So we were off for a good start. Pavitra and Sunil, coming from the cold London air, didn’t seem to have too much difficulties adjusting to the warm weather of Gujarat. Come to think about it, they probably even miss it right now. They came to have their wedding in India as this is where many of Sunil’s family live and it simply made more sense than to bring the entire Indian family to the UK.

It was all planed perfectly, as always, but in the best tradition of Indian weddings there was a very, VERY, long delay. The family from Surat for whom the wedding was in India got stuck on the road and only reached after lunch. Pavitra, who was the first bride I’ve even met who was ready before time, had to sit and wait in her room for more than four (!) hours before her seven uncles finally came to bring her. They could have been Snowwhite and the seven dwarfs if the Mamas (Mother’s brothers) were not so big. After all this delay even the pundit took his time and everyone was tired of waiting but when he was done everyone was so happy that it was almost worth it. We had a blast.

The long day turned into a cooler evening. Gujarat is a ‘dry’ state where you can only get a permit to buy alcohol as a tourist but everyone had a British passport so the groom’s suite became the bar and the party started a long time before the reception. What a party that was. The embarrassing pictures are in the private collection of the couple For Their Eyes Only.  Mr. and Mrs. Parekh, it was an absolute pleasure being there with you.

By Sephi Bergerson

Sephi Bergerson is a wedding photographer based in India since 2002 and is available for Indian wedding photography, destination wedding photography in Udaipur, Jaipur, palace weddings in Rajasthan or a beach wedding in Goa or Kerala. Sephi is also happy to travel for wedding photography in Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Maldives, Thailand and Sri Lanka. 

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Jaipur, with it’s beautiful Rajasthani architecture and palaces is an amazing backdrop for a destination wedding, and this one really used almost all of the pink city’s beauty. I really have no idea why I took this long to post the finale as it has definitely been one of the most colorful and beautiful weddings I have ever attended.

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Sephi Bergerson is a wedding photographer based in India since 2002 and is available for Indian wedding photography, destination wedding photography in Udaipur, Jaipur, palace weddings in Rajasthan or a beach wedding in Goa or Kerala. Sephi is also happy to travel for wedding photography in Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Maldives, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

The post Kiran & Rajiv’s Destination Wedding in Jaipur (Part 2/2) appeared first on FotoWala | Wedding Photography.

The book will feature weddings from a vast array of Indian communities: Tamil Brahmin, Bengali and Sikh, Hindu Punjabi, Hyderabadi Muslim and Rajput; Kashmiri Pandit, Ladakhi Buddhist and Goan Catholic; Syrian Christian and Zoroastrian Parsi. I was also fortunate enough to get a chance to photograph a mass wedding of the Dawoodi Bhora community in Mumbai and a Kodava Coorg celebration.

I am truly honored to have this work featured in the New York Times India blog with an eighteen image slideshow. You may have a look on the original NYT page for the slideshow here http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/weddings-across-india-in-photograph/

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The Engagement Shoot

One of the favorite services that photographers now offer, something that can greatly enhance everyone’s overall wedding experience, is that of the engagement shoot. It is called ‘Engagement shoot’ as in the US it is usually planned for a separate date before the wedding itself. It gives the couple something fun to do while they wait for their wedding day to arrive, and allows them to get comfortable with the photographer and with being photographed.

A personal shoot like this takes a few hours of concentrated time without the worry of attending a wedding and hence should really be planned for a different day from the wedding itself. In case of a destination wedding it is sometimes very difficult, if not completely impossible to plan for a personal shoot to happen before the wedding but a day after, when all the guests have left, is a great time to relax. Taking time off from the family and planning a personal shoot can offer a new perspective for your wedding in India. Capturing the real-life moments as they happen in the market place or the busy street, the intimacy, the emotion and the moments that you want to remember.

Finding a dramatic location in India, a simple location that will provide opportunities to get some incredible images, is never a big deal even in the smallest town. During a two day event there is usually enough time to go out and explore a bit. The shoot itslef is extremely fun and rewarding and you can be prepared to come away with images that will knock your socks off!

Here are a few images from Puja and Varun’s engagement shoot in Delhi last November. The wedding itself took place in the US but they decided to take the time off while doing their wedding in India to have some pictures taken. We went to Lodi Garden (how obvious can this be and then to Kotla market near Defense Colony and came out with this.

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Kintan and Rishi’s wedding in Gujarat was a full experience. As in many Gujarati weddings the pre-wedding ceremonies were longer than the actual wedding but we made it through. I could show you some pictures of the wedding, and I probably will post them sometime in the future when I catch up on my back log of work, but it is the post wedding couple photo shoot on the iPhone that was really interesting.

We went out for a local Gujarati breakfast at Adalaj stepwell not far from Ahmedabad and got a little carried away with the Chai, Gatia and fried green chillies over wonderful conversation. It was already late morning and we had little time left before I had to catch my flight back home. We took one portrait with lights at the monument and l was looking for more ideas for shots. At close to 11am the light was already harsh and I suddenly thought that we should simply try a few ‘instagrams’. Kintan and Rishi were happy to play and in the next ten minutes we took six simple snaps. In the car on the way to the airport I quickly edited and shared them with the couple. It was such a new experience and we all loved it. Maybe not award winning images but  it was a fun shoot and we have some great memories. I’d love to shoot a whole wedding with the iPhone but I think the delay with the shutter response will have to be resolved first. Kintan and Rishi, you are the best and thank you for being so experimental

 The six images in the above gallery are direct images form the iPhone scaled down in size. I used Snapseed app to enhance the images and Polamatic for the polaroid effect. Feel free to play around and have fun. Sephi Bergerson is a wedding photographer based in India since 2002 and is available for Indian wedding photography, destination wedding photography in Udaipur, Jaipur, palace weddings in Rajasthan or a beach wedding in Goa or Kerala. Sephi is also happy to travel for wedding photography in Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Maldives, Thailand and Sri Lanka. 

The post A fun couple shoot with an iPhone appeared first on FotoWala | Wedding Photography.

Destination weddings are by definition something a lot more relaxed and possibly enjoyable that a wedding at your home town. Not only you get to spend quality time with your family and friends on vacation, but you also enjoy everything that comes as a package with a wedding; good food, great smiles, a few tears and all in all a great party. The wedding becomes a big festival and from this point of view Jaipur has more than a few jewels to offer. I don’t think that any other city in the world but Jaipur would give you an opportunity to participate in an elephant polo. The dress code was Pink for the bride’s side and Blue for ‘Team Raj’ who took the match a bit more serious and eventually opened the champaign. A super fun afternoon. Dinner and the Sangeet back at Devi Ratn in the evening were only an excuse for some more dancing and partying, and this was only the beginning.

Part two will have the Mehendi at Jaigarh fort and the two weddings, A Sikh wedding at the small and intimate gurudwara in Jaipur, followed by a Hindu wedding, barat on an elephant and all, later in the afternoon at Jai Mahal palace.

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Sephi Bergerson is a wedding photographer based in India since 2002 and is available for Indian wedding photography, destination wedding photography in Udaipur, Jaipur, palace weddings in Rajasthan or a beach wedding in Goa or Kerala. Sephi is also happy to travel for wedding photography in Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Maldives, Thailand and Sri Lanka. 

The post Kiran & Rajiv’s Destination Wedding in Jaipur (Part 1/2) appeared first on FotoWala | Wedding Photography.

The wedding was indeed a small one but following the wild barat, Nina managed to pull a surprise royal entry carried on a doli just like a real maharani. Everyone was blown away by the Indian wedding, the fire, the sindoor, the flowers. Little did they know that the pundit was very brief and practically ran through the wedding ceremony so that everyone could quickly move on for diner, fireworks and champaign.

The jewel in the crown was no doubt the most amazing wedding cake I have ever seen. The entirely edible elephant cake with the couple sitting on its back took three weeks to make and the entire hotel staff, including the manager, was there to bring it out. As expected, it took the breath away. It was a challenge to make and the chef as well as the rest of the staff where really proud of it. Hats off to you. What a finale for a super great weekend in India.

Nina and Jake, I promised a teaser before I send you the entire collection of Images, so here it is. I hope you like it …

Sephi Bergerson is a wedding photojournalist based in India since 2002 and is available for Indian wedding photography, destination wedding photography in Udaipur, Jaipur, palace weddings in Rajasthan or a beach wedding in Goa or Kerala. Sephi is also happy to travel for wedding photography in Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Maldives, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

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Real value VS Perceived value

The public opinion will split according to the point of view. If people judge the post by looking at the real value they should be getting for their money (subjective as it is) than they might agree with the general points I was raising. If they look at it from the selling ability and market force angle than they might say I am jealous at someone else’s presumed success. This can go on forever but it is somewhat like a tennis match. The point I was raising lies right were the net is and the ball will eventually fall to one side or the other. It will happen by force of gravity and not by the shouting of the crowd. Some photographers are worth their salt while others are not.

On the other side of the net, some clients actually shop for the most expensive item believing that “if it shines it must be gold”. Some people think the more expensive an item is, the better it must be. Their perceived value is forged by advertisers, marketers, and possibly also the way they were brought up. Some consumers are willing to pay a premium for a photographer they perceive as being the “best” money can buy. Making the client believe that you are worth the money you quote is an art form by itself.

The poll

I thought it would actually not be such a bad idea to run a poll to compliment the post, and try to find out what wedding photographers in India actually charge.

Here are the raw results:

The results

As in every poll, it might be a good idea to ignore the extreme sides ‘A’ and ‘J’ and focus on the groups ‘B’ to ‘I’. It is not that there are no wedding photographers charging more than 3 lakh (about US5,400) a day but there is a chance that some of these votes were a negative reaction to the above mentioned post, while others might be working as a team of photographers and so the price is divided.

Some of the votes came from countries like Egypt, Norway and Japan and were a big surprise. I also know for fact that photographers do travel from the UK and the US for assignments in India, but this was not what i was trying to find out. Let’s just look at the votes from India, 287 in total. 19% reported they charge more than 3 lakh a day and another 13% charge less than Rs 25,000 a day, a total of 32% which is 92 people. Of the remaining 195 photographers what is very clear is that the majority of photographers who cover weddings in India charge anywhere between Rs 25k and Rs 50k. The rest are divided more or less equally and charge anywhere between Rs 50,000 and 3 Lakh a day, with some exceptions of course. The thing to remember is that “All Cognac is Brandy but not all Brandy is Cognac”

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The participants had arrived on Thursday afternoon and Ayesha and Niju were there to see that everyone checked in comfortably at the lovely Stonewater eco resort on Santrem beach not far from the airport. Everyone had a night to relax before starting on Friday morning. We tried to balance the theory with as much shooting as possible. After an introduction on branding, marketing, pricing, copyright, model release and all this boring stuff we had a break for lunch followed by a talk on destination wedding photography around the world with an amazing slideshow by Christophe. A bus was then waiting for us to take us to the lovely Portuguese quarter of Panaji, the Fontenhias, for a couple shoot. We had two couples, Aekta & Nitin who came down from Bangalore especially for the workshop, and Luuk & Sanne who were traveling in Goa and were happy to come and pose for us. We split the group in two so all the participants will have a chance to shoot with both Christophe Viseux and me. Luuk and Sanne were with me while Aekta and Nitin were with Christophe. I want to kill myself for not really shooting enough that afternoon but it is not easy taking pictures while making sure everyone else is doing so. After the shoot we all went for some street food on Miramar beach which was a huge success.

The second day started with another short presentation followed by a group critic session all the way through lunch. The two couples had joined us after lunch and we had a ‘getting ready’ photo session while Ayesha and Niju were working to set up the mock wedding on the beach. We promised monsoon and we got it. Rain clouds started gathering and the afternoon beach wedding and photo shoot turned out to be a fun-in-the-rain session. The light was a bit challenging in the beginning but became slightly better about an hour after we started. Tired and wet we ended the shoot in early evening and once everyone had a chance to change we moved for dinner and drinks and a low-light photography session that lasted well into the night.

By the morning of the third day it was a bit difficult to get out of bed so we started fifteen minuted later than planned. The entire third day was to be on the digital workflow, post production on Lightroom 4 starting with the ‘Library’ module and moving on to ‘Develop’. All the participants were working on their own images while Christophe and I were giving individual attention and guidance on the various features of Lightroom. We had a little break form the screen to take a few pictures of the table set-up that due to the rain had to be done under the roof and not on the beach. We did manage some good shots after all although not exactly as planned. The last two hours gave us an opportunity to review each of the participants portfolios and give some feedback and direction as to how to take it to the next level.

A special thank you must be extended to Niju Mohan and Ayesha Madgavkar who have been working with me in the last few months and were simply amazing. The workshop went completely smooth without any hick-ups, which if you have ever organized something in India you’d know how difficult this could be. You guys are amazing! Thank you very very much!

Thank you to BlackRapid for their support with the sponsored participants and also for sending us some great R-straps. Always a pleasure working with you!

And a thank you to all of you who took the time to come and take part in this workshop with us. It was absolutely wonderful meeting you all. There is tremendous talent here and both Christophe and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to spend some time and learn from all of you.

By Sephi Bergerson
* All the images above where taken during the destination wedding photography workshop in Goa with Sephi Bergerson and Christophe Viseux. Some of the  images shot by the workshop participant’s can be viewed on the workshop gallery on FACEBOOK. I also took some snaps of the people and events. These can be viewed on my FACEBOOK page as well.

Sephi Bergerson is a destination wedding photographer based in Goa and available for beach wedding photography assignments in Goa and worldwide. 

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