By JAYSON DIMAANO
With COVID-19 affecting our everyday lives, members of the Beach Photo Club had to change the way they did things for most of 2020.
“It would be very difficult to get people together,” said John Wallace, the club’s president and co-ordinator of the year that is coming to a close.
The most notable impact of the pandemic from the club’s perspective is that they have not put out a calendar full of local photos for 2021. The club does plan to have a calendar for 2022.
In previous years, when putting the calendar together, there is a call put out for photographs from club members. A total of 14 photos are required: one for the cover, one for January of that year and the rest are for the calendar year.
One of the disadvantages of being a small photography club is getting enough volunteers to go out and sell the calendars, and that pretty much became impossible due to pandemic restrictions and the inability to hold large in-person meetings, said Wallace.
The Beach Photo Club was founded in 1997. It has called a number of locations home over the years, including the Beaches Recreation Centre, Community Centre 55, St. Aidan’s Church and Beach United Church.
The Beach Photo Club’s board meetings are now held online while pandemic restrictions continue.
There are a number of advantages to virtual meetings for the time being, said Wallace. For instance, speakers and those attending do not have to travel.
“There is value in having simultaneous versions of the meetings when we do resume. That is the plan if we are going to start again. Going back to August and September, some people might be uncomfortable attending live meetings. The (COVID-19) situation has only gotten worse since,” he said.
“I think the idea to have simultaneous (meetings) when we do resume live meetings (next year), people have the options to physically attend meetings or on ZOOM,” said Wallace.
Local residents looking to see the works of Beach Photo Club members can visit the club online at https://www.beachphotoclub.com/
A gallery of photos can also be viewed on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/groups/968412@N24/
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