Krupali & Ronak were married at Stanmore Temple on the 9th of July 2011.

Put your speakers on and click on the ‘Play’ icon to watch the video made by film director and producer Sachin Shrestha of Clearcut Production.

Don’t forget to go over to [The EShoot] blog post to see the rest of the photos.

Krupali & Ronak’s E-Shoot photos were captured on the grounds of Watford Temple, during the filming of their special flashback video trailer.

Put your speakers on and click on the ‘Play’ icon to watch the video made by film director and producer Sachin Shrestha of Clearcut Production.

Don’t forget to go over to [The Wedding] blog post to see the rest of the photos.

On the 16th of July, I had the pleasure of photographing Nisha’s Prewedding, Vidhi, Ceremony [Mandvo, Ganesh Pooja & Pithi] at Ramgarhia Community Centre, in Forest Gate, East London.

(Click on the images to enlarge).

Viva Las Vegas is what I think you call a Birthday Party like this.

Anil, celebrated his 30th Birthday in style.

Check it out… (click the images to enlarge).

Priya & Akshay were joined by family and friends, to celebrate their Engagement (Chundri, Chandlo and Doodh Pivanu), on the 17th of July 2011 in the Nilkanth Suite at Kenton Temple, London.

We had planned to have an EShoot straight after the ceremony, unfortunately the weather did not hold out for us. (Typical UK weather, with rainfall in the middle of “Summer”).
So we quickly popped outside to absorb the excitement from the day.

Priya & Akshay – here is a small selection from the memories of your Engagement, through my eyes.

(Click on the images to enlarge).

(WARNING: This post is image heavy and will take long to load. Thank you for your patience.)

On the 2nd of July, I had the great pleasure to witness two joyful cultures joining together in celebrating the Wedding of Mitun & Reza.

The traditions of a Bengali wedding, combined with the flavours of Iran created a unique and exciting atmosphere at Gibson Hall at the centre of London.

The open-air mandap was greeted with sunshine as Reza made his entrance. Friends and family cheered with joy as Mitun elegantly made her way to circle him.

Mitun & Reza – here is your Wedding Story through my eyes.

(Click on the images to enlarge).

(WARNING: This post is image heavy and will take long to load. Thank you for your patience.)

Sapna & Chetan were married on the 19th of June 2011 at Stanmore Temple in London.

For those of you who know Sapna & Chetan, you’ll know how much fun they are, and I really enjoyed being part of their special day.

There are so many photos that made up the wonderful memories of the day, that I had difficulty narrowing them down for the blog.

I hope you love this rather large selection of photos. (As always, click on the image to enlarge.)

Vina & Alpesh were joined by their close family and friends to celebrate their Engagement, Chandlo and Doodh Pivanu on the 18th of June 2011.

Here are a selection of images from their special day.

Click on the image to go fill your screen.

On Saturday the 11th of June 2011, I travelled to Manchester, to photograph the Sagai (Engagement) of Taejal & Jay.

The morning started out with thunder and lightning, but the clouds soon parted company and we were greeted with warm sunshine.

We took the opportunity later that afternoon to head down to Fletcher Moss Gardens, where Taejal & Jay enjoyed a relaxing stroll through the park, to absorb the events of the day.

It was an absolute pleasure to be part of their day and here are a selection of images I know they’ve been so patiently waiting to see

Congratulations to the both of you!!

(Click on the image to enlarge.)

Nisha & Nishal had their Engagement Ceremony in Coventry, on the 21st of May 2011.

I’ve known Nisha since as long as I can remember. As a child, I spent many of my summer holidays in Coventry, and often visited Nisha and her older brother when we were kids.

It was a great pleasure when Nisha asked me to capture her special day, as she became officially Engaged to her fiancé Nishal.

I hope you enjoy this selection images from the day. (Click on the image to go full screen)

Remember to check out my new Facebook Business Page launched 2 days ago http://www.facebook.com/NirajPopatPhotographer – Share it with your friends, everyone’s support is greatly appreciated.

Wishing you all the best, and congratulations once again.

Nisha & Priyesh were legally joined in marriage on the 5th of May 2011 at Brent Registry Office, following which we took a leisurely stroll through our local Barham Park and had a relaxing engagement shoot while they began to absorb the reality that they were now husband and wife!

I think these images, truely show, how much these two are in love with each other. (Click the images to make them full screen)

Congratulations Nisha & Priyesh, wishing you all the best in your future together…

(Click on the image to make them full screen)

Winnie & Rakesh were married on the 1st of May 2011, at Cavendish Banqueting suite in Colindale.

Here is their full story in pictures.

Congratulations guys!! I hope you both enjoy looking through your photos…

Bhakti & Oliver were engaged on April 15th 2011, at VIP Lounge, Edgware.
Congratulations to the both of you. Here are a selection of images from your special day.

Click on the images to fill your screen.

Towards the end of last year I was lucky to be able to shoot Nisha & Harshil’s Engagement at Cavendish Banqueting.

Here are some teaser images from Harshil’s Mandvo.

Full post to follow soon…

Sheila & Jitesh were married on October 30th 2010, at Watford Temple, Bhaktivedanta Manor.

Here are a couple of teaser images taken on the day.

Click on each image to fill your screen.

Some lifestyle photography, and a beautiful shot of 6 month old, Kaylen Patel.

Welcoming to the world Keisha Rabadia, born on 28th October 2010, to proud and happy parents Dee and Lax.

Congratulations guys, I hope you like the photos

Images taken on 3rd of April 2010, for The Pithi of Neil Mandalia

Images taken on 3rd of April 2010, for The Mameru of Neil Mandalia.

So I had my nephew over to stay with me last weekend, and he was so excited to tell me that he won player of the tournament at a seasoned competition that he took part in.

As part of the prize, he won this genuine World Cup 2010 football, donated by the tournament sponsors Hyundai.

So as an extra gift, we took a few photo’s of him playing the garden, so that he has a few memories to look back on in the future.

He loved it so much, it’s his new facebook profile image.

Saturday afternoon at Barham Park in Sudbury.
Temperatures touching 30°C; a beautiful couple Meenal & Ghani, having placed their matrimonial vows not more than a few hours before, shared a walk in the park to unwind among the sculpted garden of Barham Park, before they prepared to party the night away, celebrating with their family and friends, the commitment they are making to each other.

On Saturday morning, Mukta, Jay and I headed over to Forty Hill in Enfield, for a very quick engagement shoot, before their Civil Wedding Registry, later that morning.

Here is a teaser from that session.

At the start of this year, I had the pleasure of capturing Disha & Vijay’s Hindu Engagement ceremony.

On the 12th of June 2010, I had the pleasure of being invited as a guest to witness their Hindu Wedding at Watford Temple.

Disha is like my younger sister. I’ve known her since she was born!! We’ve lived together when we were little babies; we’ve had long summer holidays abroad; and even while she moved far away during university, we still all had a few occasions to meet up and enjoy a few birthday parties and reasons to celebrate living the typical student life.

I’d better not mention the teasing and bullying Disha has had to endure from me, throughout her teenage life, lol, lets just say it was a love-hate relationship. (Disha if you’re reading this, at this point, you’ll probably be remembering that lovely poem I wrote and repeatedly sang for you when we were in Cyprus, lol. Neil, if you’re reading this, you’ll probably remember being the bodyguard sat on the spinning wheelie chair during the long distance projectile fight that ensued, lol.) Let this be a lesson to all you teenage boys > Teenage girls are very strong when they get angry!!! Hehe.

Okay on a serious note: I am so happy that Disha has found such a lovely person in Vijay. He will look after you, and take care of you like a princess. I don’t think I’ve ever met such a human being who has such patience and understanding. He is polite and modest. And Vijay, you’re a very lucky man, to have met Disha! She is a laugh a minute, and will keep you smiling every moment that you spend with her.

Once you have returned from your honeymoon, you’ll be living a lot closer to me, so there should be no reason why we shouldn’t be seeing a lot more of you guys!!

All the best in your future, and again Congratulations!!

Disha & Vijay. Hindu Wedding - 12th June 2010. 'A match made in heaven...'

On the first May bank holiday this year, I spent the day with Saba of L’Chic Beauty, shooting the first set of promotional images for her newly launched business venture, offering the discerning individual a unique experience in hair and make-up artistry.

I’ve known Saba for a long time now, and always knew she was capable of doing something great, and finally she has proven it to be true!!
Years and years of hard work are finally starting to pay off, as she dedicates every minute of her life in your beauty as a qualified and certified professional hair and make-up artist!

So why am I still rambling on with a background story, “get on with it!!!” I hear you shouting…
Well, now that L’Chic Beauty has officially launched, I can display these photos from the first photo shoot…

Show your support by visiting her website www.lchicbeauty.com or hit the 5 stars at the bottom of the post to show that you like it!!

L'Chic Beauty - Business card on make-up colour palette

L'Chic Beauty - Professional Hair & Make-up Artist

L'Chic Beauty - Professional Hair & Make-up Artist

L'Chic Beauty - Professional Hair & Make-up Artist

L'Chic Beauty - Vegas at night backdrop

L'Chic Beauty - Professional Hair & Make-up Artist

L'Chic Beauty - Professional Hair & Make-up Artist

L'Chic Beauty - Professional Hair & Make-up Artist

L'Chic Beauty - Professional Hair & Make-up Artist

L'Chic Beauty - Damask backdrop

www.lchicbeauty.com

So it’s just gone midnight, and I’ve just got in from partying with Leena & Paul at their Wedding Reception.

It’s only fair that I give them something to look forward to (other than newly married life, of course) lol, for when they wake up in the morning as husband and wife.

Here’s a photo from the Wedding earlier this morning… As you all know, my teaser photos, are never quite clear photos of the bride and groom, (that’s why I call it a teaser!) so you’ll just have to wait to see the rest of them!!

The Mataji na Lota ceremony can take place for many reasons, a new member to the family such as a daughter-in-law to bring blessings to a new couple. During the first pregnancy (also known as ‘Khoro’) to bring blessings upon the baby inside it’s mother. Other religious reasons such as when a boy has his Janoi, or to bring a family wishes of good fortune in health and studies.

On this occasion the Mataji na Lota were celebrated purely for the joy and love of Mataji on behalf of Thakkar Parivar.

More photos to follow…

The beautifully decorated display of Mataji na 24 Lota, taking center stage in the hall.

Jay & Dimy are having their hindu wedding this weekend, then jetting straight off on their honeymoon.
I just wanted to wish them all the best in the future and I hope they have the honeymoon of a lifetime.

Here's a lovely photo of Jay & Dimy catching a few moments rest under the pergola at Harrow Registry Office

Payal Malde of www.payalmalde.co.uk provided her skills in Mehndi art. Check out her website to hire her for your Mehndi party.

Check out that gorgeous ring! Sparkling as it caught the light from all angles. So beautiful!

Congratulations Heena & Ashish, you guys were great!!

A total of 36 cars, with many more members from all over the UK arrived in their vehicles, and packed out the Ace Cafe car parking area.

In my opinion, this has got to be one of the largest turn-outs for the first official meet held at Ace Cafe, for a club that only began building its membership foundation less than a year ago.

Details for the next meet can be found in the Ace Cafe Calendar or here, so if you didn’t get a chance to make it to this one, there’s always next time.
Sign up to the club and send in your registration number, to guarantee yourself a spot at the front of the Ace Cafe.
You can also find the Outlaw Jap Club at their website http://www.outlawjapclub.co.uk/ or on Facebook.

Here are some of the images from the day, along with a snapshot of most of the vehicles that attended the meet.

Here’s the members, friends and family who gathered for the meet. Click here for high-res image.

A compilation of the members vehicles who attended the meet.

And afterwards some fun with a RC drifter car.

This particular ceremony, is known as Lagan Pado Pokwanu.

A brief summary of this event:
The bride’s family, brings with them ‘The Kankotri’ (wedding invitation), to offer to the groom’s family.
The offering of the invitation, indicates to the groom’s family, that all the preparation is complete and blessings required to hold the wedding have been received.
The ceremony continues with the acceptance of the kankotri.
This then allows the groom to attend his wedding and bring with him his family and friends.

This here is known as the Lagan Pado (containing the wedding invitation)…

…and what would any celebration be without cake?

So I thought I’d upload a few of my personal favourite photos from my sisters engagement party.

Earlier last year, I posted pictures from [The Engagement | Sagai] of this lovely couple. Click here to see those photos.

According to the vast majority of the reviews found through Google Search, these batteries are meant to be amongst the very best in powering your high drain electronic devices, especially for photographic equipment such as digital camera’s and flash guns. When I read all the hype, I thought to myself “hey, that’s gotta be worth a try”.

At £7-£10 for 4, they’re not the cheapest of rechargeable batteries, but when you consider the long term potential saving, it’s worth giving it a chance.

A few years ago I purchased a large quantity of rechargeable AA batteries through ebay, supposedly rated at 2500mAh+.
They were fantastic on the first use. Infact they were pretty good even after the second and third times too. I would use the batteries till they were flat, charge them up and leave them ready for next time. However, there once came a time, when I put 4 of them in my flash gun, and the ready light wouldn’t trigger. It took around 30-40 seconds till it even gave a hint of power. I fired one shot, and that was it, they were dead. I guess what had happened, the rechargeable batteries had lost there charge while they were sitting around in the bottom of my bag.

Since then, I decided I would purchase a fresh set of batteries, for every shoot. Costco, do fantastic deals on batteries. They have their own brand Kirkland batteries which come in at around £13 for 40, or you can get 36 Duracell Plus for around £12. I prefer the Duracell batteries, they had a faster recycle time between shots.

On a typical indian, hindu/asian wedding, I can expect to drain 28-36 batteries. If the venue has higher than normal ceiling, or is very dim lit, I can easily flatten between 32-40 batteries in the space of 8 hours.

So for this year, I’ve decided to invest in these rechargeable Sanyo Eneloop batteries. They supposedly retain their charge for longer when not in use, and at the same time sustain their power when in use. Perfect for chucking into my flash guns.

I’ve bought a set of 12 of these, so I’m expecting some great things from them. I’ll come back and post a review when I’ve had some time and experience with them.

If you happen to have come across this site while on the hunt for the cheapest place to get these, checkout 7dayshop.com I got mine from here and I’ve been pretty happy with their service so far, so I can recommend them.

If you have high drain electrical devices, then perhaps these batteries might be a good place to start.

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You may remember The Engagement of Nisha & Harshil, that took place in November last year.
I was so happy when I received this  Thank You card from them, after they received their digital images on disc.
I just had to share it with you

The message in the card reads:

Dear Niraj,
We would really like to thank you so
much for your kind offer to take our
photos on our engagement, they are truly
amazing and we really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for joining us on our
special day, we hope that you had
a good time and look forward to
seeing you soon.
Lots of love,
Harshil & Nisha
- x -

To which I reply : “It was an absolute pleasure, I had a fantastic time, look forward to seeing you soon too – “

*All comments welcomed.

Congratulations to the both of you. I’ll have your images ready real soon, and I just wanted to wet your appetite before you see the rest of your photos.

Disha rests her palm on Vijay’s shoulder  as they gaze into the distance, full of family and friends.

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The Guoman Tower Hotel was the venue and it looked great, while Sapna & Sameer looked even more amazing.

Sameer then rushed back to his hotel room, to get changed into his indian outfit, for the wedding. I caught him in his room, as he was preparing.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time with family and friends. With lots of food, drink and merriment. It was the perfect way to close out 2009 with lots of socialising, fun and smiles.

In 2009, I made a very bold and difficult choice to leave my day job, to pursue photography full time. I love photography, it’s been my passion for many years, and I think I’m quite good at it. The business side of doing photography, is proving to be a lot more complicated and involved than I could have ever imagined. I’ve had to dedicate a lot of time to making sure I have everything in place to do it all efficiently. As a hobby, I was able to do things as and when, no rush no hurry. Now I have the time and motivation to do things promptly.

That being said, I have to be honest here, and explain that towards the last few months of 2009 things were becoming more and more difficult. Lots of jobs and sessions, that I had not completed, some that I had not even started. Yet I was still taking on more jobs, and overloading my schedule with yet more unfinished projects.

I hope that current clients who may still be waiting can understand this, and appreciate my honesty.
To future clients, I make this promise to ensure the work-flow from booking to delivery is as seamless, fluid and efficient as I can ever dream it to be. That would be my aim for this year, 2010.

I am finally regaining control of the backlog, but still have 6 projects awaiting completion. Over the course of the next few weeks, you will see these posted, and see that I am doing all I can to get on track, before this years work really kicks in.

I don’t really have a “New Years Resolution” (as such) other than to be a better person. More open, honest, and appreciative of others.
I think this blog will really help me with that. My own little outlet portal to be able to make these things reality.

Finally I’d like to thank all those close to me, who have supported me and continue to give me their support through the future.

I hope you are looking forward to 2010 as much as I am.

Wishing you, your family and your friends, a very Happy New Year.

Niraj Popat.

Before I forget: What would a blog post be without a picture??
So here is my view of the London Eye, from the Embankment, in London, as the seconds edged ever closer to midnight on the last day in 2009.

It was partly my fault, but also the reality of the situation is that there are far too many greedy people in the world today. The mobile phone was only 6 months old. Looked brand new, and was well looked after. I tend to keep all of my stuff in great condition. Anyway, I’ve called T-Mobile, who have blocked the handset, and charged me to have a replacement sim-card sent to my home. I’ll likely never see the handset again, which I really liked and had gotten used to using.

As a word of warning to all to everyone in these following few days, of merriment and celebration, to look after your belongings, and not become a victim of property theft.

At a minimum it’s a major inconvenience.

NB: I am unreachable via telephone until further notice. Please contact me via email / facebook / twitter. Although I can only respond when I have access to the internet.

The Mehndi Party took place a few days before, and The Mandvo earlier the same morning as the Pithi.

The whole family got in on the action, and covered him in a yellow paste, made from some ingredients (turmeric, sandalwood and saffron) mixed together with some water.
Supposedly, the paste helps in a cleansing way, to clear out the pores, a few days before, so that Sameer looks his best for the big wedding day.

Sameer did get his own back with more yellow paste on his brothers, sisters, and family.
Even I ended up getting attacked, lol.

Great fun!!!

If you missed the pics from the Mehndi Party, click here

After this came The Pithi.

The Registry images are to follow very soon.

I happen to have both, and find them extremely useful. Both are useful in their own unique ways.

• You have access to a lot of opinions, thoughts, ideas and great tips.
• All the information is public and easily accessible. If you tweet it, the world will see it.
• With plenty of 3rd party apps, you have full control of how much twitter you see, what you upload, what you share.
• It’s low maintenance. Use it! Don’t use it! Share or absorb. Totally up to you.
• You can only share 140 characters, so it’s even less that a text, keeps things simple and direct!
• It’s lightweight, fast and responsive. Try tagging, following and re-tweeting, it works!
• For a simple application, Twitter has a lot of undiscovered potential. Get yourself a Twitter account and be there for when this potential is developed.

Try it out for yourself and don’t forget to follow me @nirajpopat if you want to keep up to date with what I’ve got to say. Don’t worry, I share more than just my eating habits, lol.

Facebook on the other hand is a more developed service. It’s been around for quite a while now, and there are lots of plugins for your own facebook page. It’s having your own web page without all the headache of maintaining servers, managing domain names, and all the other tech stuff that goes with hosting a website. You can even create Facebook Groups, and Fan Pages. Share pictures, tag friends, make comments, and again share your thoughts!

I use Facebook to keep up to date with what my friends are up to, what they’ve been up to, and what they’re planning to do. Infact I’ve even used it to organise events, small parties and get togethers.

You’ll often find me sharing & commenting through Facebook. It’s a great way to keep up to date with what I’m doing. Find out about my latest photo shoots or upcoming  events.

Join me on Facebook and get more of the inside info before it hits the blog!!

In the days leading up to the wedding Sameer and his family had many joyous evenings of parties, celebrations & hindu ceremonies.

If you remember back a couple of weeks I blogged a post titled ‘Mehndi Sisters [Creative Concept]‘, well here are some of the images, from that Mehndi Party.

The Mandvo & The Pithi images are also online.

The Registry images are to follow very soon.

The Khoro takes place in either the first or the very last week of the 7th month of preganancy, and must be on a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday.
The ceremony only happens for the first child to be born to the mother.

Here are some pictures from that lovely day.

Click the image to see a larger version.

More images from this Mehndi Party are now up on the blog : Sameer Sheth [Mehndi Party]

Exciting news!!!! Nisha & Harshil are engaged to be married!!! This is awesome news, they make a great couple.
Their engagement ceremony, held at Cavendish Banqueting, in Colindale, last week was an absolute blast.
A guest list of a very large family, all attended to give them their best wishes, as they committed into their religious duties.

The ceremony followed Nisha & Harshil to the dance-floor in their first dance together, which led the party late into the night.

Here are some memories from the evening.

Enjoy!!

I know a number of you have been waiting ever-so patiently for your prints to arrive. I offered 4×6, 5×7 and 6×8 prints on the day.

As a token of good will (due to the delay) I have upgraded everyone who bought a portrait of themselves at the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity Dinner & Dance, to the largest 8×10 format that was not available on the day. AND I’ve even mounted them in wooden frames with glass fronts! I really hope this makes up a little bit for the delay, which I am really, very sorry about.

Before I give them all out, here’s what they look like:

In case you wondered or are interested, an online shopping cart facility will be available through this site very soon.

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The yellows, oranges, reds, purples and blues, make it all the more amazing to look at…

My friend, Kunaal Makwana, will be running, in an effort to raise money for one of the many charities he so passionately supports. He has chosen Bowel Cancer UK for this half-marathon.
He has dedicate the last 8 months of his time training for this event, as he builds up to run a full marathon in 2010.

Let us all wish him the best of luck in his first run.

To find out more information about this event click here

They make an awesome couple, and I wish them the very best for their future together.

Here’s some of the images from the day.

Don’t blink, each image isn’t on the screen for very long!!

(Please note: This video contains flashing images and fast motion which may not be suitable for individuals suffering from epilepsy)
Watch this video in Full HD 1080p on my Vimeo Channel

I took these back in 2007, as part of the entry to a photo competition, held on the Lexus Owners Club UK forum.
The rules were simple. All you had to do was to follow the theme title ‘Lexus at night’.

I popped down to Wembley Arena, which is overlooked by the Wembley Stadium Arch.

I was very happy to find that my photo won 2nd place in the competition.

Winning Photo (2nd place)

Here are the other images that I took while I was being creative.

…and finally some images I wanted to share.

Initially, the venue had been booked to seat 200 people, but as the tickets were sold out in under 48 hours the organisers had to quickly respond to the massive interest and stretch the venue capability to it’s bursting limit of 350. All tickets were all sold out in less than 10 days, for what was to be one of the best fund raising parties of the year.

- The catering and decoration were all taken care of by the venue staff at Masti and organisers (the Shah family)
- The videography was provided by the guys at Zee TV, for their regular Sunday morning slot show ‘Out & About‘ – the local community show.
- Secondary videography and entertainment was provided by the guys at the BBC, for their hit series ‘The Real Hustle‘.
- and last but not least, the photography was provided by yours truly, Niraj Popat.

Who are they?? Well…

The Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity is a registered UK charity, that raises funds through all types of events, to continually recycle, renew and implement new and inventive ways to take care of sick children. The charity needs at least £50m every year, for these works to reliably and effectively continue supporting children and parents each and every day. You can read more about what they do, and how they do acheive their goals by visiting their website.

Masti Banqueting, is a newly refurbished venue in Wembley, Middlesex (North West London), created by the driving force of their hugely successful bar and restaurant entrepreneurs. The venue has been designed with the state-of-the-art lighting, sound, and visual technology, to provide a stunning backdrop to all types of events where people are invited to enjoy themselves. They have a large kitchen that caters for the guests to the venue.

Zee TV, as most will be aware, is a Satellite broadcast TV channel, for the Asian population. They cover all sorts, from fiction, game shows, reality tv, good living, through to non-fiction. The elder Asian generation appear to be (from my experience) addicted to these channels, and captures a large volume of viewers each and every week. The ‘Out & About’ show, is filmed  throughout the UK, to allow the couch potatoes, to keep up with what’s going on in and around the local Asian communities. The Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity – Dinner and Dance, was broadcast on Zee TV on the 19th of April 2009.

The BBC is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world. Its mission is to enrich people’s lives with programmes that inform, educate and entertain. It is a public service broadcaster, established by a Royal Charter and funded by the licence fee that is paid by UK households.

The Real Hustle is a factual entertainment series produced by Objective Productions for BBC Three. It features a team of hustlers – Alexis Conran, Paul Wilson and Jessica-Jane Clement – as they try out some notorious scams on members of the public, filmed with hidden cameras. The aim is to reveal how scams work so that the viewer can avoid being ripped off by the same con. The participants featured in The Real Hustle have either been set up by their family and friends or believe that they are participating in another television programme. After they have been hustled for real any monies or property taken during the hustle are returned to them and their consent for the item to be broadcast is obtained. (as stated on their webpage)

The Real Hustle, were invited to the Dinner and Dance, to provide entertainment for the guests in such a way that they were secretly able to raise a phenomenal amount of money for the charity.
I’m not going to give away how this was acheived, because it will all be on their show which is due to be aired on BBC Three this month August 2009.
There’s a few images on here, that will relate to the show, and all will make alot more sense when you watch it!!

Oh and the photographer… that was me

I thought It would be nice to share some of the photo’s from the evening, so here they are.

For those who are awaiting their printed images, they will be in the post in the next week or so.
(I hope you can accept my sincerest apologies for the extreme delay it’s taken me to get these organised, rest assured, they have not been forgotten).

It’s firmly attached to the 5D, and produces astounding results! The full frame sensor of the 5D gives this prime lens the space to breath!

I need to get this lens out and give it a real world work-out. But for now I’m super happy with what it’s produced. Can’t wait to try it on faces and see how the portraits look.

50% Crop

100% Crop

Do you get the idea why I’m super stoked about this prime? Alot more from this lens to come real soon.

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I would like to say thank you to them both for a lovely day, I had lots of fun.
You guys rock!

Wishing you all the best for the future.

Here are a few of my personal favourites from the morning.

I may start posting more images taken with my G10 as I become more familiar with it’s capability.

Normally, she would be doing the mehndi on brides-to-be, but it’s not quite the same having to do your own mehndi for your own engagement. LOL.
So tonight she sat back and enjoyed a moment in the spotlight, as she was pampered by Payal Malde, with a selection of artwork on her hands and feet.

Unfortunately, I won’t be the photographer at the engagement (obviously), so here’s some images that I was able to capture earlier this evening.

Here are a few images from the day:

With this new theme and layout, I’ve introduced a cleaner white background, capable of displaying wider, larger images. Some of you mentioned that the text on version 1, became unclear to read, so with the high contrast text vs background, this should be pleasant and easy on the eye.

At some point, i’ll be resizing the posted images, to take advantage of the larger area. I know I had some feedback saying that you would prefer to see larger images, well I’ve taken that on board and implemented it.

Feel free to comment your feedback thoughts and idea’s about this new layout. I love hearing what you like or dislike about the site.

Email me blog@nirajpopat.com or leave a comment.

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This is what Mehndi looks like 10 minutes after it has been applied to the hands.

Overnight, the designs are marked onto the skin as the fresh mehndi dries off. The depth and darkness of the dye depends on the skin, but often her results have been extremely good.

I wish her the very best of luck in her new venture, and I hope she is as successful as she deserves.

If you would like more information, please feel free to contact me : niraj@nirajpopat.com

Rob is a 43 year old ex-Civil Engineer, from Portsmouth.
For the past 4 years, Rob has been trading in construction as a sub-contractor, engineering his own Roofing and Cladding projects for larger organisations.

Three years ago, in an unfortunate accident, Rob was struck down as a pedestrian by a car. He was off from work for 6 months. Having all this time to himself, the opportunity arose to pursue and develop his skills in design. From a young age (as early as 8 years old) he recalls he was always drawing, designing and scribbling his idea’s onto paper. He followed his passion onto O-levels (GCSE equivalent) in Art, where he was bluntly told by his teacher that his idea’s were not suitable for the curriculum being of “too wild and inappropriate” conceptions.
Rob’s idea’s revolve around Surrealist and Tattoo Art. He is influenced by his interest in Biker clubs (Harley Davidson etc…) and a passion for far-eastern design and culture. Combining these (at first glance) opposite realms into a seamless fine-art that can be stretched onto canvas, or tattooed onto your body.

The idea’s work very well, as his very close friends, Scott and Anna, also from Portsmouth own a jewellery and tattoo parlour, called ‘The Gold Shop’.
Anna has tattooed several of Rob’s design onto his body for him, making Rob a walking, talking biogallery of his own work.

This is where Rob finds his inner peace, in his world, within ours.
Often up till the early hours of the morning, losing track of time, when engrossed so deep onto the paper that he engraves.
It is his complete inner expression, letting his pen dance around the paper, never knowing what the finished design will look like, until it is finished.

Here is some of the work he had with him today, that he was able to show me.

The Dragon

We can clearly see a relationship with the Dragons from Chinese or Oriental history. The dragon is a mythical creature portrayed to have a very dark and evil presence and is a potent symbol in Chinese art and folklore.

The Gazelle

Gazelle’s are known as quiet but quick animals. They originate from Africa, but can also be found in southwest and central asia, and on the Indian subcontinent. The animal is able to reach high speeds of up to 50mph, in the blink of an eye. Often the prey of larger animals such as lions and cheetahs.

The Chrysanthemum

Not something you would possibily expect to see from Rob White’s collection, but beautiful nevertheless.

The Heartagram

The heartagram, is best described as a combination of a heart and an inverted pentagram (love & hate). The idea of any symbol representing an inverted pentagram is said to be of evil nature, but here in this combination, Rob has merged the symbol of love. Completely opposing the evil (hate characteristic). You could say the heartagram is a “Modern Yin Yang”.
Inscribed within is the line “Suffer the brilliance of the beautiful white light of pain” which will have a unique meaning to all, but to Rob is a relationship between the pain and pleasure of a tattoo.

I hope to bump into Rob again in the future, where hopefully he will share with us more of his designs.

If you would like to contact Rob for the commissioning of any special designs or perhaps idea’s you would like to discuss with him, please drop me a message, and I will forward you his details, with his permission.

A sleek new revolutionary design of the Arc, incorporates the usability of a full size desktop mouse, with the transportability of a laptop mini-mouse and the attraction of a wire-free desk area.

When I first saw the mouse, I thought to myself “that’s just a fashion statement / gimmick gadget. Surely that would not be comfortable to use?”
The design definitely caught my attention. It comes in 2 colours red or black. I’ve got the black version here and it’s definitely stylish from all angles. Even the microtransceiver is so small that it makes you wonder why the other manufacturers are still using the 2inch USB dongles.

The mouse communicates to your PC (or Mac) via 2.4Ghz wireless signals. The transceiver is a USB dongle device which loads itself onto your operating system and initiates communication with it’s paired mouse. It really was plug and play, although I would guess if your machine isn’t up to date, you may need to download the latest drivers from Microsoft’s website. Additionally, the Arc comes with some software known as Microsoft Intellipoint. It comes in all flavours of OS including 64bit Vista and XP. The software allows you to expand the ability of the Arc by customising features assigned to button clicks on the mouse. 2 x AAA Energizer batteries are also included, and are said to last for up to 6 months. I can’t test this yet, but I will let you know if this is true. I’ll know when the batteries are almost flat, because the mouse has a small green LED in between the left and right buttons which will glow red, when that time comes. The mouse itself folds in half for portability, to 60% of it’s original size, and comes with a trendy suede pouch to put it in for travel. The USB transceiver is stored underside of the mouse on a magnetic strip. The mouse is covered in a hard rubber, that allows for better grip and control. All in all I think it’s a fantastic design and unique idea, to a product that had already seen a million different designs in years gone by.

Dinorwig Powerstation produce electricity by means of moving water.
They are a hydroelectric powerstation, converting the kinetic energy from falling water, into electrical energy, which is then sold onto the National Grid, to provide electricity to the local area. Water is pumped from a lake at ground level, to a lake in a basin at the top of the mountain. It is then allowed to flow down again (on demand) turning magnetic turbines on it’s way to the ground.

Temperature on the drive through Wales, the night before, was fluctuating between -7°C and -4°C, though it settled on +2°C through the day today.

I thought the views were fantastic and took some shots of the ground level lake and surrounding area, while I was there.

Enjoy…

I’ll be visiting the area again in the next few weeks, so I’ll be sure to get some shots of Electric Mountain and Snowdonia while i’m there.

He had a very large collection of paintings, ready for either stretching or frame mounting.
A majority were textured, along with a few non-textured simple oil paintings.

After a quick show of all the paintings we narrowed it down to 4 favourites.
Not having a great deal of experience in artwork, I was not sure what to look for when buying these sorts of pieces. Are there even rules to consider when buying? Things that crossed my mind were, “where would I display this?; will I stretch it? or frame it?; does it suit the location environment?”. All difficult questions to answer as a first time buyer, so I just went with my gut feeling with what made me most happy when viewing. Eventually, narrowing further from 4 down to 1.

ENDLESS FOREST

I’ll post some more images, once the painting has found a place on the wall.

I ordered these from VistaPrint. They are an international company, but have a UK website, with UK telephone support (if you need it).
They’ve got some great prices, and they frequently have fantastic offers, if you order at the right time.
Amongst business cards, they also do other marketing materials such as calendars, t-shirts, pens and stationery.

Ordering was pretty simple. I designed the layout on a template that you can download from their website, and then re-upload as a PDF.

Here’s what my JPG designs looked like before I converted to PDF.

FRONT

BACK

The whole process took approximately 7 days from placing the order, to having them delivered to my door.
I ordered 1000, and they were delivered well packaged in 4 boxes of 250.

Here’s what they look like.

I decided to go with the +extra option of a glossy finish and foil accent across the centre part of the card. I think it gives it that extra edge.

Total Cost : £50.66 delivered. (approx 5p per card)

Welcome to my blog site for Niraj Popat Photography – on the web.
I’m in the middle of redesigning the template for the entire site.
Once it is ready, I will be bringing new posts and images to you as soon as possible.

Here’s a toast to a successful 2009,
Best regards,