Had a ball at the Sacramento Photowalk

[Model train whizzes over bridge.  photo by Shel]

I had an absolute ball at the Sacramento Train Museum Photowalk co-hosted by maestros Thomas Hawk and Robert Scoble. More than 20 people came, not counting assorted wives and children.

This was a visually rich experience and you can see all my photos here and by morning there should be hundreds of shots posted.  The one problem is there was some confusion for what photo tag to use.  I went with "photowalk trains," and I hope that's what other people use.

Here's what Scoble and Hawk did and it is simple and brilliant.  First they started walking around with cameras taking pictures f things they like, the Golden Gate Bridge the Japanese Tea Gardens, etc. Then they decided to invite anyone who wanted to come out.

So now we have people, who meet on line, getting together to share a creative experience, then post together online again.  It's a bit like blogger dinners, but seems to go a step further.

Here's another of my favorites:

These are two docents.  The guy on the right is 87.  In the 1930s, he worked building refrigerator cars that brought food from San Joaquin Valley  to the coastal cities.

This is the posh corridor in a dining car from the late 1880s. In a nicely appointed forward room you ate food on fine china, made to order from this kitchen:

In any case, I have three recommendations:

1. If you are anywhere near sacramento, visit this museum.
2. Watch Thomas and Robert for announcements on the next photowalk.  You'll have a blast.
3.  If you don't live in the Bay Area, start a photowalk of your own. Thomas and Robert will not claim any rights to the concept, trust me. All you need is a blog, an online photo account and a venue that inspires people to point and click and click again.

Comments

[Robert Scoble]

Thanks, Shel, that's very nice. It was a great day. I have a post up here with some of the first "tags." http://scobleizer.com/2007/01/21/photo-training/

[Jeremiah Owyang]

Very cool, I'll check out that museum my next time in Sac.

[ManWithCamera]

FYI: Thomas Hawk recommended on his blog that we use the tag "Photowalking 5"

[Thomas Hawk]

Had a great time hanging out Shel and great to see you there. Sorry we couldn't carpool (it was pretty crazy with four kids in the car from Sacramento, but everyone had a good time).

Thanks for blogging the event and see you at the next one!

Tom

[Jim Fobes]

For another photo walk take US 50 to Placerville. Go north on highway 49 past the gold stroke site to Lotus. Stop at the Lotus House, walk and take pictures. very nice place, easy walking and lots of gold rush artifacts.
Or,rake US 80 east from Sacto to turn off for Dutch Flats. Go to Dutch Flats.park car near railroad tracks. unload mountain bikes or ATV. follow tracks as far as you can on railroad service road. look for slow moving east bound trains going up grade. Watchout for fast moving trains coming down grade. have fun. FYI Dutch Flats is where the Southern Pacific's antecedent was chartered above a drug store that's still still standing.

Yours in California history

jim Forbes