Jodi Clickers, natural photographers for weddings
What is the most important aspect of a wedding - the dress, the ring, the food, the venue? The pictures and videos we say! After all, that is what will keep your wedding fresh and evergreen all through the years, ever after. And in many cases, that is also the area where people try and save costs. So, we have seen all sorts of things -- from a family member turning into a photographer to hiring just one professional between both the parties.
But today we have a startup that gives a new meaning to the whole idea of wedding photography – Jodi Clickers. Started by Abhishek Behani in July 2012, Jodi Clickers have so far clicked 60 couples across the country and have even travelled to Australia for an assignment.
What’s so special about these photographers? Well, take a look at some of the pictures featured here, or for more pictures, check out their website to get an idea of their skills. Jodi Clickers are candid, natural wedding photographers. So, they will capture you in your most natural from, where you look as beautiful and handsome as the makeup and trousseau intended you to be. It's their trained eye that will catch you caressing your cheek or putting back that stray strand of hair – and make such type of pictures look more beautiful than the posed images.
Abhishek is an engineer and an MBA by qualification, but he very candidly admits that he did these things just to please his family. And that his love for pictures started as long back as when he was six years old. “The magic of photography has always intrigued me, and it was only a matter of time when I would be at the starting point. I was on the crossroads of life when the IT firm which I was working with was sailing through rough waters and failed to pay my compensation. I realized that rather than look for new employment, this was the moment to pursue my passion,” says Abhishek about starting up.
What helped him was his large circle of friends, and one of the first assignments he did, was for a friend in Kolkata. Since then, things have been on a roll, and within a year they have done over 60 weddings, over a lakh photos. Jodi Clickers (JC) is all about capturing candid elements of a wedding through stills as well as video. The style is modern – contemporary with a mix of fashion. The objective is to make the work refreshing, innovative, and offer each client personal boutique style service, explains Abhishek.
JC is currently a team of 18 members. Abhishek is the founder and the others in the team work on contract or non-contract basis. One of the key advantages, says Abhishek, is the very young team they have – the average age of the team is 25 years – and that helps them bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the work they do, he says. “There are no retakes in this genre of photography. A moment, if missed, cannot be re-created with the same intensity in emotional quotient – and this brings upon the biggest challenge to be sure of every movement of the index finger,” explains Abhishek about the USP.
Besides his friends circle, JC has relied a great deal on social media to bring in the leads and also works with wedding planners. However, to date, Abhishek says, they get at least 10 enquiries per day of people who want to get themselves clicked through JC, and every wedding they go to results in an additional 10-15 enquiries. “We have been fortunate, I would say. A lot of customers have seen our work and come to us through Facebook or word-of-mouth. However, I do plan to do a city-wise exhibition of our photographs to spread awareness,” says Abhishek about his plan.
JC also helps make coffee table books for couples. To collect material for making the book, they start interacting with the family of the couple well in advance before the marriage and try to get tiny bits of information about the bride and the groom to put into the book. “The coffee table book is like a life story of the bride and groom, which is written by us in a very creative way, but is contributed by the entire family,” explains Abhishek.
Because of the high-quality work they do, services offered by JC also come at a cost. They offer six varieties of services, and if you opt for all of them, it can set you back by Rs 9 lakh, or you can do the bare minimum with JC for Rs 50,000. Abhishek started by bootstrapping, but today he says they are in a comfortable position.
Talking of the challenges he faces in the business, Abhishek says that he wants to raise the level of importance people give to wedding photographers. “People have traditionally treated wedding photographers as vendors, asking them to move here, go there. But what we do is very different and people have to value us,” says Abhishek. The other challenge he finds tough to deal with is handling the crowd at weddings. Crowd management and last-minute demands of families at the marriage sometimes become tough to handle.
But ask him the biggest pain, and he says that would be the post-processing work. “When we are at the wedding taking pictures and doing videos, it is a lot fun and you don’t realize the tiredness. But the later work, can really tire you out,” says Abhishek.
