Please excuse the (semi) plagerisation of David Frost’s 1960’s satirical news program but this title just seems to fit the past year! Non of us thought that 2020 would play out the way it has done when the year first started back in January (as all years seem to do - start in January I mean!). News items tend to have a very short life span and are usually forgotten a few weeks after they had become headlines. A recent case in point is the plight of lorry drivers (and their lorries) being prevented from getting home for Christmas and having wait in that lorry park better known as Kent to most of us. In the week leading up to Christmas this constituted about half the news bulletins but now, just a few days later, nothing! The other half of the news is (almost) another story and one that had it’s origins in the latter months of 2019. This item is still going strong today!
But this post in not intended to be about current affairs, moreover about 2020 at Rushcliffe Photographic Society. But, as is the case for all clubs and societies regardless of their activity, this year’s current affairs have had a big impact on what they and we could and could not do.
2020 started as all previous years, after the Christmas and New Year break, with the first meeting taking place in the first week in January and a members evening on the subject of “Why I chose the camera I did!”
This was followed by the usual formula of speakers, critique & gallery evenings and competitions.
Then we headed towards the end of March .....
Who could forget the end of March 2020? That will undoubtedly be one of those dates etched in everyone’s minds for evermore!
As a camera club it obviously meant no face-to-face meetings for the foreseeable future, no outdoor camera shootouts and not much of anything really.
I’m not sure how quick (relatively) we were to realise there were ways we could still engage with our members but it didn’t seem to take us many weeks to fully embrace the, now ubiquitous, meeting/conferencing platform of Zoom!
Who would have thought it would be possible to hold virtual meetings with potentially every club member from the comfort of your own home? Another benefit quickly became apparent - you could get speakers from anywhere in the world (assuming they were willing and able to use this ‘new’ platform). A consideration (though by no means the only one or even the most important one) when selecting speakers is the cost of getting them to the Parish Rooms which includes their travel costs. Over Zoom there are no travel costs - quids in ... !
This allowed us to do something we had never done before - hold a Summer programme! Let’s face it, we weren’t going anywhere this summer.
This seemed to meld nicely on to the end our normal season which occurs at the end of our AGM in June (which, incidentally, was attended by the highest number of members in many a year). Throughout July and August we were able to provide a very healthy mixture of speakers on a variety of subjects from seascapes, wildlife, socio-documentary, international sports amongst others coming directly to our homes from the south cost of England, Northern Ireland and Switzerland. We were also able to hold a series of ‘Non-Competition Competitions’.
Zoom allowed for some members to hold regular coffee mornings for friendly chats and talk about all things photography. The Distinctions group was also able to continue in a similar vein. And after one of the summer talks this migrated into the Distinctions and Development group where new techniques could be tried and explored.
We weren’t, however, allowed to celebrate our 40th anniversary! Oh well, maybe the 41st anniversary will be different ... but I’m not holding my breath.
Our new season started as usual in early September but not with the usual exhibition at the West Bridgford Library! So we posted our own virtual exhibition on this website - yes it is still there for all to see so go and check it out again!
The first half of the 2020\21 season has seen the usual mix of activities (followers of this blog will already know this) - one or two have been a bit of a challenge because they would have been much better face-to-face but we managed.
The second half of the season will continue as the first half has finished but it does look to be our ‘new normal’ and we do seem to have more members attending. It does seem, then, that we have managed to remain engaged with our membership. This is clearly testament to the hard work of all the members of our committee, both last season and this.
Hopefully the situation will improve during 2021 and we will be able to do what we all desperately want to do and that is get out and take pictures - not just by ourselves but with others.
28 December 2020