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Picture Perfect: Photo Walk continues to succeed

With shutters snapping, a group exceeding 30 photographers descended on downtown Sulphur Springs, the Indian Summer celebration and John Chester Dutch Oven Cooking Competition held at Heritage Park on Saturday morning, Oct. 1 for the Second Annual Sulphur Springs Worldwide Photo Walk.

After much deliberation the Downtown Business Alliance, sponsors of the walk, proudly announce the winners of the Photo Walk. Winning the grand prize was Ty Goggans of Sulphur Springs with his distinctive vantage point of the waterwheel at Heritage Park using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3, second place was Jennifer Philo also of Sulphur Springs as she captured the architecture of a wall near Main Street with her Nikon D60 and third place went to Karyn Smith of Colleyville with her black and white portrait of Johnny Anderson, portraying a mountain man character at the Indian Summer celebration, taken with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi.

The walk was led by Sulphur Springs News-Telegram Photo Editor Luis Noble and Cooper Review Editor Cindy Roller.

This walk was one of 1,116 walks in Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk across the world and the photographers participating in Sulphur Springs were among the 27,993 taking over 10 million photos in the two-day event.

“I think it [the photo walk] was a rousing success,” said Noble on the attendance. “We had about 30 contestants come and we walked around downtown Sulphur Springs for an hour and for the second hour we took a bus to the Indian Summer Celebration and John Chester Dutch Oven Cookoff. It was really exciting.”

DBA President Perry Altenbaumer ushered the walkers via bus, courtesy of the First United Methodist Church, for a unique chance to photograph the celebration at Heritage Park for the second hour.

“The Photo Walk went great!” said Altenbaumer. “Not only was the weather perfect and we had a good crowd, but did you notice the comments from people were saying on how much fun they were having and these were not just our little group we know these were people we have never seen before. [It just so happened to coincide with the event at Heritage Park.] …We really got lucky (to have so many subjects to photograph). It was a good day.”

“I think we got some really great pictures. Everybody was very receptive. …It was a really fun time,” added Noble.

Many of the photographers, some lifetime residents of Hopkins County, learned aspects and architecture about the downtown area they never knew existed until the walk – looking through the viewfinder of a camera – like the faces etched on the walls of the courthouse.

Perry Altenbaumer noted some of the favorite locations of the Photo Walk.

“T-Bone alley and the way we got into the alley, there was a lot of (camera) shooting going on and then out here at the [Heritage] Park,” noted Altenbaumer.

The enjoyable October Northeast Texas weather and hospitality of the folks of Sulphur Springs also made for an especially pleasant walk.

Pursuing photography as a career, Jake Belmore of Cooper said he realized

“A great photographer can come from any walk of life.”

And then there were some that have been taking photos all there lives like Jerry Beare of Commerce who told how his passion for photography got started.

“When I was eight years old the drugstore downtown burned down and they sold some smoke damaged items. There was an old Brownie Camera for a quarter and I bought it. I started shooting pictures with it and it smelled like smoke the whole time I owned it,” recalled Beare.

This year’s Photo Walk drews crowds from not only Sulphur Springs but Cooper, Commerce, Emory, Winnsboro, Saltillo, Yantis, Mount Vernon and folks from the metroplex.

Third place winner Karyn Smith of Colleyville said, “

 “It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to just get out and actually think about doing nothing but taking pictures. It has been a long time since I’ve done that, and it is amazing what you can see – when you just look around at the ground, the sky and the buildings instead of letting it all pass you by.”

And her husband Tony also added, “

“It was fun getting together with other photographers and kind of seeing things from their perspectives – looking at what their taking pictures of and like Karyn said seeing buildings from different angles looking from a photography angle, playing with the lights and getting pictures of different textures. It was a lot of fun communing with other photographers too.”

To view photos from this and last year photos go to mySSnews.com/photowalk or look for Sulphur Springs Worldwide Photo Walk on Facebook.

“We would like to extend a special thanks to all involved making this year’s Photo Walk such a huge success. …We are looking forward to next year,” agreed leaders Luis Noble and Cindy Roller.

For more information on the Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk go to www.worldwidephotowalk.com.