“They shot a movie once, in my hometown Everybody was in it, from miles around.” These lyrics from a song by the Tragically hip, come to me every year at this time.
Once a year, Scott Kelby, an American photographer and author, holds an event called the World Wide Photo Walk.
This is the sixth one so far.
It’s an event that allows anyone with a camera or any device capable of making an image to go out and play, have fun, and take pictures. It also requires that someone becomes a walk leader at the local level, and this year the walk leader in Sudbury was Andrea Marich.
It also requires the leader to register the walk amongst many other walks around the world, and assist every participant in the walk to get registered.
With the formalities out the way, everyone gets to go out and follow a designated route that the walk leader puts together. Then it’s up to everyone on the walk to go out and shoot things they see on the route. Nothing is off limits. You can shoot pics of objects, people, or anything you come across, and finish the picture how you want before submitting it into the local pool of pictures.
A great thing is you get to meet others and share similar interests as yours in photography. You do get some exercise, of course, and at the end of it all we converge on some local establishment for refreshments.
Finally, the pics are judged locally and one is submitted so it can be judged along with the all the other pictures taken around the world. And, who knows, your picture might just be the one picked from all the thousands submitted.
The prizes are nothing to sneeze at, plus the world gets to see you and where you live, too — how cool is that.
This year's sponsorship was from Canon, and the prizes are awesome. Of course, the prizes are just a part of it — you are actually making the world out there aware of where we are and who we are.
On a final note, our local level picture chosen to be entered in the world-wide competition belongs to Chantalle Sabourin. It will be submitted with the rest of the world's chosen pictures. Congrats and good luck.
To view Chantalle's photo, and photos from other participants, visit worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/greater-sudbury-on-canada.
Chuck Swinden is a professional photographer and photography instructor at Rodenas Photography. For more information, visit www.rodenasphotography.com.
