A Workout for Street Photography?

Why preparing for street photography sessions with stair climbing is a good idea for some of us.

I think most street photographers out there would scoff at the idea of working out just for leisurely activity like street photography, where walking is already a large part of it and a physical activity unto itself. But I’d like to point out that stair climbing is a fantastic workout, one that I adapted during the pandemic as an alternative to doing absolutely nothing physically. After a few weeks of stair climbing when I first got started, I could definitely tell there had been an improvement in my stamina and how this activity could be a great way to prepare street photographers for long outings.

A Couple of Advantages to High City Living

Moving into a new 58-story building actually has few advantages when you live in Mumbai, especially if you only live on the fourth floor. The view kinda sucks, for starters. From my office window now, I can see some poor bastard working out in the detached gym below, who undoubtedly is trying to "squeeze one in" before heading off to work. The tennis court lights reveal a tennis coach instructing a couple of newbies. And a troupe of building guards is huddled near the front gate like they're planning on a Raid-On-Entebbe-style assault on the hapless tennis players. All par-for-the-course for my morning viewing pleasure.

But do you want to know two very important benefits of living lower-floor style in a massive, overly self-important tower complex is? Number One: you don't have to wait as long for the lifts. Number Two: you've got a lot of stairs to climb, buddy!

People Often Exercise for No Particular Activity in Mind

Most people work out for no other reason than to stay healthy and fit, i.e., to look good. Not bad reasons. But I gotta tell ya, I hate the gym and I hate the idea of working out for no performance payoff. What are these people doing, working out so that they're better equipped to sit on their asses all day at the office? If I'm going to ever spend any more money on a gym membership, there's gotta be a specific set of reasons for doing so. Gym equipment, in my humble opinion, prepares most of us for a spoonful of nothing in the real world.

So let's bring this around to street photography and the reason for this article. Stair climbing is an excellent way to prepare one's self for long sessions of street photography. What's a long session? Four or more hours, in my book. Maybe less if you're bogged down with a giant backpack of camera gear and it's 100F outside with 90% humidity. Here's looking at you, Mumbai.

Why Stair Climbing Workouts for Street Photography?

Having just started back to my 50 floors of stair climbing routine after a few months (too much to get into), I'm immediately reminded of one benefit. Climbing stairs is extremely low-impact, easy on the joints. For someone like me who's had one knee operation and likely needs one more to fix it, climbing stairs has never injured my knees or legs in any way. It seems almost counterintuitive to me that by climbing or running flights of stairs that I've never had a setback due to injury. But that's been my experience so far. The only downside is when you're first starting out that you may experience some nausea from overdoing it. A 10-second rest will usually cure that for me.

It's perfectly acceptable to me that the only practice one needs for walking is walking. To get one's walking legs back, after all, is but a matter of kick-starting the routine again. The reason stair climbing entered my workout routine at all is because of the global pandemic. I had to substitute something for all my usual walking and street photography sessions. And I sure as hell wasn't going to join the morning and evening strollers here and do these pointless circles around some stupid swimming pool. Fortunately, I was able to make use of the many stairs in my building to keep walking even if I had to listen to music to get through each session.

I came to a few conclusions after getting my stair climbing legs in order. I was in much better shape, minute for minute in the effort put forth, doing stair climbing versus ordinary walking. Two, it didn't take much time to build up my stamina. Three, as a finisher for my home exercise routines, I was able to make consistent 40-minute workouts, 5 days a week, that were far more effective than walking alone. In short, the ease of walking (which had always been a passion of mine most of my life) became much more automatic when I embarked on the few street photography sessions I'd managed to sneak in during the Covid 19 phase.

So do street photographers need to work out just for walking around? Maybe not. If you're young and fit walking around for hours at a time is nothing. But if you're up in my age bracket at just over 50, your mindset may change so that everything you do in preparation is well-suited to your work. And street photography can be a lot of work, a lot of on your feet, a lot of hustle, exploring, and on the go-ness. Every day of physical mobility isn't something to take for granted any longer. It makes sense then that to train for the simple act of walking for long stretches of time would be best exemplified by vertical exertion that's low-impact. Better yet, a stair-climbing workout of 50 floors takes less than 20 minutes for me at a steady pace. When I'm running the majority of floors, it's a 15-minute workout.

Running Stairs for Street Photography?

That's right. Because after a couple of weeks or so this stair climbing, much like walking, becomes less of a challenge at shorter time spans. When I first began to run stairs, I just tried to see how many floors I could do before having to resort to walking. Then I'd walk the rest of the way. Later, I began each stair climbing session running until I maxed out and then started running every other floor. I'd just begun entertaining the idea of running all 50 floors consecutively without stopping when I fell ill with dengue, which put me in the hospital and rendered me bed-ridden for several weeks. Now, my goal is to work up to where I'd been fitness-wise and set out to conquer running all floors.

If you've read this far and have dabbled in street photography, you may think it crazy to talk about training for an activity that's largely leisurely. Well, maybe in your part of the world that's what it is. But in Mumbai and with its 18+ million residents, walking the streets where there are often little or no sidewalks, or broken sidewalks, or sidewalks where scooter and motorcycle riders use to go around traffic jams, or sidewalks where the homeless use for toilets, sometimes we street photographers here opt for what the locals do: which is avoid sidewalks and walk in the busy streets. While there are a few notable places in Mumbai to walk in peace, I can guarantee you that I'm not hyperbolizing the street situation here. Join me in one of my street photography workshops and I'll show you!

The point I'm making is this. Having a bit of endurance to help you with long street photography sessions in a place like Mumbai goes a long way in a "leisurely" activity where one is looking around all the time for subjects in a chaotic environment while trying to avoid becoming a casualty of an involuntary vehicle impact. Or from a surly cow.

Scroll below to watch a video on how to do stair climbing properly. The guy’s a doctor so you can listen to him about how to avoid injuries.