What's your style of photography?
Weddings are fun, and your photography should be too!
I call myself a documentary wedding photographer and I use this experience to tell the story of the wedding in a timeless and honest way. My style of photography – sometimes called reportage or wedding photojournalism – means that almost all the photographs are candid and unobtrusive to a large extent. I do love to take portraits and they are often unposed. But I don’t limit myself to just that. Being also an advertising photographer I often help couples by guiding them to give a sense of connection so that the portraits come out more meaningful and complement each other.
You can check my advertising and commercial portfolio here.
Do you take up only couple portrait photography?
Absolutely! I do and I love them. You can check some of them here.
I still like unposed images even while I make portraits of couples. However, to make sure that the portraits are poised and stand out, I start by giving the couple suggestions of a few basic pose ideas. Then I let the couple interpret for themselves what the pose should look like. As they pose in whatever comes naturally to them, I capture the moments. I am an observer after all.
I often make a couple portrait sessions as part of my wedding package, which we often do before the wedding. It’s also a good way to know the couple and the couple gets to know me as well.
Where are you based and do you take up assignments elsewhere?
I am presently based in the Silicon city of Bangalore in the Southern part of India but very much willing to travel anywhere in the world to document your wedding.
In the last ten years of photographing weddings, I have travelled to every nook and corner of India.
I love the wedding imagery on your website. I want exactly those images… happy smiling photographs. I want my wedding photographs to look fun.
The photographs I make at your wedding will be a mirror of your wedding day. Since the photographs I make are documentary style, it is impossible for me, or any photographer for that matter — even the most watchful ones — to recreate a scene or make a photograph of a situation that doesn’t exist. If your wedding is rich in events, be assured that you will see images that will truly chronicle your big day.
But I don’t recreate scenes. I don’t retouch images, which I do for my fashion work and I can see them here. But as a wedding photographer, I document your wedding true to what it is, giving you the story of the day frame by frame.
With so many years of experience photographing weddings, I can surely anticipate or catch an event on time, find an interesting angle to photograph but events and such situations need to occur. But a wedding has to be fun to make it look fun.
Oh, so you don’t retouch any images at all? What will be the deliverable time for these images?
I am happy to say, I don’t. It’s not like I can’t but with my wedding work, I don’t spend a lot of time retouching images. Your wedding is not a fashion shoot. So if you are looking for someone who can retouch your skin, remove unwanted skin blemishes, I may not be the ideal photographer for your wedding.
Having said this, the deliverable time still is anywhere between three and six weeks. You may ask why I still need so much time to give you the final images. Well, the answer is I spend a great deal of time in the edit. And by edit, I mean selecting the right image that tells the story of your day. They are very tightly edited — nothing more or less — but just everything that will tell the story in the most honest way. I take photographs and post-produce them by myself. I really don’t involve anybody else for the post-production work.
Edit is as important as the actual shoot. In fact, what I give you as final photographs shows my signature style as a wedding photographer. So honestly, it’s a herculean task to cut down a wedding set of 15000 images that I would have shot over three days in your wedding to 900 without losing the essence of the wedding day. This is the reason why it takes so long for you to receive your pictures.
Do you take group photos? We want some conventional photographs with our parents and close friends.
Of course, I do, and why not! But more often than not I have an additional photographer who takes care of conventional portraits. If it’s a small wedding, with very limited guests, I do it myself.
However, I am always the one photographing the couple, immediate family members, and the kith-and-keen of the couple. A classic posed picture with your parents and relatives is a memory you want to keep regardless of my style, and I would never dream of refusing to take them. I don’t include them on my website or in my blog as they wouldn’t fit in, but that doesn’t mean I don’t take them! You could even help me with a written list of the guests you want to include.
What are your fees?
I always offer a custom made package to my client. It’s best we get in touch and talk about your wedding in details.
How many images do you give as part of deliverables? And what do the final deliverables include?
There is no magic number, really. I have delivered a set from 2000 images to 200. It depends on your wedding, the events that are lined up for the day, the number of days of shoot etc. I will not restrict myself from delivering images if they are worthy to be shared and adds to the narration.