HOUSTON CAMERA CLUB

About Houston Camera Club

Who are the members of HCC? They are working people, business executives, doctors, lawyers, students, professional photographers, retired people. They are people who just bought their first camera or their first digital camera. Some are experienced photographers whose work has been exhibited in salons around the world.  Some shoot photos in studios. Others enjoy spending their days in the outdoors shooting nature and wildlife. Still others prefer sports, landscapes, cityscapes, or people on the street. What they have in common is an interest in the photographic process and the art it produces.

HCC Competitions. Over the years, the club competitions have changed to fit the medium of choice and the topics of greatest interest. As of 2015, competition categories include Nature, Pictorial, Travel, Photojournalism, and Creative, as well as a back-to-our-roots category--Monochrome (black & white.) Once a quarter, there is a competition just for those who participate in our field trips.


GSCCC and PSA Competitions. Photos are selected from our club competitions for entry into regional and national competition events at Gulf States Camera Club Council and Photographic Society of America.


Programs and Workshops. Once a month, on the third Tuesday, we have a meeting that alternates between Programs and Workshops. Programs are put on by members or guests. Workshops are often hands-on photo exercises or informative lectures.

Houston Camera Club Officers 2019-2020

President	Terry Rutledge
1st Vice President	Glen Sternes
2nd Vice President	John Niemand
Secretary	Bill Dupre
Treasurer	Gwen Kunz

Field Trips. Once a month, for the nine more temperate months of the year, the club sponsors an activity of interest to photographers. These club outings provide opportunities to share techniques and visit with fellow club members "in the field".

Timing is everything.  Competition years are as follows:  For high points, digital and prints entered in regular competition from September through August.  For year-end competition, the period is July through June.  Dues, and the club's fiscal year, are September through August.

HCC History

Founded in 1935, Houston Camera Club was a group of sixteen people who decided "to promote the knowledge of, and interest in, photography, especially to the advancement of the pictorial phase thereof."

Originally a black & white print club, HCC has evolved with the art and technology of photography over the years. Kodachrome transparencies were all the rage in 1940, and by 1952 the club competitions included both prints and slides.

In 1962 prints were dropped from competitions altogether, and HCC became a color slide club.  In 2000, the digital photography revolution hit HCC, and a "digital division" was initiated to accommodate the particular interest of those using digital cameras. Eventually, that group began a digital print competition, and by 2005 the club's regular competitions were for both slides and prints.

By mid 2008, the use of film by club members had declined to the point that slides were dropped from competitions, replaced by digital projected images.
The club remains through it all, though, about the art and science of photography, and the enjoyment of it all.