A Weekend Photo Writing Challenge

Recently I have shared a couple of different posts here about short walks I have taken with my camera. Where I find an area and visit it with my camera to capture the walk. I thought it sounded like it could be an interesting little challenge for those who like their photography. With an added challenge to write about your walk while sharing the images.

Weekend Photo Challenge

Basically the challenge is to head out with your camera for a short walk around an interesting area. I don’t want to put any rules on the challenge, I just want to encourage you to get out with the camera.

Below I will give you some examples that I have recently shared here. I will also give you a few ideas on where to start with your own walk. I would also encourage those with a blog if it seems suitable to share your adventure. But if you don’t have a blog there are other options to share your adventure as well.

Some Examples

I have recently shared a couple of different walks that I have done in a similar fashion to this challenge. They are somewhat different to the vast majority of my travel related posts here, where I share the entirety of my day exploring a city. These more recent posts are literally just a small part of a day that I wanted to share with you.

The first was a walk I took around Kangaroo Point in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. You can take a look at the post “Sunday Afternoon at Kangaroo Point“. The walk at Kangaroo Point covered a distance of just 1.5km and took in a couple of interesting sights along the way. I did not plan the walk in fact it was on one of the hottest days this summer in Brisbane. I should have just taken the shortest route to where I was going, but instead decided to take this walk.

The second walk was through Manly Harbour Village. I shared the post around a week ago with my journey and you can read that here “Take a Walk at Manly Harbour Village“. The total walking distance I covered to capture the photos for this walk was less than 500m. Again I did not plan the walk I was in the area to have coffee and decided to explore a little. Of course, capturing the exploration in photos and sharing it here.

The Mindset

One aspect of this idea that I have had to face is going beyond what I personally find interesting. To me both of the walks I have recently shared were things I found to be every day. In my mind they are just places that I go from time to time and it is not something people would be interested in seeing.

However, the more I think about it, these familiar areas that I visit and do not find interesting to someone else might be very interesting. It is rather similar to when I travelled overseas. Areas and places that I visited and photographed and shared in blog posts here, are just someone else’s every day. To the people who live there they are quite likely very uninteresting.

So with a little change of mindset I have been able to look at the world around me and see it in a different way. I can look at an area not with the eyes of a local, but with the eyes of someone who might be travelling through. The eyes of someone who is seeing this area for the first time.

Inspiration

When it comes to looking around where you live or work what can you see differently. Imagine that you are coming to the area for the first time, what captures your attention. See if you are able to flip that switch in your mind to see the area through the eyes of a traveller.

So here are some ideas of what to look for that might make for an interesting story.

• Old buildings, is there a building that has some history or a story that is interesting.
• Parklands, with interesting trees or gardens can be another place to photograph.
• A Historic Part of the city, If you live in a city there are often some areas that are older with some interesting older architecture.
• A Reinvigorated area, sometimes a city will try and encourage revitalising an area and bring in new influences.
• A Shopping Strip, while not always interesting, some can have a character of their own.
• A Riverwalk or Boardwalk, sometimes nice views over the water, city skylines or dawn or dusk photos make for an interesting story.
• Cafe crawl, capture a journey from cafe to cafe with coffee, food and cake.

Writing About Your Adventure

In putting this little challenge out there I am not looking for you to take the greatest photos and write the best story ever. I just want to challenge you to try something a little different. So of course if you don’t feel comfortable sharing the story that is no problem at all.

For those who would like to share their photos I have a few options of just how to do that. If you have a blog and you feel that the walk fits in with your other content, it is the perfect place to share. But if you don’t have a blog, or it does not feel right to share it there below are some other options.

1. Facebook, I am sure that your friends would love to see some of your photos. When you share photos you do also have a chance to write a little about them, so tell a little story about your walk.
2. Instagram posts, You can progressively post the photos you take to Instagram as you take your walk, or post them all  together at the end. It does make it a little different to sharing a continuous story but can still work out well.
3. Instagram story, If you don’t want your photos to hang around forever Instagram stories can be an option. They disappear after 24 hours, but of course this makes it difficult to write much of your story. But that also may be what you are comfortable with.
4. There are also a range of other photo sharing sites that you could share you photos on. Sites such as 500px, Viewbug or Flickr.

I hope that you do share your story and would love to take a look at your results. If you are sharing to a blog I would love to see a comment below with a link to your post. Alternatively, you can also post a comment with your Instagram account or Facebook page below if you like.