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Hi all,
We’re setting up a new club for people interested in photography in Chengdu (who can speak English).
Our first meeting is at the Bookworm at 8pm on Wednesday March 4th.
For more information about the first meeting and what to bring, contact Simon by:
connecting with Chengdu Photgraphers on LinkedIn
or emailing [email protected]
All ability levels welcome.
Hope to hear from you soon!.
Simon
Great news! I’m sure this is something that will be well received.
If you can post information on the meeting and what to bring here instead of having everyone email you, you will save everyone a lot of time.
Thanks to all those who’ve expressed an interest and are planning to go on Wednesday.
Please add Chengdu Photographers on LinkedIn if you’ve got it.
We’re going to use this first meeting as a bit of a getting-to-know you session, as well as to talk about what we all would like from the club and our particular interests/experiences in photography. To help with this I suggest everyone brings their laptop and presents six photos from a trip they have made in a country other than China (I’m sure we’ll do plenty about China in the future!). They could be photos you’re very pleased with or ones you wish were better and could benefit from some constructive suggestions. At this first meeting we can also decide a theme for our first photo challenge – everyone can go away and take photos on that theme and we’ll have a bit of a contest at the April meeting.
See you on Wednesday!
Simon
Hi, is this still a going concern? Steve
I think it’s unlikely, I haven’t heard about this in months. Chengdu photography clubs are notoriously patchy and inconsistent. It’s been like that for 5+ years, unfortunately. It would be cool if someone started this again and actually stuck to it for more than 3 months because there’s clearly interest for an event like this.
@ Charlie – the Chengdu Photography Club came into existence in about October 2011 and ran continuously for two years – somewhat more than 3 months!
The meetings took place in the Bookworm every month from October 2011 until about July 2013. Seemingly the interest of members was more about the meetings to critique member’s photographs than it was about getting together for photography trips. The club died 3 months after it was made clear that we were no longer welcome in the Bookworm and members failed to support publicised photography trips.
@ Charlie – the Chengdu Photography Club came into existence in about October 2011 and ran continuously for two years – somewhat more than 3 months! The meetings took place in the Bookworm every month from October 2011 until about July 2013. Seemingly the interest of members was more about the meetings to critique member’s photographs than it was about getting together for photography trips. The club died 3 months after it was made clear that we were no longer welcome in the Bookworm and members failed to support publicised photography trips.
My mistake – I attended several of the meetings but when I tried to attend others it was suddenly not there. My impression of the photography group in Chengdu is that information was difficult to find. Everything worked around a restricted Yahoo group which didn’t make information easily available, like when the meets happen or what happens at them. According to the Yahoo group page, there are still monthly meetings at Bookworm. It’s unfortunate to hear that Bookworm no longer wanted to host the group, that is news to me, but honestly I would probably also have reservations about hosting that group based on how it was managed. I hope that there’s still hope for a photography group of some kind in Chengdu because there is clearly still demand for it.
Was blessed with very nice weather the few days I was there. Looking forward to be back October. Still hopeful this endeavor would eventually be realized. To help fuel the passion, taken from my room at the Intercontinental. Cheers!
@ seismicshift – an incredibly shot. I have been past that venue on numerous occasions over the years and it is a fog/smog magnet.
@ Charlie – the club was advertised in the forums of both Chengdu Living and GoChengdu. The advertising was commonly refreshed every 3 months to bump it up the board. Subject to Chinese holidays we had monthly meetings in the Bookworm. Members received timely advanced notification of meetings and planned/proposed events via the Yahoo site and they received a reminder about 3 days before the actual meeting. We corresponded publically via the Yahoo site and these emails were automatically sent to the member’s choice of email box – you did not have to use a yahoo email to get notifications if you wanted to use a different email provider. We even had a showcase website (not Yahoo) which was updated monthly from the best (chosen by member votes) photographs submitted to the monthly meeting. We had a few trips out as a group but they were poorly attended. You imply it was badly run so I challenge you to do better.
Yes, I agree about the Bookworm not being excited about hosting us – we were not exactly big spenders as a group. Sadly none of our members could find an alternative venue.
To you or anyone else in Chengdu who is interested in photography within the city then feel free to contact me and, subject to weather and wife, my camera and I will be happy to keep you company but count me out if it just involves show and tell in the Bookworm.
@ Charlie – the club was advertised in the forums of both Chengdu Living and GoChengdu.
Cool, I could be mistaken, what I wrote about was my impression. Thanks for putting forth an effort to organize the group over many years. I know it’s not easy.
We had a few trips out as a group but they were poorly attended. You imply it was badly run so I challenge you to do better. Yes, I agree about the Bookworm not being excited about hosting us – we were not exactly big spenders as a group. Sadly none of our members could find an alternative venue. To you or anyone else in Chengdu who is interested in photography within the city then feel free to contact me and, subject to weather and wife, my camera and I will be happy to keep you company but count me out if it just involves show and tell in the Bookworm.
That is totally fair, and I would love to take you up on that challenge but it will be difficult for me because I have neither a burning passion for photography nor the time to do that on top of my other commitments. Any critique that I express of the previous group is purely in the interest of creating a long-lasting photography group for the future that Chengdu can benefit from. There is a Chengdu photographers WeChat group with a few dozen people in it that share photos. To me that is a foundation for a photographers group in Chengdu that offers as much benefit as sharing photos at Bookworm, or more. Unfortunately for now it’s not visible and you need to be invited by someone else to find the group at all.
But I agree with you that just meeting at Bookworm and sharing photos isn’t really worth the effort. An in-person event would need to offer something more valuable like workshops on a particular type of photography, walking tours of particular places in the city, or something else.
By the way, where is the website with photos from the Chengdu photography group that you mentioned?
Well, I’d be keen to be involved at some stage. I’m a keen photographer, but not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.
Just moved back to Chengdu and settling in again. Last time I lived in a galaxy far far away in Shuangliu. This time I’m in Jinjiang.
Cheers
Steve
@ Charlie – you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. I was just hoping that a fresh horse might have the energy to make it work but sadly I don’t think we have enough English speaking people in Chengdu with an interest in photography. I suspect that what we need is a Chinese element who can interface with the Chinese community to keep a club active – something that is way out of my league. It’s not as if there is a shortage of like minded Chinese photographers in Chengdu pointing their cameras at weird things. There is seemingly a different, Chengdu Camera Club who’s images appear if you do a Yahoo search but there are no contact details.
My son was/is kind enough to host the Club gallery which you can find under http://www.loose-canon.net/Guests and my gallery under http://www.loose-canon.net/Portfolio/FatDragon . You will even find one of your pictures featured there. Choose the slideshow option as the thumb nails on display are just a sample. Enjoy.
My son was/is kind enough to host the Club gallery which you can find under http://www.loose-canon.net/Guests and my gallery under http://www.loose-canon.net/Portfolio/FatDragon . You will even find one of your pictures featured there. Choose the slideshow option as the thumb nails on display are just a sample. Enjoy.
Great, thanks!
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