Hyderabad Weekend Shoots- Friendship Day meet

The first Sunday of August is recognized as 'Friendship Day' in most parts of the world and is celebrated with much fervor in India. Although a foreign idea it is widely accepted by most urban Indians, just like the Valentine's day.

This year, I celebrated the occasion with my photography friends from the group 'Hyderabad Weekend Shoots'. We are a bunch of passionate, creative and adventurous camera geeks who meet almost every weekend to click pictures to our hearts content, on some predetermined theme. We then exchange the pictures online and share our comments & techniques used.

Our Friendship band

Our meeting point was the Barista coffee shop on road 36, Banjara hills. I was one of the first ones to reach the place giving me ample time to interact with each and everyone of the attendees, as they trickled in one after the other. We probably had the most creative friendship band in all of Hyderabad, designed by our very own Shekhar anna. It is an old camera film with double sided tape stuck on one end.

We were definitely the most noisy ones in the coffee shop. Around 20 of us focusing our cameras on each other, taking pictures of everything in sight and occasionally breaking something or the other. The seniors enthralled the newcomers with their photography trips to the far corners of country. While some were discussing tehcniques and ideas, others were busy ogling over someone's latest camera equipment.

We ended the meet by discussing an important project called "Save the lake". It is an initiative by BIG FM 92.7 and the Indian Army to save the Hussian Sagar lake from further deterioration. Hyderabad Weekend Shoots has decided to contribute to the cause in it's own way. Our idea is to capture images of various lakes which are fast becoming extinct due to encroachment and pollution. The images will portray the causes behind the drying up of so many lakes and the present condition of the remaining ones. These images will then be showcased at a public event to create awareness.

I sure wish that each and everyone of us is able to capture, thought provoking and captivating images for this campaign. A cause backed by so many like minded people with good intentions will definitely yield some positive results.

All the best everyone and a very Happy Friendship Day!