FO2 Stage | Mahima & Harsh

Harsh and I have, a sort of, a bollywood kind of story. We first met in 2005 in school and were quite close but it didn’t last very long. We dated other people after that and lost touch. In 2011, we reconnected again and started dating. I was already into photography then. Even though photography was not a part of his plan but he liked it. So I asked him to come along. He was in a marketing job at that time. Since most weddings happen in the night and over the weekends, he was happy to join us on many projects. He is a very enthusiastic person, he started reading blogs on photography, watching tutorials and experimented with certain things. Eventually he found his calling. After our wedding in 2018, he got onto film making fulltime and also became my partner in both personal and professional life.

I started my photography journey around 2008-09. I started with some music gigs in different places. I was doing my graduation in literature and had a lot of time to experiment with my life. I got my first DSLR as a gift from my parents and after that I kept taking whatever came my way to polish my skills and find out what I really liked. As I started getting different kinds of work, I kept saving to buy a new camera. It continued till the day when someone smashed the glass of my car window in college and stole the camera and the kit. I took my savings out and bought new gear. My mom thought that it was just gonna be something I would be doing for 2-3 months, but I wanted to do it at that time and that’s what mattered the most and I guess it stuck. Later on, one of my friends asked me if I could do a wedding project with him and I just said yes. 

While doing the project, I enjoyed the whole vibe of Indian wedding but didn’t like working for someone else. So, I did some work and started putting it online and got my first solo project for 35k which included the cost of freelancers I hired for that project. By the mid of 2012, Harsh also joined me and we covered our first wedding together. 

We often get to ask how do you guys manage your personal and professional life? Honestly, we still struggle to maintain that. We both have strong opinions about things. During our initial days we used to argue about everything but eventually we split our area of expertise. He is in charge of cinematography and I handle photography. We have divided our area of working entirely and that helped us a lot. We never interfere in each other’s area but at the same time we respect the feedback we get on each other’s work. 

We are those kind of people who are walking and talking about photography all the time. We even have a white board in our bedroom which is funny but we like it this way. In the beginning, I used to be in incharge of everything and it was frustrating sometimes. When Harsh came he took half the work on his plate very smoothly. I enjoy the drama and the chaos that Indian weddings hold. I am solely devoted to wedding photography. Harsh also enjoys weddings but he is also into other kinds of commercial projects. He has a parallel brand called MadAngles.in where he does his interior, lifestyle and event projects.

There are many people now who charge half or even 1/4th of what we charge. This makes it very hard to explain to our clients what output we are going to give them. What I think is that, anyone can click 5-10 good wedding pictures for their social media, but what really matters is the whole album, their entire wedding project. Wedding photography is not just glamour and the fun part. It is a responsibility where you are incharge of the memories of their lifetime. So, it has to be classic and timeless. We are really grateful that we got to meet such amazing people over the years who became our friends for life. There are also some bad experiences which we take as the lessons for lifetime.

Like us if anyone is working together, it’s going to be a fun fun ride. Just remember that don’t keep talking about work. Take a break from work and talk about each other and just go with the flow.