Today we’d like to introduce you to Ravin Goyal.
Hi Ravin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started my journey by photographing family moments during events, which slowly grabbed my interest in photography and fascinated me enough to dig into how the camera works and learn more about it. Learning through social media, photography books, several certificate courses, and online courses helped me understand the basics of photography. Following that, I learned the core things about photography from a very profound photographer and a great person Mr. Varun Patel. He is a person who has helped me shape my style, creativity, and fundamental sense of aesthetics and build confidence in photography.
After that, I wanted to get a bachelor’s and master’s degree to expand my knowledge in photography and learn what I haven’t so far; I knew that there would be instances where I would know few things already by then, but there would also be moments where I would be clueless either be it a particular type of equipment or a way to use the same equipment for different purposes. So, to give a brief statement about the whole journey, I would say that every moment and every class that I attended, be it online, workshops, certificate courses, assisting photographer, my bachelor’s and currently pursuing a master’s degree has taught me something or the other (smallest of details, biggest of biggest mistakes).
All right, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would not like to say if it was a smooth road or not because, as far as learning is considered, I would not want to brag, but I like to learn something every day from whatever I see in my surroundings, on online media, etc. It has been a good journey because of the people in my life, mainly my parent’s support throughout my journey of studying photography. As for me being from India, where parents don’t readily accept photography as a career to pursue, it’s more of a hobby than a profession. So for me, that wasn’t a struggle to tackle as my parents were okay from the day I told them that this is what I wanted to do, and since then, they have supported me Mentally and Financially. So the only struggle I face is more on the professional grounds. However, those are the struggles which I will be meeting throughout life – like people not showing up, deadlines, e.g., as I was in my final semester of bachelor’s during the covid outbreak and everything was shut, but for graduating, I required a portfolio of 30 looks to be shot, and to be managed everything during that time was difficult. However, my friends and I made it happen; we worked day and night to get each one of our portfolios complete, and so we carried out 120 looks in 30 days collectively, which is by far the most difficult I have faced.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a professional photographer; currently, I am in the final semester of my master’s degree program at New York Film Academy, Los Angeles, CA. I began my journey through fashion photography, and over the duration of my learning since childhood, my interests also developed in landscape photography and street portraits. I have been doing editorial fashion photography, and I love that space where I am. I love to play with lighting; I mainly love the pre-production part of the fashion shoots, the discussion of concepts, and the interaction between the model and photographer and the team – makeup, hair, and stylist. Also, the best is the exchange of thoughts that help amplify the interest of people in the shoot and take it a notch higher, as their opinions are also woven into the photoshoot ideas. There is nothing that makes me proud, because IDK, it’s just me as a person that there isn’t a set thing that makes me proud because everything that I see finishes editing, and that’s it. I Move on from that at that very moment. I feel like it’s done; for me, nothing is an achievement sort of thing, as I think setting that goal will limit me to work for that specificity. What sets me apart from others is a question that needs to be asked to people I have shot over time and them approaching again and again, and that trust of letting me photograph them proves it all.
How do you define success?
I don’t define success, but for me, it’s just basically I would say that what would make me feel successful/ happy would be working each day of my life and learning new lighting techniques or any new information that helps me to improve myself and prove myself better every day.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ravingoyalphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ravingoyalphotography/
Image Credits
Models- Luisa Azavedo, Valenttina Dias, Sophie Swiszcz, Aparna Jachak, Svetlana Walden, Sophio Maisuradze. Makeup – Elkin Macleod
