Photo Walking

Finding the time to get out and photograph can sometimes be hard. Getting out to meet up with other photographers can be even harder. It’s not that there isn’t an abundant amount of resources out there for meeting other photographers. There are clubs and on-line meet-up groups that organize events all the time. It is just getting yourself motivated to look into it and go that is the hard part.

Back when we lived in Montreal I belonged to a an amazing club. The Lakeshore Camera Club was a varied group of individuals with a wide range of interests and personalities. We met once a week and I went almost every Monday night for nearly 10 years. After the move out west I failed to find another club, considering myself too busy running the kids around to all their activities to have one for myself. I have really missed that creative outlet, the weekly chance to get together and to talk to people about something that I am so interested in it is really a part of my being.

This past weekend I decided to do something about it and signed on to participate in the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo walk. There were 1000 walks organized in cities around the globe with 21,000 registered walkers. The walk I signed on for was a nice leisurely 2 hour jaunt around the Olympic Village. The weather was fantastic and although I spent most of my time off on my own I did meet a few nice people. I think the big part was that I got out for a few hours to photograph on my own. I got to sit and compose shots and not feel like I was making anyone wait for me.

The walk started at Hinge Park at 3:30 and ended at 6:00 pm at the Science World. If you walked it straight it would probably take you all of 10 minutes to make the journey. I made my final exposure of the walk, the one above, at 5:58 and then ran over to meet up with the other walkers feeling like I had missed a lot of shots simply due to the time limit, the bright sun, and the time of day but also invigorated by the experience.

Would I do it again? Hell Yeah! It was fun, it got me out exploring the city and I even got a few shots I am happy with. Sign me up for another.

Derrick