Photography Clubs

 So why should I join a club.
It is a great place to meet like minded photographers and hopefully meet more experienced ones, who are happy to help you advance your skill level. 
Most clubs have some sort of competitions each month, or several times a  month depending on the size of the club/society. One thing I feel is often overlooked is the problem of Analysis paralysis that happens for new members entering competitions. We enter with encouragement from others, we go to the judging and no one explains  what is going to happen, what the judge might say about my image. They might hate it, rubbish the content and even suggest that it is someone else art work, the first image, was judged this way, because the judge had never seen anything like it before, it must be a picture of someone else work, I was gutted, it is the virgin Mary in the roll cage at Mc Murdo station. I tried again with the second image and got honours, I was happy. The third image was not accepted as the judge believed the image was pixelated, he was not aware of grain in B&W. All these years later and many many Non Acceptances later,  I just laugh about it. If i was not of the nature I am, I would have left the club in 2008 after the first competition and never entered another competition.

I do not know if clubs do this, would it not be a good idea to have a support type person to sit with a newbie and help them understand the judging to help reduce the Analysis paralysis that often happens. All judges as with clubs are not created equal, lets support new competitors to make the experience educational not a death sentence. I strongly believe competitions are a healthy thing to do in a club as well as Internationally, if for nothing else but the catalogues.