Events for 2020/2021 season

A message from the President

Welcome to the Whickham Photographic Club website.

As I come to the end of my prolonged uniquely unusual first year as President of Whickham Photographic Club (WPC) I hope all members and friends of the club have managed the lockdown period without severe difficulty nor serious illness. The coronavirus has certainly caused major changes in the way we live.

WPC welcomes all photographers of all standards.  Our aim is to encourage photography and we will be holding educational events (when possible) to assist relative beginners as well as advice and encouragement to more experienced photographers. Our weekly meetings usually run from September to May every Friday night at 7.30 in Whickham Community Centre.  We also organise trips with the aim of photographing interesting places. Unfortunately the “normal” events are not possible at the moment but anyone interested is welcome to join in our Zoom meetings (8pm Fridays). Details of our next season will be published in the near future.

The virus has curtailed our meetings in Whickham Community Centre but we have managed to continue meeting virtually using the internet (Zoom).  At first, in the Spring this was as much for a social chat as looking at members’ photographs.  When it became evident that the Lockdown was going to continue throughout the summer we created a programme of meetings designed for Zoom!  This included critique evenings, advice evenings on photographic improvement using software, photographic challenges with the members voting to choose the best photograph, guest presentation and members explaining their approach to photographic qualifications.

These meetings have been well received and the recording of them has meant that the proceedings could be viewed via the internet link at a later date.

We are now focussing on the next season starting with our AGM on Friday 4 September, 8pm. This will be our first virtual AGM via Zoom.  I urge all members and friends to join in the discussions as decisions about the next months’ meetings will have to be made until we can safely meet together once again in the community centre.

I sincerely thank all those members who have helped during my first difficult year.

I give my best wishes to all photographers and hope we can see our way through this difficult period so our photographic enjoyment open up again after lockdown.

David Richardson

President, Whickham Photographic Club, July 2020