From working as a gym trainer, aspiring a career in modelling/acting to becoming a fruitful Celebrity Photographer, Sachin Kumar’s story is no less than a motivating flick. A born Delhite migrating to the City of Dreams to pursue his dream of becoming an actor and a model. He left no stones unturned to work as an actor and when finally he bagged a role in a Hindi daily soap, suddenly a very tragic event occurred in his life i.e. the saddening demise of his mother. Bounded by depression and hopelessness, only a Camera could lighten the ray of hopes in his life and since then, today he is professionally capturing the wow moments of couples as a Wedding Photographer and also successfully clicking for the famed Bollywood celebs such as Arbaaz Khan, Shweta Tiwari, Riya Sen, Divyanka Tripathi, Karan Tacker, Ada Khan, Karanvir Bohra and many others.

His story clearly reflects that no matter what, art is there for us even if our life turns its back upon us.

We are really keen to know; how did your journey begin?

In 2011 I got married and my brother gifted me a DSLR Camera, at that time photography was my hobby, this is when I started loving photography and who knew that this will turn everything around me? I began doing some work as a freelancer and got first professional break with Images Bazaar by Sunny Arora and Sandeep Maheshwari. Vikas Saboo, a lead photographer in Images Bazaar helped to nurture my talent.

What were the hardships / hurdles you have encountered during your journey? How did you overcome them?

I used to work at a gym as a trainer and at the same time I was trying for modelling and acting work. I was featured in some music videos and print shoots followed by a theatre course as I thought I'll do something in acting and I shifted to Mumbai in 2007 as it is a traditional hub for actors, it was very difficult for me to leave my mother back in Delhi. In 2009 I finally managed to get a role of a Harayanvi character in a serial but right after this I received a phone call from my father informing me about the sudden demise of my mother due to which I was depressed for 6 months, living all alone surrounded by negativity. I was shattered and it was very difficult for me to get up again and face life. But as days passed, time taught me to handle everything in life and I moved on.

Know me Beyond Photography

Who has been your influencer in this journey & how?

Lots of people have played an important role in my journey. My brother, my best friend Rajan, my wife, my father, my sisters Archana and Deepika and most importantly Sandeep Maheshwari, who motivated me and trusted me to work for him.

Did you get any formal training in Photography? Kindly tell us about it…

I never joined any photography course, but I did attend a free Canon photography workshop to get a basic knowledge. Then I followed many online videos YouTube

What are the pre-coaching essentials e.g. right age, mindset or anything else?

There is no age of learning, today’s generation is very fast and clear. They (youth) can easily figure out what to do in life

Technology is changing the way people get trained in Photography. What's your take?

Technology keeps on upgrading and this is the best way you can learn anything online. Today digital cameras make you instantly look at the results and figure out your mistakes, so photography is easier these days as compared to film camera.

If you were to bring one big change in the way people get trained in photo, what would that be?

I feel that one can only teach techniques but when someone sees a subject through view finder then that is his/her creativity to be applied after all. The more you click, more you learn, that’s it.

Which was "that" moment when you considered yourself as "I Am The 1"?

I have come across lots of moments when I felt like “I Am The 1”, especially when I delivered good images. I have never attended a photography course, it was all learning by myself, YouTube and through assisting my friend Vikas Saboo in couple of shoots.

Your piece of advice to parents and new generation especially when some people are sceptical about career in extra curriculum…

These days, fortunately most of the parents support their kids and understand what they want to do. You can’t force anyone to be a sportsperson or an artist, it comes from within

What is your Success Mantra?

I don’t know whether I have succeeded or not but all I can say is I just love my work and always like to enjoy each and every shoot. If u enjoy your work you’ll definitely get success.

Any other thoughts you want to share…

I just want to say if you really believe in yourself and work with honesty then no one can stop you. I would like to mention my brother and sisters Sumeet, Archana and Deepika’s sheer support throughout my career. They have been a backbone for me in this journey and my brother is the one who gifted me a DSLR camera. Also thanking Sandeep Maheshwari sir, who has motivated a lot and he even gifted me lights and lenses. I am very much humbled to photograph for his website imagesbazaar.