1. The Design of course. The new design puts a larger focus on the London Photowalk’s Next Walk as seen at the top of the page in the big green bar, and the overall brand of the walks.

2. The Marketplace, this feature was implemented a few months ago but we have put more focus on it. We have found from our website stats that the Market place is our second most visited page, third is the photos page.

3. The Photos Page, this page is still under construction. We are looking for a non-flash solution for pulling as many images as we can from our flickr group and displaying them on that page. If you know any really nice ones please share them with us in the Comments!

4. Comments, nothing has changed here but we really want you input! Tell us what you think of a post, whether or not you plan on coming for a walk and feel free to contact us if you would like use to post a community event on our Calendar. We are all about Community Involvement and engagement!

5. Calendar, this has always been there but we once again want to remind you that all of our walks and community events will be posted to this calendar and you can subscribe to the Calendar feed!

So that is an overview of what you can see on our site that has changed. Under the hood we have removed a bunch of excess “fat” and the website now runs smoother than ever! We really hope you enjoy this new design and like always let us know your thoughts!

Oh and one more thing. WE ARE ON TWITTER NOW! You can follow us @ldnpw . Our feed will send you updates when we post a new post on the blog as well as the occasional tips and tricks, and what ever else we find that is photography related!

LOPW is now 1 year old and we have had a total of 10 photowalks!

WEATHER NOTE: Although there is a call for rain later in the evening we will be heading out unless there is a large downpour an hour before.

Check back on www.londonphotowalk.ca later on in the day for any cancellation information

First off we must apologize for such a late posting and short notice Kevin and I have been really busy lately and been watching the weather and scouting spots like crazy! So without further adieu let me introduce you to London Photowalk 11 : Spring Sunset Photo Walk

This walk takes on part of an already done route. That route had a great turnout but we got rained out a bit :(. I discovered two parts to this route. The first last year doing my NaPhoBoMo Project and the 2nd last night at sunset.

So here are the details:

When: Sunday March 28th 2010 6:00PM -8:00PM

Where: Harris Park Parking Area

PLEASE NOTE: There is very limited parking in Harris Park itself, as such your best bet for parking will be on the streets (it is free) or in the parking lot at the splash pad at the forks of the thames.

Recommendations: Tripod, Waterproof Shoes, Dress in Layers

Map of the direct route is in the sidebar and on the side of this post.

Hope to see you wall out and cross your fingers for another beautiful sunset like last night!

We were hoping for a little more snow in the park, and some snow on the trees but that did not stop us from going out and freezing our fingers off! We once again had a great turn out of about 20 people. No after party this time though as everyone was extremely cold and ready to head home and enjoy a nice hot cup of co-co.

Our walk this time started off with geese, yes geese, contrary to were you think they should be (in the sunny States and Mexico) they decided to stay right here in Canada. What troopers! They made for some great photo-ops and of course made for some great photo-ops with the other organizer Kevin chasing after the great pic!

Some of us went of the groomed walking trail and took to the beaten path down below near the water. Good thing no one fell in. As you may know I am prone to slipping and falling on these walks with my crazy ideas for shots!

We got to see a lof of new faces out this time as well. In fact the majority of our group this time was NEW! Thank you all for coming out! Hopefully we didnt scare the newbies off and they will be back.

Keep your eyes peeled at the top of the page for the random imports from Flick’r and in a few weeks time Kevin and I will as usual pick a few photos to highlight in the side bar. I would also like to take this time to tell you more about that sidebar. It is in no way a contest over there, each of us goes through the group and finds two shots that we feel showed off the overall feeling of the last walk. If you ever don’t want your photo there please send us and email and we will remove it right away.

Please post your photos to our Flick’r group as well so everyone can enjoy them!

We are also looking for suggestions for walk for February and any other time of the year as well. Feel free to email them to us or post in the comments below.

Hope to see you all at the next walk, and until next time keep those fingers warm and photos coming in!

LOPW now has a market place. Feel free to post anything you would like on the market place, if you would like to suggest a categories please just send us an email.

I will let you know of a small glitch in the plug-in that we are using. You can not actually view the categories with the view categories link. To see ads relating to just a specific category there is a drop-down in the main view. That one will work.

There are already some great steals on there for you to look at so head on ever to the Marketplace!

NOTE: You must be registered on the blog to post on the marketplace.

For our 8th and last photo walk of 2009. We went through London’s industrial area. This area has been given a bad rap over that past few years, with many rundown buildings and not that much curb appeal. That is now a myth as all of the participants of the 8th walk will tell you.

The industrial area made for great photos, regardless of the grey skies that followed us through the walk. The area was full of colour and thankfully not full of snow being November.

We had a very good turnout with around 25ppl participating this time around. After wards we headed to Sam and Bills on Dundas across from the old McCormick factory for some well need refreshments, and few good laughs. Many of those laughs were attributed to Kevin’s friend Kyle and his NaPhoBoMo adventures:

I encourage you to take a look through the flickr group and hope to see you at future walks!

With just 2 day to go before Scott Kelby’s World Wide Photo Walk, we have a couple of reminders and pointers for you!

Registration:

First if you did not get registered on http://worldwidephotowalk.com/london-on-ca don’t worry still come out Saturday morning. Those who are registered on the WWPW Site please log in and review the videos posted there. These videos have instructions on how to upload your photos to be eligible for the WWPW prize.

Photos:

For those persons and everyone else: After the walk be sure to upload your photos to our Flick’r Group. If you don’t have a Flick’r account, it is free to sign up and free to join the group. Flirck’r Is FREE!

Walk Details:

Make sure you review the post with the Walk details, and ask questions if you are unsure as to where you need to go. Fell free to call my cell (James Wilkinson) at 519-854-1563 the morning of the walk if you get lost.

What to Bring:

• Your Self. Bring your friends and family too!
• Your Camera of course.
• Extra batteries, cleaning supplies, and other camera gear etc.
• Sneakers or Comfortable Walking Shoes. We will be walking 2.5KM, and possible doing a little bit of off path walking
• Dress for the weather. We will be walking Rain or Shine, so bring a plastic bag and umbrella if it looks like rain.
• Water – We don’t want you getting dehydrated. There are not many fountains on our walk (if any)
• Money – We will be meeting up at a restaurant/bar after the walk to give out prizes and have some fun.(Minors Welcome)

What to Do:

• Plan to show up around 9:30-9:50. We will be doing a group photo before everyone parts and gets all sweaty.
• Be Safe! and watch out for others safety too! It is easy to be distracted by the scenery while taking a photo, and you don’t realize your walking backwards into traffic!
• For those going on the route of James Wilkinson’s please be advised that there is one stop that those who would like to do so can join me in walking down a steep but short hill to the shore of the Thames. Those who wish not too there is a clearing with a higher perspective of the spot the climbers are going down too.

Please be advised that Scott Kelby, the NAPP, and London Photowalk and all it’s participants, sponsors etc. Are NOT responsible for any injuries, theft or other acts that you may incur before, during, and after the walk. YOU are soley responsible for your self. We will have some small bandages for anyone who needs them.

What Else:

• Everyone is eligible for the door prizes our sponsors have graciously donated. Please take some time to read up on our sponsors here on the blog.
• Please be safe, and don’t drink and drive!

Thank You:

Finally we would like to thank everyone that is planing on coming out. You all are now a part of history. The WWPW is the largest social photographic event ever held in the world! So lets make history together and have a great fun filled day!

See you all Saturday 9:30AM – Pavilion at 1 Dundas St. London, Ontario, CANADA

Back up and “Walking”! The site is exactly as it was as of Yesterday. Some comments have been lost, so sorry for any inconvenience. I would like to thank Dreamhost.com our new GREEN! Hosting provider for promptly setting up the new hosting access, where I then took ove3r to get everything back online.

Once again sorry for any inconvenience and have a great day! Hope to see you out at our next walk!

Christine Li, a Youth Outreach Worker with the Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre is currently working on organizing a youth photography project based upon the highly successful PhotoVoice project.

For those not familiar with the PhotoVoice project, the main mission is to bring about positive social change for marginalized communities through providing them with photographic training with which they can advocate, express themselves and generate income,¹ the GCCRC is looking to start a project with similar ambitions in the London neighbourhood of Glen Cairn.

Titled the Speaking Lens, this project hopes to encourage and help local youth identify both the strengths and weaknesses of their community in order to help celebrate the neighbourhood they call home.  Along side of this celebration of community the project also aims to teach teens about basic photography and what “makes a good shot”.²

What the Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre and Christine Li are looking for are the donations of roughly 10 point and shoot digital cameras that the teens engaged in the Speaking Lens project can use in order to be fully immersed in the project.  Fancy cameras are not needed, simply basic point and shoot digital cameras (that still work) that you may no longer have a need for.

I know personally that I have an old digital camera sitting at home that does not get enough use by myself and would be better off in the hands of someone who could do meaningful work with it.  Once I can dig it up I will be sure to pass it on the the Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre so that this project can be one camera closer to happening.

If you do have a camera you would like to donate I would be more than happy to meet up with you to pick it up on behalf of the Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre, or perhaps you would like to come out for the next London Photo Walk and we can meet then.

To donate a camera please contact Kevin Van Lierop at:

Kevin Van Lierop
vanlierop (dot) kevin (at) gmail (dot) com

For more information about the Speaking Lens project please see the following video.³

Video is courtesy of Greg Fowler and From My Bottom Step

1. Mission Statement via PhotoVoice.org
2. Christine, if I am way off or need to add something to this description please let me know.
3. The video is dated from about a month ago but the information is still very much relevant.

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