during most of the week i'm a sales manager for a verizon wireless authorized retailer and the one thing i love about it is the networking opportunities. about a month ago i met a fellow photographer, lawrence, who was thinking about switching services to try out the iphone. we talked for a bit about photography and he invited me to check out a photography group he helps organize events for called the
Tidewater Digital Photography Club.
most of the meet ups are across the water in newport news and is a bit of a drive for me. i basically look forward to all the shooting opportunities they announce like
Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk that took place this past saturday. i signed up right away for the norfolk, va walk.
the morning of the event i showed up a bit nervous and excited. why was i nervous? i suppose there's an intimidation factor being around other photographers with more equipment than you. there was a lady who showed up carrying a huge tripod on her shoulder with her camera attached to it! i had to keep in mind that the main goals of this event was to 1)have fun! and 2)talk shop with other photographers and learn from each other. the bonus of the event is the chance to win cool prizes from scott kelby. the excitement was more from the opportunity to go out shooting since all week long i'm cooped up in the retail stores.
our group ranged from amateur hobbyists to professional shooters. some people walked in small groups and some by themselves. i was by myself for most of the walk bumping into other photographers and introducing myself. i didn't chat too much with other participants because i wanted to walk the entire suggested route within the 2 hours we had before meeting everyone back at the restaurant.
there were these two photographers who seemed to have the same goal of walking the entire route and i decided to slow my pace down to hang out with them. one was an older gentleman who was giving a guided historical tour of the area pointing out where things used to be and told stories of growing up in the area like how $.60 was all he needed to spend the whole day in the city. i learned quite a bit about the city i work in. i also discovered that sony dslr cameras are pretty cool because that's what he carried.
when the whole group met up at jillian's to eat lunch i got to talk shop with another photographer about wedding photography. it was interesting to discover that his day job is software engineering and he picked up photography to keep his sanity.
overall, i really enjoyed the event. so why wait for someone to organize a photo walk. i'm going to pick a place to go walking around and bring my camera with me! duh! what better way to burn calories and practice my shooting skills at the same time.
oh! and what's also cool about the scott kelby event is you can check out images from participants in other cities around the world on the event site!
you can view more of my images from the walk on my
flickr site.
enjoy!
