Focalplayn's Blog

Eric Bartlet

Congratulations Eric Bartlett for winning the 4th Annual Worldwide Photowalk! Eric’s image was a great mix of post processing, composition and an excellent story. Perfect urban street photography.

Garry Spencer

This was a very tight race so I wanted to point out the unofficial runner up. Garry Spencer’s image also told an amazing story and had an amazing emotional appeal. Great job Garry.

There were a lot of excellent entrants this year making my job a very hard one. Congratulations to everyone who entered!

Hi guys,

Don’t forget that tomorrow (oct 7) is the deadline for submitting your photowalk images. No exceptions!

After the Photo Walk

Once your walk is over, you will be able to log on to the Worldwide Photo Walk website,  and submit your best photo from the event to the contest. While submitting a photo to the contest is not required, there are lots of great prizes available to the winners!

You can also share photos from their Photo Walk on the Official Worldwide Photo Walk Flickr Group. Photos from events all around the world will be shared here so the entire community can see the global event they were part of. These photos are not part of the competition, but a great way for everyone to share their experience with the rest of the world.

Don’t forget the Focal Play’n has it’s own Flickr site as well. So please feel free to upload your best photos for everybody to see and comment on. You can find out site here. But remember that only the one shot uploaded to the Worldwide Photo walk site will be eligible for the contest.

Walkers will have until 12:00 noon EDT October 7th to submit their best photo to the contest. After that, leaders will have until 12:00 noon EDT October 10th to choose the winning photo from your walk.

If you have any questions, you can always drop us a line at focalplayn@gmail.com

Happy editing

The 4th Annual World wide Photowalk (#WWPW) has come and gone and what an action packed weekend it was!!

Sunrise Shoot

A few of us brave souls got up at 5:00am for a sunrise shoot at Cape Spear. I was expecing an overcast morning, perfect for a spectacular sunrise, but when I left Mount Pearl, the Stars were out and the sky was crystal clear. When I arrived at Cape Spear there were a few clouds in the sky but as soon as the sun started to rise, we were closed in by fog on all sides. So while  I didn’t capture any typical sunrise photos, the light was still fantastic and I got some great shots of the old lighthouse.

Official Photowalk

At 2:00pm we met up again for the Official Photowalk. A few more of us came out this time, but a few less than I expected. That’s good news for the photographers who did show up, it increases their odds of at least winning the local prize.

Everybody seem to have their own route to getting to the restaurant and it seems that everybody got some fantastic shots. This year I thought I’d try some candid photography and simple portraits.Yet I still haven’t been able to muster up the courage to either just shoot a stranger without permission, or ask permission and then shoot. And unfortunately, I saw a lot of fantastic characters on the streets. I did shoot a few, but I think I missed more opportunities than I took. I did find this guy shooting me. He was creating a collection of all of the people who photograph his house.

An Evening at Cape Spear

After the sun went down the real fun began. A few of us brave souls, ventured back to Cape Spear for a second time in one day. This time we headed straight for the battery armed with steel wool, kitchen utensils and a ball of string.

The idea is that fine steel wool is flammable enough to burn and create sparks. When you spin it on a string, it can create some amazing light painting opportunities.

For this shot, my camera is on a tripod set with a wireless remote. My camera is set to f8 and 25sec. Once the steel wool is lit and spinning, the shutter is opened. Once the wool burns out, it is pitch black in the tunnel so the exact shutter speed is not critical. Just long enough to grab some spectacular sparks. Protective clothing is a must, especially for your hands, the string really burns when you spin it.

The #WWPW sunrise shoot at Cape spear is good to go. Sunrise is at 7am this morning. I’ll be there just after 6.