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So as I said on the front page of the site, photography over the last few years has moved away from cameras and now people use mobiles more as a way of taking pictures. Sure, phones now have cameras with as big a megapixel number as a lot of the cameras out there so why wouldn’t you! Also with the way social media streams have gone like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, everything now a days is needed immediately and so you don’t have time to process images or video or anything anymore or you will be too late posting and the moment will be missed.

While this has proved to be an incredible thing when it comes to disasters, wars, freak occurrences, and even our own equality referendum 2 weeks ago, something for me is missing now.

When I began my photoblog almost a decade ago, there were only a few people in Ireland doing it, these numbers grew and grew and we all became incredibly good friends. We attended awards, commented on each others images and the big thing for me was that we met up and went on random “photowalks”

Photowalks were a revelation to me, not only was I spending time with like minded individuals but I was also learning from photographers and other bloggers that I admired. I was able to ask questions about why they use a certain lens, what post processing package they may use, should I be using aperture mode or TV mode more? the list went on and on. Photo walking became a huge thing and the crowds kept growing and growing. This was not just an Irish thing either, walks were happening all over the world and friendships were been built across the globe. Social media was in its infancy too but it was the perfect tool to use to organise these events aswell, with discussions about where to go and what days suited people.

I was fortunate enough to organise a few walks myself, but the ones that really showed how much these walks worked were the worldwide photowalks which were organised in cities all across the world on a given day by Scott Kelby of NAPP. I was lucky enough to lead 2 of these walks, the first of which had over 150 people register and 70 turn up. I was overwhelmed, here were a load of people with point and shoot cameras, SLR cameras and even some in those days, wealthy enough to have a smart phone with a camera. The event always ended in a pub somewhere and the camaraderie and craic we had was amazing!

So where the hell is this post going. Well I fell into the mobile phone trap like so many of the people I had the pleasure of walking with, and also I noticed the walks became smaller and fewer. Mobile’s had started to change how people dealt with each other, not just with photography but in all aspects of life. This is not what we as humans should be doing. So I went onto Twitter last Friday and decided what the hell, I am going to ask the question “are there any photowalks happening these days”. I had a feeling I knew what the answer would be which was “no not really” and with that I decided to see if anyone would be interested in attending one and from that thanks to @eyeblinks #toggingout2015 was created.

So I am putting it out there to the public, would you be interested in attending one, location is at yet undecided but will probably either be in the Dublin or Wicklow area and will be held around the end of June. The walk itself will probably only last 2-3 hours max and I will organise a venue for afterwards where we can go have a drink and chat. If you want to talk to me more about this please send me a tweet @mcawilliams or leave me a comment here. Over the next week or 2 I will finalise everything once I feel enough time has been given to people to sign up which you can do by clicking here.

So lets get socialising again and get out there and take some stunning photos!