General Information

Membership

Annual membership is $60 per person.

We accept cash or cheque payments for membership.  If you wish to join, please attend one of our meetings and speak to our membership chairperson, who will have an application form for you to fill out.

We regret that due to space constraints we have had to change our previous policy on visitors as follows:
Anyone interested is welcome to attend a few of our meetings as a visitor, at a charge of $5 per meeting, so long as there is sufficient space. If you are planning to attend a meeting as a visitor, we ask that you send an email to membership@rhcameraclub.ca before 9pm on the day before the meeting to reserve your space.

If you are a member of another camera club, please bring your membership card for complimentary attendance to one of our meetings.

If you wish to attend workshops, field trips or evaluation groups, receive mailings about upcoming events, or enter any of our competitions, we do require a current membership. A one-meeting visitor fee is refundable against your membership fee when you join the club on the same night as you have paid the visitor’s fee.

Returning members must renew their membership no later than Monday, October 3, 2011.  At midnight that evening the club database will be updated and only paid up members will be able to log in to register for workshops, field trips or enter competitions.  Once the 2011-12 membership fee has been paid, the member will be added to the database and then will once again be eligible to participate in club activities.

Membership closed
As of December 2011, our club has reached the cap established by the board of directors (175 members).  In order to best serve the interests of our members, any person wishing to join the club will unfortunately have to be placed on a “wait list” until there is an opening and would be given first opportunity to join the club next season.

Skill Levels

Our members represent all age groups (18 & older) and both sexes. Their experience levels run the gamut from new-to-digital to very skilled; yet we all learn from one another.

Most club members are using digital equipment – from good quality point-and-shoot cameras to sophisticated digital SLR’s.

When new members join, we discuss their skill level with them and slot them into Novice, Intermediate, Advanced or Masters skill groups for the purpose of competitions.

Activities

• Most of our meetings feature a guest speaker or a club member talking about some aspect of photography. For a list of activities for the current year, please click Events.
• At most meetings there is a short “Tips and Tricks” session. (For a sampling, please click Tips and Tricks).
• We schedule some “workshop” sessions, mostly held at the club premises, for smaller groups.   Usually we require participants to register and pay an additional fee to cover our costs for these workshops.
• Evaluation Groups  are small groups which meet periodically in members’ homes to look at and offer opinions on each others’ images.
• About 6 times a year we hold a friendly competition for digital images and/or prints, which are judged by trained judges from outside the club.  A topic is set for each competition, and images may be entered as either “Assigned Topic” or “Pictorial” ( i.e. no special topic or “photographer’s choice”).   Winners are selected in each of the Novice, Intermediate and Advanced levels.  For a sampling of the winners from recent competitions (top 3 scores and ties), please click Gallery (or click on one of the competition menu items in the left side navigation sidebar).
• After each competition, one meeting is spent in reviewing the entries and learning from the judges’ comments.
• We hold one photo essay competition each year and encourage our members to put together digital slide shows.  There is also a non-competitive “story book” evening where members’ short 3 to 5 image photo stories are presented, strictly for our own entertainment.
• Throughout the year, usually on weekends, we have field trips to various local places or activities of interest.   Currently planned trips are listed under Events.
• We occasionally display some of our prints at the Richmond Hill Public Library. The most recent Library display was for the month of April 2010. In April 2009 we held a gala print evening at the new Richmond Hill Performing Arts Centre. 118 of our prints were on display for the month of April, garnering lots of interest and rave reviews from the public.
• At the final meeting of each year, in May, we have a banquet with presentation of awards and displays of images created during the year.  This evening features a great meal and a silent aution and raffles which raise funds to help with our capital expenditures for the upcoming club season.
• The club owns a Spyder colorimeter which is available for members to borrow – for further information, members may  log in and see the membersOnly area.
• Glenn Springer has set up an internet discussion group for the club – for further information, members may  log in and see the membersOnly area.