This move also placed CPS in close proximity to other arts groups such as Canberra Philharmonic Society and Canberra Repertory Society. CPS members began photographing stage productions, an activity taken up in earnest when Larry O'Sullivan started a Theatre Group within the Society to cover productions by groups such as Canberra Opera, Canberra Philharmonic (one of the earliest productions covered was South Pacific in 1977), and Canberra Repertory Theatre. The group over the years has been asked to cover amateur and professional productions at many venues around Canberra and Queanbeyan, performed by local drama, opera and dance groups and by visiting productions. The Theatre Group staged the first of three print exhibitions in the Link Gallery in 1981.
Long-time member Graeme Watson recalls some of the hurdles faced by the photographers, including last-minute calls to photograph productions, having to photograph in almost non-existent light or through a scrim (gauze curtain), having some cast in costumes and some in street clothes, some cast in wigs and some not, cast members falling off stage, and of course, some classic "wardrobe malfunctions". Keen members of the group in its heyday were Maurice Weidemann, Keith Bogg, Ross Gould, Gerald Clarkson, Graeme Watson and Alan and Dora Nicholls.
1953 saw significant changes to competitions, with the introduction of a "set" subject in tandem with "open" competition, and the formation of a colour slide section. The latter soon became the dominant section as interest in colour photography boomed.
Alf Redpath recalls: "The Society organised an international exhibition in the early 1950s and, as secretary, I was heavily involved. May Gibbs, writer and illustrator of the Gumnut Babies, was an early member and also helped."
The Society was on the move again in 1966, this time to the then-new Griffin Centre in Bunda Street, Civic. This remained the Society's home until 2005, when the Griffin Centre was demolished and a new community venue built across the street. The Society now holds its monthly competition night in the new Griffin Centre, and most other meetings at PhotoAccess in Manuka.
Bob Legge joined CPS in 1965 or '66. "The Society was bigger then, with over 120 members. However the club almost failed around the time colour television came in (1975) we got down to about a dozen people because everyone wanted to stay home and watch the box. I think the introduction of colour printing saved the club people really got into developing and printing their own colour photographs."
Ian McInnes joined the Society in 1969 and was Society President from 1969 to 1971. "Unlike other members, I've always been a colour worker. I exclusively used colour slide until 1982 when the first practical positive colour print home-processing kits became readily available in Canberra shops. The same year, the Society introduced a colour print section to our monthly competition. Prints had to be made by the photographer, not a commercial lab. At first, I was one of four members who entered. Now, it's the most popular competition category."
New interest in emerging techniques helped revive the Society's flagging fortunes in the late 1970s. (The rapid take-up of Video Cassette Recorders by the Australian market from 1979 to 1981 may also have had an impact!) Whatever the cause, the Society's renewed vigour saw it run a National Exhibition of Photography on three occasions and help organise the first Canberra convention (APSCON) of the Australian Photographic Society (APS) and a congress of the Federation Internationale de l'Art Photographique (FIAP) in 1979. The FIAP convention, which dovetailed into APSCON, was significant firstly for being held outside of Europe, and secondly because the Australians had responsibility for formulating a statement defining "Nature" as a category for FIAP competition. The APS convention was held in Canberra again in 1988 and 2000.