Photowalk
This blog post is to simply document my experience in organising my first event, from inspiration to execution.
Inspiration
There have been two main sources of inspiration here.
My wife. In her day job, she has organised various activities for photographers as part of her strategy to raise awareness of the cultural activities the local area has to offer. Two that come to mind immediately are when one of the activities was organised as a way of saying thank you to all of the local photographers (or “micro-influencers”) for taking and posting images on their social media and helping to organically grow the audience. We went on a guided walk with a few key stopping points, and around 40 photographers gave their index fingers a proper workout. We stopped off at a vineyard for a glass of the finest local, and everyone had a chance to get to know each other and share advice with regard to photography. It was all in all, a great way to meet like-minded people, and for a good cause.
Photographer/YouTuber North Borders. He’s inspiring in general. From taking photos in his hometown in Australia for local car dealerships to travelling Europe with his friends, being hired by luxury car brands, and sharing his journey with us all. In his more recent European journeys, he has organised photowalks in the cities he travels too, giving his followers and fans a chance to get to know him, and he prepares a fun photography activity for the participants.
Why do it?
Ever since I’ve started taking photos of “little ol’ Manresa”, people have constantly told me that I’m showing them an unseen perspective of their hometown. I suppose it’s normal for you not to really go around your hometown taking photos. You tend to explore what is not home to you. I haven’t ever taken photos of Colindale, but after these experiences, I should consider it on my next trip back. From my own experience, shooting in your local area is a great way to improve your photography.
I was sure that if there was a photowalk for Manresa, locals would turn up, and they would realise that they in fact could take great photos of their hometown. After a couple of years of doing photowalks on my own, I was confident enough in making an interesting enough route for people of all abilities to be able to enjoy themselves. For that reason, and because North Borders probably doesn’t have Manresa on his European bucketlist, I set out to preparing a route and a photowalk.
Additionally, I figured it would be a way to continue to grow, and expand beyond my own comfort zone. A hobbyist photographer, showing locals their own hometown, and doing it in my now 2nd language, Catalan. Challenge accepted.
Preparation
Location: First Catalan friend, and new Manresa Historical Center counsellor, Josep Maria Fius, was looking for ways to bring attention to the town centre. So, location set.
Date: from personal experience of organising a quiz night for ex-colleagues in a local bar when I left the company, midweek evenings just before everyone disappears from Manresa in August generally ensure high attendance. You don’t clash with weekend plans which are usually reserved for family, friends, or festivals. “Tirem endavant” said Fius. We’re going ahead with it. July 21st. Penultimate Thursday of July. Date set.
Time: This isn’t a blog about the climate crisis, so we’ll focus on deciding the right time to start an organised photowalk in Manresa on the 21st of July. Luckily, there’s an app for that. Photopills. Planner mode. Pin location in Manresa. Look for the golden hour start time (20:41), and start around an hour earlier. Cooler temperature too. Start time. 19:30, set.
Start point: One of the big squares in town. Easy for everyone to get too. Plaça Sant Domenech. Set
End point. You really want to end in a bar in the old town to get to know your fellow participants better. During the walk itself, photographers gonna photograph. Santa Rita Vermuteria. Set.
Promotion and sign up: Social media posts with a brief explanation of the activity, and a summary of the points above. Link to a google form. Something easy and shareable. (The local council office said they’d be delighted with 15 people. 30 spaces reserved in less than 24 hours)
Activity name: When planning, a few friends were already asking me what is a “photowalk”. These doubts made it clear to me that it couldn’t appear in the title. I remembered one of MKBHD’s t-shirts with a histogram on it, and we had our name. A perfect mix between the histogram that Lightroom produces for images, “histo” as in historical centre, “gram” for the ‘gram as the kids say. Histogram. Set.
The route
This part is maybe too big for a bullet point. Some clear ideas I had when planning the route. It had to
be open to the public
be free
have a mix of places that form part of locals day to day lives in their hometown where they would never normally take photos, and some places which they might not know about as it doesn’t form a part of their home-work-shops-social circuit.
teach at least one thing
At this point, I don’t consider myself a photography teacher, and am aware enough to know I still have plenty to learn, and some participants will know much more than myself. However, in a group of 30, in my few years of experience, I was confident enough to know that I could teach at least one person something new, and I’d be perfectly happy with that. For the first stop in a little square, I shared some basic street photography compositions, so participants would be equipped with at least one new idea for the rest of the walk.
the vanishing point
the lookup
abstractions and refractions
the strideby
The route had to have a WOW moment. A moment which they wouldn’t have experienced if it had not been for this activity.
The WOW moment was clear from the beginning for me. We were set to walk through the golden hour. The sunset photo is always a winner, and anyone with any camera can take a photo they will go home happy with. I needed the best possible place to take the sunset photo. An amazing friend who works at the cathedral La Seu was already hosting daily visits to exclusive parts of the cathedral, but the walk didn’t clash with their schedule. Up on top of the cathedral for sunset? WOW moment, set. Thanks, Mete!
Once the key parts of the route were set (meeting point, WOW moment, endpoint), the rest of the route was just about finding the most interesting and photogenic way of going from one point to the other. Some light shining through buildings, some cute little squares, some graffitied alleyways. Boom.
Day of the walk
It’s here! The day that I’d been planning and imagining in my mind for weeks. Will it go well? Will people turn up? Will people question me? Who knows? Not much else to do apart from enjoying whatever the day brings.
Dressed for the weather. 36 degress. Shorts, tshirt and comfortable trainers.
Lightly packed bag. As the host, I am not the one taking photos of the streets. That’s for the participants. Just for myself, I wanted photos of people in the group taking photos. Easy choice. Sony a6500 with 18-105mm lens to avoid changing lenses needlessly.
Get to the meeting point early. It’s not the timid, self-conscious photographer’s job to be the awkward first person to turn up. It’s nice for them to arrive and not feel lost.
Wait for all confirmed participants. Meet and greet them, especially the ones you haven’t met before. Hand out the brief itinerary prepared by the local council so they have some idea of what they are in for.
The group talk - to start when everyone turns up, or when you’ve reached the allotted time for the meetup point. Luckily, both occurred at the exact same time.
Thanks for coming
I’ve put this together to do something fun, something new, and to show you that you’re all equipped to take great photos of your hometown.
Photography is a great hobby, and even greater when you share tips and techniques so feel free to mingle and get to know each other.
Before we start, let’s take a group photo.
Off we go!
After the walk
Say goodbye to everyone as they leave.
Share info about what participants should do with photos - share share share on social media with designated hashtags and, in this case, email them to the local council too who are (at the time of writing) preparing an expo with submitted photos.
Social media: Didn’t want to overkill sharing things myself. In the interest of finding the right balance between sharing participants posts and not being spammy, I went for saving posts shared by participants and set a dedicated time to respond and share each post on, in this case, Instagram and Twitter.
Prepare a thank you post for social media with my own photos of people taking photos, and the group photo.
Prepare a blog post documenting the whole experience.
Repeat?
