When Jean Drummond attended a party with her husband and a camera nine years ago, she said she had no idea she was appointing herself as the president of a newfound club.
Drummond has presided over The Woodlands Camera Club since its creation in 2006 with the help of Vice President Pete Poulsen. Sponsored by The Woodlands United Methodist Church, the club has grown to more than 140 members during the past decade who gather on an almost weekly basis for meetings, workshops and field trips.
“Our club is meant for your average Joe,” Drummond said. “It was never geared for professionals or for competition. It’s geared for sharing and friendships. We want everybody to learn something and enjoy it.”
Both Poulsen and Drummond agreed that what they disliked most about other photography-related clubs was the emphasis they placed on competition and criticism. Instead, The Woodlands Camera Club puts emphasis on friendship and learning.
The club holds meetings on the first Monday of each month during which it hosts guest speakers. Members are also encouraged to share photographs.
“Our purpose is we love photography,” Poulsen said. “There are so many people who are new to cameras, and since we started the club, digital has come around. All of a sudden, that’s the camera of choice. When we started that didn’t exist, so we’ve had to evolve.”
Poulsen said the club can be treated as more than a camera club. For her it is also a social activity.
“I’m like a golfer or a fisherman,” Poulsen said. “I don’t care if I catch the fish or get a hole-in-one—I’m out there because I want to be out with the people I’m doing it with. So the club is more fun for me than just taking pictures, and I think that’s how it is with a lot of our people.”
Groups
The club offers four special-interest groups:
- Learning your photo equipment-helps beginners learn basic camera functions
- Learning to shoot-enables photographers to participate in both indoor and outdoor workshops
- Composing: The Fine Art of Seeing-focuses on the aesthetic principles of photography
- Processing your photos-aids members in using Photoshop and Lightroom during postproduction
