In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, Sarah Tobias decided to take a step forward with her photography.

One way of doing this was by inviting local residents to join her Wednesday for the first meeting of Sycamore Public Library‘s photography club.

Tobias, the director of the library, has been studying the art of taking pictures since high school. She honed her craft at NIU, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in art before becoming a Master of Library Science in 1992.

She has been contemplating the photography club since returning from her educational trip to Mexico with National Geographic and decided that the new year would be a great time to act.

“It was a really awesome, intensive experience where all you thought about was photography,” Tobias said. “I came back and got back to work, got back to life, and kind of quit doing my photography because I didn’t have any real reason to be doing it. I started thinking that if there was a club where I could just have a reason to accomplish something by a certain date, or had other people to help motivate me to go out and photograph, it might keep me more motivated and doing more photography.”

Though she originally feared that the club would be too small to function, Tobias said she has already received a dozen phone calls and a great deal of interest from the residents of DeKalb and Sycamore. Over 40 people showed up to Wednesday’s meeting.

“I’m hoping to get back that excitement I had when I was 16 and looking through a camera lens,” said Lee Schmidt, a Sycamore resident who attended the meeting.

The club is open to all and will shape its agenda to cater to the interests of those who attend. Some of the things that Tobias hopes the club will accomplish includes show and tell, critiques and field trips to do group photo shoots.

“Anyone is welcome to attend,” Tobias said. “The goal is that we improve what we do. Whether you’re someone who studies photography, or whether you’re someone who likes to take pictures on the side, anybody’s welcome.”

The photography club will announce a regular meeting time in the near future. Meetings will take place in Sycamore Public Library in the big meeting room.