Someone asked about Blurb photowalks. Did a quick search of the Blurb YouTube channel and found a few things that might be of interest. If I had to rank Blurb events I would put the photowalk in the middle. A top tier event might be something like Unbinding The Book, but this only happens once every five or six years. The international call for entries, the judging, the film production, the legal, etc. It takes a full team and outside partnership to pull something like this off. Then comes the book workshop, but again, these are labor and time intensive, and the cost of hosting something like this is far higher than it once was.
Then comes the photowalk or photowalk and meetup. The photowalk is entirely worthwhile because we get to walk, talk, and make a few pictures along the way. I find that the conversation during the walk is often more valuable than the actual photography although I always make a few keeper frames along the route. If we have time, a good sized team, and budget we get to host meetups. But like everything in the post-C19 world, the cost of locations, catering, etc. is far higher than it once was.
Most importantly, these walks and meetups give us time to talk books and photography. Although people bring their Blurb books, they often bring books from other companies as well. It doesn’t matter. The staff at Blurb has always been about print and not about hard selling anyone on anything. I gave a talk yesterday and said to that group, “Print makes you a better photographer.” Print makes you think. Regardless of what brand you print with.
This film is BTS of last year’s Barcelona walk. Can’t miss me. The guy in the orange hat. We are hosting another walk in London on March 11th or 12th. Not sure about a meetup yet, but regardless if Blurb does anything official, I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up somewhere having a coffee or a drink in one of those three foot tall, plastic cups you get at the fair. And because it’s London, maybe we have jellied eels, black pudding, or haggis. See you there.
Comments 12
Photo walks are fun even if I rarely end up doing a lot of photography. Funny coincidence I heard this guy recently say the exact same thing about print making you a better photographer!
Author
That guy is so shady.
Say hello to Clive if you go to Mud Island
Author
Jellied eels?
I would love to attend the London photo walk. I have one days annual leave to book between now and end of March. This could well be it! Will keep an eye on your posts Dan.
Author
Roger that, would love to have you.
Group photo walks are rarely conducive to making great pictures (though I did get a couple that I was pretty happy with on that Seattle photo walk we did last year), but its great to meet other photography lovers in person. Its a shot of adrenaline for getting out there and shooting.
Author
Agree on all points. And you just never know. That’s what keeps me coming back.
Totally off topic, but have you seen some of the the stunning images David Butow has been making of the LA fires??
Author
I have not. I haven’t followed that story much although quite a few friends lost houses. During my time in CA we had endless fire, mudslides, floods and riots. A week before these fires began I was reading a piece out of Europe about how ripe LA was for a major burn.
Would love to attend a PW Dan 🙂 I’m actually closer this time (UK instead of NZ) p.s. you forgot to mention the defacto Warm Beer ;-p
Author
Come join us!