“People forget about the surprises. They drive down Oxford or Highbury or Fanshawe Park Rd. and they’re just looking at industry. But if you go into small subdivisions, parks, the Thames Valley Parkway, there are all these surprises about how beautiful London is,”

- James Wilkinson, via London Free Press

James Wilkinson was recently interviewed by the London Free Press about the upcoming London PhotoCamp and about the London Photo Walk.  Not only is this interview great exposure for PhotoCamp and the Photo Walks, letting amateurs and professionals know that there are more casual, stress free and FREE ways to learn about photography, but I think James nailed the purpose of the Photo Walks.

For me the Photo Walks have not only been about the community, meeting new people and celebrating London, but they have been about exploring and finding the hidden beauty in the city. My favourite example of this was the Watson Park Walk I participated in a few months ago. A route that I have travelled a thousand time before but when out with my camera, other people and taking the time to slow down I found places, sights (and sounds) that I had never experienced before.

For some residents London only offers the beautiful places highlighted in travel magazine or in the local news, for others there is far more beauty that is discovered when the time is taken to explore, take in and appreciate the Forest City.

Mr Tizzy entertained us with his patented lie on the ground photo technique and Bryan Nelson showed us his wade in the river style…..The light was beautiful and I have seen many fantastic pictures posted by walk participants….we tried to arrive at the pedestrian bridge in time for sunset but were early…..so we ended up hanging around the bridge for 20 – 30 minutes. It turned out to be a great opportunity to talk to other photo walkers and get to know each other a little better and for those who waited we were rewarded with not only some great shots of a beautiful sunset, but a gorgeous full moon as well!

My thanks to everyone who came out and I hope to see you all again at UWO on Aug 21st

Chris Baldwin

What is a LCPW?

A LCPW is a photowalk that is organized by a member of the London Community. This not only includes the people who live in the London community but the ones that visit it frequently etc. etc. A LCPW will be posted on our blog by that member and it’s easy I will instruct you how further down in this post.

Where did this idea come from?

If you have read Kevin (the original brain child of the London Photowalk)’s post on where he has been the last photowalks you will know that over the year we have been running these photowalks more and more “sub” photowalks have been popping up with ppl looking to explore more of London more often than once a month. Opening up photowalking to the community is of course not new, but we are offering our blog to post those walks and get more attention to them and great a larger photographic and arts community in London, Ontario.

How do I find the LCPW’s I can Attend?

Well this is the simple part, just click the Community Walks link in the top navigation. You can also look for post in the Community Walks category and prefixed with LCPW:

Ok so How DO I DO IT ALREADY!?

Ok ok anxious photowalk leader! This is what we need from you to get your photowalk posted on the blog:

1. Register on our blog. Link in the sidebar near the bottom (if your already registered skip this step)
2. Log In – Here you will see in the left column the Posts section. Here you can write you post for the blog. We will get into the details of that post in a few.
3. Hit Send for Review. Everyone who registers on our blog is registered as a contributor. This means that you can write your own posts and send them to the Admins and have them posted!

We are working on an automated process to the photowalk posting process. But until that day comes this will work just fine. I would like to point out that the post having to be approved is NOT us sending your walk through and approval process BUT a way for us to do the behind the scenes work of getting that post in the right spot, making the robots like it, and getting is sent out to Twitter.

Conditions of your Blog Post

We already have one LCPW posted and another one in the ques. This is what we would like to see in your post.

A little blurb about where you are going to go, what your going to go, points of interested etc. Then we would like you to use this format for the Details:

When: DATE
Time: TIME
Route: ROUTE MAY BE A LINK TO A GOOGLE MAP
Meeting Location: MEETING LOCATION
Afterwards: (optional but a great way to talk more about photography after)

And then any other detail you would like to include. Such as contact information, registration links if you’d like etc. By posting through the blog we will send you a notification when someone comments on your post so that you can respond accordingly.

Pheeew!

That was a lot of reading (and writing on my part ;) We really hope that you enjoy this new feature and that it gets used lots! As mentioned above it will be improved over time to become more automated and faster.

Thanks for reading!

Signed
James Wilkinson ;)

In the past month’s I have been very busy and have been neglecting the photo walk, not by choice but by necessity.  Things such as helping family members move, other community projects (ChangeCamp and Nuit Blanche and PARK(ing) Day) and personal issues have kept me away from the photo walks.

On the one hand I have really missed planning and taking part in the walks as they offer a great opportunity to explore London and meet up with so many great people. However, on the other hand, missing the walks has helped to push the London Photo Walk in the right direction.

Where We Are Going (I Hope)

With myself not being available (and James not being available on occasion) the walks still have continued.  Thanks to the dedication of some of the photo walkers in London, the walks have continued and have been as successful as ever.  Two examples are the Watson Park Walk, which I attended but did not organized. This walk has been one of my favourites over the past year.  The other example is today’s World Wide Photo Walk. Because of personal items, both myself and James have been unable to plan or attend today’s evening walk, no worries as Chris Baldwin and Donnie Currie have taken control.

These two examples are just a small hint as to where I believe the London Photo Walk should be going.

There is no doubt that I sill plan on organizing and participating in a monthly walk, but the intentions are, over the coming months, that the London Photo Walk website will be fully open to have people suggest/organize walks that they would like to lead and that this information can post automatically, there by essentially allowing photo walks to happen, any time and any place.

When I first suggested having a photo walk I did so out of a very selfish manner. As many know, I had just purchased my first digital camera and wanted to learn from other people how to use it. Quickly the Photo Walk developed to a great community event that presents the opportunity for anyone to come out and explore the city with other members of the public in a relaxed environment.  Although planning the photo walks has been great, the logical next step is to give the London Photo Walk to community and let them run with it. More details will be coming over the next couple of months.

I’m excited as where this can take us.

The London Photowalk Group is back again this year for another World Wide Photowalk! This year we will be exploring the beautiful Gibbons park and surroundings during the golden hours. This is a very large park so we will have lots of room for our 50+ participants (if we count on last years numbers).

Gibbons park is situated on the edge of the thames with a beautiful walking bridge, shore side access, lots of trees, a splash pad and pool, and of course many geese and ducks ready to be photographed!

So here are the details!

Gibbons Park World Wide Photo Walk
Date: Saturday July 24th
Time: 7:00PM – 9:00PM
Where: Gibbons Park Splash Pad Parking Lot
Route: Walking through the park with a stint into a historic neighborhood then back down through the north end of the park. See RED on map.

You need to register to be a part of the Wordl Wide Photowalk, and it is open to 50 ppl. However just as we did last year we do not limit the amount of ppl who can come. So come anyways if you dont get registered. However if you do get registered you are entered into the World Wide Photo Walk photo contest!

So we hope to see all of you out, and dont forget to Register!

Here was the wining photo for London, Ontario from last years WWPW by Jason Parreira:

Huron Woods Photowalk

Date:  June 19th, 2010

Time: 6PM-8PM

Meeting Spot: Kings College Parking Lot, just beside and back from the seminary.

Route: Through the seminary yard down the nature trail and back on the walking path.

Parking: Paid parking located at Kings College meeting spot, as well as free parking along the side of the street.

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!

So what is NaPhoBoMo? Well here is the short version. You have 1 month to take 50 photos and assemble them into a photobook PDF and submit it to the NaPhoBoMo Site. The long version can be found on the NaPhoBoMo site as well as registration instructions.

But wait thats not all! There is another photobook project coming up in June called SoFoBoMo standing for Solo Photobook Month, it is along the same lines as NaPhoBoMo but 31days and 35 Photos assembled into a photo book.

I will be doing both of these and putting the books up for sale on my Blurb account. Let us know if your going to join in to and share your topics with us in the comments. So hopefully all of these photobook projects and photowalks will keep you busy for national photography month! Happy Photographing.