First Photowalk - Learning Photography

When asked to click a  picture, I never had enough patience to wait for everyone to get ready or pose,I would just press the shutter within 2 seconds of getting the camera, I did not care about the light, flash or the angle nor did I understand much of it.Aperture, shutter speed, focal length, exposure used to be foreign words. To put it simply, I have been useless around cameras. Though I thoroughly enjoy looking at some of the great shots taken by others, I somehow could not get myself to try it myself until recently. For some reasons,I had been contemplating buying an SLR (May be cos of number of blogs/photoblogs I have been visiting lately) but then thought to myself that I should learn the basics of photography using my point and shoot before getting a SLR. So while I was talking to a friend yesterday who recently bought an SLR and is trying to learn, we planned to go to KR market and Tippu palace for a Photowalk.

It was a miracle that I got up early without alarms on a Saturday morning and we left home by 7:30, yes A.M. We stopped to have a tea and I noticed a lady selling flowers close to my place and she had really long hair, not finding the right word but it was  noteworthy, very impressive and had an appeal.



Moving on,took us less than half an hour to reach the market, I parked the bike a little away from the market and decided to walk. It was a beautiful morning for a walk.
A Hindu priest walking in the direction of the mosque (Though he wasnt actually going to the mosque but it made a good composition i thought)

Closeup of the mosque
We reached the flower market and there were so many small vendors by the side of the road selling red, yellow and even blue roses, marigold in orange and white and few other flowers I dont know the name for (you know those pretty flowers you find in a bouquet). The place was lively and colorful. We started taking pictures of whatever caught our attention, initially we both were little hesitant clicking people as it was our first time at the street photography but eventually we got a little more comfortable with that as we found out that people are really friendly and do not mind it. I was just trying various aperture settings about which I had read the previous night. After a few failed shots,I captured the flowers with the blur background and I was very thrilled.



My first successful attempt with aperture setting

Another pic of the roses with blur background

We went further and there was a old building with a couple of offices , a homeopathic doctor, post office and even a police station. We walked up the stairs to the first floor to get some better shots and for the first time I realized that it needs a lot of patience to click the right picture. There were dozens of time I looked through the view finder and waited just to get the right shot (what felt right to me) , there were countless time I would miss the shot by less than a second for which Iwas waiting for sometime. It was quite an experience and I was liking it.

A man sleeping in the corridor - Think his looks and the scarf made the right combination

My friend Karmu taking a shot with his DSLR - I liked the door in the back ground


A spice seller lost in his thought - The spices and the bags added colors to the pic
Loved the way she had arranged the vegetables in plates

An old man having a sweet
We decided to go to Tippu's palace next, we asked for direction and found out that it was right across the road. We took the subway and were reaching the fort when my friend realized he left his tripod back at the building. We rushed back and found that the tripod was gone. We were standing there in the corridor thinking what to do about it when a man waved at us with the smile, and we knew what it meant ! The gentleman had kept the tripod safely in his cabin, he had noticed us before while were taking pictures pictures and knew that the tripod belonged to us. We thanked him many times before starting back for the palace. Well the world isn't after all a bad place, thanks to amazing people like him.

We reached Bangalore fort which did not look much, however having spent so many years in Bangalore, I had never come to this fort before. It just had few small dungeons, a small but well maintained lawn and a Ganesha temple.It was a mud fort built by Kempe Gowda in 1537 and was later replaced by stone fort in 1761 by Hyder Ali. Britishers captured it in 1791 but was handed back to Tipu sultan (Hyder Ali's Son)  a year later.  We clicked a few photographs and spent a little time before calling it a day. We actually confused it to be the Tippu's Palace, only after getting home I realized that we had to go a little further for the palace. Well the market is definitely worth visiting again and now we have a reason to go back!

About Bangalore fort

Steps to go up but sadly its gated and public isn't allowed


Some sculptures on the wall - weathered and uncared

Lord Ganesha's Mouse

Experimenting with blur effect -Weeds on the wall of the fort

A bird at fort's lawn


Not a great shot - This is almost all of the fort with a little temple at the entrance and a gate with spikes (not in the pic)


Accidental capture: Was experimenting with  Aperture setting to capture the cloud when the eagle with wings open flew in the frame







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