How Ikra Photography All Began

A photographer from EARLY...

Hello hello! Dear blog reader, first of all, thank-you for clicking on my very first blog post, a small tale of how Ikra Photography all began. So, if you've read my 'about me' page, *hands you 100 brownie points* you'll know that the very first wedding I shot was actually back when I was 14 - over a decade and some small change ago. Of course, this was really just me being overly excited with my cute Nikon silver digital camera, flicking through the modes and experimenting with 'blurry background'. I did just dig through my old hard-drive, but it seems most of the photos I have saved, have people's faces in them, so here are a few photos I can share...have a peek at my 'first wedding photos' 😅.

As we can all see, these are hardly PROFESSIONAL images haha. Having said that, for my 14 year old self, over a decade ago they weren't half bad either. From this year onwards, it wasn't unusual to see Ikra with her camera at any family event. I eventually ungraded to a bridge camera, which felt more fancy and professional but was also affordable for my student salary at 17 years old. The next year I decided to start a beauty blog and instagram page, which was my passion. I LOVE taking photos for my blog, I would spend hours over the weekend trying to perfect that flat lay and then trying my dab hand at editing pictures too. This was all 100% self-taught and on a tight budget, but the more time I spent taking photos and uploading blogs, the deeper into the beauty community I waded and I really loved it. It was actually the perfect community I needed and whilst I wasn't winning any blogging awards or reaching any huge milestones, it felt amazing having ownership over my own little space on the net. I still do create videos and posts for IG, they've evolved over time of course and I have to say the photography side kinda fell off as I entered the video realm, but here are a small selection of photos photos from the time my beauty blog was active!

Fast forwards to jussssst past my early 20s, I was 24, married and living temporarily in Scotland (or so I thought!). My husband's cousin was getting married in Pakistan, but having her Mayoon here in Dundee and her sister asked if I would be able to photograph the event. Me? Photograph an event? I wasn't sure I was up to the task because 1. I only used my camera to film these days and 2. I'd just never been asked to capture an event and I guess imposter syndrome kicked in real hard. However the actual experience I had, photographing the mayoon, truly made this website, this passion and this small business come to life! I LOVED everything about it, from getting the posed and candid shots to editing them via lightroom and then sharing them to the whole family. Within 2 weeks, word got out that the newest member of my husband's family had a knack for photography and I was asked to photographed a second cousin's mehndi event. This time, it was in a much larger venue and there were more people than before, but again, I set up my light, I gripped my camera, put on my glam clothes (with trainers on the feet, loveeee sharahreh for that!!!) and got to work. This was my second official event and the same passion began seeping out, being the one to capture those memories, those special moments just brought me SO MUCH JOY! Because I've always loved capturing the day to day of family life, I think that is what created the love of getting the candid shots. Since those two events, so much has changed, so many little people have grown and knowing I was able to freeze some of those beautiful moments in time, really meant more than I could express.

That was back at the end of 2019, my SILs were encouraging me to start up an IG page and subsequently I began designing this website. Although that imposter syndrome was still niggling away at me, there is absolutely a gap in the market as there are no Asian, Female photographers in Dundee (as far as I know!), so I figured what do I have to lose? I continued teaching part time and at then BAAM, we were hit with the panamademic. Ikra Photography as a page was still up, but I could count on one hand the number of times I actually thought about it and I definitely wasn't acting as if it were a real business. I did do a photography course online,  which I've linked here. It was brilliant in helping me understand, not just my camera, but the basics of photography...the exposure triangle, composition, lighting, focal length and the list goes on. For any of you reading this, who were like me, a hobbyist photographer who wants to learn more, doing a course like that is highly recommended. Whilst there are a tonne of amazing videos on youtube, which you could and should learn from, a dedicated course is another league of helpfulness and learning.

Out of the blue towards the end of 2020, I was approached by my first real bride...which we'll talk about in detail in the next post ☺️.

And that ladies and gents, is the post on how this whole photography thing really began! I went from a small silver Nikon, to a bridge, to a canon DSLR and now I'm a proud Fujifilm shooter (with my canon as my second body still, as gear is EXPENSIVE). Since 2020, I've shot 8 paid events/shoots and it is a good start. Last month, I finally decided to take this business seriously and give it the time, energy and effort it deserves. I've also created a dedicated YouTube channel, check out my first video below and of course, if you could subscribe, that would be amazing 🤩 . Expect BTS, non-technical reviews, shorts with images and much much more.

As for this blog space, to read what to expect click here. And I'm going to leave it there - thank-you SO much once again for reading this post and I'll see you next Wednesday for our second post, take care everyone!

Ikra X