Edmonton Worldwide Photo Walk Follow-up
July 22nd, 2009I know, I know – the Photo Walk was last Saturday, why haven’t I blogged about it yet? Between the Photo Walk and Sunday/Monday at Edmonton’s Capital Ex, I shot over 800 pictures. I managed to narrow the Photo Walk pictures down to about 100, I figure I’ll post around 80 to Flickr over the next couple weeks.
As for the actual Photo Walk, it went well. The weather was great – hot, around 28C by the time we finished. We had 32 photographers show up. I only knew a couple beforehand, and although I didn’t get to talk to everyone in depth, I did make a few new photographer friends/acquaintances during and after the walk. As I’d walked most of the area we were covering numerous times before, I rented a Canon 15mm fisheye lens for the day – and man, I loved it! I’ll be reviewing it at a later date.
Worldwide Photo Walk 2009 - Edmonton Group #2
I had the route planned out but not five minutes into the walk, we were approached by Huey – the owner of the apartment complex squished between the Hardware Grill and the old Jasper Hotel on Jasper Ave. He was curious as to what we were doing and then offered us access to the roof of the building for some shots of the city we might not have otherwise had the opportunity to take. It was pretty cool to be able to capture the entire Canada Place building bordered by Jasper Avenue and 97th Street in one shot. I’ve processed it in HDR using seven exposures from a single RAW file and due to interest I’ll be doing up a tutorial on my exact process for that shortly.
Canada Place (HDR)
After the rooftop, we headed further on Jasper Avenue towards Gibson Block, then worked our way up 96th Street, down 103A/104th Avenue, back down 104th Street and back up Jasper Avenue ending up just south of Sir Winston Churchill Square at the Second Cup. There about half the group chatted about photography, swapped pictures and cooled off to iced cappuccinos and the likes.
I’m looking forward to leading another walk next year – and I learned a LOT this year about leading walks which I fully intend to incorporate into my plans for next year. First off, even though I had the route thought out it was 1) a bit too long for a group that size and 2) I was the only one that knew it so when the group started to splinter not everyone knew exactly where to go. Second, it is important to have a DEFINITE end point – we had a general area we were going to meet up at but that’s not good enough. A good portion of us ended up in the same spot at the end, but there were a few that didn’t and it would have been nice to chat and share with them as well. That being said, everyone that I spoke with or emailed after the walk mentioned they had a great time and made a few new local photography contacts.
Gibson Block
What’s next? If you were part of the walk be sure to upload your TWO best photographs to the main Worldwide Photo Walk page by July 25th, 2009 11:59 pm EST to be eligible for consideration for the Grand Prize – which is a pretty grand prize if I’ve ever seen one – or one of the 10 honorable mentions! You can also submit your images to the Edmonton Worldwide Photo Walk 2009 Flickr group and/or the July 18th, 2009 Scott Kelby’s 2nd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk group – while you’re there be sure to check out the Edmonton FlickrMeets group as well. If you missed the walk and live in the Edmonton area, be sure to join the Edmonton FlickrMeets group as well – people are always meeting up and arranging photography shoots, and just generally chatting about local photography opportunities and photography in general.
Be sure to check out Saturday’s edition of the Edmonton Journal. Jennifer Fong, a writer for the Lifestyle section came on the walk as well and is writing about her experience for Saturday’s Journal.
I really enjoyed the experience, meeting new local photographers and am looking forward to next year! If you attended the Edmonton walks – or any of the Worldwide Photo Walks – feel free to leave comments on your experiences!
