Kismet Jewell Nakai – a special educator turned to photography and wedding blogging

To Kismet Jewell Nakai, photography just happened by chance while she was in Bombay in the midst of looking for a job in completely different field. She broke in to the photography world in 2009 and has never looked back. She is a special educator (yes, she has done specialization in educating special kids) and her captured photos speak a lot about the person behind them.; to me they have a feel of old world charm.

She also runs a wedding blog, The Unreal Bride, along with April. It is a very unique Indian wedding blog which does not have over the top elements but quite real with real advice and ideas which are really feasible.

Here is the quick chat with her.

Hello Kismet, I am myself a regular reader of your blog and it has created its own niche and style. So how you and April came together and the idea of The Unreal Bride happened?

April and I have worked on a couple of fun projects before and one day we were discussing weddings and how everything is so typical in Indian weddings and also the lack of wedding blogs in India-and from that thought came the idea of the unreal bride! It was really as simple as that!

Kismet, do you think that we are now more experimenting with photography especially with wedding photography and couple shoots.

There are a lot of options in India now than 5 years ago so I think people aren’t really experimenting but are making the most of what they have available to them now. Earlier, you might have wanted something but either you didn’t know you wanted it, or even if you did, you didn’t have a means to the end!

Indian Weddings are long ones, intricate; what you feel is most challenging in Indian Weddings while shooting.

The hours and the number of days for sure! Things are generally never on time so a 4 hour schedule easily becomes 6-8 hours. It is as tiring as it is challenging but also that is what makes it fun!

What is your advice for brides looking for photographers for their wedding as to what all should they consider before finalizing. I believe that one does not fit all. If a famous wedding photographer has done wonders to someone, it is not necessarily that same may happen to you. More than that its the bandwidth you share together as a couple and photographer. Is it?

There are many things one must consider while choosing a wedding photographer but I think the most important is the photographers style and vision, and whether that matches the couples’. Don’t hire a photographer because they are the most expensive, or because they are cheap, or because they are young or because they are old or your friend says they are awesome, or… the list can go on. Hire them because they take pictures the way you want your wedding photographs to be taken.

My advice is to spend what you have to on your photographer, because you will only wear that uber expensive lehenga once, but you will look at your wedding photographs for the rest of your life and that is what really matter.

And lastly, what else occupies you these days apart from TheUnrealBride and photography.

All I have on my mind is photography. That is all that occupies me!

Here is a quick overview of her work!

PS. She is obsessed with rings and you might find her wearing in almost all the five fingers!

Hop on to her facebook page to know more about her and The Unreal Bride for those real wedding shot in unreal way; or rather its the new real.!