For several years, Scott Kelby and his KelbyOne team have identified the first Saturday of October as Worldwide Photowalk Day, a time when he encourages folks to step out of the car, meet like-minded outdoor enthusiasts and explore local areas with their cameras.
This is everything I’ve tried to encourage folks since starting the Photowalks series, because there’s so much we don’t see when we fly by them on wheels.
I’ll be leading a walk in my hometown of Manhattan Beach, so if you’re reading this early and you’re local, come join us. We start at 8 a.m. at the Pier.
But in the spirit of Photowalk Day, I went out this week to prove a little something.
Yes, I’ve brought the Photowalks cameras to some of the world’s most beautiful places: Paris, Lisbon, Tokyo, Sicily and so many great places in the U.S., from Maine to Montana, up and down Highway 1 and the California coast and Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Not fair, some people say. I only go to great places. What would it be like if I brought the cameras somewhere ordinary? Go to a dump and make it look beautiful, they dare me.
My stance is it wouldn’t matter. There’s beauty everywhere.
A few years ago, I did a video about exploring your hometown with a camera, and I shot it in and around Manhattan Beach, a classic SoCal beach town that happens to be gorgeous everywhere you look.
Fair? Probably not.
So this week I wanted to go somewhere that isn’t on any top 10 list (but should be), the tiny L.A. suburb of El Segundo, an industrial town near LAX.
El Segundo, like many small towns all across the country, has a cute Main Street with cafes, murals, restaurants, police and fire stations, many things that are often missed. It’s everytown, USA, complete with lots of American flags waving and a great little diner just off Main Street called Wendy’s Cafe. (And you all know what I ordered there.)
I invite you to watch the video sequel to my earlier Manhattan Beach neighborhood photowalk. I hope it inspires you to get out of your car and tell the story of your neighborhood in pictures and videos. You don’t need to fly to Paris and Spain—you’ve got beauty all around you. Your best photowalk might be just outside your front door.
Tips:
Walk slowly and pay attention to everything that’s out there. Get shots from every angle, every lens choice on your phone. Get the establishing signs, the funny ones, the unique things that stand out.
For instance, when I noticed a cigarette machine at the public library, I did a double take. Huh?
It turns out it was a rejiggered machine that now sells art at $5 a pop.
Walk down every street if you can—the more you walk, the more interesting things will appear that you never noticed before.
P.S.: I filmed the new video Thursday, arriving to El Segundo around 10 a.m., and returning home to start editing around 2 p.m. I noticed that I missed a few shots, so I went back and did some quick re-shoots, then came home and finished the edit, wrapping up around 9 p.m.
At 9:30, a giant earthquake sounding eruption woke up much of neighboring Manhattan Beach, as a giant fire began in the El Segundo Chevron refinery. This doesn’t affect what I shot, but had I gone back on Friday, Main Street probably would have been very smoky.
Nerd Notes on the Video
The entire video was filmed on the new iPhone 17 Pro Max, with stills on an iPhone 16 Pro. A few of my stand-ups (where I talk to the camera) were done using the new, higher resolution selfie camera, which to my eyes looked just as sharp as the regular camera. On past models, especially for video, it was always inferior.
If you can, try to watch all the way through to see a funny outtake at the end.
News
Sora: The big tech story of the week was the release of the second edition of OpenAI’s Sora, which lets you create what’s said to be amazing video from a prompt. It got rave reviews, (The New York Times called it “jaw-dropping”) is the no. 1 most downloaded app on the iTunes App chart, but I can’t give you my take. You need an invite to get the app to work, and OpenAI hasn’t offered me one. Hopefully I’ll have more to say in the coming weeks. (How hot is AI? Google’s Gemini AI app is no. 2 followed by no. 3’s ChatGPT. Unlike Sora, the other apps are free to use without invite restrictions.)
Adobe Premiere: Adobe’s latest video editing app was released this week, and it offers more professional editing tools than most video apps for the phone, with tracks for multiple layers of video and audio. So far the app is free, but the app comes from a company that charges $20 monthly to use Premiere on desktop, so don’t get too comfy.
CNNs new app. Would ypu pay $30 a year to subscribe to CNN’s upcoming phone app, despite being told that it has no live video, just a way to read more articles from its website? (“Be the first in line to unlock unlimited streaming and articles, including 24/7 global news, award-winning shows and films and more.) Just no 24 hour cable news on your phone. CNN announced the new app this week, coming later this year, and if you’re like me, the answer to this purchase would be a firm no.
Thanks as always for taking the time to read, watch and listen. Have a great weekend!
Cool take on our neighboring city!