Recently I’ve had some discussions with photographers who would love to have a local group of friends with whom they meet with regularly to go out photowalking. However, many don’t even know where to start. If you don’t already have photography obsessed friends, then it’s a little daunting to think you could get a group started.
So, let me lend a hand. Now, I’m sure that there is a plethora of ideas and wisdom that would lead you to success. I’m simply going to share a few ideas that come to mind.
Decide right away that it is going to take some time.
I’ve been working hard to get a local photowalking group together for several months, and only now am I having people start to participate. I think I spent too much time trying to get existing photography people interested. Just recently I started looking at my existing groups. I’ll get to that below.
Evaluate your available options.
Look at your current group of friends. Look at the community groups you already have, Church, work, etc. Currently, I’m planning a photowalk and the two participants are each from a church I have attended. What you may not realize is that many people would love to get more involved with photography, they just need a reason. Give them that reason.
Find a great and easy method to communicate with all participants and potential participants.
In today’ online world, there is no excuse for not communicating with people. You can set up a blog for free, you can get a free email address and even set up a free email list. I’d highly recommend that you get your free blog set up at Wordpress.com. It is unbelievably easy. When you’re up and running your address will be something like, http://yourblogname.wordpress.com. It’s awesome.
The free email is a no brainer. Even if you have email, I’d suggest you get another one, just for the photowalking group. Gmail, Yahoo, they all have it. I’d go with Gmail.
About groups. Google Groups works quite well. It makes it easy for you to have a mailing list. This could easily be done with a “subscribe by email” on your blog, but that’s taking it to another level. You’ll need a google account, but the Gmail handles that.
All of these methods are a great way to communicate with people who already know you exist. Once people start coming, these methods will really help you keep everyone up to date.
How do you keep them coming back?
The first time I heard of photowalking, I was watching the ScobleShow. Thomas Hawk was taking a crew of followers to the Sacramento Train Museum. I watched that episode and I was immediately hooked. I went back and watched each of the past photowalking episodes. One of the things that stuck with me was how easy it seemed to put together the event. In fact, the only thing that made it seam a little more official was that Thomas had secured some huge Seagate hard drives to give away. Now that’s the ticket!
So, how do you get people to keep coming back? Well, giving stuff away could help. For this, I’ll assume you’re not rich, you’ll need to probably find a local business with an interest in photography, like a camera or electronic store.
However, what will keep them coming back time and time again, will be the activities. What are you shooting? What will the participants learn if they come back next time?
Making sure that you have great locations to shoot is vital. No one is going to come back each time if you are shooting something interesting or fun. Sometimes you can try subjects that are difficult to shoot, but don’t make that a habit. If you do, try to secure a professional to attend as well, with the knowledge that they’ll be offering up some wisdom to the attendees.
That leads me to also encourage you to offer up a flyer for the local community college’s photography classrooms. Contact the photography professors and see if they’ll plug your event, or even attend.
To get some other ideas, see what other street photography or photowalking groups are doing. Google them and see what they’re up to. Also, don’t forget to check out the Flickr and Zooomr forums.
These methods are all just to help you get started. There is no one method that will make it happen. Just get out there and start taking pictures. You’ll probably have to walk alone for a while, but keep planning and announcing your plans. Also, make sure to blog the photos from your walks. This will allow future participants to see what you’re doing, and help them understand how simple a photowalk can be.
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