Practice, Practice, Practice: A Camera Walk

I’m a self taught photographer.   I’ve learned my photographic skills by attending targeted workshops, participating in online courses and watching YouTube videos presented by reknown photographers.

Courses at  ‘Image Explorations’ a summer symposium held at the  Shawnigan Lake school on Vancouver Island, were the most valuable. Well known photographers such as Tony Sweet and Laurie Klein were on hand to present extremely interesting, hands on workshops. I attended four of these week-long summer schools sessions  before they sadly came to an end. 

As well, I’ve taken part in online courses and YouTube presentations to address specific areas that need improvement.  I have found online presentations  by Robert Rodriguez and YouTubes by Nigel Danson to be very motivating. But integral to all of these learning opportunities are  hundreds and hundreds of hours in the field,  practicing.  

‘Camera Walks’ as I like to call my practice shoots, vary in length. In Victoria I have a route that starts at Christ Church Cathedral and winds through the downtown area, around the Inner Harbour, the Parliament Buildings, Fisherman’s Wharf and ends in the Breakwater District at my favourite Victoria coffee shop, the Ogden Point Cafe. It’s about a 2 hour hike. 

Here in Kelowna I regularly walked around the Fascieux Creek Wetland located in the Lower Mission area. For close to 5 years I made many trips there walking the same short  route. Occasionally, there was not much different to photograph but most of the time I discovered something new and interesting. This beautiful little park is home to a family of beaver, Great Blue Herons, small birds, snakes, muskrat and quail. I learned when in the day the critters were out and about and planned my walks accordingly.   I also like to explore areas along the Mission Creek Greenway,  the Mill Creek Regional Park and areas along Mill Creek that allow public access. 

Even when we travelled to Copenhagen last September to begin a cruise to many interesting North Sea ports, I made sure to find time to walk with my camera to photograph what I thought was interesting and representative of the area. We arrived in Copenhagen 3 days prior to the cruise  so I spent a lot of time walking and photographing the streets, lanes and canals of this beautiful city. 

When I embark on a Camera Walk I usually take only my camera with a single lens. It’s either my 50mm lens or sometimes a zoom lens.  With a prime lens like my ‘Little 50’ I have to move about to create the best composition.  It makes me really think about what I’m doing.  A zoom lens allows me to reach into my field of view to create the best composition. 

The images I’ve included with this article were all made on a camera walk, some long and some short. It would be fair to say that a significant percentage of the images in my catalog  will never be viewed by others. I keep them all. They represent my efforts at practicing a particular skill or concept that I sometimes like to review.  Most importantly they represent the enjoyment I feel by just getting out and making images.