Nirav Patel
Wedding | Last Updated: March 28, 2024
My name’s Nirav Patel and I’m a destination wedding photographer based out of San Francisco, CA. My body is made of marshmallows and chocolate… God, my wife, my son, my family, and my friends are the graham crackers that keep me together.
I’ve spent most of my life studying and learning everything mathematical. After getting my engineering degree and professional license, I decided to become a photographer. It was one of the easiest/hardest decisions I ever made. But it’s seriously great to finally toss out the formulas and just do what feels awesome. Capturing moments for people in an emotional, creative, and organic way is what I do now and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
My wedding work is always shot on digital using my Canon gear. I love the colors and low light performance I get with Canon cameras and lenses. I tend to use every lens in my arsenal for every event I shoot. Each lens tells a story in different ways so it’s hard to stick to just one or two. If I had to pick two of my favorites that I couldn’t shoot without, it would have to be the Canon 85mm f/1.2L and Canon 35mm f/1.4L.
Cameras: 2 Canon 5D Mark III, Contax 645 medium format, Zeiss Ikon ZM 35mm, Fuji GF670 medium format
Lens: Canon 24mm f/1.4L Mark 2, Canon 35mm f/1.4L, Canon 50mm f/1.2L, Canon 85mm f/1.2L, Canon 135mm f/2L, Zeiss 50mm Planar f/2 (for Ikon), Zeiss 80mm Planar f/2 (Contax).
Flash: Canon 580 EX 2
For personal and editorial work, I enjoy shooting medium format and 35mm film. The Contax is my main workhorse but the Fuji GF670 is an awesome travel sized medium format camera. The Zeiss Ikon is an incredible all purpose 35mm camera and also one that I use regularly. I mostly shoot with Kodak 400 Portra or Fuji 400H film stocks.
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