Over the weekend I was thrilled to participate in the Scott Kelby inspired WorldWide PhotoWalk. Not only did I participate, I was the "leader" of our group. For a natural introvert like myself it was a bit of a stretch, but I was thrilled to have the opportunity to show off our town and was surprised that, given the miserable wet and windy weather, we managed to have as many participants as we did!
We could accommodate up to 50 walkers - being my first time as leader, this was a bit daunting, but by Friday night when there were 25 registered walkers, I knew I could handle things! Thank goodness Bob, over at O'Finn's Irish Temper was so helpful and I knew we'd have space to welcome everyone to eat and chat after the walk.
I chose a route I hadn't taken in a couple of years: right downtown and through the harbour. I know, after taking many of these photo walks as a participant, that we could walk the exact same route every day and still see something different. But this really is a special place.
Let me show you:
And my most favourite photo capture of the day:
Those were the horizontals ... now the verticals:
As you can tell, it was a bit wet. It was also quite cold and blustery. October can always be a bit "iffy" in these parts. You might get brilliant colour and bright skies, or you get days like this - cold, rainy and gray.
I was happy to have the 12 participants who started on our walk (plus me, I took the photo!)
We ended up with six hearty souls back at O'Finn's - the locals had to leave, dropping off at various stages for other family and health commitments - damp is brutal on knees and hands! Both key for a photo walk :)
I'm a SOOC (straight out of camera) photographer, most of the time. Every photo above is exactly what was captured during our day. I'm anxious to see what was seen - and captured - by the rest of our group!
I learned A TON! Mind you, a lot of it I didn't know quite what I was listening to ... which happens when there are pro's around ... but there was a ton of opportunity to absorb some really smart stuff and I hope to incorporate it into my photography moving forward.
At the end of the day (a phrase that grates on me) but true in this instance: I was happy to pick up my camera! I limited myself to my 50mm 1.4 lens for the day. You know? I really am more creative when I have limited tools available. Only a couple of times through the day did I feel another lens would have been more suitable. You adjust, right? Given that I took a sum total of 17 photos in September, I think the 280+ taken on the photo walk were enough to represent my day.
I met wonderful, interesting, enthusiastic photographers and spent a lovely few hours on an otherwise dreary Saturday morning. It was bliss.
What did you do with your Saturday morning?
