My name is Kevin Van Lierop and I am writing today to inform you of an upcoming community event taking place in downtown London, Ontario.

On Saturday July 18, 2009 a number of Londoners (and non-Londoners) will be participating in the 2nd annual World Wide Photo Walk. In case you aren’t familiar with what a photo walk is, it is an opportunity for members of a community to get together to explore and celebrate their community and city through both walking and taking photographs.

The Word Wide Photo Walk taking place on July 18th is important for London in two ways. First, this photo walk will be the 4th photo walk held in London. Recently many Londoners have been getting together once a month to explore, celebrate and photograph various communities, places and people within the city. Over the past 2 photo walks we have found that the number of people coming out to join us keeps increasing as interest keeps on growing in what we are doing. We are currently working with Communities in Bloom to make this a formal event under their “umbrella” organization.

The second reason why the July 18th photo walk is special is that it is part of an International event that will find roughly 10 000 photographers in about 1000 cities participating all at once in photo walks around the globe. Londoners not only have an opportunity to celebrate their community but to celebrate with people around the globe this great planet we call home.

On July 18th, 2009 we have arranged for a group of 50 registered photographers to meet at the Forks of the Thames from which we will depart on a 2 hour walk exploring the downtown core. After the walk we plan on meeting up for lunch to talk about what we found, share photographs taken and talk about why we love the city we call home. We are hoping that this event will help to get Londoners more aware and engaged in the city they live within as well as provide an opportunity for people to photograph London and meet others from the community and supporting businesses.

What we are trying to arrange is to have local businesses show their support of this not-for-profit event, Londoners and the community by donating something that we can use as a door prize, or perhaps for one of our grand prizes for top photograph(s). We are hoping that businesses, such as yours, will be willing to support this event by donating things such as gift certificates, products or corporate merchandise/”swag” to be used as prizes for our participants.

In return for anything donated to this even we can offer any sponsors (such as yourself) advertisement space on this website , mention of your business and appropriate “Thank You(s)” before and after the walk itself. More importantly though we would hope that any sponsor would take this opportunity to join us on the day of the walk, to take some photographs, meet members of the community and get engaged with past, present and potential customers.

If you would like additional information regarding this event, its organizers or would like to donate a prize for the participants, feel free to contact us directly. We would be more than happy to come visit you to discuss this event and it’s participants in greater detail.

We look forward to hearing from you and hoping that we can get you and your business involved in this great event.

Cheers,

Kevin Van Lierop

London Photo Walk

vanlierop (DOT) kevin (AT) gmail (DOT) com

This weekend (from Sunday – Monday) H.B. Beal Secondary School, in London, Ontario is holding their annual BealART Year End Art Show. This festival of visual art will showcase the art students’ year long efforts in printmaking, ceramics, 3-D design, drawing, textiles, photography, art history, painting, film, animation and commercial art.¹

This is a great way to see some fantastic work by some up and coming local artists.  I have attended this year end show for the past few years and I am always impressed with what the students are able to produce.  One of the highlights for me (and the reason I am posting this on londonphotowalk.ca) is the photography pieces that are on display.  Some of the images that I have seen in the past simply blow me away.

It should be noted that a good portion of the art work (and photographic imagery) on display is normally for sale.  The prices of the pieces typically reflect the time and effort that each student has put into creating each individual piece and as far as I am aware (and assume), the full ticket price of any piece sold goes directly to the student.

The dates and times that the show is open are the following:

• Saturday June 13, 12 noon – 5 p.m.
• Sunday June 14, 12 noon – 5 p.m.
• Monday June 15, 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.

H.B. Beal Secondary School is located at 525 Dundas St. London, Ontario and parking is available (for free) in the school parking lot (enter off of King Street).

Without a doubt this is a great opportunity to see some great art, some fantastic photography and if you are in the market to purchase some art this is a good way to support young local artists.

1. Year End Show 2009 [↩]

If you plan on Joining us for our July 18th walk with the rest of the world! You better register now, as there are only 19 spots left.

http://worldwidephotowalk.com/london-on-ca/

Now these 19 spots are for those wishing to be eligible for the Walk prize from the National Associations of Photoshop Professionals, and be eligible for the Grand Prize from NAPP.

If you do not wish to be a part of the NAPP Prizes, or do not make the last 19 spots, Please STILL COME we have some prizes of our own and have plenty of room for many walkers!

So register now!

http://worldwidephotowalk.com/london-on-ca/

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak with two guys over at Fanshawe College (Jeremy & Nick) in the Radio Broadcasting department for a segment which they do called X Your Calendar which appears on 106.9 The X, Fanshawe College’s  student run radio station.  The segment, X Your Calendar is described as the following:

Get involved with the community with X Your Calendar. Every Sunday, we track down cool events for anyone in London to get into and get you all the info while we interview someone involved with the event. Your hosts Nick, Tizz, and Jeremy will go beyond the basics, and ask the extra questions to really connect you with the events.

- 106.9 the X

We talked for about 10 minutes (which will be cut down to around 5) about the London PhotoWalk, how it started, it’s purpose and the upcoming events.  Talk came up about the PhotoWalk at the end of this month, and next month’s WorldWide PhotoWalk.  I gave thanks to James Wilkinson for providing the londonphotowalk.ca website and giving us a place to gather all related information.

If I remember correctly the spot runs this coming Sunday at 7am, 4pm, and 830pm, so make sure to tune into 106.9 The X to hear my horrible voice.  The guys over at The X might be sending over a copy of the spot and if they do I will make sure to post it here and let everyone know.

Just over a week has gone by since the second London PhotoWalk and we have started to discuss the date and time for this month’s upcoming PhotoWalk.  Although it may seem like this one is coming early, or that it will be close to London’s WorldWide PhotoWalk (remember to sign up HERE as there is only room for 32 people left) it is really right in the middle of the two and at the end of the month as usual.  We hope that we will have as good of a turnout as last time (25 people) and perhaps even more for this PhotoWalk installment.

The following is what is proposed for London PhotoWalk #3

Date: Sunday June 28, 2009
Time: 6:00 pm
Meeting Place: London Life Park, London Ontairo
Ending Place: Tim Horton’s, Oxford Rd. E. & Talbot St.
Route: Talbot St. to Harris Park, North along the Thames River to Oxford St. (and vice versa)

We are thinking that from the London Life Park¹ half of us can go South along the Thames River Trail down to Harris Park, the other half can walk South along Talbot St. to Harris Park.  We can cross paths in Harris Park and return North along the alternate routes.  At the end we could all meet at the Tim Hortons (or some other better local location, please suggest something in the comments.). Check the New LondonPhotoWalk Google Map in the sidebar –> .

We decided to “mix it up” this time and go with an evening walk.  The mid day skies and sun that we have shot in for the last two PhotoWalks haven’t been the kindest to us so we thought we would take advantage of the early evening and hopefully the beginning of the sunset.

We are still thinking of an appropriate theme for this walk, so if you have any suggestions please tell us.

As per usual, if you have any questions, comments, concerns or suggestions make use of the comments form below.

Hope you see you all out.

1. I think this is the formal name of the park. although since it “technically” is private property (I think) its not listed as a city park. [↩]