In Search of Clear Focus

This past Saturday, I went on my first photowalk with a group of folks I found on PhotoWalking.org and Flickr.  The organizer (Mark) also pulled in folks from the Gaithersburg Camera Club and the National Zoo Photo Club.  Plans for the walk can be found here and here. The “official” wrap-up of the walk can be found here.

This was a great experience for me and I can’t wait to participate in more of these. My collection of photos can be found over on Flickr.  It’s a small set today, but should grow over the week.

I learned as much from just watching the other photographers as I did from talking to them.  I learned even more from the resulting photos that have been posted.  Biggest lesson: I tend to get neither very close or very far from the subjects in my pictures.  I need to look for ways to get up close and involved or really step back and take in the bigger picture.

Anyway, getting to the walk was a bit of a pain.  I had to decide between driving all the way or driving to the metro and taking two trains to get there.  Driving is easier, more direct, but you have to deal with parking.  Parking in Bethesada is sometimes scarce and almost entirely metered.  My lack of quarters and disdain for searching lot after lot for parking spaces lead me to opt for the metro.

I left home a few minutes late, but everything was working out nicely.  When I tranfered to my final train, I was in perfect time to walk up the metro steps exactly at 2:00 PM.  Unfortunately, metro had other plans.  One stop from my destination, the train I was on went out of service, due to track maintenance ahead.

Needless to say, I wasn’t too pleased with this occurrence.  I had checked the metro website earlier in the day and saw no mention of single-tracking between those stations or potential delays, even though I searched the exact route I was taking.  Either way, I was left with a choice of waiting for the next train, 15 minutes back, or walking the 1-1.5 miles between stations.

I headed above ground and started to hoof it - in the wrong direction. Thankfully, I realized my error halfway across the first street, spun around and started to power my way to the meet up.  The walk was very straightforward, following a single major road. Unfortunately, it was also slightly uphill the whole way.  No major inclines, but no real level ground either.  My calves are still reminding me of that today. One more sign that I’m getting old.

After my brisk walk (which warmed me up nicely in the surprisingly temperate weather), I got to the meeting place.  I was about 20 minutes late and had spent half the walk trying to decide what to do if the group was gone when I got there.  Did I bail and just go home, photowalk on my own, or try and remember the route and catch up?  I never really made a decision, though I think I was leaning towards wussing out and heading home.

I found a couple of people still milling around the meeting area snapping a few last shots.  I took a moment to get my camera out and get set-up before awkwardly introducing myself to the couple of guys there.  They were both very nice and more importantly, knew which direction the main group had set off.  We took off after them and soon caught up.  I did get one (I think) good shot off before we started walking:

I didn’t talk much at first, as I’m not the most outgoing guy to begin with.  Missing the start of the walk and more importantly all the introductions didn’t help my cause either.  Eventaully, I did start chatting with another photographer, Scott, who was nice enough to lend me one of his lenses to try out.  It was a 70-300mm monster, which for surpassed any zoom lens in my limited arsenal.  I haven’t finshed processing the best shots I took with it, but, man, was it fun - and a nice ice breaker into talking with others.

It also got me a little more jazzed about the event in general.  Up to that point, I felt a little like an outsider, but after some conversation, I started taking more pictures and trying a few different things.  Was came a across a row of brilliantly colored shops, and that lead to one of my favorite photos of the day:

As we moved along, I spent some time walking and talking to three other guys, discussing technical preferences and general photography.  I spent the last half of the walk chatting with some combination of these three and Mark, the organizer.  It was a great experience and one that I hope to enjoy again over the next few months.  Go check out my photos from the day, leave comments, and check back often as the set will grow.