Oriole Park at Camden Yards Photo Walk

While nearly every day is essentially a photowalk for me—given my minor obsession with mobile photography—I've long been skeptical about formal photowalks. I don't know. Just something about the idea of getting together to geek out and essentially take pictures of the same thing as a group of other photographers didn't appeal to me.

Well, that actually ties in directly to a specific reason I was apprehensive about the idea: I don’t like taking the same shot as everybody else. I do, however, like getting to know and spend time with other photographers. And that’s the main reason I joined The Photowalk Alliance on their latest photowalk at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore this past weekend.

Well, the fact that Patrick was having a roundtable podcast session with the Photowalk Alliance’s organizers (Joe Sterne & Zach Egolf) also helped motivate me to make my way to Baltimore, if I’m honest. (And we all know I am.)

But I digress. Back to the photowalk…

We got a full-fledged tour of the stadium, and our tour guide took us from the ticketing area through the halls to a suite and then on to the press area and even down to the field. And in the dugout. That's right, we were IN the dugout.

While most everyone else had brought out their DSLR (or two), naturally Patrick and I held it down on the mobile photography front. Given my point above about not liking to take the same shots as everyone else, photo walks challenge me to find something unnoticed, share a different perspective and/or take what everyone might photograph and do something different with it. I made it a point to do a little abstracts, some shutter rolling and then threw in a little street photography once we were done.

   

    

    

   

All in all it was a great day of photowalking, podcasting and then bittersweet farewell partying (as Joe Sterne and his fiancé Julia are heading to San Francisco!).

You can check out The Photowalk Alliance on Facebook and look out for their next event.

Best Birthday Celebration Ever: Susie Wins!

My dear friend Susie wanted to do something different for her birthday this year. She gathered a group of her friends, and we all went to McFadden Art Glass glassblowing studio in Baltimore.

      

I’ve always loved trying new things, especially when it comes to art. I remember when I first discovered just how much I loved photography when I took a black and white film class in high school. Any free time I had during the school day was spent in the darkroom or out putting my camera to use.

That was until I took a ceramics class. And then I spent all free time in the studio making extra pieces. And then there was also the creative metals and glass class I took... I just love exploring new creative artistic venues!

It was incredibly refreshing and so fun to try something new and create some glass art. We could choose from a few different things to make, ranging from a necklace pendant to a bowl. I chose a bowl. No pictures of the finished product just yet, though. It’s in Baltimore cooling off so it won’t crack. I can’t wait to see the finished product!

 

Susie might be the one celebrating her birthday, but we all had a great experience and have our creations. Maybe mine will be someone’s gift. I don’t know though. I might have to keep it for myself. :)

Amara ready to catch my glass bowl once I successfully hit hard enough for it to detach from the pole!