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A Message From The Walk Leader

Hi there and welcome to the Durban, KZN, section of the WorldwidePhotoWalk! Not too sure why the “NL” appears in the location address but just to put matters right, this will be the DURBAN in KwaZulu-Natal walk, and because I had missed last year’s walk in the other cities, and was dying to join this year’s walk, I submitted an application to host the walk here in Durban and it has been approved! Yikes! So ……at this stage as soon as I have picked myself up off the floor, I will start working out a route etc (where we will all be safe???) and will post that as soon as possible. To that end I really would appreciate any input as far as ideas for location as well as times go. Early morning may be better but again that is entirely debatable? Please keep checking back here and I really hope we will be able to get the required 50 people to join in! Looking forward to the fun of it all!

WEDNESDAY 20 MAY UPDATE:

Ok, so last year the walk was done around the Durban Skiboat/Vetches Pier area so obviously that is out for this year………..so my next thought was the side road (Boatman’s Rd) from Wilson’s Wharf along to the Bat Centre (great early morning harbour shots plus candid people shots at Wilson’s plus some city views, Dick King statue, old tugs etc) with the times being from 6am to 8am ( for that sweet light) and then ending up with a Mad Hatters Teaparty of muffins and cappuccino’s on the centre island of the Esplanade! Can you imagine that sight of 50 odd people sitting Bohemian style on brightly coloured blankets and cushions and wearing Splashy Fen styled jester hats in the middle of the esplanade at 8am in the morning?? Some feedback would be appreciated please? You can leave me a message if you click on the CONTACT THE LEADER under my profile pic.

SATURDAY 23 MAY UPDATE:

Ok, so I took a drive along “our” route this morning - had a thought that it may be too long and that we should end at the Yacht Mall but it is in fact only about 1.2km to the Bat Centre! So I think I am going to leave it the Bat Centre as our last stop of our route because those old tugs there are really great to photograph especially for close ups of the riggings and ropes etc. But what I will be changing is the area of our Mad Hatters Teaparty - looking at the greens along the Esplanade and the Esplanade itself, I thought there seemed to be a few “dodgy” characters around in that area which could pose a problem, but what I did find is a really nice grass area with palm trees nogal, right next to the Rod & Reel Skiboat Club and right on the waters edge but the beauty about it is the fact that it is fairly secluded and will not attract the attentions of said dodges and we can have the place all to ourselves - in fact it has the feel about it of a nice oasis in the middle of the sea so to speak! And the car park at Charlie Crofts is really nice and big and can accommodate us all and will be very safe - I will go there during that week and see if I can negotiate  a deal with the car guards there!  I would have liked to have uploaded a pic of the picnic site but cannot see where to do that here? I also toyed with having a breakfast at Zacks as an alternative but  tried it for lunch and had to wait 35 mins for a toasted cheese sandwich, a wors roll (no onions, no sauce, no nothing!!) and chips and some shrivelled up fish strips (no tartare sauce or sprig of parsley or token salad on the side!) and chips!!! There were only about another 15 people there so you cannot tell me they were snowed under! So have decided to give them a miss altogether! Sorry for them!

I have also noticed that a second Durban walk has been applied for although there are no details on that site as yet??? Thought there was only supposed to be one in each city but maybe I am wrong. I just hope there will be such a rush of attendees so that both walks will be totally signed up!

SUNDAY 24 MAY UPDATE:

I have just managed to find out where on the editing page I can see all the attendees with their contact emails!! So that is great - will be in contact with other updates when they arise. Keep the attendees coming - cannot let those laid back Capetonians beat us!

TUESDAY 2 JUNE UPDATE:

Hello fellow “walkee’s”………..cannot believe the Cape Town & Johannesburg walks are fully booked already! We cannot be outdone so please Durbanites, spread the word about the walk and please sign up - I would really like to outdo the other cities!!

SATURDAY 18 JULY:

Many thanks to all the Durbanites who gave up their sleep to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the Durban leg of the WWPW especial Magda and Marius who had to get up even earlier to travel from PMB! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of you (your antics and sense of humour, Barrie, made the getting up at the crack of dawn well worth it - and your ability to tame the “law enforcement officers” which resulted in us continuing the walk as opposed to being locked up in a cell for the weekend was very commendable! I was thrilled that the weather played ball with us and we had a superb early morning we could really sink our teeth into! I look forward to seeing all your efforts so that I can pick the winning pic and also wish you luck if you are going to enter the comp on the Kelby site! Today was a blast - thank you all!

And to those who could not make it after all, it is a pity as you missed a great morning ! Maybe next year??? Smiles…

Regards, Jone

SUNDAY 26 JULY 2009:

Thanks to everyone for all the uploads of your pics……..they are really stunning and even though a lot are of the same view (obviously) the treatment of them in themselves is very different and the final choice of who wins is definitely not going to be easy! I am also debating as to exactly what type of pic should win…..should it be one which depicts and personifies Durban in a nutshell or is it one of the more “out of the box” entries?? Not an easy one for sure!  It is also difficult because some of the togs are a lot more experienced than others with possibly better equipment etc which in turn will be evident in the more technically correct shots - I think the competition should have been split between “Seasoned Professionals” and “Enthusiastic Hobbyists”! So to make it fair on everyone I would like to judge the pics not on their technical merit but more on their artistic merit and I hope everyone will be happy with that final decision! And here’s hoping that OUR winning pic will go into the main draw for that incredible main prize!

Looking forward to seeing you all again at our exhibition which has had an overwhelming response so will start to put that happening in motion shortly.

Regards

Jone

SUNDAY 2 AUGUST 2009:

Apologies for the lateness of this post but have been having computer problems!

As you all know the deadline for the upload of the winning pic from each walk was yesterday and I have to say it did take me until almost the eleventh hour to make up my mind about the winning pic……I did have a shortlist of 5 shots which came about after discarding those pics of the same scene which most of the togs took ie: looking across to all the lights and buildings of the Mariner and the reason why I had to disregard those was in fairness to some of the togs who possibly did not have the more professional equipment of the others and I had to do that to even the playing fields even though there were some real stunners amongst them!

In the end it was Allan Jackson’s “GOING FISHING” which I chose and the reason for that particular one was the fact that it was a scene which was well seen and timeously captured and the obscurity of the larger vessel in the same waters as the lone fisherman up to only his knees in water (us Durbanites of course would know he was standing on a sandbank!) I found very clever. Furthermore the element of the three fishermen in the foreground leading one’s eye into the pic and again providing a contrast to the bigger  dredger, I thought was well timed.

So, congrats to you Allan……….here’s hoping you are in with a chance for the biggie prize………..and again my thanks to all who submitted their pics……it was great to see the diversity of styles and treatments of similar subject matter and I had fun pouring over all the submissions!

I will be sending a bulk private mail to everyone with further news re our exhibition which will definitely be on from Tuesday 18 August until Sunday 6 September at Fat Tuesday Gallery in Kloof!

Warm regards

Jone