Photowalking.org

PhotowalkingUtah at the Great Salt Lake (photo by calanan)

Metrics on PhotowalkingUtah outing #10: 40 photographers, 2 dresses, Heidi in the water for 2 hours, 293 images in our Flickr pool, 10 billion brine shrimp, and at least $1,000 in waterlogged gear.

Behind the scenes (photo by jeremyhall)

The Great Salt Lake, 60 miles long, 30 miles wide, far saltier than the ocean, produces brine shrimp (sea monkeys) and brine flies in abundance. Birds stop to refuel on the beasties during migration. Morton Salt has evaporation ponds. A few people sail and scull. But mostly, beyond the water’s edge, it is expansively serene.

Rich keeps camera dry, but soaks the Blackberry in his pocket (photo by PureLancelot)

Forty photographers make a certain amount of noise, but occasionally on a photowalk, it becomes disconcertingly quiet. Deep concentration of photowalkers leave room for no conversation, only the clicking of shutters.

Charles Uibel, our guide (photo by rustlingleafdesign)

Charles photographs out here all the time, and set us up in a location devoid of other photo sessions (the GSL is popular for bridal photos – we saw a shoot going on down the shore but otherwise we were alone).

That dress is officially trashed (photo by schwabacher)

Heidi, our model, got the dress from her sister, made by mom and grandmom. Best not to mention it to mom until it comes back from the dry cleaner.

Thoroughly wrapped-up on several blogs:
Mike Calanan – Calanan Photography
Jeremy Hall – What’s Gotta Stay
Rich Legg – LeggNet’s Digital Capture
Scott Smith – Scott [o] Smith’s Digital World
David Terry – David Terry Photography
Ann Torrence – the Annalog

The next PhotowalkingUtah outing will be on July 4, to the Freedom Festival Balloon Launch. It’s a dawn launch for participating photographers. Watch www.photowalkingutah.com for updates.

The Utah Photowalking crew will stop standing around on its next ‘walk, and take to the rails on March 29th. Salt Lake City installed light rail just in time for the 2002 Olympics, and the stations along the east-west line are festooned with public art. We will meet at the eastern terminus, buy our all-day pass ($4.50 in cash), and speed photograph as many stops as we can stand. March 29, meet at 4 pm. Ride until your ticket runs out. More details on our Flickr group; same info at upcoming.org.

P.S. Next month we will return to walking, weather permitting. Tomorrow’s forecast is snow in the morning, 44 deg F by the afternoon.

(image by calanan)

Take forty non-scientists into an anatomy lab, and who knows what they will see. A knob to a vacuum line is unremarkable, unless you are a photowalker. Pipet tips, flasks, radiation danger signs–the subject matter overwhelms. Then the scientists (they are vision scientists after all, at the Moran Eye Center) turn on the colored lights, and wow! Jeremy made a movie, and many contributed photos to our Flickr pool.

***Trevor’s editor’s remarks***
This special photowalk looks like it was a lot of fun. These Utah photowalkers are really setting the mark high with their great events.

The greatest snow on earth, lovely for skiing, but not so much for walkabouts. For February, the Utah crew will descend upon the Moran Eye Center to photograph laboratory geekiness and then work on our Photoshop chops. More details on host Bryan Jones’ blogLast minute announcements on our Flickr pool.

Also on Upcoming.org

Strobes popping from every direction. Be careful of the ladder–someone’s shooting from 10′ up. Never seen a ring light before, here’s how it works. Energy meter hovering between disco at 2 am on a Saturday and the opening bell on the floor at NYSE. Everyone is smiling, and shutters are clicking madly all around.

A mob of 75 photographers squeezed into Gateway Community Church in Draper. We had 8 set-ups and 9 volunteer models. Assembling a softbox, hoisting a backdrop, plugging in a sync cable–these were brand new experiences for at least half of our team. The newbies more than made up for experience with enthusiasm and got some great shots. No one was hurt by falling lightstands, everyone got to play, and the kid models left with $31 each in tips (Dad, can I go to the mall?) Thanks to Pictureline for the Canon and Nikon goodies for door prizes.

View before things got hopping, from the telescoping monopole vantage point.

Our Flickr pool already has many photos and an interesting discussion on the various set-ups, a ton of photos. Rich’s blog has a wrap-up; I offer some hard-won experience for other groups who want to plan a similar event.

On the way out, I overheard, “when we do this next year…”. Yikes! Let us recover from the Red Bull hangover before we start planning the next one.

Saturday 12 January 2008, 11-2 pmGateway Community Church – 584 E 12300 South, Draper

We’ve been Photowalking since October; we have no idea what each other looks like without three layers of outerwear. After our holiday adventure at 24 degrees, the Utah group decided to step indoors for January. This Photowalk may involve more standing around than our previous outings, but maybe we can take off our coats. The PhotowalkUtah team has organized a studio shoot, with volunteer models and 5 set-ups, ranging from big wattage to Strobist-style lightweight gear kits. We will also create zones for Nikon, Canon and Olympus users to spread out their gear bags, not to show off, but to let others do a little tire-kicking of more exotic gear, like ring-lights and funky filters. Geared toward the absolute lighting novice.

Last minute details here.

We have a crazy amount of snow right now. Out-of-towners are invited to grab a weekend flight to SLC and photograph with us on your way to the slopes. Guaranteed you’ll meet a local photog who will ski or board with you. Start a thread on our Flickr pool if you are coming from afar.

Upcoming link.

Despite the 24degF temperature, 15 photographers met up for the 4th Salt Lake City Photowalk.

Temple Square, the headquarters of the LDS church world-wide, attracts thousand of people each holiday season for the hundreds of thousands of lights put up by volunteers. The lights come on around 5:30, at the tail end of the blue light, so the number of shots with nice skies is a testament to folks coming prepared and ready to make pictures.

About half of the team was new; our Flickr pool now has 40 members, which is fantastic. Newcomer Jeremy knows the guy who invented the bubble lights used in the reflecting pool. We worked on a team photo with 4 pocket wizards and strobes, but it was too cold for our subjects to keep posing while we refined the idea.

We surrendered in under 2 hours, which was pretty long, considering the conditions. Next month we are going on a PhotoStandAround, as Rich has found a space where we can set up three areas to work with strobes of all sizes. We will also designate Nikon and Canon tables where folks can test-drive each other’s exotic gear, like lensbabies, ringlights, and specialty filters. We should have done it before Christmas, so everyone could add stuff to their holiday wish-lists. Wishing all a happy holiday season from SLC.