A cherubic little girl was the subject of some cheerful photos her father had taken years ago, and today, she has grown up to be a much sought-after wedding photographer who believes in weaving together various moments of joy and celebration into a story.
Aditi Shastri, who used to work as a marketing head after graduation, after heading different campaigns of her corporate company and creating supplementary videos for the same as the marketing head, has now quit her job to pursue her passion as a photographer.
Aditi tells us that she loves shooting people with her camera, and although wedding photography is her forte, she is also passionate about portraits, travel and fashion photography. In her own words: “Talking to my clients until I understand what exactly they want is important for me because only then can I think about exceeding their expectations. I must first be a good story-listener before I become a story-teller through the images I make. To me, that’s the difference between just a photographer who takes pictures and an artist who makes pictures.”
When Aditi wanted to push the horizons of her image-making skills, she wanted to test and hire camera equipment that she did not yet own. And when she was looking for a place that would rent out what she was needed, Toehold caught her attention. She says that she enjoys the rental services that Toehold offers, and that the company has always been helpful in her professional journey.
Aditi has an intriguing perspective on photography: “Photography defined as a way of documenting a moment is a cliché. But the fact that it has been so reused and the very fact that it’s a cliché shows how important it actually is for us, to document special moments and appreciate the stillness and quietude of it, freezing and revisiting moments. Cameras are the best teleporting devices, I must say,” she says and chuckles.
About capturing candid moments in a wedding, Aditi says, “When a series of moments wrap up special events in their womb and keep spooling themselves out of time swiftly, it’s hard to tell if people would be able to remember all of them. So, when a photographer seizes those candid moments for them, they begin to pay more attention to the same special moments than they could when the moment itself unravelled. It’s like a brainteaser. And this is how I like to understand the emotional depths of people in the nows and laters. And fortunately, most of my clients have treated me like a part of their family throughout the wedding, and that reflects in the end result.”
Aditi makes sure that she establishes a healthy emotional relationship with her clients so that they don’t feel conscious when she is photographing them. And they stay in touch with her long after the event gets over, making Aditi humbled about their checking on her. She asserts that that is as rewarding as the smile she sees on their faces after she shares the photographs with them. “It’s about passion, rapture and sincerity coming together to celebrate life through art,” she explains.
She continues about how important it is to maintain reputation: “To sustain growth in a saturated field such as wedding photography, it is important not to give up and constantly brainstorm for innovation and uniqueness. On a lighter note, it is hard to run out of chances in a country like India, where weddings are celebrated like festivals. I love every little detail about different traditions of weddings and if I weren’t a photographer, I would have been an event manager. That’s how much I like the celebration part of it.”
Aditi’s seemingly simple perspectives on the art of making images acquire profundity when they manifest in the form of photos. We wish that the same simplicity and inimitability waft through her art. Always.
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