SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka

20 September 2008

The photowalk was arranged by Flickr's "Shudhui Bangla" group. The destination was Mirpur Botanical Garden. From the very start, we knew that it would be quite a big group, even though it was a day in Ramadan. Several hours on a holiday was within reach of most of us. But as usual, a Ramadan weekend morning wake-up proved too much for some. Yet, out of the total of around 40 originally registered, around 26 showed up at the photowalk, albeit at different times. The organisers should get a big hand for such a big gathering of photographers.

Even though the original time at the gate of Botanical Garden was listed as 10:00AM, a lot of us showed up a little later than that. And we had to wait for a bigger group to start the tour. Anyway, by around half past ten, we were inside. For some weird reasons, people at the entrance to the park asked us about our gears. Somehow photography of natural objects look pretty environmentally unfriendly to the authorities.

It was a gloomy day. The sky was very sad from the start and always looked a little pale for comfortable photography. This is a place where one would expect to shoot natural objects like trees, plants, birds, flowers, and insects. I prepared myself for a special kind of photography which I don't really call home: "macro". But still I went into the trouble of carrying the heavy equipment with me. This was my first dedicated "macro tour".

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Interesting head-gear??

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Beauty after death...........

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

My green valley.........


The moment we took the long road inside, we discovered that we were in the middle of a group of movie scene shooters. This was an annoying occurrence and didn't seem to fade, as those people just seemed to copy our walking pace. We mostly kept our cameras quiet during this whole walk through this scenic road. I did no photography on the road even though I missed it. My annoyance made me blind really. We lost them eventually. Began to feel a little more comfortable with no more than nature in front of us. And before I even started to realise whether to love or hate macro photography, heavens leaked. Our gears retreated into the bags and we looked for shelter. We took some group photos and called them our most successful shots of the whole tour! But it was nice that we actually didn't start to leave. Gradually, after a long wait, the drizzles gave up and we moved. It was around 12:00 midday. We were at last having some fun with our gears.

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

The water-crystals were beaming........

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Architecture of rain........

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Marking the territory..........

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Hairy brother!!

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Camouflage expert.......

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

As if they don't want to come down to earth.....

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Nature's colourful clown!!

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Walking on the edge...........

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Up close and personal.........

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Crystal balls..........


We walked a took pictures on the way. Water droplets on the leaves and flowers were particularly succulent. The whole forest-like area was now teeming with clickers! We gave the bugs enough exposure for their lifetime!

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

House on the lake.........


We moved on and on until by around 1:00PM we reached a big water-tank where we began to think of going to the other end of the park, right on the western flood protection embankments. We took rest as we began to feel the heat of a very humid day. The brief rain did little to help us in this regard.

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

The colour-man!!

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Just a stoppage in life.......

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Boats of colour.........

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Idle........

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Waiting for something?

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

A lonely dot in time........

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

Built to reflect..........

From SB Photowalk: Mirpur, Dhaka, September 2008

A quiet reading..........


So, we actually ended up at the other end of Botanical Garden. It was around 1:30PM. The whole scenario changed. The macro shooting has seen its day and now we were back to age-old landscape and lifestyle shooting. The other side of the embankment was full with the flood waters of autumn. This year floods weren't that severe, but the City's embankments certainly proved their value.

We snapped for some time, until we really started to feel the heat under the open sky. By around 2:00PM we called it a day and looked for the ways to return home. The photowalk was a nice experience with the meeting of so many. The best part of any photowalk is the socialisation. We get to meet that many at the same time. I didn't have a particularly interesting day of shooting. But I would be lying if I say I could smell boredom. I was a great tour and got me look for the next one.