Vanshdeep Singh Sisodia - Photography Makes Me Feel Alive And Happy All The Time (Photographer & Traveller)

Each picture tells a story and to make that whole story pop up in one image is a difficult job. To get that one photo which is heart-warming, a photographer requires many clicks.

1. Tell us about your background and journey.

I started photography as a hobby and never thought I would choose this as a career, but I love photography, and it is my passion. I can do it 24*7. It makes me feel alive and happy all the time. But choosing this as your career may give you a certain level of stress to earn some penny out of it and make a living and fulfil your dreams. 

So as I started as a hobby and the point where I am right now, I can see that there are many pathways through which a person can fulfil his dreams through this field and as far as I have known this is a very vast field. You can grow very, very, very big in this field. 

I never thought that I would achieve something from this field, I just started doing it, and I enjoyed it, and suddenly I started getting collaborations and got achievements. I started paying for my work, but most importantly, I enjoyed it. I can see my future in this field. 

So yes, I will choose this as my career and photography is my whole life. I left my dream of being a computer science engineer for my passion for photography and now coming such a long way; I believe a future in it. 

Well, society thinks and considers this field as a low standard, and we get mockery from society, but they don’t know how fascinating this field is. It’s in your hands to prove it. So if you are pursuing what you love to do, then you’ve got to face such a situation, and you have to fight society and prove yourself.


2. What is your favourite concept to capture?

There are many subjects on which one can do photography, and it might change from time to time. As you explore more, you get to know more things, and thus your taste also varies. For now, I love to click creative and weird stuff. 

Any concept that I have in my mind and even the primary thing I like to click is travel photographs. In travel photography, having a good view and scenery in front of my eyes, golden hours or sunset and having human element present over there in my frame is what I love to snap on.


3. How Has photography enabled you to connect with local cultures? Will you share your favourite experience with us?

I am not a traveller by passion, and I am a photographer that is why I am a traveller because I have to travel a lot to click images, see things and to get as many subjects as I can get and also to explore. Photography is full of problems I must say. 

Clicking photos outside brings many issues with it as we go on the streets, and sometimes there we capture the candid, and the person who is being photographed doesn’t want to be clicked then what happens next is whether he scolds us or question us several things. 

Also, one thing that occurs to me the most is that whenever we click with mobile phone some people or any random guy come and say “Bro are you making a TikTok?” that thing annoys me a lot. Moreover, whenever we click stuff on the streets, most of the people look at us with suspicious eyes like what are we doing? Are we journalists? Are we going to make them in trouble? Are we going to click any random sabziwala? 

There is a lot of things to look before you go out in the streets for your snapshots. People have several questions in their mind like what are we going to do with these photos, and they come to us to inquire about the things like ‘why are you doing photography?’ and ‘what are you photographing?’. We come to a lot of questions while doing photography outside. It is not as easy as it seems to be. 

Each picture tells a story and to make that whole story pop up in one image is a difficult job. To get that one photo which is heart-warming, a photographer requires many clicks; sometimes the light is not proper, sometimes the human element is not correct. 

If I have to mention the weirdest experimentation with photography, I will pick this particular picture that I shot in Goa, which is an underwater shot. I shot this picture with the help of one of my friends. I held him my camera, and I told him that you have to frame it as this and I posed as the human element. 

We had a proper amount of light coming towards the pool, and I wanted to show that I am elevating to some different world from the water. So after changing the perspective, I got that shot. Certainty after 20 attempts, we got this shot, and I made it look like I am walking under the water. 

There is no problem in taking hundreds of shots. Any photographer who is well qualified in his skills also takes many attempts to click one perfect picture. So, it was one of the best works of mine.


4. Whats is the effect of social media in travel photography?

Becoming a brand on Instagram is something not very easy; it requires a lot of patience and hard work like personal branding is something which I got to know recently. I did not do it for social growth or collaboration or Instagram growth; I just enjoyed doing photography and art. 

My goal was not to gain growth on Instagram or collaborate with any specific brand. I did not start with any expectation of growing this much on Instagram.


5. What piece of advice would you like to give to future and aspiring creators?

The main thing in photography is the vision. The vision is something which matters the most. If you buy a camera costing Rs 1 lakh and you don’t have the view, then you got all your money wasted. 

On the other hand, if a person has the right skills and a primary mobile phone in his hand, he will master photography and undoubtedly better than a person who owns the costliest camera with 0% expertness. 

Otherwise, I would recommend any mobile phone under 15,000 and any camera under 30,000. But photography is all about vision and light.


- Vanshdeep Singh Sisodia (Photographer, Traveller)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1shdeep/
Instagram (Hashtag): https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/clickwithvss/

Interviewed By Akshaya Rathinavadivel