Category: photowalk

Has been postponed by a week for political reasons. Given the extrapolated line based on the single data point, it should’ve been held on the 25th of this month. However, it is election counting day in Karnataka and the cops, etc. may not take too kindly to random unlawful association of people so it may not be a terrific idea to have the walk on that day.

It will instead be held on the following Sunday – June 1. Given that it’ll still be summer, and since I think this might be a slower route than last time’s, I propose that we begin this walk at 7:30 am. I’ll announce the exact route shortly, but I hope to keep this around the Majestic area. Do watch this space.

PS😕 Readers and photowalkers are requested to write in with suggestions for routes for further photowalks.

The “first” Bangalore Photowalk happened this morning. Eleven people turned up (including me). Thanks to Aadisht, Prabhu, Hari, Suvrat, Rajagopal, Baada, Tharunya, Priya, Madhavi and Nikshep for helping out in making this a grand success.

As planned, we met in front of the Apsara Theater at 8 am. I had mentioned in yesterday’s email that I’d be wearing a black T-shirt. Maybe people thought it was a dress code, as some half a dozen others turned up in black T-shirts. We started off at a statue of Dr. B R Ambedkar in front of the Apsara Theatre and moved on to the Bangalore fort, where we spent a considerable amount of time. We then walked along K R Road, taking photographs of Vani Vilas Hospital, the Theosophical society and several snaps of the basket weavers in front of BIT.

I’m proud of my timing – the route that I had selected seemed to be of the appropriate length and we finished up at National College circle at the appointed time of 10 am. We then proceeded to the nearby SLV for breakfast.

I have taken a total of 180 photos during the walk. I’ve uploaded a few samples. I request the others who attended also to upload their photos to flickr, and tag the photos as “bangalorephotowalk”. You can find the photos that I’ve uploaded here. And here is a sample picture (Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for the words on this signboard. This signboard exists somewhere near K R Market. I just happened to photograph it)

I know i’m a bit late on this but I’ve been incredibly busy all day so wasn’t able to post this earlier. The Bangalore Photo Walk kicks off tomorrow morning at 8 am. We meet in front of Apsara theatre (between the theatre and the subway mouth) and then proceed down K R Road.

I request you to be there on time. I hope to commence the walk at 8 am sharp.

I hope to be there by around 7:45 – 7:50. Just to help you guys identify me, I’ll be wearing a black T-shirt and black cap.

Looking forward to meeting you people tomorrow. And I need to go charge my camera batteries.

PS: mail me at skthewimp AT yahoo DOT com and i’ll mail you back my phone number. Once again, apologies for sending this mail so late.??

The first Bangalore Photo Walk (ok the first that I’m doing, I don’t know if any others exist) will be from one of Bangalore’s most popular flyovers to one of Bangalore’s least popular flyovers. As mentioned earlier, it is going to happen on Sunday, the 27th of April 2008. Since this is the first walk that is going to happen, I’m not sure about the speed in which we will walk. Hence, I’ve chosen (what I think is) a short route.

We meet in front of Apsara Theater in K R Market at 8 am sharp. We start at the walls of the Bangalore Fort which is nearby, and then move on to photographing the hospitals – Victoria and Vani Vilas. Then, we continue to move south on K R Road. We go past the Kote Venkataramanaswamy Temple, followed by two places which have been key in the promotion of Classical Music in Bangalore – the Fort High School grounds (ok – there isn’t much photogenic stuff here) and the Gayana Samaja. During the course of the walk, we also pass by a few old colleges (Bangalore Medical College, Vani Vilas College, etc.) which some people might find photo-worthy.

After we are past the Bangalore Institute of Technology, we take a little detour just to visit V V Puram. We look at (and photograph) the Subramanya Swamy temple and the Sajjan Rao circle and then turn back towards K R Road through the Jain College road.

The walk will officially end under the flyover at the National College circle. Tentatively, i expect us to end at around 10 am, but since this is the first walk, the variance of time taken is high. In case we reach too early, and people still have energy, we can continue the walk down K R Road (there are a number of old houses on this stretch which might be good for photography) and maybe end at the Nettakallappa circle.

The initial plan was that at the end of the walk, those of us who were still interested could walk to the Vidyarthi Bhavan (which is situated close to where the walk ends) and have a round of Masala Dosas. Unfortunately, the restaurant has currently shut down for renovation. Hence, this won’t be part of the plan. If someone has any other good suggestion for breakfast, let me know.

That said, it’ll be around 10 am by the time we finish. And it’s going to be a long and tiring walk. Hence, I request you to have had one round of breakfast before we embark. Also, you might want to bring some water bottles with you. And a camera of course – though you are welcome even if you just want to walk along and aren’t interested in taking photos.

The response to my first post on this seemed decent, and there were a few comments on Aadisht’s post about this also. If you are still interested and haven’t let either of us know, just drop in a comment. Even if you decide at the last minute that you want to join, you are welcome.

I have made a rough map of the route that we are going to take.

View Larger Map

The concept of a photo-walk was probably started by

in Madras some six months ago (the credit for this idea, he says, should go to Monica). Since then, it has become a monthly feature, and of late, has started attracting participants from outside of madras also (such as

).

I don’t know if such a thing is being done in Bangalore. I know that there is a group of photographers who meet up every weekend and take photos at markets. This seems like a completely photography-oriented endeavour. There is also a Bangalore Walks, where for four hours on a weekend morning, if you pay four hundred rupees, you are taken around a fixed walking tour of Bangalore (two of the tours are in the M G Road area, and one in Lalbagh). There are also several “birding expeditions”, as I learn from

‘s blog.? Then, there is Arun and a couple of his friends who walked around Lalbagh and a couple of other areas for a few weekends and called their photo sets as “bangalore photo walk”.

Since my survey (able aided by chandroo and aadisht) doesn’t reveal any photo walk (in the way that chandru does it in madras), I propose to fill the gap in this market. I propose to have the first photo walk on Sunday, the 27th of April at 8 am. The tentative route is between K R Market and Gandhi Bazaar, along the K R Road (we will start from the end of KR Road, and just keep walking. I get the impression that the market itself has been covered by sufficient number of groups so let’s leave that for now). I will confirm and put more details about this route in a day or two.

Just to refresh you people about the concept, it’s just “photo” and “walk”. We meet at a point (say point A) and walk from there to point B along a pre-specified route, taking photos as we go along. And then we disperse. And maybe meet again in a month’s time at a different point.

Now, there is one important difference between Madras and here. Chandroo has decent fundaes both about Madras and photography. I think I’m fairly competent when it comes to knowledge about Bangalore but I don’t know much about photography. I use a simple Kodak aim-and-shoot digicam, and generally churn out not-so-good snaps (you can see some of my snaps here). I have a special interest in photographing unusual signboards. Coming back to the point, I would hope to draw upon the experiences of more experienced photographers who might choose to walk with me in order to improve my own skills.

Why am I doing this? It’s been a long-standing aim to just walk around the streets of Bangalore and randomly take photos. So far, I’ve been too lazy to do it. Basically, NED has been happening. Now, if i set a time and place, and also promise several other people that I will be there, it will be that much more difficult to put NED. And I’ll get down to doing the task.

Oh, and by the way, this thing is going to be free. The only thing I’m going to ask for is your time. And hopefully, in this time, I can share with you some of my fundaes about Bangalore, which might prove to be useful. Also, this opportunity of going out as a group and taking pics might draw you out of your NED.

I shamelessly admit to being a copycat. However, i think it’s a good thing to copy good things. Let me know if you’re interested by leaving a comment. I’ll be back soon with the route details etc.

A couple of requests. Please leave a comment here if you want to attend. Not that I’ll cancel the walk if not enough people respond, but it would feel good to know how many people are interested.

Also, if you like this idea, I request you to give more publicity for it. Maybe post a link to this on your blog. Or if you blog at one of the more popular blogs (such as metblogs), you could put a link there. Thanks in advance.