Photowalker: Elliot Tucker

I’ve been in to photography on and off since forever but it’s only been in the last 12 months that I’ve picked up a camera again with any seriousness since the film days.  Previously, photography was a very solitary affair for me – the only the other person I knew who was in to photography was my dad.  However during a few years hiatus, photography changed completely, digital cameras become both good and or cheap and social networking took off.  The ease of trying new techniques and sharing them with hundreds, and, for the lucky, thousands of people has been a revolution.

A recent part of this revolution has been the concept of the Photowalk; meeting other photographers, often people you’ve only met online, in Real Life.  I don’t really make deep online friendships with people I have no connection with, such as those thousands of miles away – I didn’t really get in to Flickr as a social network for example, however with photowalks, the people you meet are local and the connection is there.  They’re much more likely to be people you can enjoy a bit of craic with.  Certainly Twitter has been a great way of meeting local people who share a passion for photography.

Like many people I cut my photowalking teeth on one of Scott Kelby’s photowalks, in Dublin, August 2009.  At the start I thought it was a bit weird, I was so used to taking photos alone that it took me a while to get comfortable with taking photos with 50 other people – how do you get a good shot when there is a gang of people all taking the same thing?

But you don’t really take the same thing, you still find yourself walking off on your own to get That Shot but with the additional element of being able to meet up for a pint afterwards to compare pics, and hopefully have a shot at the small prize that is often part of a photowalk.

Companies are beginning to see the potential of photowalking as a marketing tool.  Off the back of the Scott Kelby photowalk, I was lucky enough to be invited by Mondello Park to the JapFest and Mondello Masters race days for an access-all-areas day of photography and since then I’ve been invited to photowalks sponsored by Bord Gais and Vodafone Ireland.  I’m happy to go along, meet up with the crew and take some pics for them in return for a few pints, and in the case of Mondello Park, access to areas I wouldn’t be able to get near to otherwise.

Elliot is currently doing a 365 and posts the results on his blog at elliottucker.net, and can be found tweeting as @elliottucker.