The first meeting of the Interior Camera Club was held in 1982. Twenty five years later, when it became a registered BC Society, the name was officially changed to the Kamloops Photo Arts Club.The mandate remains the same: to promote an appreciation of photography and encourage fellowship and support amongst camera, image, and processing hobbyists.

An ambitious club project in 1985, was to produce a 3-projector slide show “A Day in the Life of Kamloops”, where 35 photographers took 4500 pictures (about 130 rolls of film) in a 24 hour period. Images were of everyday life in the city. When completed, it became a 20 minute slide show of 420 pictures.  In 2018 a selection of the original Kodachrome slides were scanned to a digital format and a MP4 slideshow created in the spirit of the first show. Both the original slides and the MP4 slideshow were later donated to the Kamloops Museum and Archives to share with the citizens of Kamloops. The Museum is most grateful for this material that fills a gap in their image collection.

Archivist Jaimie Fedorak receiving KPAC slide show from Valerie Rampone and Marian Van Swieten

KPAC has been involved in several community projects each year shooting images for events such as Western Canada Winter Games, National Diving Championships, and the annual Seniors’ (Citizen) Picnic in the Park.  A major Club project for 10 years (2007 – 2017) was a one day intensive, seminar through Kamloops Parks and Recreation that taught basic digital camera techniques. The morning would be devoted to learning about F-stops, ISO, aperture and shutter functions followed by the popular ‘Hands-On’ segment in the afternoon with Club members. It was a lucrative fundraiser for the Club.

Other events included annual ‘Weekends Away’ exploring nearby destinations like Wells Gray Park, Farwell Canyon, 3-Valley Gap, Hope and Lillooet. Kamloops Thru’ the Lens, Wild and Wet and Kindred Spirits have been popular Club print exhibits at the Kamloops Arts Council’s Old Courthouse Gallery.  Many workshops have been held at Thompson Rivers University. A recent one on portraiture was given by Professional Photographers of Canada member, Ross Outerbridge and another on Landscape by Viktoria Haak.

The Club continues to change with the times and ever changing technology.  Initially our photography was film based and post-processing was done in commercial labs or darkrooms. In the 2000’s, digital cameras became the cameras of choice and post-processing became increasingly home-based with the advent of personal computers.

Continuing advances in digital camera technology have allowed more enthusiasts to pursue images of wildlife, sports, astrophotography, and portraiture. The advances continue with mirrorless cameras expanding the photographic “tool kit”. A parallel advance in the capabilities of digital software has led to photo-artists having a myriad of digital tools available for their art.

When the Covid pandemic arrived in 2020, competitions, showcases and other programs moved to the Zoom platform. Everyone had a front row seat in front of their home computer. Zoom allowed for connection to 35 Photo Clubs and 1500 Photographers in the CAPA Pacific Zone of BC and the Yukon, indeed across Canada and the world.  In conjunction with other Pacific Zone photography clubs, resources were pooled and professional photographers were engaged to deliver instructional presentations over Zoom simultaneously to participating clubs’ isolated members. These PZ inter-club presentations continue as does the joy in pressing the shutter in perfect light and capturing the moment.