Walking up a storm

I HAVE A SUBSCRIPTION to the Urban Gardens web blog, and today’s blog was most interesting, since I love to travel, and walking is the best way to find things to capture on the camera. The author is slightly biased (NY is the writers home town & it ranked #1), and sadly, only three from the West Coast made their ranking.

When I went to the Walk Score site mentioned in the article, I found that Monterey was scored 65, Carmel-by-the-Sea was 100 (so, why didn’t it make it??), Santa Cruz at 66 and Salinas at 53.

I must admit, the Score site is more for advertising apartment rentals, etc, and the scores provide good information for people looking to move into an area, but it also provides great information for walking tourists–and photographers like myself.

I find photo ops in the most unusual places…so don’t think that is has to be a picturesque vista to be eye catching or interesting for a photographer.  In addition to ocean views, sweeping mountain vistas and beautiful foliage, I also relish interesting gates, fences, walls, dilapidated structures (cars, buildings, etc) to mention only a few.  Even some graffiti (though, I am not encouraging this illegal means of expressing oneself) has caught my eye over the years.  My Facebook page has a number of photos (user name: creationsbydjamesonsmith), in addition to the ones you’ll find at my website and Flickr page.  I am constantly exploring new areas and new ways to photograph and though I am mostly a purist (what I take is what I present), I am now playing with my Photoshop features and Solar Printing to tweak my images to something very new and interesting.  Most of those are on my Facebook page.

But, back to this Walk Score.  After visiting the Score site, what do you think of their ranking of your town? What walking opportunities does your town offer?

Are there places in your area that are ripe for photo ops? Please feel free to post comments about your town.  I may just make a visit to some of the towns you post.

Cheers!

2 thoughts on “Walking up a storm

  1. My home town, Ottawa, has long stretches of bike paths along the rivers and along the Canal that make for good walking places, and ideal for photography. It’s one of my favourite aspects of living here.

Comments are closed.