to meetings?
Does the club offer any on-boarding for new members, eg. camera skills workshops or "how to enter our competitions" run-throughs? It's hard to pick up the official "how we do things here" information simply by word-of-mouth.
Check the club website for details of special interest groups and see how often they meet. Ask if there is a waiting list for these groups.
Ask the membership secretary if you can try the club before you join, and make sure you go to one competition night and one non-competition night. Go with the intention of meeting people. Hopefully you will be introduced to members but if not feel free to approach someone and say you're new. Try and meet a good mix of people. If nobody speaks to you on either occasion then I wouldn't join that club.
Look further afield
If your local camera club is too prescriptive look at alternatives.
The website meetup.com lists local events and you can search by interest.
If you are retired you can try the University of the Third Age (u3a.org.uk in the UK).
Start your own club. You'll be able to make the rules, shape the conversation and attract like-minded people. This is how AYWMC started: I decided there was no compassionate, inclusive, non-competitive, supportive place to learn photography online. So I made one.
When you join
Turn up with a positive attitude. Members should welcome you but you will need to make an effort too. Don't condemn the club on the basis of a single judge (judges are usually external to the club and they may not have visited before). Don't forget the club is run by volunteers. Put your hand up promptly when asked to do tea duty. Respect the committee's time. Read the newsletters. If you say you'll turn up for something turn up or let the organiser know you can't make it. Pay your subs on time. And be the first to talk to members who join after you.