Last night I made my first appearance at the Swavesey Camera Club. When we first moved here I noticed that there was a camera club, which I found surprising since Swavesey isn't all that big. But as I've learned over time, Swavesey may not be big but it is a very strong community, with people involved in making it an enjoyable community. There are constantly events going on here, from Murdery Mystery nights to Quiz Nights, fireworks put on by the White Horse, all sorts of charities coming round to collect things for sale in their shops, and that's all besides the weekly clubs- the over 50s, the teens, the Camera Club, a Dance club- you name it, we pretty much have it, with the exception of Scottish Dancing. :)
I've thought about going to the camera club since their first meeting in September. But the first term we were just getting settled in really, and were busy with our home group on Wed nights, and TEAM all day Wed, plus the ladies group Thursday morning, and G working Saturdays to make up for his lost work day for TEAM every Wednesday. Being an introvert (in the true sense of that word, which is a person who recharges by being alone, as opposed to being with people) all of the social events smack in the middle of the week were exhausting for me. I felt too tired of people to go anywhere on Thursday evening.
But with this new term, things have shifted- we now have iBASE on Tuesday night, and I have ladies' group Tuesday morning, then we have TEAM all day Wednesday, which hasn't started up yet and won't start till next week. So since I'd met at least one person at the Camera Club exhibition last Saturday I decided to go this week. The topic was Wildlife Photography- not something I'm terribly interested in, but my point in getting involved this late (they stop meeting at the end of May) was to get to know some people, making it easier to start in September, and perhaps join some of their summer outings.
I've been a bit spoiled by attending groups where I was a stranger where the groups were all C's- we always feel very welcome anywhere with STAG folks even if we don't know them. :) But, I should point out that that is NOT the norm for British people. British people are traditionally quite cold, and difficult to get to know at first. So I knew that going to the camera club would be an experience, and I was right. :) Do you know, that in a room full of probably 35 people, not ONE person spoke to me the entire time! Not even one person approached me, although I was obviously new, and the youngest person there by at least 15 years. I went in and looked around, and finally sat down in an open chair (intentionally next to someone) and the person I sat next to didn't even talk to me! :) Now, my feelings aren't hurt, as this was not more than I expected, and I didn't feel rejected or anything else by it, but I was truly surprised.
The time was split up into an hour long talk, a tea break, and an hour long talk. At the break, when no one talked to me, I determined to look for the person that I was supposed to pay, like a sort of Treasurer, or dues person. I found him, and in giving him the money I pressed him into a little conversation about the club, what sorts of photography people generally did, etc etc. While we were chatting a woman came up who I'd seen in Swavesey, in fact I'd seen her on my street- so I asked her if she lived on Black Horse and it turns out she is the Welsh woman that I've been trying to meet since we moved in! Her name is Moe, and she lives in the next cottage over from the thatched cottage! She is almost never home, because she has a cottage in Wales, and apparently she doesn't have a car, which is why I thought she'd not been there for 10 months. :) Anyway finally meeting a neighbor was the highlight of my evening, since I spent most of the evening feeling like Catherine Morland at her first ball (Northanger Abbey), with hundreds of people around, all separated from her by the lack of someone to introduce her to them. :)
I've never joined a camera club before, but I did research the one in A2 and in looking into Swavesey CC I found a lot of differences. I think some of it is just camera club culture. Swavesey is VERY into competitions, and most of them shoot wildlife photography. I thought that was strange, seeing how all the landscapes here are so beautiful. People in Michigan shoot wildlife on occasion, but most people shoot landscapes, and forests and trees- what's right around you. I guess I was expecting something similar. I'm not all that interested in wildlife, so honestly the talk got to be boring after an hour and a half. :) But I learned a lot about British birds, butterflies, moths, and various types of bugs. The presentation was actually on a slide projector, which was also interesting. Photogs here are just now changing over to digital, and just this year Swavesey CC decided that for next year they won't be showing images on slides anymore! I noticed at he exhibition that many of them have poor image print quality, which always happens at first as you learn the ropes with digital printing.
The speaker travels all over the world taking photos of wildlife, and has done for like 15 years, and he told us 2 interesting stories. In Sri Lanka (which is actually a popular place for Brits to travel) he was bitten by a poisonous snake and nearly died- they gave him the antidote, but the venom caused kidney failure and he was very very ill for 6 months. On one of his 20 trips to northern Spain he was on a hillside and had a massive heart attack, and they managed to fly him off the hillside to a hospital, so he didn't die. At the very end of his talk he said, "Now, I'm not really religs, I'm sort of an agnostic; and I'm not political, I've never even voted. But in photographing wildlife I am convinced that there must be a creator. Maybe I'm just waiting for lightning from hvn to strike me or something." But what I wanted to say to him is are 2 miraculous rescues from death not enough for you or what? What kind of sign are you expecting? Do you think both of those amazing rescues from remote places when you could have died were just chances? I guess the truth is that many of us would like a sign to prove that Gd is real, and that he's there, but the fact is if we got one, we'd write it off as just chance or luck.
I'm looking forward to future camera club meetings, and curious to see what Gd will do with me there.
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