Meet Akanksha Verma! A girl who wanted a career that will give her freedom, an opportunity to travel and meet different kinds of people, which won’t be possible in a desk job. She found all this and tons of passion for wedding photography. Her journey from a confused student to a professional wedding photographer is exciting. Being from a family of engineers, she chose something entirely different.
Akanksha Verma studied at St. Thomas School, New Delhi, where she met Arushi Lakra (her best friend and business partner) in the 11th grade. On a school trip to Jaipur, the girls discovered that Akanksha loved being behind the camera while Arushi loved being in front of it. However, they had forgotten all about it until the second year of B.Com Honors at Delhi University, where Akanksha joined a society for photography.
There, she realized that this could be an exciting profession.
Her parents didn’t have the same opinion as her. They believed that photography was for people in the fashion industry, which is not a lovely place to be in. Akanksha thought the only way to convince them is to do something big and show them that it’s not that bad. She convinced them to allow her to pursue it as a hobby.
While pursuing graduation, she enrolled in 3 months course in RK Films and Media Academy in Delhi. She loved the course so much that she extended it for three more months. Meanwhile, Arushi was pursuing science from Lady Irwin College, which is also affiliated with Delhi University.
Arushi always had excellent business acumen. Knowing Akanksha Verma’s talent in photography, she suggested that they should run a Facebook ad for her work. The idea worked well, and the girls bagged 15 assignments. Thus, Akanksha got an opportunity to explain to her parents that if she could achieve so much from the knowledge gained from a six-month course, what she could do with a proper degree! Her argument convinced her parents. Approved and supported, Akanksha continued freelancing while pursuing B.com Honors.
While her parents wanted her to get an MBA degree, she was keen to get a master’s degree related to photography. No one could guide her. She thought mass communication and journalism were photography. She tried to enroll, but it never happened.
Akanksha continued to seek suggestions from people around her, but nothing seemed to match her interests. Despite deviation, photography was always on her mind.
The turning point for Akanksha Verma
One of her friends suggested checking out opportunities at Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication (SACAC). It became the turning point in Akanksha’s life. She realized that she finally found the right direction to move forward in. Here, she did a documentary photography course for one and a half years. In the end, she had to put up an exhibition to earn a certificate.
Unlike other photography institutes with 40-50 students, Aurobindo had only 15 students enrolled in the course only after a formal interview and submission of sample photographs.
As she had already been freelancing as a pre-wedding photographer, her professors encouraged her to meet people who have been in the same field for years. She learned a lot in a question-answer session at a workshop.
Meanwhile, Arushi Lakra had earned a degree in digital marketing along with an MBA. Being someone who likes to have good pictures of herself clicked. She knew she’d be the right partner for Akanksha. She was confident that she could understand the kind of photographs the clients would want and could bring out the same from Akanksha’s skills.
The two girls decided to put their business skills and creativity together and make it big in wedding photography. Some of the duos pre-wedding shoots were featured, which allowed them to work at weddings.
In the first assignment, they told the clients that they could only take pictures at the wedding and that the clients should hire someone else for other services. However, things went on well, and there was no looking back after that. The ball started rolling when the appreciation of their work increased and spread through word of mouth.
It was the time when the girls decided to give their brand a name. Arushi suggested that they should come up with a name that was not already existing on Google search. That marked the birth of Lenseyezia. They successfully promoted their brand on social media. They rose to a level of popularity where they would get featured for their unique working style and refreshing approach to photography.
Their first big assignment came in 2015 at a wedding in Mandi, a beautiful Himalayan district in Himachal Pradesh. Since then, Akanksha and her team have captured beautiful memories in not less than 50-60 weddings in a year. They also got an opportunity to go to Dubai for a pre-wedding shoot.
Because of their supportive clients, they could make the best of the trip. Their second international project was to take place in Europe this year but is postponed to July next year due to the pandemic.
What’s more interested in Lenseyezia, which separates them from other people who provide similar services, is that all the employees at Lenseyezia are women. It speaks volumes about their idea of empowering women and making them believe that they can do whatever they want.
Despite a highly inspiring story so far, Akanksha Verma reveals that the journey is not glitch-free. Obstacles turn up in the form of technical issues on sight, camera theft, or damage to the camera. At such a time, Akanksha says connections are the key. If you have good connections, you can make it through the glitches easily. She recollects a wedding in Agra, where the lights that she had arranged didn’t work. It was only her connections that saved her an embarrassment and got the ball rolling again. The biggest glitch comes from the narrow-mindedness of the clients.
Knowing that it’s a team of girls or they are such young plays negatively with clients sometimes, and they back off. Akanksha says that she has learned to deal with this crowd very smoothly. She politely explains to them, as she would to her parents or grandparents, and carries on her work. Thankfully the younger crowd is more accepting, welcoming, and appreciative of her work.
Akanksha has a younger brother who is a brilliant makeup artist. Speaking proudly of him, she says he never had any confusion regarding what he wants to be. He had decided in his ninth grade itself that he wanted to be a makeup artist. Akanksha says she had to polish her skills a little, but her brother’s skills are God’s gift to him. He sometimes accompanies Akanksha to her clients to provide his share of services.
According to popular belief, Akanksha Verma jokingly talks about how she and her brother are doing things that suit the opposite gender. It may be accurate, but both are doing an excellent job by breaking the stereotype and succeeding in their respective fields.
Akanksha Verma gives a large chunk of the credit to her parents, who endlessly gave her unconditional financial, emotional, and moral support. Her journey gives us immense encouragement to pursue our dreams under any circumstances.
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