Studio Photowalk 2010
Photowalking Utah is an extremely active photowalking community along the Wasatch Front of Utah. The community is built around a group of photographers who believe in giving back and sharing their knowledge of photography. Because everyone feels welcome it has almost grown to big. Last week was one of my favorite events with Photowalking UT, the studio lighting photowalk. For many photographers it is difficult to gain access to studio lighting, and equipment without a lot of cost. For others the thought of trying to set up the lights for a shot is daunting. But once a year when the weather is prohibitive of an outside photowalk, the Photwalking UT team takes it indoors and sets up some great lighting stations.
This year we had aroudn 200 photographers show up to shoot several models in 9 different planned lighting setups, and on impromptu setup (The Jarvie Window).
Below are two sample images I took while at the event. You can find many more on the Photowalking UT Flickr site here. If you are in Utah around the time of the Studio Photowalk and want to learn more about lighting use and setup you MUST get to the photowalk!
Kati Henshall rocking the dress at the Studio Lighting Photowalk
Model headshot taken at the studiolighting photowalk.
Ziggy P Photography Blog 
I SOOOO wish I could have gone! Looks like you enjoyed your time 🙂
Melissa it was a blast. I’m sure you got some great shots in Yellowstone though.
We did for sure, I wish we would have seen more wildlife. More than that though it was a much needed very nice weekend away from the kids 🙂
In Photowalking Utah it is definitely the people that make this group such an active, fun one! You are definitely one of those people! It’s a good problem to have, but we need to figure out how to make the large groups work in a way that retains the benefits of when we were smaller.
Jeremy – has definitely gotten large. It is much harder to build that sense of community we had with the smaller groups, now that we have such large groups.
Even though we have one big outing a month, we have room to have as many smaller outings as folks want to organize. I’m committed to doing another Ladies’ Special this spring, to have a more intimate event. Am talking with folks at Fremont Indian State Park about a spring campout event too. I hope some folks will jump in and organize some more targeted events that will draw smaller crowds.
Ann do you think we should publish a FAQ or discussion on creating a smaller photowalk through Photowalking UT. I know last year when I tried to organize photowalks for the Tour of Utah Bicycle race that it was difficult to get pub from the core PWU crew and that seemed to kill any interest. For those that did show we had a good time, and the Ogden stage had a good turn-out.
Maybe if we had a process and way to support smaller events. Just curious as I love the community and willingness to share.
I think we did write a FAQ once, but it’s probably time to bump it up to the top again in a more structured way. The impromptu photowalks seem to draw between 3-10, but that can be a good thing too, right? I’d rather get to know 5 new people well than try to remember 50 new names.
The other thing we need to keep encouraging is to plan an after-walk social meet-up as part of the event.. Or in the case of the next one, a pre-meet-up dinner or something.
Eventually we hit a rate-limiting factor of how much time people have to devote to their hobby, but with 200+ active members, I think there’s room for a lot of activities on a smaller scale.
I agree smaller is better for remembering names and building the “community feel”. That is what kept me coming back when I first started hitting the walks. And I have built some great friendships out of those initial walks.
We should update the FAQ and get it on the website and FB Fan page as well.
This is something I’ve wondered quite a bit about. Not just how to organize & communicate other events, but also how to handle big groups. I like the idea of picking leaders to head up smaller groups, but then who puts people in various groups, who gets the leaders involved, etc. Plus, the more you organize, the more work it is. The beauty of many events is keeping it simple so everyone can explore and do whatever interests them.
I think it would be a real asset to the group to figure out how to get more people involved in creating events. Impromptu small ones as well as those that bigger groups turn out for.
Thinking in bits an bytes here: We already have a core group involved in most of the PWU monthly events. For events like the Studio Photowalk they lend themselves well to breaking up into groups naturally. For others I’m not sure we need to “assign” leaders or groups. We have a great volunteer core, I believe that if we put a call out for X leaders, and asked the walk attendee’s to please break up as evenly as possible that it would happen. Couldn’t we then have a pre-event meeting with the leaders and others who want to assist (15 min or so) and either give them all the info to take a group around or break up into stations or regions?
I think one of the successes of the Downtown WW Photowalk was Dave Terry bringing Bekah. While Dave may have not have planned it that way, there was a splinter group that broke off with he and Bekah. I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone in that group that wished they had done something else.
While on the flip side as we started the walk we stretched for almost two blocks,
I missed the most recent event but the Temple Square walk was excellent even in the large size. Perhaps a partial solution to the huge events would be to have small group “leaders” who can guide/host/lead 5-12 people at a time.
Once the mini-clinic ends the 100 people organize into these sub groups where we could potentially get that intimate experience that the smaller walks provide.
I’ve recently been in contact with Rich about an event in April that might benefit from this very type of “structure” for those that don’t want to shoot solo or get lost in the crowds. If organized by experience – a pro/semi-pro leading less experienced folks it would be really cool!
Ryan – I like that idea! I have had people approach me after attending their first ‘large” photowalk stating they felt lost / didn’t have a lot of desire to attend again. I believe we could get something like this to work, but it would require commitment for the sub-leaders. I’d love to see sub groups plus the smaller walks to keep up that community feel.
I can vouch for this well. The Temple Square photowalk was my first one. After the class, it was just kind of everyone to himself. Those that already had groups got together quickly once the group picture was taken. I found myself kind of alone in a crowd of people that I knew of, but didn’t know, and there wasn’t really any good opportunity to get to know them better because I didn’t want to detract from the reason they were there – to take pictures. In the end, it was a fun event, but I could have done better had I gone on a night when there wasn’t so many people at the square. Maybe it would have worked to have different people leading different groups that were going for a particular type of shot, or have some “leaders” positioned around the square that could help with a particular type of shot. Or divide them up by camera brand, or lens type, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I really had fun, and it was a good experience, but not quite what I had expected as far as being able to see what others were doing, and how they were doing it. I think Ryan’s ideas are great!
And THANKS for taking the time and making this such a good group to be part of!
I agree that yes, it would be a lot more work organizing into these groups, but what about using something free, like evite.com or create events on Facebook for people to register for the walks instead of just listing a response on the flickr group?
As for assigned leaders…maybe between Rich, Ann and the other organizers/leaders/oldschool members they could set some kind of list for small-group leaders. At the big events, when people arrive, they sign up under a group led by these pre-assigned “guides”.
From there you have the possibility of rotating leaders during an event, or rotating groups to visit with each leader/expert, much like the various stations at the lighting event. If there is ever a featured guest photographer or specialist, they could have a chance to spend time among each group – no one gets left out or lost.
Just bouncing ideas…
Bryan I couldn’t agree with you more. I have only been on one photowalk and felt very out of the loop…so much so that Zig has had to really talk me into going to another one. I am also a very shy person when in a large group of people so I tend to not branch out so to speak…I know…my own fault, but I think I would definitely be more apt to socialize if the groups were broken up into smaller groups 🙂
My experience is similar but different as well. My first event was Food Photography clinic. I came early and stayed late and tried to meet one person. I was lucky that it was Harley and I was able to match a name to a face. That made the next one a little easier. But at the Lensbaby walk I still felt a little lost, but I still made an effort to meet one person. I think meeting one person that you will see again makes all the difference. My thoughts on the matter are maybe what is needed is just a first timer leader or two so first time attenders can meet someone that they can say hi to the next time and maybe have someone that is there to answer questions. I don’t know if it needs to be very formal just someone at each walk that can hang out with new people.
I love the idea of more little events, after I reading Ann post above I thought of one I think I would want to host. I will be watching for the FAQ page.
I have put a couple more of my thoughts on the group at <a href="http://http://www.angrygardner.com/2010/02/12/socialphob"
Zig,
I agree with your above comment.
The sense of community is what has inticed me to come to the photowalks. I like how PWU is set up currently because of the feeling that anyone can attend and that I can tell anyone about it and we can just show up and feel welcome.
Although, I really like the idea of have a little group leader. I don’t think it needs to be any more formal than asking photogs beforehand if they would lead a group and then who ever shows up can choose/be assigned to a group of 5-10-15.
That way the newcomers can more easily meet the other photographers around them. And be able to ask questions more freely.
That luckily happend naturally for me through David Terry and then Scott Jarvie.
I was tagging along with David at the WW photowalk it was great to be with a smaller group. And by the end we had caught up with another group and Joachim’s cool lighting setup. It was fun to get two totally different styles.
Either way I feel so lucky to know about the Photowalks and the great opportunity available! I’ve had a ton of fun at each one.