QCS at the Worldwide Photo Walk

Despite an early morning start IN THE RAIN, 30 registrants, including many QCS members, gathered for this historic event on Saturday, July 24th. This worldwide photo walk was billed as the largest event for photographers in history with over 33,000 entered in 1,111 locations around the globe!

Our local segment of this walk was held at the John Deere Commons in downtown Moline, IL and organized by Vicki Wassenhove with help from Connie Inskeep and Jane Swanson.

One of the suggestions given to participants that morning was to look for a subject "that shows what the weather is like today".

Fortunately, the rain stopped, the clouds parted and there were blue skies for the second hour of the walk.

Congratulations to our two QCS Member Winners!**

"Walker with Umbrella" by Ralph Drexler - Honorable Mention

Ralph did a great job "capturing the moment" as Carolyn Neumann walked across
this rainy dock. Her bright pink umbrella is a strong focal point against
the horizontal patterns of the slips and the muted tones of the river and trees.

"Corners" by Shari Peterson - Honorable Mention

Shari's creativity and her "eye" for a good shot drew her to this wonderful abstract design in a corner of the former post office building on 17th Av and River Drive. Well done, Shari!

**Thanks, QCS Board of Directors, for your willingness
to recognize these individuals for their terrific photos.

Both were given a $10 certificate toward their next
QCS membership renewal.

To see more of the local and international entries in Scott Kelby's event, use the links in the following note.

Letter from Vicki Wassenhove, Local organizer of this walk:

Dear QCS members,

Our first participation in the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk is complete. The top winner in our local walk at John Deere Commons is Vanessa DeShane, from Geneseo. She wins a Scott Kelby photography book and her entry advances to the world competition.

Unique to our local walk, there were seven Honorable Mentions awarded to recognize fine photography. Many thanks to these area businesses and organizations that provided five of the awards: Camera Corner (2 gift certificates), Whitey’s Ice Cream, Quad-Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau, and the Quad-Cities Computer Society. I added two of my own, one from Whitey’s and one from QCS.

Honorable mentions were awarded to the following:

Ralph Drexler and Shari Peterson, QCS member awards
Clint Balsar and Alan Smith, Whitey’s gift certificates
Jackie Gerse, Q-C Convention and Visitors Bureau for bike rental certificates
Remi Satkauskas and Connie Inskeep, Camera Corner for 12 x 18 enlargements

I want to extend my thanks to several knowledgeable individuals with art and photography backgrounds who helped me choose these winners. They included the following past presenters at QCS general meetings and more:

Norm Dunlap, our former Digital SIG leader at QCS
Mike Godsil and Dino Milani, both photography instructors at the college level

To view ALL of the entries in the local JD Commons walk, follow this link to our official Kelby page:
http://worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/moline-il-united-states-john-deere-commons-downtown/

For more great photography from our event, go to the group's "FLICKR" site. Our contestants could upload any number of extra shots there.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1483436@N21/pool/

THE BIG CONTEST:

The top local winner from each of the 1,112 walks around the globe are now posted on the official Worldwide Photo Walk website. To see Scott Kelby’s top winner and his 10 honorable mentions, use this link: http://worldwidephotowalk.com/bestphotos

You can also vote for your own favorite from all of the local photo walks at this URL: http://worldwidephotowalk.com/peoples-choice/.

NEXT YEAR? I hope even more of you will join this fun event & help me reach our 50 participant limit. AND… I will DEFINITELY be hoping for better weather!

Thanks again, QCS and the BOD, for supporting me in this venture!!

Vicki Wassenhove