having a rest during one of my photowalks
I hope this will be a first of a series of posts on my photowalking project: I intend to do regular photowalks and I hope this will contribute to my health and my stock photo collection 
Photowalking ? I found the word photowalking on the internet and Wikipedia says :
Photowalking is the act of walking with a camera for the main purpose of taking pictures of things that the photographer may find interesting.
It is often a communal activity organised by camera clubs, online forums or commercial organisations[1], sometimes in the form of a walking tour. Often the aim is to practice and improve one’s own photography skills rather than a specific focus on documentary photography.
While the camera need not be a digital camera, in practice the low cost of digital photography and the ease of digital photo processing and online photo sharing allow a casual approach in photowalking.
While related to street photography, photowalking is differentiated by its impetus to photograph things of interest rather than people specifically. As with any walking that may go a few miles or kilometers, photowalking can also promote physical fitness.
My photo walks and my blog posts
When I talk about photowalking sometimes I will be shooting landscapes and sometimes I will shoot outdoors lifestyle with models. But we will be walking !! So dear models when I invite you for a photo walk be prepared to walk some miles !!
My idea is to explore dutch national parks at my own – or with fellow photographers – and shoot landscapes for my stock photo collection. I will also use these photo walks for location scouting – to find nice locations for coming back and shoot some outdoors lifestyle together with models. Sometimes I will shoot in Belgium or France but most of the times it will be Holland. I intend to make these posts of interest for both walkers and photographers – but photo walkers might benefit most At this moment I am not sure wether I should include all kinds of walking route info in these blog posts or that I better post that at other sites (like Everytrail).
Tracking your walks – GPS tracking
When doing photo walks you want your images geotagged. My initial solution was to work with GPS devices like the JOBO Photo GPS or the Sony GPS-CS3KA (I am a Canon 1Ds shooter). You can read about that in my post about geotagging your travel photos. These GPS devices do the job – especially the Sony device – but if you want a device that will also give you some support for your walking tours you will end up buying a Garmin navigator. I bought myself the Garmin Oregon 450T, this is the top end device of Garmin (if you don’t need the camera – else buy the 550T).
The Garmin Oregon 450T can store tracks, waypoints, routes ….all you need to prepare and track your walks. I tried it and after downloading the log file of my track (it is a .log file) I only had to convert this log file to a GPX file (or whatever you want) and I had my track available for matching with my photos (for geotagging) or using it with Google Maps. So if you are a serious photowalker I think you better not invest in GPS devices that can only make a GPS track log but better invest in a navigator that also does the job but also a lot more.
Best Google Maps plugins for a WordPress blog
If you do photo walks and want to post about these walks you want to show where you are going or where you did go. So you want route and track info plotted on Google Maps and that is why I spent some time to look for Google Maps plugins. Here you have an excellent article on google maps plugins for WordPress. Most of these plugins are about creating a google map and inserting that into your blog. I tested them all but I did not find what I am looking for. I want to first create a map and plot my gps walking track on this map and then import that map into my blog. I ended up with using “XML Google Maps” (perhaps one the other plugins do the same job but I couldn’t find it). Anyway, I will use XML Google Maps for plotting my tracks / routes on Google Maps. When I just want to create a map and insert some markers I might use Mappress.
Photowalking – Gear
For now I will be shooting with my Canon 1DS and will tailor the choice of my lenses to the kind of shoot I am planning to do. For shooting lifestyle I like my models walking and running and that’s why I am looking forward to buy the new Canon 1Dx But for my “landscape” type of shoots I am not pleased with all that heavy gear. I hope some day I find myself rich enough to buy a Leica M9 and some fine summilux lenses. Dreaming ? I hope not !! Now I shoot landscape primarily with the canon 24mm 1.4 and canon 35mm 1.4 prime lenses. When shooting lifestyle I might use the canon 35mm and 50m but I love to shoot with the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS II.
Camera, lenses, most of the time also some props for my lifestyle shoots ….you really need a suitable backpack for walking with all that stuff with you. I now use the Lowepro Rover AW . This bag has two compartments – the lower one for your camera and lenses and the top one for all the other stuff. The camera compartment is big enough for the Canon 1Ds and 3-4 prime lenses or for the Canon 1Ds, the canon 70-200 and two other (prime) lenses. But fully packed it is a real challenge for me to do the walking and the shooting at the same time (see pic above)
Clothing…as I intend (don’t laugh) to walk all year I have bought an all-weather jacket (waterproof !!) and some really great Meindl walking boots !! Together with the backpack, the Canon equipment, and some other stuff (the Garmin navigator, charts, a mini makeup kit, …) that should do the job !!
