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Welcome to the Otley Camera Club blog, where you can keep up to date with everything happening in and around the club.

Here you will find posts covering a wide range of activities, including club nights, competitions, outings and our involvement in the local community. It’s a great way to see what the club has been doing and the photography our members are producing.

You can use the options below to filter posts by category, including Out and About, Community, Competitions and Club Nights, making it easy to explore the areas that interest you most.

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Getting Creative with Long Exposure Photography

This week at Otley Camera Club we're putting our cameras to work with a practical indoor evening exploring long exposure photography. Long exposures offer lots of creative possibilities, allowing us to capture movement, light trails and effects that simply aren't visible to the eye. We'll be experimenting with different camera settings and exploring how changing light sources, colours and movement can be used to produce some striking and imaginative images. We'll also look at

6 hours ago

Open Competition – Celebrating Our Members’ Photography

Our first Open Competition of the season was a fantastic evening at Otley Camera Club, with members sharing a wonderful variety of images across both print and projected digital categories. We were pleased to welcome Nigel Plant to judge the competition. With such a diverse selection of photography, there was plenty to enjoy, from wildlife and sport to landscapes, portraits, architecture and creative interpretations. It was particularly lovely to see our print entries display

6 hours ago

Otley Camera Club Supports Wildlife Friendly Otley Arts Festival

Otley Camera Club was delighted to support another local community event this weekend, exhibiting a selection of our members’ excellent wildlife photographs as part of the Otley Wildlife Arts Festival 2026. Organised by Wildlife Friendly Otley, the festival celebrates the natural world through art, music, poetry, talks, books, exhibitions, film and photography. It brings people together to appreciate the wildlife around us and highlights the importance of protecting the natur

Oct 24

What’s On This Week: Our First Open Competition

Thursday 29 October | 7:30–9:30pm | Otley Common This week sees our first competition of the season at Otley Camera Club, and it’s an Open Competition. With both print and digital categories, we’re looking forward to seeing the variety of images our members have chosen to share. Open competitions are always interesting because there are no set themes, so we get to see a real mix of subjects, styles and approaches to photography. Now that we’ve moved to our new premises, we’re

Oct 24

Dress Rehearsal: The Addams Family

Our Otley Camera Club members were delighted to support Guiseley Theatrical Productions once again, heading along to the dress rehearsal of The Addams Family on Tuesday night. It was a fantastic opportunity to photograph the cast in action and capture some of the brilliant moments, characters and atmosphere of the show. We always enjoy these opportunities to put our photography skills into practice while supporting local organisations, and it’s great to see all the hard work

Oct 23

Out & About: Photographing the Deer Rut at Studley Royal

On Sunday, some of our Otley Camera Club members were up bright and early for a trip to Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey, hoping to capture the excitement of the deer rut. It was a great opportunity to photograph these magnificent animals in their autumn surroundings, from impressive stags showing off their antlers to some fascinating interactions between the deer. There was plenty to keep everyone busy, and our members came away with some fantastic images. Our Out & About t

Oct 21

Urban Night Photography with Alistair How

We’re very fortunate to have some talented and highly respected photographers as members of Otley Camera Club, and this week we’re looking forward to hearing from our own member, Alistair How. Alistair has had a lifelong interest in photography, starting with 110 and 126 cameras as a child before getting his first SLR as a teenager. After studying Geography at Southampton University, he began his career at Kodak just as analogue photography was starting to give way to digital

Oct 17

Behind the Scenes with Guiseley Theatrical Productions

Last weekend, some of our Otley Camera Club members were delighted to support Guiseley Theatrical Productions once again, taking cast photographs for their upcoming production of The Addams Family. These photoshoots have become a lovely opportunity for our club to support local organisations while giving our members valuable experience and the chance to put their photography skills into practice. Working with a theatre cast is a great way to develop portrait photography skill

Oct 16

What’s On This Week: Peter Lau – Wheeling on the Wilder Side of Life

This Thursday, Otley Camera Club welcomes Peter Lau for an inspiring evening of wildlife photography, personal stories and the power of reconnecting with nature. Peter was a British fire officer whose life changed dramatically following a mountain biking accident in 2014, which left him paralysed and reliant on a wheelchair. Despite the challenges, photography helped Peter rediscover his passion for the natural world. Today, he captures stunning wildlife images and uses his e

Oct 10

A Varied Evening of Photography at Otley Camera Club

Thursday’s meeting offered members a little bit of everything, with an inspiring talk followed by three practical photography sessions. We began the evening with a fantastic presentation from our own member Max Malisan, who shared stories and photographs from his trip to the Masai Mara last year. It was a superb talk, combining some amazing photography with fascinating facts and memorable stories from his experiences. It was a wonderful opportunity to see Max’s images and hea

Oct 10

What’s On This Week – Max Malisan & Creative Photography

This Thursday we’re looking forward to an evening with a bit of everything, combining inspiration, photography stories and a chance to get creative ourselves. We’ll start the evening with Max Malisan, who will share his photography, stories and experiences. Max has a fantastic collection of images to talk about, including photographs from his visit to the Masai Mara last year, giving members the chance to hear about his experiences as well as see his photography. Then, in the

Oct 2

What’s On This Week – Little People, Big Stories

This Thursday, our own member Richard Sells will be sharing his Miniature World project, which uses 1:87 scale model figures to create small scenes and stories in the real world. The talk will look behind the scenes at how the photographs are made, from coming up with the initial idea through to choosing the location, arranging the tiny figures and working out the lighting and composition. With the figures only around 2cm tall, it can involve a surprising amount of problem-so

Sep 27

TWO WEEKS OF CREATIVE PRACTICALS

The last two weeks at Otley Camera Club have been all about getting creative and putting photography into practice. Last week, members headed out around Otley for a photography scavenger hunt. Working in groups, they were given a series of themes to capture – from movement, shadows and reflections to architecture, colour and detail. Each group also had to come up with their own themes and challenge another group! The results show just how differently our members approached th

Sep 25

📸 Photo of the Month - August

And the winner is… Claire Wilson-Sharp! 🎉📸 A huge congratulations to Claire, whose fantastic damselfly photograph has been chosen as this month's Photo of the Month by Emily Waring. Photo of the Month is a fun little competition we run for members through our Facebook group, giving everyone the chance to share a photograph each month and see what our members think. It's all about getting involved, sharing our photography and enjoying a bit of friendly competition! As always

Sep 21

What’s On This Week – Capture the Feeling

This Thursday we're getting creative with a practical evening that challenges us to think about photography in a slightly different way. Welcome to Capture the Feeling! We'll work in small groups, with each group given an emotion or feeling to capture in a photograph. But there's a twist – you don't have to photograph a person to show an emotion. Could you communicate happiness through colour? Excitement through movement? Calm through composition? Frustration through an every

Sep 20

Behind the Lens: Photographing the Mayor Mash-Up

On Saturday night, David and Karen swapped their usual camera club surroundings for the dance floor as they photographed the Mayor Mash-Up at Otley Common. The 90s-themed night, promoted by Otley Mayor Mick Bradley, brought DJs, dancing and plenty of energy to the Common. For a photographer, though, an event like this presents a very different challenge to photographing in more controlled conditions. Working with difficult conditions The combination of very low light, coloure

Sep 13

What’s On This Week – Practical Scavenger Hunt

This Thursday we're swapping the clubhouse for the streets of Otley as we head out and about for a fun and creative photography scavenger hunt! We'll split into small groups before heading off around Otley with a list of photographic challenges to complete. The aim is to find and photograph different themes and ideas – perhaps glass, reflections, silhouettes, movement and plenty more. The challenges are designed to make us look at familiar places in a different way and encour

Sep 12

A Truly Inspiring Evening with Carolyn Mendelsohn

Last night we were delighted to welcome award-winning portrait photographer Carolyn Mendelsohn to Otley Camera Club for her talk, Portraits, Projects and Personal Stories – and, quite simply, wow! From the moment Carolyn began, the whole club was captivated. Of course, Carolyn's portraits are technically and creatively exceptional, and it was fascinating to hear about how she approaches her work. But one of the strongest messages from the evening was that, for Carolyn, the te

Sep 11

Out & About – Our First Photography Day of the New Season

Our new season isn't just about Thursday evenings at the clubhouse. One of the things that makes Otley Camera Club special is the opportunity to get out with our cameras and photograph together. Yesterday saw the first of our Out & About days of the 2026/27 season, with members heading to the wonderful Himalayan Garden & Sculpture Park near Grewelthorpe. What is an Out & About? Our Out & Abouts are informal photography days where members meet up at an interesting location and

Sep 7

What’s On This Week – Carolyn Mendelsohn

Our 2026/27 season continues this Thursday with an evening we're particularly looking forward to, as we welcome award-winning portrait photographer Carolyn Mendelsohn to Otley Camera Club. 📅 Thursday 10 September⏰ 7:30pm – 9:30pm📍 Otley Common Portraits, Projects and Personal Stories Carolyn will take us through her journey into photography and share the stories behind some of her most powerful and thought-provoking projects. Her work demonstrates how portrait photography c

Sep 6