The Soul of a Photograph(er) : An Introduction to My Work

I have been lucky to find muses who want to create with me over the past 4-5 years. In what seems to be a very short span of time to many, it does seem a very large one for me. Given the fact that this I not my full time profession, and that I need to travel about 300-400kms for any of my shoots, on my weekends.

When I started of course it was portraits and had to also learn the tricks of editing my work, I would spend endless hours perfecting a picture. The sea of editing is such, that the minute you touch your picture to fix a “flaw”, it only trains your eyes to find more “flaws”. Also there is no end to your own and your collaborators insecurities on this front. It can never be perfect. And in the end it actually was just about how well was the photo edited to someone else’s idea of perfection. All the hard work that you did travelling, booking a location, getting some clothes , gear , editing etc etc etc was just a presumptive given.

Fortunately, the very same muses also gradually pushed me for more intimate portraits. Maybe they saw my resistance to overtly edited images, and also my eyes for natural beauty. And suddenly, unlike for other photographers, my need demands for post process went on decreasing. It surely did not mean putting out technically poorly shot images. Each shoot also was a learning, and you learn to shoot better, you plan better gear, you understand light better, and when you know that there is no post process you keep an eye for things that you do not want in your photograph. It could be as simple as a clothing tag.

And trust me the more you move away from the post process scenario, the more time you have for yourself and for shooting. You also end up attracting the kind of people who know what you stand for, and are ok to create in that spirit. Hence I feel it is really very important for a photographer or any artist for that matter, to find what they stand for, and at the same time also loudly put it out there for everyone.

Today, I shoot almost 1500-2000 images on a shoot day. And I am able to share my work with my collaborators usually within a day or two. All I do is import them, rename them, folder them and share them. I share it all, they are free to use, delete the ones in their own. I discourage editing and use of filters by them as well.p, as if feel, the images have been shot to a mood, a mood that prevailed that day between us and everything around us.

Also with posting I am trying more and more to post the photographs as they ve been shot. Maybe some light contrast adjustments but still very very very close to how it was shot. I am able to do this by making adjustments in my camera during the shoot itself to create the light and contrast and also by creating a mood by framing to locations, light and styling the shot. Hope you enjoy my environment but intimate portraits.

I am happy to be creating. Are you too ?