Today’s it’s official, as we announce the date for Scott Kelby’s 2nd Annual Worldwide PhotoWalk™ to celebrate the upcoming release of “The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3,” and you’re invited to be a part of this global, social photography event.

Here’s a quick Q&A with all the details.

Q. When is the official PhotoWalk™ day?
A. It’s Saturday, July 18th.

Q. What exactly is a PhotoWalk?
A. Watch the short video clip on the home page over at the official Worldwide PhotoWalk Website (here’s the link).

Q. Is there a fee to participate this year?
A. Once again it’s free—there is no fee to join this year’s walk—just come and have a ball!

Q. Do you have any cities signed up with PhotoWalks yet?
A. We already have 183 cities around the world which have scheduled PhotoWalks.

Q. How did those cities gets walks already?
A. We gave last year’s PhotoWalk leaders the first opportunity to lead a walk this year.

Q. How many cities participated last year, and how many photographers did the PhotoWalk that day?
A. We had:

1. 8.324 photographers register for local walks
2. 47 Countries had participating cities
3. 44 States in the US had PhotoWalks
4. We had a total of 236 cities worldwide
5. More than 1,017,125 photos were taken on walks that day

Q. How can I lead a PhotoWalk?
A. You apply over at the official Worldwide PhotoWalk website: (worldwidephotowalk.com) and click on the “Lead Your Own PhotoWalk” link.

Q. Does everyone get accepted as a PhotoWalk leader?
A. We’re looking for people who have experience leading groups, so if you’re the president of your local camera club, or a college teacher, or photography instructor, or you run a local camera store, or you’ve lead PhotoWalks in your area before, etc., you’re more likely to get accepted to be a leader. We ask for your qualifications on the leader application, and that’s the type of experience we’re looking for. Last year, we had some people put, “Well, nobody else signed up from our city, so I guess I’ll do it.” That’s doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in you as a leader. So, in short, I read every application myself. If you convinced me you’d make a good leader, I approved you.

Q. What if my city already has a PhotoWalk, but I want to lead a walk, too?
A. Some big cities can accommodate more than one walk, and so as soon as one starts to fill up, we add a 2nd city walk if we have a leader apply. Or, if the walks are held geographically far from each other but technically in the same major city, we usually add those, too. (Cities like Paris, New York, London, Tokyo all can have multiple walks and draw from totally different population groups)

Q. What do I get for being a PhotoWalk leader?
A. You get a free copy of my upcoming book, “The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3″ as soon as it’s released, and you get to pick the best shot from your group and award them with a free copy as well. Plus, that person is entered into the grand prize competition.

Q. Do I have to enter the prize competition?
A. Absolutely not. This is a totally separate part of the experience, and if you don’t want to enter your images, you absolutely don’t have to (it’s just to make the experience more fun). Some people freaked out last year thinking they were required to enter, but just know—you absolutely don’t have to enter your image—you can go and shoot for the day, and never let anyone see your photos. Ever. They can be your private “secret” photos.

Q. So are you going to choose the Grand Prize winner from all the city winners?
A. You betcha!

Q. Did you get any complaints last year about how the winners were chosen?
A. Absolutely. People get pretty cranked if they think their image deserved to be the winner and wasn’t chosen, but after being one of the Guru Awards judges for 10 years, along with judging other competitions over the years, I’m kind of used to that response. Surprisingly, I didn’t get one single complaint about my picks from any of the winners.

Q. So are you going to try and work some angle so that Orphanage in Kenya gets something out of this?
A. Ahh, you know me too well. I had been trying to come up with a good tie-in, but luckily one of my readers, Rob from Towner Jones Photography, came up with a great idea—we’re going to create an official Worldwide PhotoWalk T-shirt, and 100% of the profits from the sale of any of these t-shirts will go to feeding the kids at the Springs of Hope, Kenya Orphanage. I think it’s a great idea, and I’m so grateful that Rob wanted to help in this way (I finally met Rob at my DC seminar—a really great guy!). As soon as we’ve finalized the design, we’ll put a link on the Web site.

Q. How come the people following you on Twitter got advance notice about the day, and early access to the Website?
A. That’s part of my deal with them. This is just the beginning.

Q. So are you leading a PhotoWalk again this year?
A. You betcha! I love PhotoWalks, and I’m planning mine for Ybor City (just outside Downtown Tampa, near where Dave Cross led his walk last year).

Q. What about Jeff Revell of PhotoWalkPro.com?
A. You know Jeff’s in, but I doubt he’ll lead two walks in the same day this time around. (That really kicked his butt). Also, I just saw where David duChemin is leading a walk in Vancouver, Canada. Sweet! Of course, Matt, Dave, and RC will be leading walks too (and if I can weasel Corey into one, he’ll have one as well). Moose Peterson will be up in Alaska and he might lead a walk up there (everybody loves PhotoWalks).

Q. What was the best thing that came out of last year’s walk?
A. I think it was the fact that so many photographers not only made new friends, but then went on to form their own photo walks during the year. This is totally a social event, and that’s why makes it so much fun. Most of the people on my walk had never done a Photo Walk before, but everybody had so much fun, they all wanted to do one again right away. Photo Walks are infectious, because when you get that many creative people together, who all have the love of photography in common, you can’t help but have a great time.

Q. What happens when a city fills up?
A. It’s full.

Q. How many is full?
A. PhotoWalks are limited to 50 photographers. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, you haven’t seen 50 photographers coming down the sidewalk at the same time, and later all converging at once on a restaurant or pub. It’s more like a scary bike gang (except without the bikes, or gang, or scariness).

Q. Hey Scott, this isn’t exactly PhotoWalk related, but you’re in Denver tomorrow for your Lightroom seminar on Wednesday—are you looking for a great place to shoot tomorrow at sunset around the Denver area?
A. Wow, you read my mind (and you snuck this in my Photowalk Q&A. Pretty clever). Yeah, if you know of a great place to shoot, let me know or I’ll just stay holed up in my hotel room with a big bag of chips. I mean, with “rice cakes and bottled water.”

Q. Hey is that you on your walk from last year?
A. Yup, that was taken right when we headed out (photo by RC). It was raining at first, but right at 10:00 am, when my walk was scheduled to start, the rain stopped and we didn’t get a drop again until we were in the restaurant having ricecakes and bottled water.

Q. I want to know more about this PhotoWalk thing; what’s involved, how do I sign up, and all that stuff. Where do I go?
A. There’s a detailed FAQ on the Website (here’s the link), but we’re still tweaking the site a bit (adding new features and a master list of all the cities), but we’re lightyears ahead of where we were last year at this same time, and I’m pretty psyched to have more than 180 cities on announce day. I hope we have a lot more to come, and I hope you’ll be a part of it this year, too!