Let’s take a walk!

Let’s take a “Photo Walk.”

What’s a “Photo Walk?”

That’s when a group of people get together at the Rowan Public Library with their cameras and walk around Salisbury’s Historic District taking photos.

Some folks come with DSLRs (digital single lens reflex cameras). Others bring “point and shoot” cameras. Still others come with their cellphone cameras.

It seems that only film cameras are totally out.

Reference librarian and amateur photographer April Everett will lead the group.

“There are neat things in Salisbury to see,” she says. “You can learn the local landmarks.”

She provides a list of fall photo ideas such as leaves, silhouettes, close-ups, yellow, reflections, trees, people and creepers to name only a few.

Outside the library, the group is attracted to the reddish bark on the crape myrtle trees with the morning sun playing off the surface.

What you might hear the photographers say:

• “Look at the First United Church steeple.”

• “I’ve found a spider web in this bush.”

• “Look, there are flowers climbing the lamp post in back of the library.”

• “There are rose bushes blooming at the Methodist Church.”

Alan Shuping says this is his second walk. “It’s fun walking around looking. When I visited Europe, I did this because there was so much to see,” he said.

Thirteen-year-old Ava Holtzman is fascinated with the wrought iron railings on a home on Bank Street.

Jessica Corum, bundled for the cold fall morning, is trying to shoot photos with her cellphone camera while carrying 2-year-old Justin Eagle on her back.

Kenneth Patterson looks for shadows because they are interesting to him. He likes those from the iron works on the Hall House.

His wife signed him up for the walk, his first.

Rick and Jenny Poole went on the walk at the Rockwell branch of the library and they were hooked. They came to Salisbury for another walk.

“Jenny likes to take pictures. She takes all the photos, and I am her eyes pointing things out to her,” Rick said.

“I learned in Rockwell that you really don’t notice a city until you walk through it. It’s really neat what you see. When you are riding through town on the highway, you don’t have time to look.”

He continued, “ I have been in Salisbury for 54 years and I have never walked around the Bell Tower until today. My wife got a 200mm lens for her birthday for her D3100 Nikon camera. We went on a cruise and she took 3,900 digital photos and then wanted to have prints made. There is no way we could spend the $500 on the prints. I think she still had about 1,000 prints made.”

Someone in the group said, “I’m going to Walmart and get my pictures off here (the camera) as soon as I leave here.”

Twelve-year-old Brynne Hardman, a China Grove Middle School student, said she had learned about perspective during the walk. Using a maple tree as an example, she said if you are close to the tree or far away, or look up the tree, all are different perspectives. She smiled and said, “I like to play with it (photography) but I play tennis and swim so I don’t have much time. The school camera club meets after school when I do other things.”

Brynne’s mother, Melissa, who signed her daughters up for the walk, says she was trying to interest the girls in the walk, which was a “morning out for the girls together.” In addition to Brynne, there were sisters Shea and Sydney on the walk. The boys in the family went camping.

West Rowan High freshman Morgan Saleeby was there with her mother and father, Greg and Kristina Saleeby.

Morgan said, “It is cold out here this morning, but using my new Sony camera, it really looks cool taking pictures. I’m seeing things that I don’t see everyday. I liked the canopy of tree branches over Bank Street. There is a lot of things to see in your backyard. I didn’t know that the First Presbyterian Church steeple had a clock until today. I might like to be a photographer.”

Phillip Vary, using a point and shoot camera, said, “I have never done this before (taken a Photo Walk). My mother (Darla) hopes to put some photos on her wall at home.”

Everett said that her favorite thing about working in Salisbury was riding the bus to work and getting to walk around town seeing the alleys and things. She shared that adventure as she led walk participants during the morning together.

I don’t know what the photos the participants made might look like, but they certainly did get a good walking tour of Salisbury and saw many landmarks that they have not noticed before when driving by.

You will be able to see the results of some of their photos on the library website at www.rowanpubliclibrary.org under the heading “Fall Photowalks at RPL.”