FKH Photo Walk No. 1 – Slovenia

Hi there, a guest post all the way from beautiful Slovenia this time. My name is Miran and today I’d like to write a little bit about the very first photo walk that was organized through PhotoWalk.Me.

In our little photographic club (Foto Klub Hrastnik, Slovenia or FKH for short) we were discussing the other day that for a photoclub we don’t actually do that much photography. At least not as a group. In fact I’ve never actually shot together with most of our members and I’ve been a member for ten years. Something needed to be done about this as soon as possible.

So imagine my delight when I stumbled upon PhotoWalk.Me, a brand new platform designed for doing exactly what we needed! And as it happened the little photo walk we put together to kickstart our creativity was actually the first ever on this platform.

The theme was to be nature and landscapes up in the hills in the golden hour but as it turned out this plan was a little too ambitious for this time of year. At the last minute a cold front with high winds, snow and cold temperatures forced us to revise the plan and instead head to the valleys to shoot some streams and waterfalls. That’s still nature and landscape though so it’s all good.

It’s a little difficult to gauge the success and the reach of photowalk.me at this very early stage and also this walk in particular was more of an internal affair within our photo club and we didn’t reach out to the general public, but I’d say it all went very well from an organizational point of view. A couple of people signed up through PhotoWalk.Me, a few others joined in over email (but a couple backed out at the last minute), and in the end there were four of us taking the walk. I’d call that a success.

Had I known in advance that I was going to write this little report, I’d have taken some more photos of the actual walk and the surroundings but sadly I didn’t, so you’ll have to take my word for it that it was absolutely beautiful. We walked up a scenic little gorge, very steep and narrow and just a stones throw away from the road, that was virtually untouched and unknown even to the locals. A beautiful little stream and countless little waterfalls provided so many photo opportunities it was actually difficult to decide where to stop and which photos to take. I could easily have spent the better part of a day there by myself. And the weather was perfect as well. It was miserable, cold and wet which is exactly what was required.

Personally I didn’t have much success photographically though, I have to say. I mostly shoot black and white film with a relatively large medium format camera but this time I chose to go with a small digital because of the difficult weather and terrain but that actually meant that I was just going to be even more careless with the equipment than usual. The end result was predictable. After taking exactly one shot of the waterfalls I somehow managed to drop the camera right in the middle of the stream. It got soaked to the sensor and of course I was done for the day. So all I have to show for it is this one rather mediocre photo:

No worries though, the camera later dried and is back in working condition.

My colleagues had better luck photographically and as I say, it was difficult to call it a day and return to the starting point. I can’t wait to see their results. We finished the day forging plans for the future over some tea and coffee and the consensus is that we’ll do this on a regular basis from now on. I believe next time we’re doing a street photo walk so stay tuned for that.

Miran on Instagram
Miran’s Foto Klub Website

Thanks Miran for writing this first guest post for the first photo walk to take place listed on PhotoWalk.Me it sounds like a great walk. It’s not the number of people that show up that counts, but whether or not those that did enjoyed it. That single photo hardly looks mediocre to me, it’s lovely. From this one photo I can see what a beautiful place where your walk took place, it’s now on my list of places to visit. I’m pleased the camera survived. Martin – PhotoWalk.Me