Cleared/AliCoimbatore: What began with just 10 people gradually increased to over 20, 50 and reached 100 in its sixth photo walk.Coimbatore Photo Walk Club, an Instagram community, organised its sixth photo walk at Cross Cut Street in the city on Saturday.Armed with cameras and smartphones, more than 100 people from different professions and age groups took to the streets of Coimbatore to capture people, emotions, architecture and everyday moments through a different lens.For 20-year-old Jaismitha of Selvapuram, who completed BA International Business, photography is an interest that began from her childhood.“Photography opens up a much wider opportunity to look at things differently,” she said.R Akshitha, 29, a Gandhipuram resident working as a cloud kitchen manager, said she had been interested in photography since childhood but never had the opportunity to pursue it.“I used to search for photography groups here after experiencing that in Bengaluru. This is not just about taking pictures. It is about meeting people with a common interest. Many people live in solitude without social gatherings,” she said.For homeopathy practitioner G Shreeja of Ganapathy, photography is a passion that encourages creativity.“It is something new for me. We can learn not only from the surroundings but also from other photographers and their technical approaches,” she said. She attended the walk with her husband, Brun Joseph, who stated that the walk allowed them with a freestyle photographyPalani Kumar, an IT professional currently visiting Coimbatore from Hong Kong, said theme-based walks could make such gatherings more organised.He recalled photography meet-up applications in Hong kong where participants are given a specific theme and organisers keep track of the group.“Usually, such closed groups have only 10 to 15 members. Here, the random clicks are interesting but giving participants a theme could make the activity more engaging,” he said.Travel photographer Nurul Bashar, 65, of Saravanampatti, said group walks offered an easy way to leam. Having participated in photo walks in places such as Bengaluru and Varanasi, he said photographing streets, faces and perspectives with fellow enthusiasts helped improve one’s understanding of the art.He also recalled participating in Chennai photo walks over the past five years. For him, photography became an important way of overcoming loneliness.
