Joining the Club

We have a diverse range of members of all photographic abilities and ages, including students still at school or college. We are a friendly, enthusiastic bunch and we welcome new members of all photographic standards, from complete beginners to professionals.

Why a camera club?

If you just fancy photography, then a camera club is the place to be. It’s the ideal place to broaden one’s interests, polish one’s skills, or achieve distinctions.

Whatever your level of skill, student, amateur or professional, whatever your photographic leaning, and whatever equipment you use, whether a smartphone, a compact camera or the latest SLR, you will be made to feel at home and have the opportunity to receive advice and encouragement from the wealth of experience that our Club members have to offer. To quote one member’s comment to a novice “it’s not the cost of the make-up that counts, but how you apply it.”

A number of our established members specialise in a particular technique or a photographic genre, and are happy to share their knowledge and experience.

Members are encouraged to enter their images into club competitions to get the benefit of feedback from qualified judges on all aspects of photography and ways of improving their picture taking, irrespective of how competitive one feels. Annual exhibitions are also held.

Our programme of meetings and Special Interest Groups

Most weekly meetings feature either guest speakers, competitions or members’ evenings.  We have around 16 speakers each season covering a wide variety of topics and genres each season. Each season we hold several Members’ Evenings in which members show us their current projects, images or hints and tips.

Check out this season’s programme of meetings here.

There are several Special Interest Groups (SIGs) which meet regularly. These groups currently include monochrome (black and white), macro, landscape walking,  smartphone photography, pet photography, night photography and astro and one group specifically for new or recent members, designed to help them integrate into the Club.

Help to achieve distinctions for your photography

If you are interested in progressing your photography towards distinctions awarded by the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) or the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB), then there are several members who hold such distinctions and they would be more than willing to give you help and advice.

Several members are judges within the SCPF and they too will be happy to offer help and advice.

Attend one of our meetings to meet us

If you are interested in joining the club then why not attend a few meetings to find out what it’s like? Non-members may attend most meetings as guests, at a charge of £5 for each visit to the Open Learning Centre. If you decide to join the club, up to £15 of any payments paid as a guest in the current season will be deducted from your subscription.

Similarly guests attending our  Zoom meetings would be able to deduct the charges from three meetings from your subscription in the current season.

How to join

Students (in full-time education) pay only £10.

Full Membership – Adults £70.00

After Christmas – From January to the end of the season, join for the reduced price of £46.00.

There are additional charges for workshops, invited speakers extra to our published Programme and Special Interest Groups to just cover any costs incurred.

For more information or to join the Club please contact our Membership Secretary.

Membership from Easter for the rest of the season costs just £10.

Join now and start to improve your photography ready for the Summer!

Our programme details are available under Our Programmes tab above.