PhotoWalkPro

Here’s a few things I came across that you might find interesting and maybe inspiring -

Bigger is Better -

How many pixels were in your last image? If you are a select group of Hungarians, the answer just might be 70 billion. With sponsorshop from Epson, Sony, and Microsoft, a group of hungarians have created the largest 360° panorama in the world. I’ve always been fascinated by gigapixel images and this one really takes the cake. You can see the image in all it’s detailed glory here.

Long Distance Dedication -

If there’s one thing I like more than gigapixel images, it’s time-lapse videos. I just find the process of compressing time into a smaller space to be incredibly cool. I’ve been known to make a few time-lapse videos in my time but nothing compares to this incredible walk across America.

Now, if you thought that was cool, check out this “making of” video to see the incredible story of how this amazing project came to be.

Color in Motion -

You might know Julianne Kost as the Adobe Photoshop Evangelist but did you know that she is an incredibly talented photographer and artist? A couple of years ago she released a book called Window Seat, which featured landscape images made from her years of accumulating frequent flyer miles. Some of her recent work though is just downright fascinating. Her series is called Motion Color and after looking at the images, it’s hard not to believe that she didn’t fashion them in Photoshop. The reality is that all of these shots are straight from the camera (except for maybe a little color and exposure tweaking). You can spend a few quality minutes checking out all of her shots by clicking here.

Free Lightroom Learning for Photowalkers -

Did you participate in one of the 1100 photowalks this past weekend? If so then you should have received a personal invite to join Scott Kelby and his cohorts for a little live Lightroom session today. Just click on the link in your email and then log in with the username and password that you created when you registered for the photowalk. The session kicks off at 10:00 AM Eastern time and lasts for about an hour. When you get there, you will get to see Scott and the guys process their photowalk images using Adobe Lightroom. It should be a lot of fun.

That’s it for the day, now go do something inspiring!

The temperature at 9:00 AM was already close to 90° F (it actually hit 102° later in the day) but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the crew that gathered in Georgetown for this year’s Worldwide Photowalk. We kicked things off with our group shot and then headed out to photograph the sites around the C&O Canal and then up to the sidewalk of legendary M St. We finished things off by gathering in the food court of The Shops of Georgetown, where the air conditioning and cool drinks were eagerly received.

I set up a Flickr group for all of my photowalkers to show off their images and they have already started coming in. You can check out the pool of images by clicking on this link. If you want to get a look at more photowalk images from the day, from all over the World, head over to the Worldwide Photowalk Pool where walkers from the four corners of the globe have been uploading images since early yesterday. If you participated in a photowalk yourself, make sure you join the group and add your images.

If you are planning on entering one of your photowalk images into the official contest, please check out the post by Brad Moore on the official Worldwide Photowalk site. Brad did an excellent job of explaining just how to upload your image (only one per customer) so that your photowalk leader can pick a winner. Just remember that you only have until July 31 to get your photo submitted.

I want to thank my buddy Scott Kelby and his staff for organizing another fantastic event and all the great people that joined me yesterday for another great photowalk. I’m already thinking about where to go next year.

It seems like such a long time ago since the 3rd Annual Worldwide Photowalk was announced but here we are, on the eve of the big event. I thought that I would just throw out a couple of suggestions to help make the day more enjoyable.

#1 – Show up early There’s just no way of knowing what might delay your arrival, traffic, parking, a herd of rogue sheep. The point is that you want to make sure that you get to the starting point with enough time to feel comfortable and relaxed instead of trying to catch up with the pack.

#2 – Make sure you bring ground support By that I mean bring some water, maybe a little sunscreen, some comfortable shoes. What ever it takes to keep you comfortable and focused on shooting.

#3 – Charge up Don’t wait until Saturday morning to discover that your camera batteries are low or even dead. Put your batteries on charge tonight so you will be ready to roll tomorrow morning/afternoon. Helpful hint: put your batteries on charge next to your camera so you don’t accidentally grab your camera without the battery.

#4 – Think about how much equipment you want to bring and then think again I know it’s nice to be prepared but really, lugging camera gear around can really start to wear on you, especially as the temperature goes up, or down for that matter.  Try to focus on simplicity instead of carrying the kitchen sink.

#5 – Check the weather forecast I know that sounds like a no-brainer but I have heard it time and again, “I didn’t know it was going to be so hot/rainy/cold.” A quick peek at the Weather Channel will make sure that you are dressed apporpriately for the day.

#6 – Leave the tripod at home Yes, you would undoubtedly get some tack-sharp images by using your tripod but it will also tend to get in the way more than it will be a help. If you must, go for a monopod instead. You can make it double up as a walking stick and you won’t have people tripping over it while you shoot.

#7 – Safety first And second and third It’s so easy to become glued to your viewfinder and forget about everything going on around you and this is when accidents happen. Just a couple of weeks ago I was walking with my family down a street in Antigua Guatemala, shooting, walking, and having a ball. The problem was that I paid more attention to what i wanted to take a photo of instead of the hole in the sidewalk in front of me. Needless to say, my foot went in the hole, my knees hit the ground, followed by my hands. My camera and I escaped with only minor scratches but it could have been worse. Take care to know where you are standing when you shoot and don’t go walking backwards off a curb and into the path of a car. Also, keep an eye out for your fellow walkers and help to keep them safe as well.

So there you go, just a few helpful tips to keep in mind as you and 31131 other photowalkers hit the streets across the world. It’s going to be a blast!

Sorry for the short hiatus the past few days but I took a little side trip to Texas before returning home to visit my family. But now I’m back and I have a ton of things to write about this week so I thought I would start off by catching up with some things I wasn’t able to get to over the past couple of weeks. We’ll call this Catch-Up Monday.

6 Days Until the Worldwide Photowalk -

We’ve got less than a week to go until the 3rd Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk and I am getting pretty excited. There are now 1099 registered photowalks scheduled to take place next Saturday with over 27,000 participants.  I will be sending out emails to all of my walkers during the week but here’s something that I wanted to share with everyone. If you have registered for a photowalk and won’t be able to attend, make sure that you visit the official page for that photowalk and remove yourself to make room for someone that might be on the waiting list. Only officially registered walkers will be eligible to upload images and possibly win a prize so if you have had a change of plans, please don’t forget to remove your name from the list. The walk leaders can’t do it for you so you have to take care of this one on your own.

Speaking of Photowalk Prizes -

The winning photograper from each photowalk will receive either a copy of Scott Kelby’s The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers or The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers. I happily had my copy of the Lightroom 3 book waiting for me when I got home from my trip and I am about a third of the way through it already. It’s a great read and, as always, Scott does a fantastic job of walking the reader through every aspect of Lightroom 3. The Lightroom book is available now and the CS5 book should be available soon. I can’t wait!

Not sure what to shoot?

I get this question a lot from people that are venturing out on their first photowalk. Sure, you could just take photos of the obvious stuff you see on the street but if you want to try something different, try shooting a theme. There’s a fairly new iPhone App called Photo Walk Ideas that can help you with this. Just pick a them from the scroll wheel like Abstracts, People, Nature, Urban, etc. and then pick a difficulty level and the app will give you a checklist of different subjects to check off. It’s a pretty neat idea. You can read more about it here.

Let’s say that you are already in the location but you are stuck for subject matter and need a little inspiration. Once again, you can reach for your trusty iPhone and check out the Photo Walk app. This little program will locate your current position and then pull up a map with pins that link to photos on Flickr that were taken in the same area. You can actually select the ones that you like the best and the app will plot a course for you so you don’t miss out on any photo opportunities. This is especially handy if you are shooting in an unfamiliar location. You can find out more info at the developers website.

On a more personal note -

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Matt Brandon of The Digital Trekker as part of his Depth of Field series. We chatted for over an hour about photography, photowalking, and my photography career in general. The series is sponsored by my publisher, Peachpit Press, and Matt has interviewed some of the hottest photogs in the business, including Jasmine Star, Zach Arias, Ami Vitale, Chris Orwig, David duChemin, Trey Ratcliff, Nevada Weir, and more, which still leaves me wondering why he would want to interview me. I really did enjoy speaking with Matt. He is a true gentleman and I had a lot of fun doing the interview.

On a more geeky note, you might be interested to know that I did the entire interview using nothing but my Apple iPad and the Skype app. Matt conducts most of his interviews over Skype because he is based in Malaysia (he shoots a lot for NGO’s and non-profits). So while Matt was using his computer with a fancy Blue Snowball Microphone, I was sitting in my easy chair using a pair of headphones and the built-in mic on the iPad and the quality was pretty darn good. You can hear the interview by clicking here and make sure that you check out the rest of Matt’s Digital Trekker blog while you are there. He has some really great stuff going on.

Hey everyone, just in case you missed it, my buddy Rob Jones from Towner Jones Photography has once again set up a store for all you photowalkers out there to get your official World Wide Photowalk t-shirts. There are several different shirt styles available but the most important thing you need to know is that all profits from the t-shirt sales will go to the Springs of Hope Orphanage in Africa.

If you are a leader you will be interested to know that there is a special store section just for you.  That’s right, this year there will be no hiding from the crowd as you sport your special Leader shirt so everyone knows who to blame (just kidding). I actually lobbied for the leader shirts to help everyone know who to rally around when gathering for the photowalk. Leaders will find a link on their Dashboard page for their photowalk.

Everyone else can head straight to the Official Apparel Store.