Special Photowalk on 1st May

Dr Jyoti Prasad Pattnaik

Photography has been an integral part of my upbringing. Since my childhood I have been interested in the camera and I still remember the times when I was shooting with a small hotshot camera way back in the eighties in the last century. It looks a long time now. But the flair for photography has increased over the years.

When we received a message on our group wall that a national level group/page on facebook is proposing to organize a national level photowalk and we were to create a team and organize a photowalk in our area, I was instantly energized and made a decision to do this walk.

On the group wall an event was created and I did not find a suitable place than Gopalpur-on-sea. Interestingly within a short span of time more than 20 members approved and agreed to be part of the photowalk. Last year when we first started the Berhampur Photowalk group on Facebook, we were only a handful of enthusiasts including Eureka, Sangram, Rajesh, Abhisek, Sujit and myself. And then after the first photowalk we did at Gopalpur, people started joining our group and now we are sixty plus and strong team of photography enthusiasts.

Coming back to our program, early morning on the 1st of May, the labourers day, we were ready to reap the fruit of our labour at the sleepy town Gopalpur at a distance of about 10 Kms from Berhampur. At Gopalput junction eleven members gathered just in time and we proceeded towards Gopalpur.

I have been coming over to Gopalpur time and again, not only because it is a touist spot, neither because there is sea, not even because this is the nearest place to my home, but because I have been in love with this place since my childhood. It mesmerized me everytime I came here.

Reaching Gopalpur and parking the bikes and paying the parking fee too, I wonder how come these small kids who are collecting money for parking of vehicles get up so early in the morning. Like always the light house stood still and claimed its space without much noise in my mind. The colour of the light house was bright and awesome.

I took the first snap of the morning there. The shops on the beach were closed 

and their vibrant colours captured my attention and I took a couple of more shots before coming back to the flat area near the beach where I saw these two gentlemen

 who had perhaps completed their morning walk and were relaxing on a chair. Next I found the members reaching out to the beach and taking photos.

Sangram and Abhisekh walked

 towards the boats that brought a huge lot of fishes from the sea after spending a working night on the sea. And I could not stop myself from taking a snap of the duo who looked just awesome in their attire, back packs and cameras together. The sea I felt was in a dangerous mood as water came too close

 to the shores and I noticed the shore has been eaten away. And just then I saw a group of fisherman carrying a load of big sized fishes in their nets

  on their shoulders walking past me. I shot them too. As they vanished in the backdrop of the violent sea waves I noticed out team member Prajna taking snaps 

of the same group at the farthest end. And then came a couple of fisherman carrying a big fish 

in their hands barely able to tolerate the weight they were changing places often. The  fish must have been about a quarter quintal or more in weight. And then I saw this oldman who was walking alone with a fish 

in his hands hanging from a plastic thread, the colour of the fish, the clothes of the old man and the expression on his face made me feel like he is an achiever who has caught a precious something for his family.

On the sandy side of the beach stood the broken ruins of the construction 

which was really meant to be a hotel by a Public Private partnership project and which could not materialise due to some problems in the past. The ruins of the same still were so attractive one can never ignore their presence. Our team member Joshiya, was perhaps in another mood, who had somehow got above the ruins and was walking on a broken wall 

to capture some shots. I always felt him as a master of macro photography who got the best shots with him mobile camera. Strangely while most of our team members sported dslrs and bridge cameras he always caught attention of all with the shots he got from his mobile camera.

Coming back to the bikes again to move to a new place, we were befriended by the stray dog on the beach 

who somehow tried to remain in our company till we left the spot. The dog silently followed us everywhere we went, did not disturb us not even made a noise. But he was there all the time. Animals too can feel the warmth of peoples happiness. At the podium in Gopalpur while we were all getting ready to take a group shot for publication, Sangram was preparing his camera 

for the group shot and while he did that Rajesh shot him doing this. The truely enthusiastic photographers at work.

Apart from the sea, the colourful crowd and the wind the other thing that most attracts me to Gopalpur is a whole lot of House Sparrows. 

Although these birds are on the vegre of extinction but I am glad in Gopalpur that may not be true. There may be thousands or more of these birds in Gopalpur. I wanted to shot a few while they are feeding on the road under the sun, but people do not understand the importance of these things and a couple of fools just came along and walked past us and disturbed the birds and so I could not get a good shot of the bird.

Crows are equally curious to know about us 

like the stray dog did, while I was shooting some birds, this crow came along and tried to peek at what I was doing and did not go away and created a large noise and alarmed the other crows and so shooting of birds stopped there.

Coming back towards the human habitation to take some shots, I saw these three people approaching on the road 

towards us. The beautiful green colour of the saree on the woman and the yellow dress of the boy looked awesome in the LCD after I shot them. Going forward a few meters I saw these two contradicting women on the road. One in traditional saree and the other in jeans and tops holding a pot of water. 

What a scene !!! No matter how modern we become the basic needs will never change and this was just one of them. The beautiful pink colour tops of the girl on left and the steel pot were just the thing I could capture, a beautiful story in picture.

A few yards ahead we saw groups of people walking and I met this family of eight people, 

two adults and six kids. Except the females in the family all otheres had their hairs removed from their head. This can only be a religious thing and nothing else. There were many such groups walking on the road and most of the people had no hair on their head. Religious beliefs in India are strange of course with their own explanations. I salute the strength and courage of so many people walking in the scorching sun with nothing on their head. Here I came across a curious scene where in a bald headed man was searching for probably lice inside the hairs of a boy 

who had a good decorated chita on his forehead, just like the way Tirupati Balajee has on his forehead. There were many families gathered in a mango tree yard at the entry point of the Gopalpur town and probably were celebrating some festival.

Here I shot this small cute girl 

with a cute smile and a long drain of mucoid discharge from her nose running down till her mouth. Her picture is a unique combination of beautiful spotted red and black dress, white beads in the neck, glass bangle on her hand and above all her bald head. Her smile told a lot about the happiness a child can have. In contrast to the child came another boy from a distance who had long trousers, tees and a peculiar cap on his head. 

His walk made me remember the FTV programmes we watched when we were in college days. He is a desi turned modern dude.

In the crowd at a distance I saw a woman giving final touches to her preparation, 

may be dal which she was using a wooden grinder like thing to mince the dal seeds in the preparation. While the women were busy preparing food on make shift fire kilns I found this girl looking at our team of photographers 

shooting anything and everything, and I waited for her to look at my camera and when she did, before she could look away from the camera, she was shot. With a handful of banana leaves and some edible green leaves, which she was carrying for her family to feast on, the curious smile on her face was perhaps more amused about all the attention she was getting from our team members cameras.

While we were ready to wind up the programme at Gopalpur, the final shot I did was of this kid who sat on the footpath 

in the middle of the road curiously looking at each and every camera in the group. Innocence in his mannerism and silent eagerness in his eyes, well captured in the pictures.

We called the programme off with this but then one of our team members informed that on the way he has seen a tree filled with purple herons and egrets and I am a bird lover so I declared we will stop by near the tree and then end the programme.

Many members who accompanied us during the programme could not stop because of their examinations and some other important appointments but Rajesh, Joshiya, Sujit and me stopped by to shoot some birds. For the first time I was watching the great egrets 

up and close and there was no sign of worry on their faces as they did not bother about our camera and shooting spree. I shot many great egrets, seating on the branches of the huge tree. And then I saw the bird that Rajesh was saying is a purple heron. I thought for a while and then said it is a bird which I know but the name I can not recall. Now while I am typing this report I remember the name of the bird to be Oriental Darter or Indian Darter which looks quite alike the Cormorants.

It is a beautiful bird with a long and slender neck. I never had the chance to see such a bird and thanks to Rajesh I saw the same bird today.

Anyway, we spent about an hour looking and shooting the birds while they were seating, flying, fighting and looking at us. The day came to an end at half past nine and I feel glad we completed the special photowalk in such a nice note.