Parshvi & Tushar's Wedding story.

Weddings are an awesome affair, exciting as it gets a photographer on his toes because of the music, lights and revelry all around and a slight nervousness to not miss any special moments nearby or afar( also when he's clicking another one). This season I didn't take many assignments, primarily because I injured my ankle on an early morning run which will keep me at home for good 2-3 months and also because the types of weddings I want to shoot are little far and apart to come by. That will be discussed later but I wanted to share one which I could manage because ofVimal, my go to second shooter with whom by my side I didn't have to get into foot stomping baraat and high up ladders. Though I did learn very important lessons this time regarding shooting a wedding.

The wedding day started with the bridal portraits, we could only meet the bride after she got ready at the venue, the makeup artist has a strong policy of not allowing a wedding photographer to shoot in her studio. As soon as I met Parshvi. the bride, she told me there would hardly be any place for the shoot so we decided to use the corridor to the stage for the same.

Instead of making the subject 'pose' I prefer to give them some directions in terms of what the situation is, what they are feeling and why to get a more emotive picture rather than just a body pose and angle.. Here I told her that the baraat was getting a little late in reaching the venue and she is supposed to be waiting to see Tushar for long.
 

And as the faint sound of drums and dance approached us, she lit in a half smile.

The baraar arrived and that's Tushar at helm of it. But the most energetic award of the night goes to his father.

The bride looks on as the 'baraat' enters the gate.

And then they finally meet....

The sindoor ceremony.

I like how coyly Parshvi is holding her saree which reminds me of 70s Bollywood village belles.

Just don't get misled by this picture, this bride will not cry profusely at the Vidai, the proof follows.

In all I had fun shooting this wedding, I will be coming up with a post soon regarding wedding photography which will help future wedding photography clients clear some myths and doubts regarding it so that it helps us in creating in better pictures for them..

For more pictures you can visit the Khicchik facebook page and for my non commercial work you can always visit my Instagram feed. Would like to know what you liked, didn't like what you would like me to post next or just a 'Hi' , it will be highly appreciated. :D

2016 EyeEm photography awards result.

Can Dagarslani, 31, from Istanbul, Turkey. Winner of the 'Portraitist of the year' category for 2016.

The results of 2016 EyeEm photography awards have been announced and I must say I really like the winning images in most of the categories. To check them out click here.

One of my friends called up in the middle of night to say sorry that I didn't win as she had been up to wait for the results but I didn't feel bad at all. It just felt like a kick in the butt to do better, the winner of photographer of the year, Zacharie Rabehi is a friend of mine from Facebook and seeing his video feature reminded me what it's all about, to just go out there and shoot, the exploration and not to worry if the images will come out good or not, just acting on the instincts. It reconnected me to the feeling which I had when I started out, to just have fun and risking to sound too modest, some things shouldn't come too soon, it would just make you complacent.

Checkout the 100 finalists from different categories that were selected out of 2,70,000 applicants. I was nominated in the photojournalist section for the photo below, you can checkout the other nominees of the category by clicking here.

My nominated entry in the photojournalism category.

All in all it was a great collection of images from the 100 nominees. below are my favorites across the categories. It thrills me to the bones that I have been placed among these amazing artists and a brilliant collection of images and that my work was selected and exhibited by some top notch people of the industry..

Chris Layton, 30, from Carmel, NY, United States

Mankichi Shinshi, 32, from Nagoya, Japan

Dmitri Popov, 46, from Aarhus, Denmark

By Ihar Paulau

Isara Pittayasiri, 28, from Bangkok, Thailand

By Dennis kwong

By Dasha

Image by 1000Worte

Debbie Fortes

Image by Christina Taylor.

Nominated for the 2016 EyeEm Photography Awards. Yes, Me.

How would it feel? You secretly wish it when you start out in a field of your choice and passion, to get recognition, to win awards, to be known among the world's best and it happens so soon. I must say this year has been going on a jet speed for me, so many features and projects and then comes the nomination for an International photography awards function, top 20 among 2,70,000 photographs and 35,000 photographers.

Early this month I got a mail from EyeEm , to send in a high resolution version of one of my pictures with a description for it and that I am in running for top 100 photographers to be nominated in different categories for photography awards and an official invitation to visit them in Berlin on the award night, and to keep mum till they announce it officially.

Finally it has been surfaced and I have been placed under the photojournalism category. Check out the link below to have a look at the nominations.

List of finalists for the photojournalism category.

Do comment on which ones do you like the most and which one do you predict would win, it's exactly one suspenseful month away on August 27.

PS: Click on the photo at the top to view the finalists from all the categories, they are just an amazing bunch of gobblesmackers.

Another feature on EyeEm.

Yohoo, though I have been featured many a times on EyeEm contest as a winner and runner up, it's their weekly feature that has got an eye on my work. The weekly curated list at EyeEm uploads is out and a picture that I took casually during a prep video shootthat has caught their attention. I must say that I like the pictures of others on this list a lot and envy them on their looks too.

Please go through the list by clicking on the picture and comment too as to which ones are your favorite. I particularly like the one with the girl and the car mirror(good enough click bait, ha?) .

This picture I took during a practice video shoot where we were standing on a railway bridge and there was an open dairy below, a composition waiting to be clicked.

Exhibited at the International Center of Photography. Another step forward.

April 30th and my work was exhibited at the prestigious International center of Photography, New York. I still have to let it sink in. ICP is a museum for photography and visual culture and a photography school. This year they started a photo hackathon and called in entries for creative visual story tellers. They ultimately selected 9 photographers all over the world and quite ecstatically I am one of them.

Here are the final selections for the exhibition.

The eleven final selections among thousands of entries for the first ever photo hackathon at International center of Photography.

The judges making the selection among shortlisted entries and it's so thrilling to see your picture lying on the table there among the people you don't know but experts in their field pondering over it.

The judges Photo Director at Mashable, Dustin Drankoski, Photographer and ICP Faculty Anja Hitzenberger,  Associate Photo Editor at Time.com and ICP faculty Josh Raab, with the help of ICP New Media Narrative students Mengwen Cao, Evan Cisneros and Susan Sawyers.
 

This is the picture exhibited at the International Center of Photography's hackathon theme, "Telling stories Differently".

This picture was taken in Samesi, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India on a monsoon evening with the sun almost about to set and creating beautiful light through the clouds and a tree in the background. This boy and his family were the lone inhabitant of a ground which used to host a big fair every Thursday which doesn't happen anymore and the ground is rarely visited by anyone. The family was roasting rice when I reached there in a clear monsoon sky and a beautiful sunset skimming though trees created this beautiful natural Light. I just couldn't move away from them and clicked some pictures with no dialogues exchanged, they belonged to their space and I didn't feel like disturbing them and they silently gave me the permission.


P.S. Do comment on any of my pictures on any platform if you would like to know their backstory or how it was taken.