Make sure you read Part 1 of this article for the full story and history of this world wide walk.
Note this post is work in progress I wanted to save a draft before adding all the images.
The Walks Around The World
Following is a summary of the walks that ran around the world where I’ve been able to get hold of the walk leader or found their recap on Local Guides Connect or posts on socials. Where there are images in the post they are reproduced with permission.
Melbourne, Australia with Paul Pavlinovich
To do the planning I did a reconnaissance walk to verify the places I was thinking of were great and worth
visiting. One of them wasn’t so great so I added a backup laneway, I prepared and shared the Map using MyMap and produced a flyer to print which described the walk and its purpose and had the list of destinations, walking directions and the reason they were chosen. I have not bothered to do this for a while on my photowalks and got so much positive comment that I will go back to this practice for future walks.
A couple of days before the walk was due to start I got an email from Google advising me that they were going to make a video documentary of the walk for Local Guides which really surprised me. A short time later I was introduced to my video team who had only slightly more notice than I did. The team were Kayla, Max and Bessie. I chatted with Kayla by phone and email to work out the approach and how we would meet the brief supplied by Google. I spent nearly all day on the day before the walk with Kayla and Max doing A roll comprising an interview, intro and outtro for the walk in an inner city very hip apartment. After several hours of question and answer Kayla felt we had everything needed for this part of the format then we headed into the city where I was picking up a lens and meeting some friends for a warm up photowalk (how else would a photowalker warm up?) into the evening. The video team went off to shoot some B roll background material in case the weather deteriorated overnight.
The next morning I arrived in the city and met the video team again to do some more interview material and B roll at Federation Square. The weather was amazing and beautiful Melbourne turned on her Autumn best for us. It’s often said that if you don’t like the weather in Melbourne just wait five minutes but on this day we maintained amazing for the whole day. At 11 we headed down to Melbourne’s Arts district to meet-up for the first walk of the day Melbourne Rivers organised by Local Guide Thomas Hayes. This walk proceeded along the Yarra River waterfront along the promenade known as Southbank. About 75% of the way through I quietly nicked off with my walk mate and fellow Local Guide Kim Flowers to get the next one setup. We met at a city pub and caught up with the video team grabbed some lunch and a quick beer before starting the main deal of the day across the road at Hosier Lane.
The Melbourne turn out was really fantastic with a strong representation of ages from 11 through to sixties with around 35 people in total attending. The people who came along were very typical of Melbourne’s cultural melting pot with many different sexes and cultures represented. The best thing about Melbourne is we all simply get along and share our common love of photography.
I’m really fortunate that I’ve spent a lot of time in a youth movement where I’ve learned to lead and mentor. I’m familiar with public speaking and this really helped as we worked through the documentary brief and always helps with leading a walk by being able to capture and keep the attention of people and more importantly recognising when it’s time to wind up and move on. At each photo point the area was introduced and where it had significance that was explained.
We walked through some of Melbourne’s best laneways with the walkers exhibiting huge patience at having to wait for the documentary crew to work their way through with quite a few people from the group getting interviewed about why the walk was important to them. We spent around four hours, we skipped the bad lane and ran out of time for the alternative. We headed to the final stop and from a recommendation of one of the seasoned walkers Paul Francis we headed down an alternate laneway and finished at a coffee shop where most of the attendees dropped a review and some images. We finished up with another outro for the documentary and bid goodbye to the video crew. Would you be at all surprised to know what happened next was a smaller impromptu cool down photowalk?
San Francisco, United States of America with Atul Chaudhari
When San Francisco was first registered Roxanne Overton was going to run it but had to pull out for family reasons. Local Guide Karen V Chin worked tirelessly to help me find a new leader and Atul Chaudhari leapt to the task. Thanks Atul and Karen, love your work. Karen also helped find and encourage some other walk leaders.
I’ve not heard how the walk went nor found any images on socials.
New York, United States of America with Fred Alluso
I know this walk ran because I’ve found images from Googler Traci Capiello along the New York Highline which is an abandoned elevated railway that has been turned into a strip park with nature fast taking over the once tightly controlled railway corridor. It looks like Fred put on a great walk but
Fred Alluso is a visual anthropologist, tech sector entrepreneur, heart attack survivor and bio hacker.
Kapenguria Town, Kenya with Jonas Kibet
A small walk around Kapenguria lead by Jonas. To use his words, it was fun, it was informative. It was excellent p0hotowalk.
You can see some of the images from the walk on Jonas’ post on g+.
Jonas is a programmer and web consultant running his own organisation and loves photography he also leads the Northrift Local Guides.
Engu, Nigeria with Nkenna Aneke
Nkenna ran his first meetup around Enugu and we get to see a little of this area of Africa in his images on his g+ post.
Nkenna is a modertor for the Nigeria Local Guides and lives in Nigeria he has a blog at http://nkenna.tk/
Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka with Anuradha Piyadasa
Anuradha led an i
nteresting walk among the historic 2000 year old structures. Capturing interesting images of both the locations, their points of interest and the pilgrims and cultural events. They found a number of places that were not on Google Maps and added them to help others find them.
You can read his full recap on https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/Let-s-Meet-Up/Recap-The-36-Anuradhapura-Photo-Walk/m-p/231820#M15670
Walk leader bio
Anuradha Piyadasa is from Sri Lanka and is the community moderator of Anuradhapura Local Guides, and is a level 5 Local Guide. He was trained as an electrical engineer and currently works as an IT Specialist. He is an amateur photographer and loves to do nature and archaeological site photography.
We met at the Jaryasrimaha Bodhi car park around 8.30 am on April 23, 2017. Before the start, a brief introduction about the “The 36 Photowalk” walk was done. The location we selected was one of the most popular archaeological, historical and cultural sites in Sri Lanka. We decided to take photos that reflect archaeological, historical and cultural aspects of the location. We walk along the map we shared before the photo walk and covered Jayasrimaha Bodhiya, Lovamahapaya, some ancient ruins, Ruwanweliseya, and Thuparamaya.The walk was over around 11.30 am.
After the event instructions were given to everyone to upload their photos with given hashtags.
Sydney/Milsons Point, Australia with Alex Griffith
Alex Griffith led a walk around Milsons Point for a harbour walk. They began at Luna Park and then jumped on one of the Sydney Ferries and headed over to Cockatoo Island where they set out to explore and capture the heritage of the shipbuilding sight (Editor: it’s one of my favourite places in Sydney).
You can read the full recap and see heaps of images on Local Guides Connect https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/Let-s-Meet-Up/Sydney-Local-Guides-Photo-Walk-recap/m-p/226459
Pribham, Czechia with Zdenek Horak (Tenvelkej)
I’m pretty sure Zdenek ran his walk but he’s quite a character and I’ve not been able to catch up with im at the time of writing this report. If you ever get to meet him he’s pretty funny. We met at the Local Guides Summit last year.
Zdenek is the owner of Praha Local Guides and describes himself as a geek (one of the only english words on his profile;).
I’m sure we’ll see the results of his walk soon.
Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina with Farid Monti
I know the walk definitely ran and Farid has been in contact very briefly but I don’t have any details
Farid is leader of Buenos Aires Local Guides. He likes to think about the future to enjoy the best that is yet to come.
Rome, Italy with Lucio Virzi
I loved reading about Lucio’s balloons and seeing the combination of old school film and modern instant printing. Lucio started the walk with family and some frie
nds and signed them up to Local Guides. Well done mate.
You can read Lucio’s full recap at https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/Let-s-Meet-Up/Recap-36-quot-photowalk-Rome/m-p/227472#M15413
Lucio is a Local Guide from Rome, a Photographer, a computer science engineer, and community manager for Italia Local Guide.
We had balloons… well, actually, ONE balloon, and i have to say, it was not a good idea to inflate at home, paint it, then deflate and re-inflate with helium the next day: we had a paint cloud all over the area…
At last, we were five, including me and Virginia and Valerio: two photographers, friends of mine, joined at some time, and eventually they also joined Local Guides!
Lansing, United States of America with Ken Whitinger
Ken lead a walkthrough Lansing around Old Town and the River.
Ken operates the new Greater Lansing Local Guides community. Ken is a professional marketer.
Guadalajara, Mexico with Alejandro Villa Renteria
Alejandro lead a walk around Guadalajara and while I cannot find much on his walk I did find this album which the date would suggest is it
Alejandro is a graphic and web designer from Guadalajara Mexico and leads Guadalajara Local Guides.
For more cities please read Part 3
Or go back to Part 1
