Planning a Great Photo Walk

One of my favorite things to do as a photographer is to take a photo walk. I love to zoom in and capture unexpected views of the places I visit. And an especially favorite aspect of photo walks for me is to capture textures. I would do this on Art Club trips whether we were visiting a museum such as the Detroit Institute of Art or wandering around ArtPrize in Grand Rapids. It's a wonderful way to view one's world from a new and fresh perspective. I love how it helps me to develop my observations skills but noticing the little things that we often overlook as we walk through the world.

Here are some tips and great resources if you are interested in planning a photo walk for yourself or with your students.

Apple organizes photo walks where you can sign up to join a group that is led with a certain focus for the planned photo walk. For example currently in the Grand Rapids area there are upcoming photo walks focusing on Street Photography and Manipulating Light and Shadow this month. In the Ann Arbor area they have planned photo walks that focus on Capturing Action and Video, Street Photography, Telling A Story in Your Photos, Portraits and People, Developing Your Style, and Manipulating Light and Shadow. There are several other areas around the state where Apple stores are organizing additional photo walks.

PetaPixel's website features their Seven Commandments for Great Photo Walks. These include things such as introducing a constraint to boost creativity, always walk somewhere new, and you should trust your instincts when it says a photo must be taken.

One way that I've done this with my photo students at the beginning of my Digital Photography class was to go over the basics of photographic composition and then get outside around the school and start trying to shoot with those principles in mind. With my beginning studio class I would have my students do an Elements and Principles walk. We'd go over the E's and P's and then go out and seek them in the world around us whether it be in the school or outside on the school grounds.

Here's a great resource to help you plan photo walks in your city. It includes information about preparing for a photo walk as well as wonderful tips for how to make the most of your photo walk.

MAEA 2017 Conference Highlights - Tuesday, November 7, 2017

What a fantastic weekend in Detroit for those of us able to participate in the 2017 MAEA Conference! The co-chairs Lani Warner, Adrienne DeMilner, and Tanya Lockwood did a wonderful job planning our conference and making sure everyone had many great experiences to choose from during their time in the Motor City. Thank you so much!

Some of my most memorable moments from this past weekend include visiting the Detroit Institute of Art and getting to draw in the galleries. It's been awhile since I was last able to walk those halls and it brought back some wonderful memories of doing so with various student groups. It was also very exciting that there was a Monet/Church exhibit while we were in town.

It was wonderful to connect with the College for Creative Studies and be able to take workshops with their instructors. I thoroughly enjoyed Francis Vallejo's Experimental Illustration with Mixed Media. He shared so many exciting illustrators and their artistic processes. And it was wonderful to get to watch him work through one of those.

Other exciting workshops were trying out various pop up book techniques with Tamara Draper, creating Microscope Slide Pendants with Jill walker, learning about Visual Journals with Jennifer Kay-Rivera, getting to try Pyrography with Dawn Jacobson, bleaching t-shirts with Laura Todd, creating Domino Pendants with Kendra Lincourt, and hearing Endia Beal talk about her photography series and film projects to date.

Part of a Dia de lost Muertos at the DIA

Laura Todd teaching us how to bleach t-shirts

Creating Domino Pendants

Drawing in the Galleries at the DIA

Tamara Draper teaching us how to create pop up books

Pyrography

Congratulations to this year's winners Tricia Erickson, Tamara Draper, Donna Emerson, Eugene Clark, Pi Benio, Sandy Britton, and Steve Harryman! It was wonderful to celebrate your accomplishments at the Awards Banquet Saturday night.

We look forward to seeing you in Kalamazoo next year!