Destination wedding photographers India – Ankit+Shiny
This wedding story is from Himachal Pradesh (Dec, 2016). ‘Destination wedding photographers India’ is a phrase used purely for the purpose of SEO (a necessary evil, if I want the Googling world out there to stumble upon my work). Please don’t mind?
Destination wedding photographers India – Part 1: the couple-shoot
That’s Ankit’s back in the foreground of the above photograph. Ankit and I have known each other for many years now. He is a junior from IIT. The lady in blue is Anika – Ankit’s twin sister. Back in 2012, when I had just started taking up wedding photography assignments, Ankit had hired me to shoot Anika’s engagment in Delhi. Many in their family still remember me (‘Vatsa’) as the guy who created some amazing images from that engagement. The lady in red is Shiny. Ankit and Shiny were getting married. This was the first time I saw Shiny. As she climbed up those stairs. Anika left the couple with me and excused us. The three of us then walked around the beautiful property of Mahindra resorts in Kandaghat and I clicked pictures whenever there were moments that I felt must be captured. Both Ankit and Shiny were absolutely excited for their wedding. And it showed.
You can read more about my approach to couple-shoots here. In short, I limit ‘choreographing’ poses and just let the couple hang out with each other and enjoy each other’s company for most part. And I guess that shows in the pictures. Anyway, so a couple can have only so much of free time for themselves in a wedding. We had to wrap up the shoot so that the Mehndi could take place!
Destination wedding photographers India – Part 2: Mehndi
There was nothing much fancy about the mehndi. Just family and friends having some fun. Ankit’s mum did get a bit emotional towards the end.
Engagement and a cocktail party were the last events for the day. And I was really looking forward to that open bar! :P
Destination wedding photographers India – Part 3: Engagement
The evening was kind of cold. But then we had access to woodfire and all that. So it was fine, more or less. The alcohol helped too! :)
For rest of the evening, we drank and we danced and when it was very late, we all went to sleep.
Of course candid photography means not asking anyone to pose. But that doesn’t mean if once in a while the family wants to pose for a picture, I would refuse or anything! One or two of such pictures are always cool! :)
Destination wedding photographers India – Part 4: Haldi
‘I have been to many weddings but this looks like an epic location’, Ankit told me the next morning. I agreed with him. He then asked me if I could somehow capture a bit of the location too, along with the haldi function. I did.
The only thing left now was the actual wedding itself.
Destination wedding photographers India – Part 5: The wedding
Ankit put on a custom-made sherwani that reminded me for some reason, of our college.
The wedding itself was short and simple. It was followed by celebrations as everyone drank and danced, just like the night before! That’s why I really love destination weddings. They are just so much fun! They are more about people having a good time than one pooja after another!
So that’s about it. That’s the wedding story of Ankit & Shiny. Hope you liked it. This kind of candid photography is my style (the shaadiGrapher style) – authentic, natural and hardly about close-ups of people’s faces with blurred background. You can check out the pricing here.
PS: Below is a Vlog where you can see me going to shoot this wedding (and few scenes from the wedding celebrations itself).
PS 2: Destination wedding photographers India :P