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A Message From The Walk Leader

Welcome and thank you for your interest in the Philadelphia leg of the Worldwide Photo Walk. I am glad to leading this walk for the second year in row. Last year’s photo walk through Old City Philadelphia was so much fun; I was glad to learn that I could lead another one this year.

The photo walk will begin in LOVE Park (JFK Plaza), across the street from the Philadelphia City Hall. From here, we will meander around City Hall, down the Avenue of the Arts towards the Kimmel Center. At this point, we will proceed west through the residential neighborhoods of Rittenhouse Square, towards the banks of the Schuylkill River. There are some good views along this area of the Schuylkill. From here we will begin our journey back towards Rittenhouse Square, where we will conclude the photo walk.

The after-walk gathering will take place in Rittenhouse Square. Here, we will have a picnic lunch. It’s BYOF (bring your own food). From my experience, it is a simple fact that not everyone will stick around for the after-walk gathering. Knowing this, I chose Rittenhouse Square because it is a big enough locale to accommodate a large group and within proximity to various eateries for your own convenience. Also, for those who did not plan on eating or are on a budget, this would free everyone up to be able to stick around and enjoy the company of 50 of your new found photographer friends.

Here are some FAQ answers from last year’s walk:

There is no experience needed.

A $4 disposable camera would work as well as the latest greatest camera. In fact, maybe better because you can take risks with it you would not take with a $5k DSLR.

This is more about learning to see creatively, than the tech side of photography.

Everything in Philadelphia has been shot before, but not through your eyes. Come up with a theme or mission to force you to think creatively. Something like: Show your feet in every picture, but still have the picture offer a strong sense of place, or a “moment”. Could be a sock puppet, could be your hand…. could be anything…does not have to be your feet…but the idea is then you start to think of how to show you are in Center City and how your shoes might be interesting as part of that. Or you could try to show a sign or a name in every picture, perhaps take every picture from 5 inches off the ground…something to force you to see differently.

Travel light. Less gear means more mobility and forces you to use what you have creatively.

There will be a wide variety of skills with us. The best of them will make mistakes, and the newest will have happy accidents. Such is life.

ONE REQUEST: If you sign up, show up. We are limited to 50 people. Last year I turned away 16 people, and then had 12 that did not show up for the walk. Not cool.