The History of Tullamore Camera Club
The club was established in 2009 under the name Slieve Bloom Photography Club. The inaugural meeting was held in Dan & Molly’s pub in Ballyboy with founding members Bobby, Fiona and Bernie at the helm.
The club had gained a lot of interest from the public and from 2010 moved into Tullamore Town. In Tullamore meetings were originally held in the Parish Office, then for a number of years meetings were held in the Tullamore Court Hotel.
The club continued to grow and in 2016 we then moved into our current home in the Offaly History Centre.
As many of the members are from Tullamore and the surrounding areas and the club meets monthly in Tullamore ,it was decided to relaunch the club under the name Tullamore Camera Club in June 2017. As part of the relaunch of the newly named Tullamore Camera Club the Summer party was held back in the homestead of Dan and Molly’s in Ballyboy . It was a great way to mark the full circle moment and honour the Slieve Bloom Photography Club and founding members.
Over the years we have seen continued growth . Even during the Covid years the Club embraced new technologies and new ways of keeping in touch with our members. We held our monthly meetings over Zoom which allowed us to have speakers of many genres and even speakers from across different continents. We held members competitions with voting taking place through facebook, and we embraced our online platforms expanding our Instagram and Facebook pages and sharing our members photos. In the early lockdown days we created a daily photo challenge online for our members and followers to help encourage, distract and entertain in what was a very wierd time for us all. We even held our christmas party online!!
Once restrictions were lifted we were back to meeting in person and it was great to meet our new members face to face, some of who had joined over the covid years.
Now in our 15th year we continue to grow and learn as a club. with currently around 35 active members, we are always looking to learn new genres of photography. We like to get feedback from members and find that outings (both local national & International) are a great way to learn the craft. We regularly hold exhibits locally where our members photos are displayed.
New members are always welcome and we are open to all levels of experience.