World Wide Photo Walk

Last week I got an email, announcing the 4th annual World Wide Photo Walk, with 3 different locations in San Francisco. Not quite sure what that was about, I checked out the website and learned:

The annual World Wide Photo Walk, initiated by Scott Kelby from NAPP, is a "social photography event where photographers get together (usually in a downtown area or trendy section of town) to walk around, shoot photos, and generally have fun with other photographers."

Now, that sounded good and I signed up right away.

Of the three offered locations, the walk around the Japanese Tea Garden in the Golden Gate Park, sounded the most promising to me. We were to meet at the entrance at 3:45 pm on Sunday afternoon.

Well, normally a short drive, it took about 2 hours to get there and find parking, since the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival took place in the Golden Gate Park at the same time and literally thousands of people were milling around, streets were closed and parking was hopeless...

But most of the photo walkers made it, more or less in time, and after a delayed start Catherine Hall, our photo leader, climbed up a short ladder and introduced herself and welcomed us warmly. Then we posed for a group photo, not an easy undertaking with about 50 photo walkers and were let loose, in groups, to explore and photograph the Tea Garden.

After the obligatory postcard photos were taken, everybody was on the lookout for something more special...

From the Tea Garden we moved on to the de Young Museum, where Catherine again climbed her ladder and gave some clever advise on architectural photography.

Although a San Francisco landmark, I can't really share the excitement about the building. Compared to the "old" museum, I find it rather ugly...

But with art all around, it's easy to find something more appealing, right? ;-)

After a short portrait session at the de Young museum, Catherine offered a more extensive demonstration of portrait lighting and most of the attendees were more than happy to pick up some tips and tricks from this accomplished portrait photographer. All too soon the sun was setting and the photo walk was coming to an end.

Even with a last glance towards the Golden Gate Bridge, unfortunately the fog was rolling in, the way home was much faster...