Bahrain Confidential interviews the remarkable wedding photographer, Bader Alwazeer, who documents the spirited, fresh, timeless story of weddings in Bahrain and the region.
What motivates you to get up in the morning?
Love. Love of my family and love of photography.
What does photography mean to you?
Photography is everything to me, anyone who knows me knows that I’m living photography. Imagine that you are doing the most thing you are passionate about everyday to make a living with the one you love. Isn’t that just lovely?
What do you say is your stylistic approach to weddings?
I love to shoot weddings in a very natural un-posed un-controlled way, we sell ourselves as documentary wedding photographers, which means we capture the moments as it is. We avoid to interfere or change the reality. By doing this we capture real moments and real emotions that aren’t just a smile and awkward stand for the camera.
What can a couple expect when working with you?
My wife and I is a team, we have a great passion and love in what we do. The couples who pick us expect from us the best quality in technical side and the best artistic vision and approach in their photos.
All of the couples whom we already worked with usually feel very happy and excited about us, even before they see the photos. For some reason they love us as persons before they love us as photographers.
Can you share a little about what you aim to capture on pre-nuptial photo shoots and weddings?
We want to capture love, romance, feelings, happiness, and a touch of sexiness will not hurt anyone. As I mentioned before, we hate to control the scene in front of us so we try our best to keep the bride and groom relaxed and forget about us and let them feel the moment.
What technology/equipment do you use to shoot weddings?
We use topnotch cameras, lenses and lighting systems. We have a mighty camera that can shoot even in the darkest halls. We also use amazing prime lenses that give this dreamy fully blurred backgrounds and also help us when it gets really dark in some receptions. For wedding films, we usethe latest 4K capable cameras and amazing stabilization equipment. We shot a wedding that was lit only by kindle lights, and even it was challenging for us the equipment didn’t have any issue capturing the real soft lighting atmosphere.
When we are back to the studio we have very powerful Mac pros, calibrated screens and 4 layers of backup plan – one of them is online, away from Bahrain on a secure server. All of this is to make sure you get the best results available world wide and your photos are on safe hands.
Why should people choose Bader Alwazeer? What’s makes you unique?
My wife and I studied Multimedia art & Technology in the UK and we have had 7 years of commercial and advertising photography experience. We dealt with the biggest brands internationally and domestically. So when it comes to trust and professionalism we got you covered in that.
When it comes to our creative vision, I think it is very easy to feel the beauty in our captured moments that can be viewed over www.baderstudio.co
In addition, we are not a normal studio that will justsend you a couple of employee photographers to shoot your wedding to get their salary in the end of the month because we, ourselves, will attend. This is our baby business, we do it with our hands, we retouch the photos ourselves and deliver them by our hands.
Also, if your wedding is ladies only, we assure you that the entire process will be handled by females only. The head photographer is Khatoon Nasralla, my wife, who has been trained on my hand. We also have a second professional female photographer Yulia for those who need their wedding to be covered from every angle. As Bahrainis we really understand privacy, religion and confidentiality especially in Arab countries, and we take it really seriously.
Wedding Photographer: Bader Alwazeer
Videographer: Khatoon Nasralla
Make up artist: Fatema Alsabea
Hair stylist: Khatoon Ahmed
Wedding planner: Royal Weddings
Location: Al Areen Palace and Spa
Jewellery: Devji since 1950
Groom suit: Hugo Boss
Agency: Coverpage Dubai