Capturing Memorable Moments: With the Wedding Salad

Aayushi Sachdeva and Kanishka Sonthalia of Wedding Salad have been photographing weddings since 2012, with the understanding that each wedding is different and that each requires a fresh perspective. The two women also bring with them a design sensibility honed at the MIT Institute of Design in Pune, where they specialised in visual communication design. 

Right from the first wedding they shot – for a friend, as a wedding present – to number 75, they have travelled across the country “creating an incredible montage of the most priceless moments of the weddings they cover.”

Sachdeva says she enjoys photographing wedding photography primarily because of the interactions – with the couples and their families – and thrill that comes with quick decision making. “It’s always wonderful to meet people from all walks of life and experience their cultures and traditions. When you’re documenting a wedding, it forces you to think fast, strategically react to the changing surroundings and make apt decisions in order to create the best imagery possible.

During any wedding day, we cannot control the environment, in comparison to a planned shoot. There is a lot to take care of within a tight time frame which helps us adapt and harness skills as a photographer in any situation.”

The wedding itself was long, so after a battle with time, we finally made it to Upper Lake, the biggest lake in the city. It was 6pm on a winter evening, and the light was too poor for us to use a 24Tilt Shift lens 3.5 opening to firstly, focus on, and then capture a static moment at 1/100 shutter speed. That too, on a moving boat! Yet with the couple’s complete support – and excellent crowd management (in the middle of the lake) by us – we managed to get some very beautiful shots. In fact, we shrieked happily on capturing this image, because of which the boatman almost lost control of the oars. What a moment it was!