Sikh Wedding Photographer Barnet

The short answer

Your Sikh wedding photographer in Barnet, at a glance

Awarded five European Gold medals and elected a Fellow of the BIPP and the MPA, Kaushik Bathia photographs Sikh weddings for couples in Barnet with the steadiness that only twenty five years brings. Out with the baraat we walk backwards more than forwards, framing the groom through the dancing rather than over it, and we keep well clear of the drummers' arcs while doing it. Coverage in Barnet runs from the maiyan and vatna at home to the milni outside the gurdwara, the four laavan of the Anand Karaj, the closing ardas, and on through langar to the evening reception. Couples often tell us the day felt calmer with us in it, which after twenty five years is the compliment we value most. Add a second photographer for the busiest events, a relaxed pre-wedding shoot, or a hand finished fine art album. Travel to Greater London and anywhere else in the UK is arranged as a matter of course.

High Barnet is the northern terminus of the Northern line, so a sangat coming up from central London for an anand karaj arrives without changing trains. The ceremony happens at the gurdwara, where heads are covered, shoes are left at the door and the Guru Granth Sahib is honoured as the living Guru throughout the four laavan and the ardas. The Cavendish Banqueting Suite or Hendon Town Hall then takes the reception, with the milni, the choora and kalire, and the doli photographed as the evening turns.

Serving Barnet

Sat sri akal from Barnet

Two buildings, two separate problems, one of which answers to us and one of which does not. The hall belongs to its institution: light, layout and conduct were settled long before your date, and a camera changes none of them. We work inside those terms, quietly, from floor level. Your evening venue inverts that entirely, being an empty room which does whatever you and we jointly decide. Brief the two halves separately, because the second will resemble the first in nothing but the guest list.

Second comes the clock. A morning that opens in darkness ends with the day's finest light arriving hours after the ceremony closes, so portraits belong in the gap before your reception rather than the hour you might assume. Guests travelling by tube reach you in batches as trains land, which fills and empties the entrance several times over instead of once.

Check your date

What we offer

What is included in your Barnet Sikh wedding coverage

01

Documentary Approach

02

Candid Moments

03

Kodak Gold Awards

Every Sikh ritual

Before the Guru Granth Sahib in Barnet

Everyone sits at floor level, ourselves included, which rules out half the compositions a standing photographer reaches for. Guru Granth Sahib anchors the darbar hall from beneath its canopy, and that canopy usually marks the brightest point in the room, so anybody turned towards it is lit from behind. Working the sides at knee height solves both at once. Long lenses handle the rest, since crossing a seated sangat to improve a frame never repays what it costs.

Milni tends to fall outdoors and early, inside a ring of relatives that closes as soon as embracing starts; the ground to hold is within that ring. Palla photographs as hands and cloth, not faces. Ragis set the pace of the laavan, so the singing announces each round and watching for it is unnecessary. Ardas is stillness. Doli then undoes the whole morning at once, and families ask for that frame more than any other.

Wedding traditions photographed in Barnet

Why choose us

Steady hands for an early start in Barnet

An anand karaj begins early enough that most suppliers are still asleep. Reaching the hall before the sangat does, we work out where its light falls and settle in ahead of the first shabad. From your side of the camera nothing about the morning should feel rushed, whatever it cost ours.

Good to know

Wedding photography in Barnet, frequently asked questions

Are you a candid photographer or do you pose people?+

Both, in that order. Ceremonies are observed and never arranged. Group photographs are arranged, because eleven relatives in a line will not organise themselves and the alternative is forty minutes of somebody shouting names across a car park.

Can you capture the kirtan and the atmosphere inside the darbar hall?+

Yes, and quietly. Kirtan is sound, so photographs have to carry it through faces instead: the ragis at work, the sangat listening, hands resting in laps. No flash goes off in that room at any point.

Can you cover a Barnet gurdwara and a separate reception venue on the same day?+

Two shoots with a journey stapled between them, which is how a Barnet wedding day ordinarily runs. Give us the reception address at booking, so the gap gets built in early instead of surfacing on the day itself.

Our Barnet wedding is only a few months away; is it too late to book you?+

Ask. Short notice is common and diaries do open up. The bigger question is whether your Barnet date lands on a Saturday in summer, because those go first and nothing we do conjures another one.

Do you photograph the evening reception in Barnet as well as the ceremony?+

Yes, and the evening is the half we can actually light. Colour and position get set before guests come in, so the first dance is not the moment anyone is still working out where to stand.