CARLISLE CAMERA CLUB (Published March 2004)
The present-day Carlisle Camera Club is the direct descendent of the Carlisle and County Amateur Photographic Society founded in 1885. Club members no longer dress in bowler hat and waistcoat (complete with watch chain) for Club meetings or outings, as they were pictured in an 1885 photograph of the Club's first outing to Gelt Woods (near Brampton) but one member still owns, though has never been seen to use, a plate camera supported on a wooden tripod like those depicted in that historic photograph.
The great majority of our just under thirty members work with 35mm camera equipment producing negatives or transparencies for subsequent scanning and printing via a "digital darkroom". One or two progressive souls have gone totally digital but this seems likely to be a slow trend due to the huge investment most have in traditional photo gear; many of those who have "gone digital", to a greater or lesser extent, are avid supporters of the North Cumbria Digital Group. Only one member still uses 2.1/4 square equipment and prints black and white using traditional wet process methods - what a change in a couple of years!
One might expect that with the Club's geographic locations close to the Lake District, photographs of that area would feature very strongly in members' photographic output. This is however only partly the case, much of members' output being either not area specific or taken outside the UK and we have just introduced a memorial competition for a Scottish landscape/seascape photograph!
As well as our regular Wednesday evening meetings during the normal Club "season", the Club operates a year-round, monthly, informal print discussion forum. This has been valuable in providing for a useful exchange of views and ideas amongst members and a variation to our normal "Club evening" diet.
Club membership, which is heavily weighted towards the retired/early retired end of the age spectrum, has been in slow decline for several years but we seem to be able to tread water financially thanks to excellent support for summer season coffee evenings and our once a year "open" coffee morning held at the Old Town Hall in central Carlisle at the beginning of the club's season.
Early each January we have an exhibition of prints in the Carlisle's main library. The prints are representative of all Club members' work so even the beginners get to have a print or two displayed which encourages them and makes the Club democratic! This exhibition is very popular with Carlisle townsfolk and many look forward to the event. We find the exhibition a useful recruiting source for members. The Club's relationship with both the Library and the City museum is such that we have received very positive support in the past few years for a still ongoing Club project to photograph the daily life of the City in the years around the millennium.
Chris Rowley. Secretary, Carlisle Camera Club.