Last year, I got some nice photos of the wonderful Copenhagen Pride Parade. So this year I had planned to do it even better. Unfortunately, I did not have time to go through with my intended project, but I still managed to take some photos at the parade. Hopefully I also learned something from last year, being:

• Make eye contact with people, smile to them and thank them by waving or doing thumbs up afterwards.
• Do I want a short DOF or a long DOF? – Always think about the aperture. Lots of pictures from last year had either too large (only bokeh outside of subject’s face) or too small an aperture (too much details of the background). The challenge is to be able to tell from the scenery whether the background will add to the image or only distract.
• Get closer to the people! If you get closer, you will also get better eye contact and a closer presence of the person.
• Be realistic and don’t shoot thousands of pictures – when am I gonna take the time to sort and post process these? I took over 3000 pictures last time – this time I shot around 500. I’ll be the first one to admit taking loads and loads of pictures – it’s also a really good method of improving yourself as a photographer (I’ll maybe write about that later) – but at a point I just felt I had to go the other way, trying to be more effective on the “great pics / # of shots” scale.
• Think about where the (strong summer-) light is and choose where to stand. I did not remember this as much as I should have.

Check my photos out below and please let me know which one you like the best.

Best regards /Björn

Date: 15th of august 2009
Suggested start time: 17.00
Starting place: Copenhagen central station (Hovedbanegården).

Suggested route: Hovedbanegården > Rådhuspladsen > Strøget > Nyhavn > Amalienborg > boat bus over the canal > Operaen > Vor Frelsers Kirke > Børsen > Christiansborg.

Sounds interesting? Thoughts on the route or start time?

It is common with my photowalks that I return with nothing but plants and houses. This time, I set out to try and capture some people too. It turned out that if you walk straight up to people with your camera up front, they don’t mind getting their picture taken. I teamed up with Tommy and we went away from the bigger part of the group, and out to Västra Hamnen, Stapelbäddsparken and Sundspromenaden. What can I say about the weather? Last year’s photowalk had rained a lot, and this year the day started off by pouring rain for hours. But just before 16.00 when the photowalk started, the sun came out. Most of the tour was without rain. So I think we can consider it a success.

Here are some of my best shots from the photowalk.

When we reached Sundspromenaden, the climate suddenly changed into some heavy rain and winds

The girls have just attended a wedding at Malmöhus.

Waiting for green

These people looked so beautiful. I just walked up to them and asked for a shot.

Walking up to people was making me feel a bit awkward at first, but once I got going it became much more natural to me. I did not find it easy to find any good pictures though, and I did not feel particularly inspired. But what the hey… It was good fun and we had a good beer at Svea Bar & Bistro afterwards, where I also met more photographers. Me and names, I don’t remember most of the names except for Björn which is an easier name to me for some reason

The Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk of Malmö 2009 was well arranged by Roger and Amy. Thanks again guys!