Last Saturday I took part in a local Photo Marathon. Organised by few members of an independent photo association here in Montpellier, France.

There must have been about 50 photographers enrolled for this second annual edition. This is the first time I participated in this kind of activity. And quite an activity it was.

Everyone gathered at the Checkpoint (organiser’s mini gallery “Bar a photo”) for around 9.30 am. We had some time to mingle, have a coffee, meet fellow photogs and register our names, SD cards etc. We also found out that every 3 hours we will get 3 different themes so every 3 hours we had to get back with the results – 1 chosen image for each theme.

I was really excited to take part in something like this but didn’t think it would be so challenging. It appears to be a simple idea and you’d think 3 hours is plenty of time to find what you need and happy with. This was not the case. Oh and don’t forget about the selection part. You can only pick one image to present.

First of all I had no idea what kind of themes we will be presented with. The organisers didn’t disappoint and came up with some original stuff. Some of them only sounded easy but in practice proved to be a real challenge to fulfil. The images in this post all have titles to the respected themes we were given.

I started the marathon with another two photographers. We got to know each other, then discussed ideas and opinions about the given themes. We paused as soon as any one of us saw something interesting… Time flew by… Maybe it wasn’t a good tactic to go with but I wasn’t there to compete, I believe nobody truly was. It was about having fun, meeting new people and pushing yourself creatively. And it WAS fun, it was physically and mentally draining but it was incredibly enjoyable and exhilarating. A 9 hour photo marathon was a success and I would do it again. At the end of the day I checked my phone to see the distance I covered. 13 km.

Thank you for stopping by

YR