How to organize a photowalk: Quick Guide

By | April 2, 2019
Are you interested in creating a photowalk for the group? If so, we’ve created a simple document to help get you started.

#1 Join our chat (Photowalk Destinations), and get help and feedback from other group leaders.

Choose the area where you’d like to visit and photograph, preferably one you already know or will visit before the walk.
Choose the date and try not to conflict with other walks in the group, so you can get the most members to attend
Determine some of the kinds of photographs that different members will like to take. Try to cover as many areas as possible: street, landscape, cityscape, nature, people, …
Use Google Maps to plan a route. In urban areas with lots to shoot, the walking speed will be slower than in the countryside. I wouldn’t suggest more than 1km per hour as a useful guide.
Recommend strongly in urban areas sticking to public transport: trains, MRT, buses, and taxis.
Arrange the meetup time and location. If you’re meeting at MRT stations, choose the exit number carefully. There are multiple exits, even at regular train stations.
Create an event in the Group so you can invite all the members. Though there are 400 members, it’s unlikely there will be more than 10 who show up.
If you create an event OUTSIDE the group, you can either share it here (less effective) or create a duplicate event IN the group.
(Quick Tip: Click on create event (top right “+Create Event”). Then scroll right to the bottom. Does the invite form let you invite everyone in the group or not? Does it say “When you create an event on Facebook the Pages, Groups and Events Policies apply. .Invite all members of Photowalkers Taiwan” and a check box? If not, contact the mods for advice, esp. if you want to invite everyone in the group. Otherwise the invite will ONLY go to your friends.)
Announcing your event is the hardest part. Facebook specifically limits events to your friends (in the group or personal friends), so we’ve created several ways to reach out to members:
  • We sticky announcements to the top of the group, with the next event featured as the FIRST announcement.
  • We announce the event to new members
  • We have created a chat specifically for announcing new events.
Check the weather about 24 hours before, in case of typhoons or heavy wind or rain. While photographers believe that there is no such thing as bad weather, it is not a viewpoint shared by most other people in heavy rain.
Warning #1: In Taiwan, the mountains especially, sudden heavy rainfall upstream can bring cascading floods of water that fill river basins in seconds.
Warning #2: It’s unlikely that the weather will be so bad that an event can’t happen, but we’re now in Typhoon season, so cancellations are sometimes inevitable. It may be dangerous for walkers to get to the event or get home afterwards in a raging typhoon, never mind actually carry out the walk!
You are the walk leader, so help others to get to the meetup point; help keep people safe from dangerous situations; and enjoy yourselves!

Resource Guide