As well as being long time Urban enthusiasts Kyle & Lisa have both been known to pitch in and help us out with the event itself (thanks guys!). Kyle also has the dubious distinction of working with me everyday. Why he’d want to spend a Saturday hangin’ out shootin’ photos with us has to say something about how much fun this whole thing is. Kyle took the time out to write a few responses to our questions for Team Johnston. We’ve included a gallery of their efforts going back to Urban 2003.
Urban: How long have you been participating in Urban? Kyle: Lisa and I Urban’d in ‘03, ‘04, ‘06 and ‘07 — so since 6 years ago. Now I feel old.
Urban: In past Photo Safaris, how have you spent your time? (were do you go, what do you look for, do you have pre-plans etc.) Kyle: We always try to think about where we’re going to go the night before (Lisa’s skillset), but I know that we’ll find little unexpected surprises, so I try to keep my eyes open for those opportunities during the Safari (being easily distracted = my skillset).
Urban: What do you do for inspiration? Kyle: I like to look for interesting angles and compositions. I also like to try use some of the camera settings I’m not super-familiar with — it’s a nice way to learn what my little point & shoot is capable of producing.
Urban: What’s your favorite part of Urban? Kyle: Taking a few hours out of my day to exercise a different part of my creative skillset and take pictures in places I’m not familiar with.
Urban: Any tips or tricks for first time Urban participants? Kyle: Take lots and lots of pictures and have fun doing it..
With only one day to go, I thought I’d tip my hat and fill you in on a few slight changes to how we’ve done the Safari in the past. Most of you have read the “About Urban” page and should have a good feel for what to expect. This year is a little different. I’ve been joking that it should be called “Urban Photo Safari 2009 - the recession edition”. But, all joking aside, I’ve just made it a little simpler with less fanfare. No t-shirts, no badges, no maps. Just show up, sign in and shoot.
As you can imagine putting this on every year can be quite a production. I thought I’d concentrate this year on the core of what Urban is about and make it as simple and bare bones as possible. Doesn’t mean we won’t have huge shin-digs in the future though. One major twist this year will be no map. What!? No map? No boundaries? Here’s the jist. All the same rules still apply. You still have 4 hours and need to show up at 1 to download your images. Instead of having a boundary map this year, you can shoot wherever you wish as long as you show back up at 1. Want to go to Lawrence? Great, just get back in time. Be interesting to see where everyone ends up going and what they capture.
I’ll have a checklist later in the evening to help you make sure you have all your gear checked and ready to go on Saturday. In the mean time, here’s a run down of some of the basic rules. You can also see these on the “About Urban” page.
1) You have 4 hours to shoot as many images as you wish
2) You must shoot at least 11 images. One of them must be a self portrait of some kind. Want a bowl of petunias to be your self portrait? fine, just let me know which image it is.
3) This is a digital camera only competition. No film.
4) Images must be at least 640×480 in size. A tad small by today’s standards but, can have some interesting results. Camera phones, iPhones etc can all be used. As long as you can get me your images by the deadline.
Stay tuned. They’ll be several posts between now and Saturday morning.
First up in our Urban Q & A installment is long-time Urban contestant Brian Wright. Shutter guru during the week, quirky photog on the weekends. We sent a few questions and thought you’d like to see his answers along with a gallery of his top ten shots going all the way back to 2003.
Urban: How long have you been participating in Urban? Brian: Every year since 2003.
Urban: In past Photo Safaris, how have you spent your time? (were do you go, what do you look for, do you have pre-plans etc.) Brian: I try to go some places I typically would not go. In ‘06 a firemen stopped me (& John Indellicate) to tell us we were in a rough neighbor’hood’. We must have looked out of place. It was a good time to carry just the pocket camera. I’ve been all over downtown, Wadarusa, garage sales, grocery stores, parks, farmers market, churches, playgrounds, and the list goes on …
Urban: What do you do for inspiration? Brian: I just start shooting. People may look at you funny, but don’t mind them. The bad thing is by the time the event is over I feel like I am just getting warmed-up.
Urban: What’s your favorite part of Urban? Brian: It gives you permission to take time out of your schedule an just take pictures. I never take 4 hours to take pictures.
Urban: Any tips or tricks for first time Urban participants? Brian: I may not get the best pictures, but I have a great time. Talk with strangers. Take a friend, or go solo, I’ve had fun both ways.
With less than a week to Urban Photo Safari 2009, I thought it appropriate to post a few more inspirational links. A handful of sites to get you pumped to go out and shoot your own good stuff. Have any I’ve missed? Any sites you visit on a regular basis? Leave a comment and share it with the rest of the Urban community. I’ll be posting more content throughout the week to hopefully answer some of the most common Urban Photo Safari questions. In the meantime, enjoy the links below and visit the “About” page for a brief introduction to what it’s all about.
Digging back in the Urban archives can lead to some interesting finds. Over the next few days I’ll be posting galleries showcasing images from the Urban archives. Idea being to get your creative juices flowing. I’ll also be posting links to sites I find inspirational. Have any you keep going back to again and again to get fired up? Anything you’d like to share to get us all excited to get out and shoot our own? Post a comment and share it with the Urban community.
In preparation for 2009, I’m doing a little re-work on the site. All the content is still here, it’ll just look a little out of place for a few days. And yes, the date is still Saturday, June 13th. I’ll be sending out an email to all those non-tweet/non-facebook fans in the next couple of days as well. As usual, the best way to know what’s going on is to pay attention to the site.
Is…. Saturday June 13th. Apologize for the earlier post. I always think I can have it May and then time gets away from me. Well, that and I’m hoping June will have that much better weather. More details to follow.
For those of you new to the safari, the event is scheduled once a year sometime in the spring. For 2009, we are looking at the first or second Saturday in May. We’ll post more info as the event develops. Feel free to drop us a line in the comments if you have any questions or, browse through the site to get an idea of what the event is all about.
Coming across a lot of great camera techniques the past few months that I thought I would start sharing. First one up is a technique called “Tilt Shift”. I don’t know a ton about it but, am starting to research it a little more. My first exposure to it was a video on Vimeo that caught my eye from Keith Loutit.
Yes, this one is video, not photo but, it did get me interested in the process. There are a few shots on Flickr you can look at as well. Here’s a rather trippy one from “Dingo2494” on Flickr.
As well as being long time Urban enthusiasts Kyle & Lisa have both been known to pitch in and help us out with the event itself (thanks guys!). Kyle also has the dubious distinction of working with me everyday. Why he’d want to spend a Saturday hangin’ out shootin’ photos with us has to say something about how much fun this whole thing is. Kyle took the time out to write a few responses to our questions for Team Johnston. We’ve included a gallery of their efforts going back to Urban 2003.
