Photowalking.org

Head over to TrevorCarpenter.com to read the full recap from the awesome downtown Palo Alto Photowalk!

This is my favorite shot from the evening:

Hey all you SF Bay area photogs! Come on out and join us for a fun fall photowalk, in downtown Palo Alto. This is the first photowalk I’m organizing to be sponsored! To top that off, we have two sponsors!

Red River Paper and Edge Tech Corp have stepped up to help make this photowalk a bit more interesting. Everyone who attends will entered in a simple drawing to possibly receive one of a variety of products from Red River or Edge Tech. I must add, PhotowalkList provided the hook up with the folks at Red River Paper. PhotowalkList provides a great service, not unlike my original desire for PhotoWalking.org. If you’re looking for a photowalk in your area, you’re bound to find one at PhotowalkList!

It begins at 6:30 pm, on Friday evening, October 16th. We’ll be meeting at the source of the city’s name, El Palo Alto. It’s a redwood tree adjacent to El Camino Park. See the map below for the details.

The custom photowalk map below shows you several of the highlights for this photowalk. Palo Alto’s retro downtown is touted as being very pedestrian friendly, so we should have a great time.

In case you didn’t know, Palo Alto is basically the birthplace of the Silicon Valley. All the old school tech companies got started here. On this photowalk we’ll walk right by Facebook’s HQ, and just a short distance away is Stanford University.

• Upcoming link

View Downtown Palo Alto Photowalk in a larger map

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So, Lowepro has decided to offer up several of their new camera bags, perfect for photowalking, and I’ll be giving them away at this photowalk!

Come join us for a wonderful afternoon of photowalking in downtown San Luis Obispo, on California’s Central Coast.

Just about 3 hours from San Jose and Santa Monica, it truly embodies the Central Coast. An easy drive could draw in photowalkers from both ends of the golden state. For those wanting to make it a weekend, Morro Rock, Montana de Oro, and some beautiful wine country are all nearby.

Downtown we’ll find one of California’s fabulous old missions. There’s also several blocks of a beautiful downtown business area.

The plan is to meet at 2pm on June 20th, 2009, in front of the Old Mission. We’ll shoot around there for at least an hour, allowing any late-comers to wander in and catch us. Then we’ll move closer to the downtown area, working our way northward on Higuera Street. At Osos or Santa Rosa Streets, we’ll turn and head back down on Marsh Street.

It should be an easy walk, and a fun time. I’ll most likely hang around afterward and get a bite to eat and a beer when we’re done.

Upcoming Link

Ever wanted to photograph the beautiful rocky coastline of the Central Coast of California? Early next year, 2009, a small group will be gathering in the California State Park, Montana del Oro. That’s near Los Osos, Morro Bay, and San Luis Obispo.

If you’re from Southern California, you MUST find a way to hit this photowalk! Maybe get together with a group and camp for the weekend, or just get a cheap motel. Same goes for Northern Californians!

In fact, I don’t care where you’re from, you should make it out for this photowalk.

When?     January 11th, 2009 @ 2pm
Where?     Montana del Oro State Park

Here’s the Upcoming Link.

Here’s the map.

Hey! Short notice, but if you can make it, you need to hit this photowalk.

This Sunday, November 2, 2008 there will be a 2.5 mile photowalk in and around the Portland, Oregon bridges. You may not know it, but Portland has a bunch of awesome bridges, and they’re great for shooting.

Check the Upcoming link for all the details.

A few of us will be hanging out and photowalking around Venice Beach (West Los Angeles) at 3pm tomorrow, October 25th, 2008. You can leave whenever you want, but we’ll probably disperse after sunset[1].

So far, I’ll be there with Brian Auer, Nathaniel Perales, Michael Kang[2] and Arnold.

Don’t be shy – it doesn’t matter what camera you have!

P.S. Sorry for the late notice.

View the associated Flickr post at the Los Angeles Group

Upcoming event page

1. Estimated to be around 6:06pm PDT.
2. Although he’ll be hanging out more than photowalking.

Hey ya’ll northern California photowalkers! Don’t forget about the evening photowalk in downtown Sacramento on October 3rd, 2008.

We’re meeting in front of the state Capitol building, at 7pm. This should make it easy to find, after you get off work. Check out the original post for more information!

True story: I saw a guy in the Salt Lake Library parking garage making a photo. “What do you see?” I asked him. “Just over there, it’s for a class,” he replied. “Cool,” I said, and then, “What the h*#(, let me tell you about PhotowalkingUtah.” Poor Ben, had no idea what hit him. But I hope he joins us on Saturday 20 September 2008 at 3:00 pm in Orem for our next Photowalk.

First we will tour InStudio, Kenneth Linge’s new 8,500+ square foot photography studio. Kenneth will do some demos for us, and who knows. I’ll bet the cameras come out long before the second part of the ‘walk. But before that is dinner. I heard there was dinner in Utah County. We’ll go find it somewhere.

Then we’ll reconvene at 6:30 for a participatory Photowalk through historic Provo. We went there last October and hardly tapped the possibilities. And now we have 250 more members in our Flickr group. Who knows what will be seen and photographed? That’s why you actually have to attend a Photowalk–you can’t ever guess what will happen.

Come to part I or part II or I+II. All are welcome, first timers with a crummy cellphone camera to photogs saddled with enough gear on their backs to make any self-respecting orthopedist cringe. Trust me, you won’t be alone, like poor Ben today in the parking garage with an evangelical Photowalker.

Find all the details here and make plans to join us on 20 September

Come join us in beautiful downtown Ann Arbor. We’ll have plenty of opportunities to shoot interesting architecture and other scenery in this college-town.

I’ve built a Google Map to give you an idea of the happenings.

If you can make it, please sign up here.

We’re going to start at 4pm and wrap up at 8.

We’re also going to try and get some cool PhotoSynth shots.

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Photo credit: Dane Hillard

Wow! What a turn out!

We were supposed to meet on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, at 6pm on a Friday. I wanted some of the walk to be at dusk, and the rest after it became dark. Unfortunately, I chose a meeting place that placed it smack dab in the between any convenient Metro stops. Mistake on my part. I knew that Washington DC is a “walking city”, much like New York City. Well, I could have picked a better meeting place.

The wife and I took the Metro to the Smithsonian Metro stop with 15 minutes to spare. That’s pretty much on the opposite side of the Washington Monument, from the Lincoln Memorial, 1.2 miles away. Not smart.

When I walked up, I expected to see a small group gathering to the side. Generally, a photowalking group is easy to spot; just look for the dSLRs and tripods. As I approached the steps, I saw this large group of people milling around. I initially thought, “I hope I can find our photowalkers, through all those other people.” Then, I realized, “That’s our group!”

You have no idea how excited I was to realize that so many people showed up for a photowalk, especially with Scott Kelby’s large network of photowalks the following day. From my group photo, I counted about 50 people. I know there were a few who opted out of the group photo, and several arrived after we got started. So, I’m thinking that around 60 people attended this photowalk. Sweet!

We got started right away, with a quick briefing by me and then we sat down for that group photo. The next spot we wandered to was the Korean Conflict Memorial. It was pretty cool to watch our large group slowly and quietly ebb and flow around that memorial, as we all sought our perfect shot.

Our next stop was back in front of the Lincoln Memorial, for a quick stop in front of the Reflecting Pool, then off to the Vietnam Memorial. I think we started to thin out by now, and then we spread out on the walk to the World War II Memorial. Several of us stopped for a cool sunset shot, halfway to the WWII Memorial.

Once at the WWII Memorial, most of us gathered up again to shoot the sunset sky and then the subsquent darkness with the lit fountains of the Memorial. It was here that I got my personal favorite shot of the Lincoln Memorial. I used my new Sigma 70-300mm, and captured a few varied exposure shots, for a later HDR. At home I created a very unique, but cool shot from those frames.

Our group was quickly thinning, as we crossed the street up to the Washington Monument. This was the first spot we were approached by security, informing us that we could not use our tripods on the walkways or anything that wasn’t grass. One of us, who will go unnamed, made a valient effort to discuss the validity of this policy. However, in the end we were relegated to the grassy areas for our mounted work.

Our next wandering took us to my end. As we headed down the open Mall, towards the Capitol building, I saw my end-all-be-all shot. That one shot I’ve always wanted. I stopped, captured it, and was quickly instructed by my none-photowalking-yet-patient wife that we were done. Our 1.75 mile adventure had exhausted her attention for photowalking, and it was now time to call it a “day”.

No problem, I was getting tired myself. At this point there was only a handful of the faithful left. We parted and headed back to our hotel. Honestly, I’m not sure how many photowalked to the end. Hopefully we’ll be enlightened in the comments. I want to thank Kendrick Hang, for all his work in organizing a great number of local photographers, who came out for the photowalk.

I will end with my own opinion that this was one of the most fun, and exciting photowalks! I was able to photograph some of the most beautiful and popular locations, in some great light. Satisfied, I am.

Below are a few of my favorites, so far, from the photowalk. I have this feeling that many of the photowalkers are not regular users of Flickr, so we may have a hard time organizing their work. For the few who remembered, and tagged their photos properly, I was able to view thier work. Everyone who attended is listed below as well. If you attended, and don’t use Flickr, please leave me the link in the comments. I’ll add it to the list below. Here’s the list of all the correctly tagged photos too.

• Trevor Carpenter
• Shawn Duffy
• Andy Roth
• Kendrick Hang
• Michael Wenthold
• Mark Anderson
• Marcellina