Headed up to Warwick for Scott Kelby’s annual Worldwide Photowalk, which is now in its 8th year; I had missed out on attending the walk in Bath last year so was pleased I had booked early for this one. On the photowalk website it had indicated that there were 1000 walks taking place so I was in good company. I’d set off quite early so arrived in Warwick a good couple of hours before the start of the event and decided to have a stroll around the town to get my bearings.
I met up with another couple of photographers, Brian and Mark, as I was finishing my recce. As we walked and chatted I was more than a little surprised to find that Brian, who was one of the organisers, lives about two miles from my house and Mark lives in Gosport … small world.
We headed over to the meeting point which was a walled garden at the rear of the tourist information centre where a wedding party had also arrived for their group photographs. The groom, an older chap, was unmissable in his luminous yellow suit.
We watched and chatted while more and more photographers arrived and joined in until there were over forty of us. The wedding photographer came over to ask for the best of our group to stand as shooter in while he joined the wedding party, so he was clearly related to or a friend of the wedding couple. We volunteered Brian for the job after he had made clear that he had no interest in ever becoming a wedding photographer.
As the wedding party were dissipating our walk leader, Glyn Dewis and his mate Dave Clayton arrived to welcome us and give us an introduction to the walk. Glyn told us that before the traditional team photo he had arranged a surprise for us and with that the Mayor of Warwick, her Mace Bearer and the Town Crier processed out onto the lawn to formally greet us, wish us well for our visit and joined us for the group photograph.
After that Glyn gave us our directions and reminded us about a photo hunt challenge and we were off on our stroll around the beautiful town of Warwick which took as past the castle, the parks, churches, old houses and the bridge over the Avon ending in a wander up through the market to meet at the library.
I took my D7200 and swapped between 24-85, 70-300 and even the 12-24mm lenses throughout the walk. I took a few of the photo hunt challenge pictures but found myself getting lost in interesting side streets and alleys and spent far too long in the churchyard as there was some interesting light.
Our route took us to through the market where we ended outside the library and settled outside one of the pubs for a chat and a beer. Glyn handed out prizes for the treasure hunt and some social media activity and then we retired to another pub for a meal, more drinks and chatting.
All together a really enjoyable day with a friendly bunch of photogs.
I was tired when I got home though 🙂
Click any of the thumbnails below to see larger images.
