It was a tough job choosing the winning photo for the 2011 Edmonton Photo Walk (for the Oct 1st group), but after narrowing it down to 6 images and then finally 3, the winner was Dave McQueen. You can see more of his images on his photo walk flickr set. I liked the colors, the texture and the composition. The final verdict came when after asking my husband about them, he said “I’d put this on canvas and hang it in the house”, and that was that.

Runner Ups

In no particular order, these are the other photographs from the photowalk that made up the top 3.

~ Lone Man ~

Lone Man by Randy Pond, a Vegreville Portrait Photographer.

Tracks Over the High Level Bridge

This image was submitted by Mike Moruzi from In Search of Style. Mike is currently near the end of a Post a Day project (on day number 245 as of today), and I encourage you to visit his website and have a look at his work.

His description of the image he submitted:

I captured this image while on the International Photo Walk in Edmonton on October 1. These tracks are used for the tourist tram that runs from Old Strathcona over the High-Level Bridge and north into the city. This is an HDR image with the addition of some textures (captured on the walk) overlayed selectively onto the image. With this image, I’m trying to capture the historic significance of the link from the south side of the river to the north.

Three great images that made judging them quite difficult. Thanks for the submissions.

The Rest of the Images

Here are all the images that were submitted by walkers to be judged for winning photo. When you see them, you’ll understand how difficult a choice this was.

Edmonton Old Strathcona Photo Walk contest entries.

A winning photo is chosen by each walk leader for each city and submitted to Scott Kelby. From those submissions, a winning photo is chosen to represent the global event. Open to everyone, the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk is a social event for photographers put on each year in cities around the world. If you’ve not yet participated in on, make sure you come out next year for fun and photos.

Click to start slide show

New larger format, and more pages!

I’m going to be doing a larger format one this year 9.5×13 (or so) so the images will be bigger which is great for those of you that like to cut the photos out after the calendar is done.

It will also be a 16 or 17 month calendar so you can enjoy almost 50% more images and have it hanging that much longer.

Order now to get pre-print pricing, save $5.00 each!

I need to get an idea of how many to order so here’s the deal.   Order now and pay $25 each, which will save you $5 off the regular price which will be $30.  If you want to order more than 5 I’ll give you an even better price – please contact me and tell me how many you want, and I’ll give you a quote.

This price does NOT include shipping.  If you require your calendar(s) to be shipped I will need to get prices from the post office based on the size and weight once they are here, and invoice you separately for the freight costs (I charge you what they charge me, no mark up on shipping).   Last year for one within Canada it was about $4, and to the US was $7 – so expect it to be slightly higher than that because of the larger size, but not much likely.

Calendars make great gifts!

Buy one for yourself and a few for gifts.   Remember they will last well into 2013 so it’ll be great for those forgetful people that never get around to getting a new calendar.  By they I should have a new one for 2013, perhaps Hawaii?

Get yours now

Please click on the Paypal button below to purchase your 2012 Turkey calendar(s) now.  If you want more than one, just change it on the next screen to reflect the quantity you want, or contact me for 5 or more.
UPDATE: This offer has been removed and is no longer available. Sorry about that.

After playing phone tag for a while, we finally talked to her last week, and it was both a pleasure and an honor.  She asked about our journey, and our thoughts on the Dwight area – but you can go read the article for yourself to find out exactly what we talked about.

The Dawg House Diner image that started it all.

Read the Article Featuring Our Roadtrip 2011 Calendar Photographs

You can read the full article here in the online version of the paper.  We are on page ONE, and continued on page 18.

She also mentioned my 2011 Road Trip Calendars which are still available in limited quantities.  If you want one – get it now before they’re all gone!

Thanks Meta for a fabulous article!

I’ve recently been reading and connecting with Sean’s other site Location 180, about living location independent and being able to work and live anywhere you want!  I was actually lucky enough to enter a contest he ran and won a copy of the “War of Art“ which is next up for reading right after Chris Guillebeau’s book, the “Art of Non-Conformity“.

I stumbled upon Chris’ blog of the same name, accidentally one day.  It is about “unconventional strategies for work, life and travel” and what he and Sean write really resonates with me right now.

Chris also offers packages to help you learn how to be a Travel Ninja and Frequent Flyer Master – I’m also in the process of reading those.  Wanna travel more but it’s too expensive?   Want free travel?  But his guides!

If you’ve ever wondered “Is this all there is?”   If you’ve ever wanted more out of life but maybe you don’t even know what that is?  Sign up for both Chris and Sean’s blogs and see if you aren’t as inspired as I was and am!

Keep up the good work guys, and thanks again Sean!

Dots Diner is also on the cover of my Road Trip 2011 calendar, featuring HDR images and others from our 17,000 mile RV trip around North America and Canada in 2010.

A couple years ago I did a calendar of some of my favorite images of Peru.   I got to thinking, since I took over 17,000 images on our six month RV trip south – I should do the same this year!    So here is the official launch of Road Trip 2011.  It includes 13 fabulous images from our 26,000 km (over 16,000 miles for my American friends) in full color glossy pages in 8.5×11.

The calendars will retail for $20 plus GST, shipping is extra if needed – I just charge you what it costs me.  Shipping will be added to your total if you order online here.  If you pick up your calendar I’ll give you a cash refund for the shipping cost.

CALENDARS MAKE GREAT GIFTS – ORDER A FEW!

Calendars are great gifts for xmas, staff or co-workers and those hard to buy for people.   The best part is even those tough to buy for guys on your list will like it because there’s cars in it!   I went with a theme this year of Road Trip as that’s exactly what our journey was – one big one at that!  So the images are things along the Roadside, or things that were once on the road.  We even hit Route 66 a couple times so look for some cool diners and gas stations.

Here are the images that appear in the calendar.  It’s a slide show, so just click the picture to start it.  Of course they are much more impressive in print but this is a good teaser.

Click to play slide show

Odell Station on Route 66

This photograph of the Odell Station on Route 66 in Illinois is one of Rob’s (my husband) favorite images. He says he has a lot of good energy around it.  We were running out of light and I wanted to make it to this town to photograph this station. We got there and it was all but dark and no lights on the building. So we started photographing with our car headlights on it for any light at all. We tried using a flashlight on it and as we started running around lighting bits of the station up – the motion sensors came on and we had an “aha!” moment. So we used the lights to our advantage – each one set off in a different exposure, some of them at long at 8 minutes. Then I worked some magic in Photoshop to combine about 9 different shots into the final image you see here. Is that cool or what?

I just remember having to go to the bathroom the entire time and when you’re doing the Pee Dance 8 minutes for each exposure is a loooooong time!

What you don’t see in the image is Rob running around setting off the motion sensors and then hiding behind the posts or around back of the station while the exposure finishes.  Trust me, he’s in the picture a lot, but he’s always hiding out of sight.

I asked him why he likes it so much and he told me that after a great day exploring Route 66 with me, we got to this spot as the sun was just setting.  It was quiet and peaceful with virtually no other cars around to interrupt us.  The stars had come out, the sky was clear and the air was so very fresh.  His helping me set up the shot and running around the building setting off the light sensors just allowed him to fully appreciate the place and be fully present during the making of the shot.  He says he was in pure joy for a good hour.

Calendar Images Featured Elsewhere

Reporters from Dwight Illinois (on Route 66) found out about a few of my images from their neighborhood and interviewed us. The Dawg Diner HDR image and a few others were featured in their small newspaper and we were quite pleased with how it all turned out.

As well, my cover shot for the calendar, the HDR image of Dots Diner in Bisbee Arizona was featured on Sean Ogle’s Daily HDR website.

Back to the Road Trip 2011 Calendar. To order one please click on the Add to Cart button below to make your payment by Paypal.  If you’re in Edmonton I’ll be keeping a list and you can come pick your order up from me directly once I get the calendars.  If you require shipping and billing to the US, please use the button below for US Orders.

Canadian orders here!

USA orders here! Quantity/price One calendar $20.00 Two for $40.00 Three $60.00

For orders of more than three calendars please email me with a quantity as I’ll have to get a quote on shipping. Then if you want to proceed I’ll send you a custom invoice including the freight.

I have a great fondness for latin music, cultures and language.   My trip to Peru in 2007 rekindled my interest.  Spending all weekend surrounded by it, immersed in it, got me fired up again.  How can it not, the music is infectious, in such a good way.

Samba dancers

VIEW SLIDESHOW OF 42 IMAGES

I’m not going to begin to attempt to name all the dance and entertainment groups and what country they come from or represent (I’ll leave the Festival site to do that for you), but I can tell you I was not at a loss for what to photograph once in two days.   It was a frenzy of swirling silk skirts, sequins and feathers, fast and fancy footwork, smooth and seductive guitar rhythms, and top it off with great food from the vendors.  A feast for the eyes, ears and soul.

I am amazed at the tango's intricate footwork

Usukuma leading Salsaddiction dancers in Rueda de Casino

VIEW SLIDESHOW OF 42 IMAGES

If you missed it this year, make sure you make a point of going next year.  These are just a small sample of some of the images I captured.  To see a larger gallery click on the photo of the guitar below to start the slide show.   If you want to see all 500+ or order prints click on any of the other images to go to the ordering site, or this link to my portfolio.

Click on this image to the start slideshow

Links

Edmonton Latin Festival

Salsaddiction

Capoeira Academy

The parade ended at Churchill Square where the festivities continued and one could partake in Caribbean food, which we did, and watch dancers perform on the stage. We even saw Miss Cariwest 2009 being interviewed.

To see more photos press play below.

Update: Darlene is leading an Edmonton Photo Walk 2011 route on Oct 1, 2011.

About 35 photographers (amateurs, hobbyists and pros) met at the Shaw conference center and embarked on a 2 hour walk through the inner city area, ending finally at Churchill Square. Many different angles were taken of the same subjects along the way and it was interesting to compare how each photographer’s view was slightly different than the next.

Each photographer was then allowed to submit up to two images for the contest. Jason was given the unenviable job of selecting one winning from among the entries. He announced the winner today and it was Darlene’s image of the Gibson Block below.

Edmonton Photo Walk Winning Photo – Gibson Block

This photograph will now go on to represent the Edmonton Photo Walk #2 in the world wide competition for the overall winner for the day.

This is the group photo done at the start of the walk – can you find Darlene? Front row, light blue top and a ball cap.

Photo Walk Group Photo

To see more of Darlene’s images of the 2′nd ever Edmonton Photo Walk, please play the slide show below. Darlene is leading one of the 2011 Edmonton Photo Walks this year so please have a look at the details and then sign up.

If you like what you see here – please consider buying the book to help me support the children of Peru. To read more about the book please go to the “Visions of Peru” Book page.