How did your journey in photography begin?
I started capturing pictures not more than a year ago—actually, I began clicking in December last year when I found a camera at home that wasn't being used. Seeing some of my friends take photos, I thought, why not give it a try? My first real photos came from a trip to Banaras with three of my friends. That's where I realized that over time, photography becomes less about 'taking pictures' and more about seeing differently—capturing the raw emotions and candid moments that people can always remember when they look at my photos.
What was the first moment you knew you wanted to be a photographer?
After I started photography, Banaras became the turning point for me. The photos I clicked during that trip turned out really well, and the appreciation I received from my friends and family was honestly overwhelming. That was the first time I truly felt connected to photography. What attracted me even more was how photography allows a person to express themselves through images and emotions. Later, seeing people shoot sports photography on Instagram made me want to try it myself, and that pushed me further into this field. Apart from sports, I've also always been interested in concert photography, which is something I still want to explore in the future.
How has your experience and style grown over the years?
I may not have years of experience yet, since I properly started photography around six months ago. But in that short time, I feel like the way I see moments has changed a lot. At first, I focused more on just taking good pictures. But over time, I started paying more attention to storytelling, emotions, movement, lighting, and how a moment actually feels through the frame. I think street photography played a huge role in that growth because it taught me to observe more. And over time, sports photography helped me bring that same emotion and energy into my own style.
What drives you to capture sports and street moments specifically?
I capture sports and street moments specifically because the streets taught me how to use a camera, and sports has always been something I genuinely loved. At first, I was really into street photography. The streets teach you what photography really is, not gonna lie. They make you slow down and notice things—the light, the movement, the expressions, the small moments people usually walk past. Over time, it completely changed the way I saw the world. And being a huge sports buff myself, I naturally fell in love with sports photography too. People don't remember every second of a game. They remember how it felt. That's the part I try to capture.
What story does your street photo 'Hope' tell?
This picture was clicked at a railway station on a random evening after I got home from college. I call this photo 'Hope' because, to me, it represents someone who has been waiting for a long time—hoping and expecting something to finally stop for them. The motion around him feels endless, while he stands still in the middle of it all. That contrast is what made this frame special to me.
Explain the editing choices you made for that image.
I edited the image in Lightroom with a cinematic black-and-white approach to emphasize motion and intensity. I increased contrast, deepened shadows, and selectively enhanced highlights to isolate the athlete from the background. Grain was added for a raw sports documentary feel, while clarity and texture adjustments improved subject definition. I also balanced exposure and reduced distractions using local masking, creating a dramatic frame focused entirely on timing, posture, and movement.
What do you look for when composing a shot in the moment?
When it comes to composing a shot in the moment, I mostly look for emotions that can define the entire frame by themselves. I always want my photos to feel meaningful rather than just visually good. For me, a good photograph is something where both I and the person in the frame can look back at it later and still feel the exact emotion of that moment. In a fast-shutter environment like sports photography, slow shutter photography has always excited me the most. There's something about the motion, blur, and energy it creates that makes a frame feel more alive and emotional to me. Motion blur isn't a mistake—it's emotion in motion. Apart from just composing the subject properly, I also pay attention to how the background, lighting, and movement around the subject contribute to the story of the image. I always try to make sure the frame says something instead of just showing something.
Describe the challenge of capturing a photo near Manikarnika Ghat and how you overcame it.
This photo was captured near Banaras' Manikarnika Ghat late at night, past 10 PM, where managing the lighting and clarity was really difficult. Since the environment was extremely low light, I had to try multiple camera settings to get the exact frame I wanted that night. Shooting in RAW helped me a lot later during editing in Lightroom because it allowed me to recover details and bring out the atmosphere of the scene properly. But beyond the technical challenge, this photo impacted me emotionally as well. Seeing the people there, the burning pyres, and hearing the words 'सब कुछ जल जायेगा' was something that stayed with me. That night changed something inside me. It made me understand that life and death are both unavoidable parts of life, and places like Manikarnika Ghat make you realize how temporary everything really is.
What narrative are you conveying through your Banaras series?
Through this series, I wanted to convey the raw and unfiltered reality of Banaras—a place where life, spirituality, and death exist together every single day. While capturing these frames, I wasn't just trying to document the people or the place visually, but also the emotions and atmosphere that surrounded them. The series reflects how temporary life really is. From the calmness of the sadhus to the silence of the ghats and the burning pyres at Manikarnika, every frame carried a different emotion for me. Banaras felt like a place where time slows down and makes you reflect on life in a completely different way. More than anything, this series represents perspective. It shows how people continue to live, pray, wait, and move forward even while being constantly surrounded by the reality of death. Through these photographs, I wanted people to not just see Banaras, but feel the emotion and depth that the city carries within itself.
Why is that photo significant to you?
For me, this photo is significant because I got to truly understand the frame only after editing it. The way there's one person standing near the fire while another person sits calmly and meditates created a contrast that really stayed with me. It felt like the photo was showing two different perspectives in the same moment—one person observing everything around him, while the other seemed completely at peace within himself. That balance between chaos, silence, life, and death is what made this frame emotionally powerful for me.
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