Welcome To The Website Of Gwynfa Camera Club

Waiting for post impressionism by Gwynfryn Jones

With over 100 members ‘Gwynfa’ is not only the largest but one of the friendliest camera clubs in Wales. It exists to facilitate, encourage & promote the enjoyment of photography in the local community. Gwynfa is a non-profit making organisation.

New members are always welcome. Click here to find out how to join.

Our club meetings are currently being held on the Zoom platform but we hope to return to normal as soon as possible. In normal times we meet at Caerlan Hall, Newbridge Road, Llantrisant, Rhonnda Cynon Taf, CF72 8EX each Thursday at 7.15pm and we finish around 9.30pm. Many of us then stroll to the local pub, The New Inn, Llantrisant  to continue our conversations.

Our aim is to encourage photographers at all levels and exponents of every single kind of photography. Members are of all ages and from various walks of life. Both sexes are strongly represented and anyone can walk in and feel right at home. We also have full disabled access and facilities.

Gwynfa isn’t a school of photography but a vast amount of knowledge is to be gained by regularly attending meetings. Members are always available to provide informal advice and our programme of events includes a well balanced mix of club and inter-club competitions, visiting expert speakers and social events.

Gwynfa Camera Club’s membership of the Welsh Photographic Federation (WPF), the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB), the Federation International de l’art Photographique (FIAP) and the Photographic Society of America (PSA) facilitates strong links with other clubs, photographers and federations both nationally and internationally. Many of our members have achieved National and International photographic awards and distinctions from such organisations and there are also numerous national and international photographic salons and competitions for individual members to enter including ‘the Welsh Salon’, ‘the Welsh International Projected Images Salon’, ‘the Bristol International Salon’, ‘the Swansea International’ as well as many others far to numerous to list here.

We take part in numerous local & national annual photographic events and competitions including ‘the WPF Memorial Trophy’, ‘the Barrian Cup’, ‘the Ace of Clubs’ and ‘the Stanley Chell Memorial Trophy’.  On numerous occasions we have represent Wales at the PAGB National PDI Championships in Warwick and at the PAGB National Print Championships at Connah’s Quay. We’ve also had success in the GB Cup where we have finished as high as sixth out of all the clubs in the UK.

Each year we organise ‘Pixels’, an annual competition for digitally projected images. It is open to all Welsh clubs and is the largest inter-club photography competition in Wales. We normally get around 35 clubs entering and it is always a very enjoyable day.

Thanks to the support of ‘Awards for All Wales‘ and ‘The Arts Council of Wales‘ we have in recent years been able to obtain up to the minute presentation facilities for prints, slides and digital photographs. Our venue has a public address & hearing aid loop system to ensure that guest speakers and judges can always be clearly heard during their presentations.

Are you interested? Then why not come along free-of-charge for a couple of evenings, enjoy the show, have a cuppa and meet some of our members? You’ll be guaranteed a warm welcome. Should you then decide to join you can visit our  ’How Do I Join?‘ page.

If you still have unanswered questions, please ask for further information.

A Welcome Message from our President

 Let’s hope we can all get back together as a club very soon, though for the time being lets all ensure we stay safe. This long period of isolation has not been good for many of us, though it has given us an opportunity to develop our skills and improve on our techniques.

Life has changed greatly in the recent times and has forced us to look for new ideas in our search for photographs. I have always believed that the most important aspect of photography is the sharing experience. As youngsters we looked at family albums or shirt boxes and shoeboxes full of ‘snaps’ and shared memories and important moments with family and friends. This is what we now get from being members of a camera club. No longer mere ‘snaps’ but high-quality photographs allow many to enter competitions internationally and achieve awards and qualifications whilst still sharing work with other like-minded photographers.

The committee at Gwynfa continues to work hard on our behalf to ensure these activities can continue unhindered by the evil virus that contains us all in our limited world at present. We should all be grateful for the ability to meet up in the virtual world that is created for us every week and look forward to being together again in Caerlan Hall in the not-too-distant future.

Remember, everyone that Gwynfa is one of the biggest clubs around and definitely one of the friendliest. Stay safe, happy and continue the banter on a Thursday evening until we can do it properly when this is all over. Kevin Thomas MA FRPS, President.