Our History-Making “First Annual” Worldwide PhotoWalk Rocked!!!
First, did you catch that “First Annual” up in the headline? Yeah, baby!!!! We had such a great response, and so many people asking about it, and we’ve already decided to make it an annual event. :)
But before I tell you what a blast I had with my own local photowalk, here are some excerpts from comments posted on my blog on Saturday:
- We here in Sydney [Australia] finished our photo walk over 12 hours ago and it was a blast.
- Just got back from leading my group in Fredericksburg, Virginia. An honor to be associated with this event. I had all levels of photographers, from Pro to casual shooter. What a great group of people and sincerely enjoyed their company!
- I also finished my photowalk quite some time ago down here in Amsterdam. We absolutely had a blast.
- We had a great time here in London. Let's have another one next year⦠or next month⦠or better still, next week!
- Hi Scott! I just got home from leading the Baltimore Photowalk and couldn't have asked for a better morning. Everyone was amazing and things went perfectly.
- Checking in from the Malm¶, Sweden photowalk here: We had a blast! Unfortunately, it rained cats & dogs the whole time. Still, around half of the fifty or so bravely showed up and not one single person whined :-). It was really fun!
- Great morning in Bostonâ¦the sun was a bit bright but couldn't have asked for a more pleasant morningâ¦The North End in Boston is a shooters dream.
- We had great weather on our photowalk in northern Spain, Bilbao/Getxo. I think all of us enjoyed it to know others with the same hobby.
- The weather was perfect and the shooters had fun and created some great pictures. I think everyone enjoyed being together. We all began as strangers and finished making new relationships and spending four enjoyable hours together.
- Portugal's Porto Photowalk was great. 30+ people showed up and everyone was very kind and willing to share their experiences and expectations.
- I don't know about the rest of the world but Vancouver BC Canada was⦠OUTSTANDING!!!
- Ohhhhh, what a great day! The walk in Charlottesville, VA was a dream.
- The photo walk I attended today was awesome in Fresno, CA. Met a lot of great people and the area we walked even had nice music playing.
- I led the walk in Sioux Falls, SD. We had a very diverse group and I had a great time. Can't wait to see the photos on the Flickr site.
- I was on the Detroit Photowalk and I think everyone had a great time. I certainly did.
- San Diego was good. Great people and a lot of great photo opportunities.
- The Cincinnati, Ohio Walk was a blast. David Ziser chose a pretty good route (long but fun) ending at a great place to eat (the Guinness on tap hit the spot after the walk).
- I still can't believe there was so many photographers all over the world having such a good time shooting pictures! A truly historic moment in photography.
- NYC Chinatown was AWESOME! Great job team lead Alessandro and thanks for an excellent day!
- Great time in Boston and the weather was fabulous.
- WOWWWWWoooo WWweeeee! What a great time we had here in Koloa, Kauai Hawaii. We had a wonderful bunch of people that wanted to shoot, no one really cared on the experience level, I was just like "Let go have some fun".
- I think a good time was had by all in Portland, Maine. I know I had fun!
- Greetings from Sacramento! Diana and I had a great group, great weather and a steam engine huffing and puffing and rolling around in Old Sacramento. Fun, photos and conversations were plentiful.
- Greetings from Chicago!! Our Michigan Avenue walk was awesomeâ¦I am so psyched!!
- We finished the Penang, Malaysia walk about 12 hours ago. Went off with out a hitch and we all had a blast and made a lot of new friends. Can't wait to do it again!
- Just got home from the evening walk with Jeff Revell in Alexandria, VA. What a blast.
- What a GREAT event. Met lots of new and interesting people. Had fun â” got great shots – can wait to run them through Lightroom.
- â˜Twas greatâ¦..woo hoo. I will definitely join more photo walks.
- My two friends and I had a great time on ours in St. Charles Missouri. We look forward to participating in another soon.
- We had a great time in Cedar Rapids, IA on our photowalk this morning and getting together for lunch afterward was the icing on the cake.
- The Denver(Golden) one was awesome! Met a few fellow NAPP'ers, made some new friends and in general met what appears to be a really fun group of people.
- This is Paulo Jordao (Worldwide Photowalk Leader – Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
What a great Photowalk we had here. We had 65 Photowalkers and I couldn't believe what a great group. - We had a great photo walk yesterday and thanks to you Scott i get to meet lot of talented photographers from my city Dhaka, Bangladesh.
- I was in the Greenville, South Carolina photo shoot and it was locally well planned and orchestrated as well.
- This was the first time my husband and I had ever done any type of photowalk. The Cary, North Carolina walk was fantastic & the weather was perfect! The people were great and everyone seemed to have an amazing time. Thanks!
- We had a BLAST at the Denver (Golden), Colorado walk. What a great bunch of people!
- We had a nice Photowalk here in Hamburg, Germany. Even though the weather was a bit rainy but hey no whining, am I right? You made thousands of strangers worldwide come together, share their passion and have a great time.
- We had a great walk in Jakarta. It was such a great day, and photographers are the greatest people to hang out with!!
- Hola From Panama! We had a great photowalk too there was no sun (no rain) but who cares no whining here!
- We had an great morning walk in Portsmouth New Hampshire. Our group leader Ron lead us on an interesting route. The weather was fantastic and we all had a great time.
- Yesterday in Amsterdam was great! I never walked in that part of the city before and was able to make some nice photo's.
- Photowalk was a great one here in Bahamas.
- We had a great time walking in Portland, OR. Laurie Excell did a great job with our route, and I got some rockin' photos!
- I was on Dan Ablans "Michigan Avenue" walk in Chicago. Dan did a really great job and meeting all these people was just fantastic.
- Went on the photo walk in Ventura, California last night. Chris Pettit had it well organized and everyone I heard from really enjoyed it.
- I got to go on Nasim Mansurov's Boulder, Colorado walk. I had a great time meeting a bunch of other really talented photographers and learned a bunch without even realizing it.
- Participated in the Victoria BC event. Got to meet some nice people, and learned some new tricks, just as I had hoped. I was amazed that I was even able to share some of my own miniscule knowledge.
- Did the Chinatown, NYC walk and had a great time, met great people and learned a lot.
Besides those comments, I’ve gotten dozens of personal emails from participants and leaders around the world, and I’m just so grateful to everyone who joined in to create something really special, and really fun.
My PhotoWalk in Dunedin, Florida.
When I got there, about 30 minutes early, it was beautiful. Then about 10 minutes before the walk started, it starting pouring rain. Then, right at starting time, it was like somebody flipped a switch—the rain stopped for precisely two hours. When our walk was over, we sat down in the restaurant, and then the rain restarted. I just smiled. :)
OK, here are some ‘behind the scenes’ photos from my walk:
When the rain came before my walk, we all ducked under this nearby Gazebo, but by starting time, it had cleared and off we went! (photo by RC).
My good buddy RC came as a “Guest Walker” and here he is, outside my car, when it first started pouring. RC’s always prepared. (photo of RC).
Part of my group, as seen from the Harbor Master’s 2nd floor office.
Hitting downtown Dunedin (pron. Done-eed-in).
RC “McNally” Giottos BridgeHome (his full name) is pretty dangerous with that SB-800. If only he had remembered batteries.
Hey, no Chimpin’ during the walk.
After the walk, we chilled out at “Sea Sea Riders” Key-West style restaurant. It was totally yummy, and there was enough of us that we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.
Having lunch with some new friends at Sea Sea’s. (photo by RC’s and his flash).
After my walk (and my NFL Fantasy Football Draft), I went to RC’s walk for a little while (he held his in downtown Clearwater, Florida). I met some great folks there, too.
I ended the day by stopping by Rod Harlan’s Safety Harbor, Florida shoot. It was pouring rain when I got there too, and as luck would have it, Rod choose his meet-up starting point as a Gazebo in a park downtown.
Rod admonishing me for taking his photo during his opening comments. I sprayed him with pepper spray just moments after this was taken. ;-)
Tomorrow, I hope to have a short video to post, taken during my PhotoWalk, to give you an idea of what it’s really like, but I can tell you this; we had an awful lot of fun—I met some really great people—I didn’t get a single shot worth a darn, but I sure saw some of my photowalkers who did great some great stuff!
Lots more to report tomorrow, so stay tuned. :)