Zooming into Some Picture Perfect Ventures

A photograph is not about technique. A photograph is communicating something, be it an idea, concept, feeling, thought or whatever, to a total stranger.

From Kevin Carter’s Pulitzer winning photograph of a vulture stalking a starving girl, to National Geographic’s photograph of the green-eyed Afghan girl, photographs generally have a touch of mystery, a multitude of interpretations, and an open-ended story about them; leaving us awed at times, intrigued at others.

The Indian photography community is a hugely growing one, from freelancers chipping in to start-ups renting out photography gear and equipment. Let’s take a look at some of the cool and emerging shutterbugs that have made a name for themselves:

Toehold– Toehold does almost all that a photography start-up could do. Started off by a young team of

professionals, they provide high quality travel advisory and services for those looking at visiting exotic locations across the globe. Besides this they also conduct a wide range of photography services such as photography workshops, undertaking of commercial photography assignments, equipment rental services and printing.

Tapprs - Started as a hobby venture, and after becoming a part of The Morpheus portfolio, Tapprs now rents great quality photography equipment. Their rapidly growing inventory includes DSLR bodies, lenses, flashguns, tripods, ballheads, filters, etc from popular brands like Canon, Nikon, Tokina, Tamron, Sigma and more. Apparently, more than enough choices to pick from. Tapprs and Toehold, both are based out of Bangalore.

Photowalkrs- It is a weekend routine for millions of people across the globe to ‘Photowalk’, but there exists no coherent structure in the process of learning photography and no current service suffices that need in an exhaustive manner. Photowalkrs is this one-stop solution bridging the existing gaps by the means of its website, phone app and offline models. Technology is being developed that will help people in all the 3 stages of photography – pre, during and post clicking.

A Pensive Polaroid– A hugely popular, two member collegiate bandwagon who’s work on conceptual, abstract, macro, street and people photography has garnered great applause and admiration from many quarters. Run by Shreyas and Siddhartha, both graduates from VIT University, their facebook page has over 5000 likes today, and opens up tales from places right next door like Kerala, and from far, far away in Finland. Plus they do have unbelievable captions for their snaps.

The Wedding Salad- Founded in Jan 2012 by Aayushi Sachdeva and Kanishka Sonthalia, the idea is to offer a platter of those profound wedding memories that a couple would cherish forever. While the official site will soon be launched, The Wedding Salad currently focuses on capturing weddings, engagement, pre & post wedding shoots and family portraits. With a dynamic duo at the helm and with requests already pouring in, expect this venture to compete and be present for the long haul in many more big fat Indian weddings.

One thing’s for certain- as more and more art lovers delve into their passions, and begin adjust their lenses, there is a lot of scope to dig into and come up with great propositions as far as the start-up ecosystem here is concerned. As this happens, and the industry swells, we’ll be there to track down all the upcoming trends and stories.

For more such reads, do check out 5 offbeat ventres.