World Wide Photo Walk

Yesterday I took part in the 4th annual World Wide Photo Walk.  Basically, there were 1100 different cities around the world, organizing groups of photographers and walking through their cities shooting pictures on Oct 1st and 2nd.  There were officially 1117 walks and 28,109 photographers involved in this event.

A quote from Scott Kelby's (the event organizer - you may recognize his name as being a big Photo Shop book dude.  he is also founder and president of NAPP National Association of Professional Photographers.) blog about the event:

"This weekend, we shared in something very special: over 1,100 walks all over the world, from Tusla to Oxford, Jakarta to Tehran, from Pakistan to the Philippines, from Finland to Malta, and from Qatar to Denmark—all coming together as one big community to share our passion for photography and people. What an amazing day!"

You can click here to see the flickr account (photo album) of some shots that people from all over the world are contributing to.

We met on the steps of the federal building downtown at 3:30.  One request of the organizer, Scott Kelby was to take a group photo before you begin the walk.  So, we posed on the steps, then were given a map of the route and basically told to meet at 6:45 at the restaurant at the end.  A show of hands gave our leader the head count for the restaurant and we had reservations waiting for us in 3 hours.

We had a map that took us through the downtown portion of the city and then up along a couple streets with historic homes.  We wandered in groups, or alone.  Sometimes, the people you were with held back and you moved ahead faster.  Other times, you stopped to set up a shot and they wandered off.  And you met up 20 minutes later looking over some ivy growing on the steps of some beautiful building.  Or, you never caught up with them and just joined a few other friends to talk and walk for a few more blocks.  We ended on the water at almost sunset, but it wasn't very pretty... so we headed in for great company and some great food.  I should have taken a picture of my dinner.  Mmmm!!

Each person participating can submit one photo to the contest.  One photo will be chosen from our group of 50.  That person will win Scott's latest book.  And, then be entered into the grand drawing for some pretty major prizes. 

I have no idea what I will enter.  We had 7 very open categories to keep our shots within.  Not all walk groups had themes like this.  This was just something to try to unite our group.  One was "Look for a window.  Through a window.  Out of a window.  Or at reflections in a window."  I won't enter this self portrait, although, it is kind of one of my favs of the day.

Just liked this through-a-window shot, too.

One topic was about clashing colors... these don't really clash, but another theme was "Buildings are like humans and have their own character."  So, I thought this colorful attorney's office had some character.  There aren't a lot of stained glass windows downtown. 

another topic:  "On your knees, please.  Take a picture from ground level."

And, some things I just thought were cool.  One house was really decked out for Halloween already.  lots of tombstones in the back yard and decorations on the porch, concrete wall, fence, house...  I really liked the lights they had mixed with the Spanish Moss (which, ironically is neither Spanish nor moss).

I'd title this one "Yes, yes it is."

That is fig ivy vine growing on their steps.