Walk The Walk

That’s Bill Smith (center). This image was taken last winter (check the touqe) during one of the monthly walks with the Toronto Film Shooters group.

Bill is an interesting guy and one of Toronto’s better photographers and film photography advocates.

If you haven’t started following him on social media it’s time to start. Here’s why. If you’re in the Greater Toronto Area and you’re shooting film (Ok they do allow digital photographers too but the emphasis is on film.) regardless of how good or inexperienced you think you are walking with the film shooters is going to make your photography a lot better.

And if you’re not in southern Ontario then you can copy Bill’s ideas and start a film shooters walking group in your own hometown.

Here’s what I’ve found and remember this is at the end of a 60-year-long love affair with photography but walking with other photographers is a great way to build your street photography eyes.

What I mean by that is yesterday during our film walk around the Beech area in Toronto I may have shot a really decent image. I won’t know until tomorrow when I am going to so up two rolls of 35mm and one of 2 1/4″ but it’s an image (if I got it) that I would never have seen if I hadn’t been walking slowly with our scattered group.

In today’s super fast world of continuous TV and social media streaming the ability to actually see stuff with our own eyes is an art form that requires time, patience and practice when it comes to photography.

As you can see everyday there’s a lot of vacuous, banal and boring snapshots published on FaceBook. But in amongst the junk there are gems. There are images that standout and even some that inspire.

You’ll find these images everywhere if you walk the walk and carry your camera.