The 7th annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk, a global, social, photographic walk event took place last weekend on Saturday October 11th 2014. Photo walkers participated in over a 1,000 cities and towns worldwide for this global event. The purpose of the global photo walk was to raise funds for the ‘Springs of Hope’ orphanage in Kenya with all photo walkers being asked to donate $1 on registration for the event.
The ECCG joined similar groups worldwide on the same day in Midleton. We gathered at the Midleton Park Hotel on a sunny Saturday morning before the start where we were briefed on the route and the types of photographs we could expect to get. At 11am we set off down the Old Cork Road to the town centre. The route included - the gyratory, the ‘Goose’s Acre’, the farmers market, Main Street, Thomas Street, Connolly Street, Church Lane, Distillery Lane, The Jameson Experience, St Mary’s Road, Broderick Street and Riverside Way.
Our first stop was to take photographs at the bridge over the Owenacurra River. After that, we made our way to the Farmer’s Market located off the Hospital Road to capture the hustle and bustle there. Every Saturday people throng to this area to purchase a variety of locally produced foods and other gourmet specialties from local farmers and food producers. Here we took a lot of images of an array of colourful stalls and their produce together with capturing the vibrancy and buzz of people meeting up to chat and spend time in this thriving environment.
From the Farmer’s market we proceeded to the top of the Main Street taking shots of notable historic buildings mainly the imposing red brick and terra cotta structure of the AIB building built in 1899 and located opposite the Courthouse. As we walked down the Main Street we stopped to take photos of the various shops and side streets as well as people who were happy for us take their photos. Another historic building on our route along the Main street was the Library (previously the Town Hall) built in 1789 and identifiable by a weather cock of larch on top of the clock tower. Some of us made our way to Distillery Lane and onto The Jameson Experience taking shots of the large copper pot still outside the main building there.
Around 1pm we made our way up St Mary’s Road to the Catholic church of the Most Holy Rosary, a large grey limestone building distinguished by a 166 foot spire. The Church interior was awesome with its Gothic style of pointed arches and curved lines, timber ceilings and decorated stone and granite pillars. We momentarily took shots of this magnificent interior before being met by Monsignor Goold who allowed us entry to the upstairs choir gallery. Once we made our way up the spiraling stone stairway, we were able to take shots from a higher angle with a panoramic view of the total Church with the altar and wood carved pulpit and decorated tile flooring in the centre against a background of magnificent large stained glassed windows. Behind us was the large pipe organ in the Gallery originally built in the 1800’s undertook a major rebuild in 2009.
When finished at the Church we made our way down to the next stop of our photo walk which was the St John the Baptist church located in Church Lane. This church was erected in 1825 and is believed to be built on the site of the Cistercian Abbey. At this location shots were taken of the graveyard and the interior of the church with its arched stained glass windows, rows of pews and 3 aisles to the carved oak screen and pulpit at the top end of the church.
Shortly after 2pm we embarked on the last leg of our photo walk along Riverside Way taking various shots of the river, people walking and cycling on the pathway and sitting at benches all enjoying the fine weather. We completed our photo walk at the Midleton Park Hotel where we started almost 4 hours before.
- Noelle Lowney
Mouse over the image below to activate the slideshow. Enjoy!
View a full selection of our PhotoWalk images on our Flickr Group here.
View images from PhotoWalks held around the world here.
ECCG's Group Shot on Scott Kelby's Facebook page
