Nothing comes for free, this is the most famous sentence
that we have all believed in this capital centered world. The belief that you
have to always pay for everything you get is so engrained
in our head that we don’t believe anybody if someone says that you are getting
something for free. The first question we ask is “What’s the catch?”.
Now Walk ‘n’ Click is one of the rarest of rare
opportunities that one can get in their life time where you can learn
photography and meet new like-minded people for free and NO there is no catch.
Keeping true to the name of the group, Walk ‘n’ Click is a group of people who
go on photowalks clicking what we love and loving what we click.
This group was started in May 2012 and since then we have
completed 25 wonderful photo walks. For the 26th Photo Walk, it was
decided to go back to basics and have a Photography Jam Session where people
can ask any questions, get answers, share knowledge and then go out and
practice what we learnt that day. A great
idea indeed, albeit, with only one drawback being the time; 6:30 AM on a
Sunday morning :(
In spite of the dreadful timing around 28 people turned up
for the session held in DVG auditorium in Bugle Rock Park. Not a bad turn out
at all. This shows how interested everyone were to learn and share. Suraj
started of the session with the introductions. Introductions went on with a
very playful fun attitude and once we pretended to remember everybody’s names
we were handed out with printed WnC ID cards on which we could write our names
and our social media avatars so that everybody could indeed remember everybody.
Getting on to Brass tacks people started asking interesting
questions, we started off with questions on Shutter speed and Aperture which
lead on to people explaining Exposure triangle. The salvo of questions kept on
coming and Shukla was defending them very bravely, sometimes showing
extraordinary dedication which confused.. Oops, stunned the audience. Some of the topics discussed were
- Exposure Triangle
- Best Shutter and Aperture settings
- Framing and composition tips
- Mobile and DSLR photography
- Best way to hold a camera
- Tips to find your Master Eye
After everybody was overloaded with information we decided
to take the customary group photo. Finding a clueless passerby and handing over
our sophisticated DSLR to them to take a photo is our favorite pass time while
taking group photos. After coaching the passerby for 10 minutes on how to take
a photo we got the snap we needed and moved on to practical section for the
day.
The team was divided into groups of 5 and moved along to
different areas of the park to practice what we learned. The groups tried many
shots with various exposure settings, tried different type of creative photos.
The flavor of the day was Zoom burst photos. Many people increased their camera
click count by shooting in burst mode while trying zoom burst shots. After
getting a hang of it we moved on to Sun burst, and other customary early
morning park shots. Candid shots of various birds, in heat, of both human and
avian samples were captured. The park also had a nice flower garden where we
were treated with a nice selection of butterflies and some macros.
At the end of a very satisfying photo session we moved on to
breakfast at Mylari hotel. Breakfast of a delicious hot dosas with piping hot
coffee after a very productive Sunday morning is what I call pure blissful
Nirvana. And remember….. All of this is free (well except the breakfast
anyway).
So thus concluded our 26th episode with people having
a great learning, getting captivating shots, eating fulfilling food and being
with exciting friends. We went back to our house eagerly looking forward for
the great photos that people will share on the social sites. Now that this walk
is over we are looking forward for the next one which is our second year
anniversary. That’s something that we all are looking forward to and hopefully
we will have more people joining us to share the fun.
Thanks to Gurucharan for this wonderful article on WnC's photowalk.
