Llandudno Photographic Society

About Us

Llandudno Photographic Society has a reputation for its friendliness, as well as its competitiveness. It is made up of a cross section of people from juniors, students, the unemployed, manual workers, white collar workers and retired folk.

Club members have other strings to their bows. We have authors, artists, geologists, pottery workers, rally drivers, mathematicians and hanglider pilots. One of our members – Chris Followell, was given the job of photographing the effects of the airflow over the nose and wings of Concorde.

A majority of our members come to our meetings just to enjoy the social side of the club. We have outings, mainly by coach, to various places of photographic interest, like Martinmere (twice), Ironbridge, Bradford, Shrewsbury, Chester Zoo, and Chatsworth House. We have also visited religious sites on Anglesey, Maentwrog, Cwm Idwal, and more.

You don’t need to be a David Bailey to enjoy what the club has to offer. Whether you are a beginner to photography with a cheap compact, or a camera buff with a top of the range SLR or medium format camera, the club caters for all.

Activities include talks from club members or invited lecturers – usually accompanied by a colour slide show. We also have competitions on set subjects and fixed subjects, where members can submit their work to be judged by outside judges who give constructive criticism – or praise – to each image. In this way, we learn what is good and what is not so good about our photography.

Meetings take place at Craig-y-Don Community Centre, Llandudno on Wednesdays at 7:15pm for a 7:30pm start. Our season runs from early September to the middle of March each year. We close for the Summer. Newcomers are welcome.

Club History

If you are interested in how the club came to be, please read on….

The club was officially formed on Tuesday February 3^rd^ 1981, by Gwyn Davies Williams of Penrhyn Bay, who had led a slight breakaway from another local camera club. This first meeting was held upstairs in Llandudno Public Library in Mostyn Street. At this meeting the club constitution was formalised. Among the eight people present were Gwyn’s wife Cicely, the late J. Baron Williams, his wife Pauline, Elwyn Sharps, Bob Cambridge, Dennis Meikle, and David Jones.

These eight founder members were given certificates to mark the occasion.

Gwyn Williams was the first club secretary, J. Baron Williams the treasurer and his wife Pauline the first chairperson. The club closed for the summer in April 1981, and started again in September. We had our first new member then – Arthur Lewis. From these very humble beginnings, the club has grown and prospered into the mighty bastion of photography that we know and love today.

We had always thought that ours was the first camera club in Llandudno. That is – until Gwyn Davies Williams told Peter Carlyon over the phone about a discovery that his wife Cicely had made in Llandudno Library. She was looking at an old book they were selling off – “The Life of George Crookshank” the artist. The book had a 1935 library label.

On the front cover was another label dated 1894. It said – “Llandudno Newsagents and Library, Amateur Photographic Society, note: 44 Mostyn Street.”