The Wynnum Bayside Camera Club was formed 25 June 1964. There were twelve people present at this inaugural meting held at the “Blue Room” in Edith Street Wynnum Central.
The members accepted the constitution in November that same year.
The club had two gradings for its members, “A” grade and “B” grade and met on the third Thursday of each month at the Presbyterian Church Hall at Wynnum North
In October of that year they had their first outing, the start of a long history of club outings.
During April 1965 the club took moves to affiliate with PSQ.
In 1966 the club accepted an invitation to participate at the Hobbies Exhibition at City Hall. The club continued to participate at Hobbies Exhibitions for many years after.
The club became more involved with the community when they held a slide night for the benefit of the residents of Pleasantville Nursing Home.
The club borrowed equipment from club members for use at the competition nights. They bought their first screen in 1968 and first slide projector the following year. WBCC had during this early stage sent slides to other camera clubs, who in return sent their slides to the WBCC. In 1970 WBCC first entered the Metropolitan Inter-club Slide Competition.
WBCC club members designed their badge in 1971. In 1971, WBCC hosted the annual inter-club competition and came in at 5th place. Club competitions were held monthly. In 1970 the merit award system replaced the previous point system. Eric Arch became the first member to reach 200 points in competitions.
The 70’s were a very active and rewarding decade for the club and its members. In 1971 WBCC achieved first place for an audio- visual (AV). In 1972 WBCC participated in the Arts Festival. It was 1973 that WBCC had great success with audio-visuals.
Australia was asked to enter three AV’s for the “Photokina” exhibition in Germany. Two of the AV’s selected were from WBCC.
The club held practical nights as required but it was not until 1975 that the members (around 54 at this time) decided that the club should have a regular night put aside for practical nights. So it was that the first Friday of each month was put aside for this. Most of these nights were in the form of showing Kodak lecture slides.
In 1976 with a large number of entrants, the “AB grade” section was started. There was an average of 48 B grade entrants, 9 in AB grade and 7 in A grade. With so many members it was no wonder that we hosted the successful SEQ Salon in May 1977. There were 2,031 entries to be recorded, judged, marked, sorted and returned in 3 days. There were 43 members who entered a total of 288 prints, slides and AV’s.
By 1977/78 the practical night’s attendance’s increased by 50% and club competitions reached 77 entrants. WBCC also achieved the highest aggregate points for a club in the SEQ Salon held at Stanthorpe. After all that success the club purchased a carousel projector.
By 1982 WBCC had a good reputation around the camera clubs as a friendly social camera club backed up by the fact that they had organized a total of 41 camps. Quite a few of the camps were rained on or washed out earning WBCC the nickname of “the unsinkables”.
1984 brought in two changes. Firstly, Mt. Gravatt Camera Club invited WBCC to enter the first triangle slide competition in August and secondly WBCC moved to the Wynnum North State High School for our meetings.
A long time club member, Henry Reel died in 1987. His relatives donated money for a perpetual trophy in his memory. The ”Henry Reel Memorial Trophy” is presented to the member who gains the highest number of points in any grade.
1989 was another busy year for WBCC (it’s 25th year), hosting the Metropolitan AV Competition, and moving to the Manly-Lota RSL Hall at Manly. This same year also allowed for the first time a “commercial processed print” into the print competition.
Membership numbers were in decline. In 1991 the practical nights were in jeopardy due to the lack of numbers attending. A two-prong attack to attract new members was established, firstly
to approach the local high schools to start a student’s section in the competitions and secondly, advertising in the yellow pages and placing leaflets at photo shops in the local area.
WBCC incorporated in July 1994.
WBCC moved to the Darling Points Special School in 1995 where they had access to the school’s darkroom and its facilities. It was also decided to meet on the first and third Tuesday of each month.
The club was in another growth period and this resulted in the need for another venue.
WBCC moved to the Queensland Philatelic Council Hall at Wynnum at the start of 1999, and this is when meetings changed to the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. The competition nigh format changed during this time. Instead of having a late supper after the conclusion of the competitions, a light supper was provided by members in between the print and the slide competitions. This allowed members to the opportunity to look closely at each of the prints entered.
The new millennium brought with it changes, the biggest being the introduction of grades in the print section. In 1999, a “Novice” section was introduced in addition to the “Open Grade” section. The steady influx of members interested in competing in the print competition quickly led to the reorganization of these members into three grades: “B Grade”, “AB Grade” and “A Grade”.
The year 2000 brought in some changes. Like in all organisations, costs were rising and WBCC introduces a joining fee to compensate for these rises.
A Members Handbook was produced and given to new members to give them information about the club. Included in this handbook are the clubs constitution, competition rules, and information on various external photographic organisations plus handouts from various practical nights.
In 2000 Wynnum Bayside Camera Club Inc. organised the “Inter-club Print Competition” and invited Mt Gravatt Photographic Society, Brisbane Camera Group Inc. and Queensland Camera Group Inc. to compete. The competition was a success and delegates from each club met after the competition and decided that the competition should continue each year, to be hosted by each club in turn and held in the second half of the year. In 2001 all four clubs agreed to rename the competition the “River City Inter-Club Print Competition”.
As early as 2003 digital cameras and computer generated images started making inroads into the photographic arts. As more and more people were moving into this new medium it became necessary for WBCC to move with the times. In 2004 a small number of members started the Digital Imaging sub-group of WBCC and the club’s competition rules were amended to allow for “Projected Images” to be part of the club’s monthly competition.
The year 2004 also saw the beginning of the Black & White darkroom sub-group, a group of members who still are involved with the traditional darkroom method of producing Black & White photos.
The club progresses into the 21st century. With the help of its members and future members it will surely be around to celebrate its 100th birthday and beyond.