G+ Anniversary Adelaide PhotoWalk Pt 1

Well, today I wanted to talk a little bit about another part of my life... one that you most probably could have guessed (no... nothing too dramatic... it's just plain boring old me after all). What I was going to talk about was my alter-ego (+Ben Adelaide) on Google Plus (or just G+ if you don't mind). Now G+ is Google's very own flavour of social media... primed to be it's centre-piece of an identity lead marketing bonanza - but which also happens to be home to many photographers across a broad spectrum of skill levels and interests.

And on the 30th of June 2012... G+ became 1 year old!


(An aside - as are the way of things, with a new shiny toy, Google have let the ball slip with Blogger, and I can't now edit the HTML in my code... for some bizarre reason... hence the white background on some of this post which I can't remove!!!!!)

So how does one celebrate a birthday on G+... by organising a photowalk of course. And that's exactly what happened...across more than 100 cities across the world G+ers (pluskins, plussers, or just G-Friends) came together, with their cameras, to take some photos, meet some people and have a good time. +Paul Clarke organised the local Adelaide walk... with a brave 14-15 people turning up... Thanks to Troy Pudney for this group photo.

I say brave as the forecast for the 9am start was for a few showers, possible small hail and thunderstorms later in the morning. By the time I left home at 8:40am, it was still raining... but I was not to be deterred (as I'd already missed the first photowalk earlier in the year when C-chan was born). The photowalk started in Hindmarsh Square and aimed to meander through Rundle Mall, and down to the Botanic Gardens before making it's way to Rymill Park for a BBQ (Paul is a true optimist, or just able to forecast better than the Met Bureau).

View Google+ One Year Anniversary Photowalk, Adelaide in a larger map

Now I'm not really much of a photographer... but anyone that reads my blog (all 0.75 of you) would realise that I do love to take the camera out for a stroll every now and again. I like photography, but not religiously though (hey, I'm still using my basic Canon Kiss X3, with 95% of my processing done on Google's Picasa... so I'm no camera-junky). But photography for me is about getting out, and enjoying looking at the world. And sometimes you get to take some photos that turn out at least so-so, or sometimes better.

So the following set of photos I'll let speak for themselves... mostly. If anyone has any questions about them, just leave a comment... but because this was a long walk, and let's just say I have a happy shutter-finger, there'll be quite a few posts from this walk. So strap yourself in...

I have to say this sculpture has been in the Rundle Mall for a very long time... and it always sort of freaked me out as a child... especially as it used to be positioned outside the Bible Society shop (or something like that). I always wondered why they would have put a statue to a horned demon in the middle of some wanton display in that location (or any location for that matter).... the truth was so much less interesting....

One of the staples of the Mall photography... the fountain. Thankfully devoid of it's urinal-like froth today!

Reminders of the fickle weather were never far away.

Construction sites... Adelaide-style.

Adelaide's retro past is never far away.

I couldn't help put a selfie in here somewhere... though you would think I was being impaled on a very large spike such is my pained expression. I never said I found photography easy!

A familiar sight approaches... The Malls Balls.

From ground zero.

Despite it being around 9:30am on a Saturday, the Mall had an almost deserted - inhabited by ghosts feel to it. The weather had kept away more than the G+ers.

Finally... some colour!

The theme for me, that evolved very quickly, was reflection and water. This one kinda had it all, and then some.

One of the now infamous "features" of the Mall is the Pigs sculpture - actually it's called 'A Day Out' by Marguerite Derricourt, and are usually the place to get yourself photographed riding on, under, around a number of bronze statues as they scavenge through the bins. An interesting sculpture, but +Louise Bagger showed me how a little bit of post-processing can really bring out a different personality.

And finally a few photos that really shouldn't need any explanation... Adelaide's cityscape in close-up and greys!

And that's the end of the first phase of the photowalk... down Rundle Mall. Actually, it should perhaps have taken 15 mins, but such was everyone's excitement (or perhaps nervousness about straying too far away from cover) we all spent way too much time in the Mall... but before you knew it, everyone was sort of off doing their own thing. Hmmm... sometimes there's a limit to how social, social media is in real life.... but then again, today was all about the photographs!