Girls should come forward and follow their dreams: Riya Bajaj talks about her journey as a photographer

Actress turned  photographer Riya Bajaj has been doing some great work and has shot extensively with celebrities in last few years. And one of her first shoot was with her elder sister actress Sheena Bajaj. Speaking about her journey in the world of photography Riya says, ”My journey started when I first shot my sister Sheena Bajaj. She really loved the pictures that I shot for her and mentioned that I had a great sense of angle and framing. She was the one who encouraged me to pursue it as a career. I definitely had more interest in doing something behind the scenes. I enjoyed editing, shooting, and making ad campaigns. When I was studying in Jai Hind College and doing my bachelor’s in Mass Media, my HOD Varalakshmi ma’am seeing my dedication towards studies made me the CR and later seeing my talent shooting events made me the media head for events to cover the photos and videos. This was when I realized my potential and took the decision of making it a full-time profession.”

Riya has taken her training in photography from her father who himself is a talented lens man. She adds,” I have learned photography from my father. He is a fashion photographer and I started assisting him early on. I used to hold the reflector and assist him in all his shoots. Then I took it as a full-time profession when I was confident of what I really wanted to do.”

Riya’s first camera was a 5D mark four and now she has a Canon R6 mirrorless. Riya also adds, ”I just love capturing souls and every shoot that I do is a memory in itself. As pictures are the memories that you cherish for your lifetime.”

Riya has shot for a lot of Film and Television stars like Tiger Shroff, Malvika Raj, Priya Varrier, Aarti Chabria, Aditi Govitrikar, Sheena Bajaj, Avneet Kaur, Paras Chabbra, Mahira Sharma, Rohit Purohit, Sriti Jha, Bhoomika Gaurang, Yuvika Chaudhary, etc. She has also shot Digital ads for Manoj Joshi, Pooja Banerjee, Yogesh  Tripathi, and Nirmal Soni. She is also into catalogs and digital ads for social media. Most people are just stuck to one genre whereas she feels that it is always good to shoot for a variety of genres. She has covered everything from portfolio shoots to food, fashion, events, lifestyle, and jewellery. So after all these years which has been your best experience of shooting?

“My next shoot is always my best shoot and that is what I believe in. Everyday I believe we improve and have a new experience to learn and grow.“

Riya also shares something nice for all the budding photographers. She says, ”It’s not about the equipment that they shoot with, but it’s the vision that they have. What they want to create is a composition that they have created in their minds. It all depends on how they want to execute it. If you have passion, dedication, and hardwork, you can achieve your goals in life and even the sky is not the limit. So just go out and start shooting.”

So why do you see fewer women photographers in the field? “Female photographers and DOP  are a blessing in disguise. We have more sense in styling, make-up, and hair. And I also feel girls should come forward and follow their dreams. I have got the support of my family from day one and I have never faced any discouragement from my family.”

Riya is particular about her gadgets. She feels every shoot requires a different set of lenses, light, equipment, camera, mood board etc. The equipment depends on what exactly she is going to shoot the next.

She adds, ”My favourite set of lenses are 70-100 mm lenses, 50mm block lens, 24-105 lens. If you have these three lenses then they do pretty much the entire job because you have your zoom lens and wide lens.”