Photo Walk Part 2 or 5000 Steps

In order to get some exercise...I have hit upon the idea of just taking a 30-minute walk around my neighborhood.  I take my camera and the basic kit lens and head out the door with no particular destination plan.  The key to this walk is mainly exercise with a secondary benefit of photographic exploring. 

I have discovered that this 30 minute walk through a development of cookie cutter houses has made me notice the light and lines of various objects I pass on my walk.  This short walk around the streets has helped me to sharpen my eyes and focus in on the simplicity of things I see.  I mainly let my eyes walk along with me.

 When I arrived home and loaded the images into the computer from the camera, I became aware of a pattern in my photographs.  Starkness of the early morning light and the curves, lines and shadows cast onto the streets seemed to be the main things my eyes focused on.  My short journey was one of capturing the light and the simplicity of the shapes it creates.  I hope you enjoyed my 5000 steps of exploring my neighborhood.

My Photo Walk or 3200 Steps

The phrase “Photo Walk” came into being sometime in 2000. It is usually a communal activity organized by camera clubs, but there is no reason to restrict you to not doing this by yourself.   This post is a group of images I made on a walk through my neighborhood early one morning.

I live in what is affectionately called a bedroom community, where my neighbors drive off to work in the morning leaving the development a virtual ghost town for most of the day. Therefore, having never really explored the area I live in, I decided to leave the car in the garage and take a  “photo walk” with my camera around the neighborhood.

Having no set plan except to walk for a half hour or 3000 steps, I decided it would help if I had some sort of theme to follow, rather than just aiming my camera and clicking away at everything. Since I was taking my stroll at 8 am, when the sun was at a low point in the sky and shadows would be very pronounced I decided that I would concentrate on shapes and light.

I think the key to a photo walk should be, no set plan in direction you choose. Walk somewhere new...because it will trigger creativity because it is new to your eyes.  Limit yourself to one lens as a challenge, that way it forces you to move about your subject rather than relying on a zoom lens. And lastly, be conscious of the light, shadows and lines that form the shapes of what your eye is seeing.