My Journey To The Land Of Professional Photography

My Struggle

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Myself Aasif Shafi And I Am From Anantnag, I Am Currently Working As A Freelance Photojournalist In Indian Administrated Kashmir With Various Organizations. I Would Like To Start By Looking At My Past, I Mean How I Came Into The Land Of Professional Photography .Honestly Speaking, I Don’t Exactly Remember When And How I Got Inclined To Photography. But I Remember That It All Happened In My Childhood. I Got Crazy About Photography Particularly Wildlife And Conflict Photography. This Craze Was Heaping Day By Day Until I Got Totally Distracted From Everything And All That Was In My Mind Was Photography. I Looked At The Prospectus Of Me Being A Photographer And It Looked Totally Bright For Reasons Unknown To Me……!20170902_171219

So I Started To Accomplish My Dream With Nothing In My Hands Except A Mobile Phone. Not Bothering What I Had Or What It Takes To Be A Photographer. I Started Mobile Photography. Within A Couple Of Months I Got So Much Fascinated By Photography That I Don’t Cared Even A Bit For My Studied,, Consequently I Had To Bear The Brunt Of A Re Appear In My 12th Class Examination  . But That Didn’t Stopped Me….I Remember When I First Started Photography I Would Literally Get Sick To My Stomach As Nobody Was Supporting Me, Neither My Family Nor My Friends. Everybody Was Telling Me That Becoming A Photographer Is Not That Difficult, Just Bring A Camera And There U R…!But Deep Inside I Had The Feeling That Photography Is Not Everybody’s Game, It Needs Energy, Time, Dedication, Skill And All That. So Bearing All Odds I Began To Walk On This Wonder Land Of Photography. I Had To Admit That It Was A Steep Learning Curve In The Beginning. You Know, There Were Times, When I Secretly Thought To Myself ”Who R U Kidding Aasif? U R Not That Great”…But I Would Still Stalk My Mobile Waiting To See The Photographs I Captured. Photography Was Running In My Blood That Is Why I Gave A Deaf And Dumb Ear To All My Critics. Finally One Fine Day Through An Emotional Drama, I Somehow Managed To Convince My Family About My Passion And My Family Surprised Me With DSLR….!orca_share_media1502792422086

Without Wasting My Time, I Started Submitting Photographs To Experts For Their Advice. I Feared Reading The Words ”Not A Fit” In Reply…..Thanks To Almighty, After I Got Some Really Good Advice Understood That Being ”Not A Fit” Actually Was Not A Bad Thing. It Honestly Was Not A Thing At All. And Because Z Of All This, Today I Am Standing Here…So This Was Just A Bit Of My Struggle… ( Story By Rayees Nanwie)