Welcome to a new feature on Frills 'n' Spills; 'Maria Meets...' I am hoping to interview and get to know a bit more about some interesting and creative people. I hope that this will be a fairly regular feature so I would love to hear your recommendations for who you would like me to feature,please let me know in the comments if you have any ideas! :D
The first person I have interviewed is my gorgeous friend, Neha Bhargava who I met whilst interning over the summer. She writes a baking blog at Shortcake and Snap and her photography portfolio is over at Neha Bhargava photography.
♥ Tell us a bit about yourself...
I'm 23, graduated back in 2009 from UCL in Human Sciences and now I work as a Technology Consultant at IBM. Whilst at university I was the Play Photo Editor of the London Student newspaper, so after graduating I decided to take my photography to the next level and started working on my fashion portfolio.
♥ So, who or what got you interested in photography?
Strangely enough, I just fell into photography. I started out doing digital art, moved onto vector art and then photography naturally followed. Also, can’t possibly go without mentioned the wonderful community at DeviantART who gave me bucketloads of inspiration and
support when I was starting out.
♥ Do you have a favourite photographer? (Celebrity or otherwise)
I absolutely love Patrick Demarchelier’s work, and also Andreas Sjödin who has done a lot of the photography for H&M in the past. I actually applied for work experience with Patrick Demarchelier’s studio in the wild off-chance that maybe they would want an
intern/slave to help out! Besides that, Jeff Hahn, a personal friend of mine. He’s an amazing artist, with real vision and presence.
♥ What are your views on sites such as Tumblr, WeHeartIt etc? Is it difficult to retain authorship of your work?
Social networking is both a blessing and a curse. It’s fantastic to be able to get your work broadcasted out there but it’s never nice when someone claims the credit for your work. A lot of effort and preparation goes into everyone’s work, be it a photo shoot or just an evening meal. Equally annoying is when your work is put up without acknowledgement because a main part of it is to get your name out there and associated with your work! Enough with the moaning though, I think websites like tumblr are great for the snapshot “Hey look what I
stumbled across” moments to spread the word.
♥ I always feel nervous in front of the camera, how do you get your subjects to relax?
I’ve had my fair share of nervous models and subjects and I find the easiest way is to make them laugh, however ridiculous the means! Once all that nervous energy’s out, everybody can relax and just have fun with it. That’s what photo shoots really should be about.
♥ Who or what is your ideal subject and why?
I do like to shoot fashion, but my favourite subject is food because you can eat it straight after :D
♥ I just bought a new camera, do you have any tips for anyone starting out in photography?
Don’t just go straight for the top end camera that everyone’s talking about, it might not suit the type of photography you want to start doing. Do a bit of research before making such a big investment, so you could ask some friends who are photographers or can get you in touch with them, narrow down to a few choices and go down to a camera shop and ask for a side-by-side comparison so that you can find a camera body that’ll last you a good while. Also, get a good starter lens that’s multi-purpose, like an 18-200mm lens or something similar,so that you can learn the ins and outs of the camera body first.
♥ What is your 'go-to' outfit?
Skinny jeans and a top that usually has volume towards the bottom. I like the idea of having something casual mixed up with elegance and a bit of punk. Either that or dresses – I'm obsessed with dresses.
♥ Desert island book, film, album and blog/website?
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith (amazing sci-fi book, which is only bettered by Spares, but personally I think this one is the best).
Film would have to be Serenity as it’s a fantastic sum-up to the original series Firefly, even though you don’t get to find anything out about Shepherd!!
Album would be Adele 19, at the moment, because I’m completely in love with her voice.
Finally, blog would be Tartelette – beautiful photography and delicious recipes.
A HUGE thank you to Neha for letting me interview her :) If anyone wants to be featured or has any ideas about who you would like to see next then let me know in the comments :)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)