Ben Sam Daniel, 27 years old, Bangalore, photographer, videographer, @samjc2007
I have always had a passion for Photography. I always loved to click whatever I found pretty from my point of view and wanted to capture it. I quit the corporate life about 5 months ago and setting up myself to get into Photography, Videography & the Digital world. Also I am a vivid traveler, love sharing my experiences through vlogs, guides on YouTube. To put my stand in the professional spot, I recently bought a domain name. Moreover, I am building my website right now.
It is tough to get money through photography lately, but once established well and gain a name in the market, and then it will definitely pay well.
I never knew I was good at photography. People started seeing my pictures and were impressed, started asking me to post them online. That is why I started my Instagram and that picked up many followers who liked my pictures. Recently a Brazilian Fashion designer now settled in India seen my pictures she was pretty impressed too. She wanted me to join with her business and be her official photographer. And of course I agreed.
About favorite places to shoot
I usually click pictures everyday of whatever I love seeing. Even today, I clicked the sunset that looks gorgeous. Every day it is just different and unique. As for foreign photographers,India would be absolutely an amazing place to click pictures. Here is the thing about India that impresses me the most: from beautiful snowcapped mountains to gorgeous green landscapes, cityscapes, tea plantations, beaches, waterfalls, cultures, wildlife. India literally has it all.
About future plans
Soon someday, if everything goes well, I would like to start photography tours in India. So foreigners wouldn’t have to worry about anything, just pay a package and I can guide them around and also teach them about photography too.
About inspiration
When you talk of inspiration, there is plenty of amazing photographers across the globe as today with social media. My specific inspiration is Peter McKinnon. He is someone who quit his day job and pursued photography/videography and YouTube. Today’s he has made it huge. Hoping to make it somewhere someday to learn and share.
About interesting experience
There were times I have agreed to do some budget shoots that are fairly important for the client, like a pre-wedding, baby shoot. Walking into a situation where you have performed when you are not sure of how you are going to do is pretty challenging. My challenging experience is when I first laid my hands on a very complicated DSLR that is entirely manual. Coming from someone using a point & shoot and directly to a full-frame manual DSLR and I was invited to photograph a concert of a big celebrity. There were times I was struggling with autofocus, trying to choose the right settings. Nevertheless. I still got some great shots that some magazines featured my images.
Dhenesh Annamalai, 22 years old, Salem, Tamilnadu, site supervisor, @aerial_holic_
I completed BE civil engineering last year. Now working in Chennai. Travelling is my passion. I am a self-learned photographer through the internet and YouTube tutorials. I love to travel and take aerial photos using my drone. I have not earned any money from my photos. However, I hope I will be earning hereafter.
About inspiration
The first thing is I love to travel. Therefore, I follow many travelers and travel accounts that inspired me to travel to beautiful places. In addition, a photographer that inspires me is Rakesh Kiran Pulapa @rakesh.pulapa. Because of this person, I have an interest in aerial photography and drones.
About favorite places
I like Kolukkumalai. It is about 7100 feet above sea level, which is just 32 km away from Munnar. The hilltop village is only accessible by local jeep's and there are no such possibilities for own vehicles due to adventurous uneven roads. At the top station, lush green mountains and magnificent clouds surround it. If it is possible by luck or by chance sometimes, one can witness the experience of magnificent cloud beds. I would like to highly recommend Kolukkumalai for its adventurous journey to the top by jeep and the most beautiful sunrise. Such a peaceful place and Kolukumalai sunrise is the best I have seen in my life. I would also recommend visiting Thanjavur Brihadeeshwarar temple, in Thanjavur and Mahabalipuram shore temple.
About favorite place to shoot
I love to shoot the beauty of nature from my drone and love to show some hidden beauty and unexplored places in Tamilnadu by my drone shots. Then I love to take pictures of Shipermen boats from different perspectives.
About photowalks
Through Instagram, many people liked my picture that I took by drone. Unseen photos of my native place makes my passion to reach more high and they started posting some in social networking apps. I decided to conduct a photo walk in my native place Salem to learn and share from young talents like me. It started with five members. Now there are 50+ members in our photo walk team. We have successfully completed 12 photo walks and still more travel are planned this year. Actually many people started approaching me after seeing my drone shots. Most people started showing an interest in photography. So then thought, Why not gather people who not interested in photography? I finally had a chance to set up a gathering of people who are interested in photography.
Abdul Saboor, 27 years old, Lucknow, HVAC engineer in a hospital, @mukhtalif_tasweerei
About inspiration
I think I came to photographing nature from my mother. She is a nature lover and we have many plants and a big peepal tree at my place. So I started with capturing those flowers and later on gained interest in places I started to travel. I became keener towards nature gained interest in birds, plants, sky, macro insects so on. In the era of mobile photography, it became quite easy to capture and live those moments. For me photography is something which makes you feel alive I usually do it more when I feel low. It is like a stress buster to me.
I am also inspired by some Indian wildlife nature photographers as Sudhir Shivaram Varun Aditya, street photographer Vineet Vohra, and mobile photographer Atul Hundo. The reason is they have a different vision and angles, which attract me and inspire me.
About favorite places
My favorite place is my city only Lucknow. In addition, for foreign photographers I would recommend visiting Lucknow, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Kerala. Full of Heritage and Kerela Greenery Gods own country.
About style
Through Instagram only I came to know about macro photography and I purchased the mobile compatible lens and begin to capture tiny insects, flowers and results were incredible so I came to a conclusion that even a tiny thing which we ignore most of the time could be beautiful and that’s the best part of nature. Nature is amazing.
About other photographers
I think they are more creative nowadays. In addition, during this quarantine time they are showing real skills especially with macro photography.
