For the 5th year we have hosted the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk (this was our 3rd year in a row hosting in Tempe, AZ)! It has been fantastic as each year it coincides with New Belgium Brewing Company's Tour De Fat. If you aren't familiar with Tour De Fat it's a huge celebration of bikes, beers, music and fun! It's typical for the celebration to kick off with a bike parade, and not just your average bike parade. A lot of thought is put into costumes and bike decorations, which makes for some great photography subjects! Since we know photographers have many interests we plan our walk to include some of the fun street photography, then ending with some landscape/cityscape photography as the sun goes down.
If you haven't participated in the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk, it's an annual event that takes place on the 1st Saturday of October for the last 11 years. All levels of photographers gather at a designated meetup place in numerous cities all around the world to socialize, photograph, win prizes, and raise money all for a good cause. There is no cost to join, but any T-shirt purchases and donations go to Spring of Hope Orphanage in Kenya. In fact, you are still able to donate for 2018 by clicking this link: https://www.gofundme.com/2018-worldwide-photowalk-donations
This year we had a full walk. The photo walk is limited to 50 participants and we had 11 still on our waiting list! Again, it's a great way to socialize and make new friends who share your hobby. We choose to do our social hour prior to starting our walk so people can make new friends before walking (in case they choose to buddy up). This also allows people to leave after they feel they've taken all the shots they want. For the last 3 years Blasted Barley in Tempe has graciously allowed our large group to take over their back patio! They have great food and cold beer, so we really can't go wrong. Before we head out we make sure to get a group photograph! The first hour we travel our way up and down Mill Ave in Tempe capturing the street scenes and the characters who are still out and about from the bicycle race and enjoying the festivities. We get to see some pretty cool custom bikes too. After that 1st hour we congregate at the Mill Ave bridge for some sunset shots over the city and some night lights as they reflect off the water. We always have such a blast and look forward to hosting again next year. We encourage any photographer who can't find a location for the worldwide walk in their area to host one. We'll say it over and over, there's nothing like getting together with people who share and understand your passion and hobby...they often make the best of friends! Thanks to all our friends (new and old) who joined us! Remember if you joined us you have 2 days (until Oct 15) to enter the official contest at www.worldwidephotowalk.com. You must log in and click on the contest tab. You are also eligible to enter for a chance to win an Exploretography t-shirt by joining our community of Exploretographers and commenting on the pinned photo walk post with your favorite picture! Enjoy some of our photographs from the day:
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