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Republic Photo Walk

Parliament signage at the International Waterfront Centre

Our Republic Photo Walk is on September 23rd, 2012.

Trinidad & Tobago will celebrate its 36th year as a Republic on September 24th. Little known fact – September 24th does not commemorate the anniversary of Trinidad & Tobago becoming a Republic.

We became a Republic on August 1st, 1976.

The first sitting of Parliament under the new Republican Constitution took place on September 24th, 1976.

Our Republic Photo Walk will take us from the Red House, the historic seat of Parliament to the current seat of Parliament at the International Waterfront Centre.

The route through downtown Port of Spain will take us past many historic buildings including:

  • Trinity Cathedral
  • National Library
  • old Fire Station
  • old Police Headquarters
  • Treasury

Meeting Point and Route

Red House decayThe meeting time is 3:45pm (September 23rd)We will meet outside the southwest corner of Woodford Square (corner of Abercromby Street and Hart Street) and proceed west along Hart Street to St. Vincent Street.

We will head south on St. Vincent Street to Independence Square and west along Independence Square to the Waterfront.

Sunset will be at approximately 6:00pm.

Parking

We recommend parking closer to the Waterfront so you won’t have to walk as far afterwards to get to your vehicle. Parking is available at the Hyatt car park – no fee, to our knowledge. Alternatively park with caution along Wrightson Road or on Independence Square in the vicinity of Furness Building and Unit Trust.

Taking Part

This photo walk is free and open to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you are a professional, hobbyist or casual photographer, or what type of camera (or camera phone) you have.

Think of it as an opportunity to get out, explore a bit, and meet and lime with others who enjoy photography as much as you do.

After the photo walk, read these tips on how you can share your photos with the group, and keep in contact online.

Worldwide Photo Walk, Tobago!

Sunset at Sandy Bay

We’re super excited to announce our first ever Tobago photo walk!

This walk will be part of the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk™, now in its fifth year. The Worldwide Photo Walk is billed as the world’s largest photo walk and even the world’s largest global social photography event. Last year nearly 30,000 photographers took part in over 1,100 locations around the world, taking over 6 million photos!

Photo walks offer photographers an excellent opportunity to get out, meet other photographers, and shoot photos and in Trinidad, of course, enjoy the lime and old talk. And it’s free!

Worldwide Photo Walk 2012 — October 13th, 2012

The Worldwide Photo Walk takes place on October 13th, 2012. Although the photo walk is free, registration is required. You must register on the official Worldwide Photo Walk page for this Tobago walk.

This photo walk also includes a photo contest. The best photo from this walk will receive an ebook copy of Scott Kelby’s Lightroom 4 Book for Digital Photographers. You will also be entered into the Grand Prize competition for thousands of dollars in prizes including Adobe Creative Suite CS6, Adobe Lightroom 4 and other goodies.

There’s lots of ways to follow this global event:

Morning at Sandy BayTobago Walk Details

We will meet at Store Bay at 7am near the benches overlooking the beach.

The walk will be between Store Bay and Pigeon Point, two of Tobago’s most popular beaches, and one of our favourite all-time places to shoot. The walk will be almost entirely along the beach, with the brief exception of the 5-10 minute walk along the Store Bay Local Road. There are several quaint little roadside parlours and food vendors along the road though most of them open later in the day. Most of our shooting, however, will be along the beaches. Store Bay is best in the early morning before it’s overtaken by the chair vendors, hence the 7am start. There’s also the tiny Cable Bay, Sandy Bay which runs the length of the Pigeon Point Road, and is dotted with some lovely scenes of local fishermen’s boats and small businesses, and Pigeon Point itself with its world famous jetty. There is an entrance fee to Pigeon Point, currently less than TT$20. You can optionally enter for free by walking along the beach itself but you will not be allowed to use the facilities.

This stretch of coastline faces west so it’s really ideal for late afternoon and sunset photography. You can find any number of vantage points including the Pigeon Point jetty (one of my favourites) or the cliff overlooking Store Bay.

I have deliberately chosen to have this walk as an all day event to allow photographers to capture the changing character of the area as the light changes, and also as the tourists and local businesses go about their day. I don’t expect that you will walk all day. We will probably spend some hours relaxing either at Pigeon Point or over a lunch of crab and dumplings in Store Bay. All of which can be photographed to your heart’s content. Tip: take photos before you eat unless you want to have a curry-flavoured camera for the rest of the day.

Fisherman walking along Sandy BayMorning along the road to Pigeon PointA different look at the jetty at Pigeon Point

Getting There

We know many of our walkers will be from Trinidad. You’re welcome to come over for just the day of the walk, or plan a weekend getaway. Let us know if you need any help finding accommodations.

After the Walk

By now you’re probably asking what do we do with our photos after the photo walk?

Share them!

On Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Google+… you know the list.

Publish them on your personal website, blog, photo blog — this may even be the impetus for you to start a photo blog!

About Photo Walk T&T

This is our third year leading a Worldwide Photo Walk, and it’s really what started this Photo Walk T&T project. We’ve done a dozen photo walks in the past couple years. Photos from our past walks are on Flickr.

We’re active on both Twitter and Facebook, and you can also subscribe to our mailing list to receive notifications and updates on upcoming walks (see the link in the sidebar on this page).

We look forward to seeing you in Tobago!

Please remember to register.

Maracas Waterfall Photo Walk, August 25th

Come explore Trinidad’s highest waterfall with us on Saturday 25th August for #photowalktt12.

The Maracas Waterfall is almost 300 feet high. This is one of the more accessible waterfalls in Trinidad, an easy 30-minute walk, slightly uphill but not challenging at all.

We will be walking to the base of the waterfall. There is a hiking trail up to the top but we will not be doing that on this walk. That hiking trail is recommended for experienced hikers only – we definitely don’t fall into that category.

This walk is definitely for the nature lovers with lots of natural forestation.

Directions and Meeting Times

The waterfall is at the end of the Maracas St. Joseph Valley. From the Eastern Main Road it’s approximately a 30-35 minute drive.

** IMPORTANT ** Part of the Maracas Royal Road is currently closed for ongoing road work. The alternate route is below.

The route to Maracas St. Joseph starts at Curepe junction.

  1. Proceed north through the Curepe traffic lights onto Riverside Road (Royal Castle will be on your right if you’re facing north at the intersection)
  2. Riverside Road is winding but there are no turn offs. Follow it to the Maracas Royal Road.
  3. Turn right onto the Maracas Road (the Silver Bridge will be on your left)
  4. Follow the Maracas Road for about 15-20 minutes. Some of the landmarks you’ll pass:
    • University of the Southern Caribbean (left)
    • large Catholic Church (right)
    • Police station on a slight hill (left) (almost there)
  5. Waterfall Road is on your right, less than 5 minutes past the police station

We will meet at the start of Waterfall Road for 9:45am and depart for the waterfall at 10:00am.

The drive along Waterfall Road is about 10 minutes. There are some scenic spots to stop – a couple pools in the river, and some cocoa trees.

There is space to park but please be sure to secure your vehicle and any valuables in your vehicle. If possible, we recommend car pooling to reduce the numbers of vehicles we go up with.

Coming to this photo walk? Let us know on our Facebook event page. Please follow @photowalktt or our Photo Walk T&T Facebook page for regular updates. Or use the contact form if you’d like to get in touch directly.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Palmiste Park Photo Walk, June 2nd

We’re heading south for #photowalktt11 to the lovely Palmiste Park on Saturday 2nd June 2012. We know many of you, like us, will probably get lost soon after Grand Bazaar so we’ll coordinate a convenient meetup point for anyone driving down.

Please follow @photowalktt or our Photo Walk T&T Facebook page for regular updates. Or use the contact form if you’d like to get in touch directly.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Photo Walk? What is a photo walk?

I first heard about photo walks in June 2010. Two Trinidadian photographers, @chennette_net and @empresslilandra were talking about Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk and I was, well I was maccoing.

Of course, my first question was What is a photo walk?

Fast forward a little over a year and I’m writing this post to introduce photowalktt.com and answer the What, Why, How questions of photo walking.

What is a photo walk?

Easy. It’s a walk. And you take photos. And have fun liming and being social with your fellow photo walkers. I’ll never say never, but unless otherwise noted all our photo walks are free and open to anyone.

Why have a photo walk?

Photo walks are an excellent way to get out and spend some time taking photos and meeting fellow photographers. If you’ve become accustomed to a specific type or field of photography they’re also a great opportunity to try something different.

Who should come to photo walks?

Anyone who enjoys photography. You do not need to be a professional photographer, or have a big fancy DSLR. There are usually at least a couple quite experienced and knowledgeable photographers on a photo walk, so don’t hesitate to ask questions.

Remember, it’s a social event too.

How do photo walks work?

Photo walks take place at a set date and time. Usually there is a predetermined route. Our past photo walks have been between one to two hours long and we’re definitely casual amblers, not speed walkers — need to give everyone time to explore and enjoy the route.

After the walk, we’ll usually meet up someplace for refreshments and to maco everyone’s photos.