Behind the Scenes of a Saree Photoshoot- Our crazy experience in the Wild

Whenever we see a fantastic photo on social media an instant thought goes like: “Ohhhh Wowww!!! What a great picture.

What scenery!

What a beautiful outfit!

Ohh this pose, I am gonna rock this pose in my next photoshoot”. Right ??

But, have we ever gone behind the veil to know what it looks like, how do the shoots happen and what goes into making such stunning shoots? Today we give you a sneak peek into it and we hope you enjoy reading through our experiences of doing photoshoots across some picturesque locations & scenic forests.

A photoshoot can't be just a one-day process. One cannot just get up and run for the shoot and in few hours get it done. Every photoshoot for every brand is a systematically planned and organized event that needs to be scheduled on the calendar. Planning for outfits, exploring different locations, finalizing locations, deciding the time to capture the most beautiful photos, meeting with the photographer, discussing the agenda and theme for the shoots, and playing with the color schemes and the lighting, etc Selecting the theme around a collection of weaves is crucial for the picture to not just share 1000 words but a nuanced message. Even finalizing the makeup and styling for every sari is a fun but challenging task. And guess what, focussing on the outfit or sarees is not enough to capture those stunning pictures.

Locations play a vital role in every shoot to express the emotions and the story behind it. Ok, this was October 2020 in the midst of Corona. Now in any other given scenario, we would have wired ourselves to shoot in far of locations but this year the situation allowed us to find the beauty in closer quarters. We are a Handmade in India brand and we zeroed in on the unexplored territories of the eastern ghats to narrate our story.

The eastern ghats or Purva Ghat, also known as Mahendra parvat are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. About 265 miles long located south of the Krishna river, the hills run north to south, parallel to the Coromandel Coast on the Bay of Bengal. This place is a hidden gem of sand and shores with incredible pristine sand, never-ending water, and exquisite views of blue and orange on the horizon. This place is not less than a feast to the eyes in terms of its beauty.

The Maredumilli forests allowed us to unleash our elegance yet our adventurous side. We encountered numerous naughty monkeys & gigantic ‘current’ ants during the shoot. The unbelievably large ants btw can make you freeze for hours with extreme pain and a burning sensation. The pristine lake seemed like a prequel to the movie Lake Placid with crocodiles too. Well, Discovery channel.Right? We were posing there for the pictures at the shores and after every click, we were turning behind and looking for crocodiles. Paranoia can be helpful you see. To top it all we had a mini portable tent that we could carry with us across different parts of the forrest. But every time we’d try changing in the tents we were continuously watching our for the gigantic ants and insects along with the havoc creating monkeys. But we are sure you will agree that all these adventures, excitement, and thrill while shooting is what makes these hectic shoots crazy fun.

But this is not the end of the shoot, after a photoshoot one more struggle begins, that is selecting the best photos. There will be a lot of photos, trust us, a LOT. Most of them get instantly rejected for lighting or pose gone too candid or wrong and so on & so forth.This in fact is a process to go through all the pictures and pick the best ones that will go for editing and yes it consumes a lot of time. Every brand would love to select those photos that highlight the products or trends but also helps us to tell a story.

You see, every artist is a storyteller!!

But with every photo, every product also has its own story to tell.