As for bisexuals, I’m with Woody Allen, it merely doubles your chances of getting a date on a Saturday night.

Fuck Woody Allen and that god forsaken quote! I mean seriously, every time someone brings it up I want to punch them and I know it wont resolve anything but still. Its a belittling statement and Woody Allen needs to be slapped for making it such a common response.

Okay, so the whole little bit of opinion is just another horrid back step for the entire community. Why is it so easy for people to think that plucking the groups that are further behind in developing rights is a good thing? How will we make any progress if we keep beating each other down? How will anything change if we turn on each other? Dropping the trans community is only going to make things worse not better, this community has made a lot of progress and will continue making progress, why step back? Why push them back down? Its not right.

And as for the B being dropped, really? We don’t even get an explanation we get thrown under the bus while Woody Allen screams at us.

ugh. I’m too mad to write, also, the whole story about an ex cop killing people in my area is freaking me out as well. People who believe so intensely, people who believe so fully in their purpose are the ones most capable of watching the world burn. I’m praying he gets caught before any other individuals innocent or not get killed. If you are interesting in this little aside I’ve added here’s the CNN post about it L.A police look for ex-cop suspected in shootings or you know just type in shootings, LAPD, ex-cop I’m sure you’ll find a bunch of stuff.

Captured For Life : Article in Postnoon that showcased my Embedded Wedding Photography

When I began applying Visual Story-telling approach towards photographing people outside of traditional media assignments, I was very clear that I had to increasingly play the role of an embedded journalist. Years that I spent in mainstream media had convinced me that being a passive observer in the assignments did not help me to get down to the heart of the matter.  I became an embedded documentary photographer in all my long-term projects and focused on bringing out the perspectives of the people whom I documented in my images. It was about establishing trust with the subjects so that they are comfortable with my presence ( and my camera) in their daily lives.

Indian weddings, traditionally have had a photographer who only arrives on the day of the wedding rituals and meets the  couple for the first time while shooting their wedding. There was hardly any interaction between the photographer and the people who were being photographed. It was more like being a stranger seated along with a family around the dinner table.

How comfortable would this dinner be? Can this stranger understand the conversations around the table? Would he know the language? Would he know the relationships?

Perhaps, the answer for all the questions above would be towards the negative side.

In my honest opinion, wedding photography at its finest is a documentary photography project. Justice to this project needs an embedded journalist’s approach. One cannot be a complete stranger to the people being documented in images. This is where I took to embedded wedding photography. In every wedding that I have photographed, I’ve strived to capture intimacy in my images. The trust I build with my subjects gives me the freedom, space, and ‘the right,’ to capture their roller coaster emotional ride through wedding rituals.

Internet has been a great boon to wedding photographers to reach out to their market. Today, It is relatively easier for couples to find on Facebook, young wedding photographers offering various packages to suit everybody’s budget. I see a lot of young blood in the industry.  Some are full-time into the business while some are doing to earn an extra income. Each photographer has an interesting portfolio.

The way they are positioning themselves to prospective clients is diverse. They call themselves with different titles – Contemporary Indian Wedding Photographer, Fine-art Indian Wedding Photographer, Candid Wedding Photographer and so on. The highlight in most of these portfolios is pre-wedding and post-wedding portraits of the couple. It seems to work well in marketing and acquiring clients. The couples seem to love this idea. Good for the business!

But, is wedding photography all about just portraits? Isn’t wedding an important event in one’s life? Isn’t it about an important day, or an entire week in one’s life? Isn’t there a story to be captured and told? Would a wedding be complete with just pre-wedding and post-wedding portrait shoots, but misses the joy, emotions, tears, laughter and all the celebration that take place during the wedding?

I guess not. I am a story-teller, I believe there is story to be told in every wedding. For me it is about making commitment to the task of documenting the wedding at its finest.

I always marketed myself as an Embedded Wedding Photographer, or as a Documentary photographer doing Embedded Wedding Photography. Amongst my peers, I saw very few photographers calling themselves as Documentary photographers  and their work as embedded wedding photography.

So, did it mean I had to re-position my brand with what is popular in market?

No. It is not just a brand, but the complete philosophy behind the work I do. I could not have discarded it. I believed that it would eventually get its due.

And finally, it seems to be seeing the daylight.

PostNoon, a daily afternoon newspaper in Hyderabad city, India, has today (February 18th, 2012) carried a double spread article with photos on Embedded Wedding Photography. It has showcased my work along with the works of two other photographers – Aditya Mopur and Madhu Reddy. The image shared above is the tearsheet of the article. All the images on Page 16 (left side page) of the article are my works. Click on the above image to download and view it in a larger size.

I am happy to see that ‘Embedded Wedding Photography‘ is doing the rounds in the mainstream media. I hope this will encourage more photographers who are story-tellers in the world of Wedding photography.

The article titled ‘Captured For Life’ can be read on the PostNoon’s online news-site too. To read it in the actual layout of the print, you can read it as E-paper too.

–> This person contacted me (Who would like to remain anonymous) who claims to have had a bad & bitter experience working with the Scribble Media / Post Noon team. The person says that once they get their money, they do not deliver as promised. They have requested me to post this over here..

“I normally would not like bring things like this to public and moreover do not like to take names but, I would like people to know my experience with KS, JH and mostly HR and his whole team was Horrible that I wanted people to know about it so that it does not happen to them. If they have such qualified people there, they should behave the way so support that. I have first-hand seen how a group of well-educated people from good families suddenly turn astray!! Based on my experience with Scribble Media/ Post Noon in the past months, I am absolutely dissatisfied with their service and will not recommend them to anyone else.

A number of people applied for a job there when there were openings, but whenever someone who has been in the business and who is completely honest and dedicated to his work, who does not support any kind of “deals” (if you know what I mean) or who could be a downfall in whatever “Dhanda” they are doing, were given some lame excuses or to why they didn’t get the job, even though the people were overqualified for that position.

A number of their vendors who are quite close to me have a lot of complains about them as well.

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