Saturday, February 5, 2011

London Photowalk: The Report


Have you ever met an online friend in person? If you haven't, I encourage you to try it. You might be a little nervous about how it is going to work out, but you will likely discover that your online friendship and interests translate into real life meetings naturally. That's been my experience anyway, and I've now met quite a few of my online friends in person as we travel around Europe.

The London photowalk was a great way to meet a few photography friends at once. Justine, Laura and Christine joined Kirstin and I for a few hours of walking and talking last Sunday. I'm thinking we should call them phototalks, because we talked about photos more than we took photos. It was chilly so we popped into a cafe for some hot chocolate for a while, and later finished up with lunch.

A few hours with some fellow friends who love photography was heaven. We talked about cameras and classes and what we love to shoot. We talked about our families and kids and jobs and current events. They already started talking about where to go for future photowalks, and I'm sad I won't be there!

Below are a few of my favorite images from the photowalk. I'm happy to have these images, but I'm even happier that I now have a real world connection with more of these wonderful women photographers. Justine, Laura, Christine, Kirstin - thank you all for coming! Links to their photos can be found below.

We met at the Greenwich train station and started through some of the old brick houses. I wonder what's up in this attic?


The Greenwich Circus is beautiful, I love all of the shades of brown.


Along the way we found some nice color, and texture. Justine had fun peeking in to see what was behind this broken window.


Christine must have been attracted to the brick buildings too, stop by her blog post here to see her photos.

We stopped to talk equipment now and then, it was fun to see what everyone had. We had quite a variety among the five of us. Below Justine and Laura admire Kirstin's tiny Lumix.  Kirstin has another photo of us talking cameras on Flickr here (scroll down to the comments below her photo).


We climbed to the top of the hill in the park (not sure which one it was!) to the Royal Observatory. I enjoyed the mpressive views of the city and another wonderful English sky.


But the best part of the Royal Observatory was visiting the Meridian line. Greenwich Mean Time ring a bell for anyone? Thanks to Kirstin for capturing the moment for me.


One of the things I wanted to learn from Kirstin was flare - she's a master! Thankfully the sun decided to appear for a few brief moments for some instruction. I think I figured out my big problem - I need to learn to use the Live View mode on my camera because I need to shoot into the sun. Below is an image straight out of my camera using live view, I didn't even know how to focus in this mode at the moment I took it. I kind of like the tilty-out-of-focus-odd-composition though, as a memory if nothing else.


We ended up at the naval college, which is where many movies are filmed since it still looks like the 19th century with no stoplights, etc. Gulliver's Travels and The King's Speech are two recent films that had scenes shot here. My favorite part was this collonade. I loved how the light was streaming through, and the light/dark contrast of the columns. Laura has another image of this same location on her blog here, Justine's is here, and Kirstin took one of all of us shooting this area that is really fun (linked above).


We stopped for lunch after this and then went our separate ways, although we'll stay connected online. Another great day, bringing my online connections into the real world.

So, where shall I go photowalking next?

13 comments:

  1. I can't believe it was really a week ago now, it was such a good day, I absolutely loved it and felt we had known each other for years. I put my Greenwich picture up today and it's next to yours in flickr! thanks so much for your lovely write up, lets all meet in Italy next time!

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  2. so fun kat! wish i'd been there!

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  3. Wish I would have been there, but it was a bit of a hectic time for me!!

    Defintely get over to Brick Lane on Sunday afternoon if you're still there and also Sunday Chinatown's New Year celebration :) x

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  4. Oh Kat, this is superb! Yay for photowalks! I'm with Justine, it was as if we had known one another for years.....
    (your flare picture is perfect!)

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  5. I'm really miserable that I couldn't be there but your pictures are lovely and I'm so glad you all had such a great time.

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  6. sounds wonderful. I am envious. Charmaine

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  7. *sigh*
    big *sigh*
    it all sounds so lovely.
    meeting new but old friends
    talking photography
    taking photos in such a beautiful and historic place
    *sigh*
    so glad you all were able to meet up
    I hope to do the same one day

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  8. Sounds like such a fun thing to do... What a great time.

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  9. Sounds like so much fun. The flare is fabulous. Flew to St Louis to meet 3 online friends. Felt like we knew each other forever. great fun.
    Great photos, my friend!

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  10. Wonderful, beautiful and spectacular photos, the first a delight to savor slowly. Made with great care and wisdom.

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  11. Sounds like a wonderful, but chilly, photowalk. The picture of all of you looking at eachother's cameras is great - I really enjoy seeing the people who are usually on the other end of the photographs!

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  12. Such a fun post, I recently got back from London, and it's so great to see more wonderful photos and hear about your meet up. I hope to do that someday, I've been blogging for 8 months and am so surprised and delighted by the friendships that are forming :)

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  13. San Francisco, of course!! :)

    What a spectacular sounding day, especially the chit-chat and hot chocolate part.

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