Gratitude 2017 : The Year in Retrospect

1,040 blog posts by the end of 2017.

Across various categories, primarily focused on : EyesForLuxury, EyesForDestinations, EyesForTechnology, EyesForLifestyle, 12 personal style features, etc.

40 episodes of my podcast : The Naina Redhu Experience.

Some of the most popular / most visited blog posts in 2017 were the ones about the Village Visit in Haryana, Sandy & Mona’s Wedding which I photographed entirely on the Pixel 2 XL smartphone, the Ranveer Singh Durex ad shoot behind the scenes, personal style story with a Bandhej Ombre jacket by Raiman Sethi and some of the most popular categories and pages were the EyesForPeople Portraits series, my photography portfolio, EyesForStreetStyle and the travel-related EyesForDestinations.

Clients from all kinds of industry verticals hired me to photograph for them and / or build awareness about their brand on my various online platforms. Hospitality, jewellery, travel, technology, art, food, chocolates, mobile phones, cameras, eyewear, alcohol, apparel, footwear, entertainment, speaking engagements, publications, interiors & decor, books, etc.

I am forever confused whether I should look at the financial year in retrospect or the calendar year. For the purpose of this piece I have looked at the calendar year Januray 2017 to December 2017.

One of the highlights was the Saree On Me photography project with Google Arts & Culture.

Agencies that helped bring in many of the above clients, most notably : WATConsult, Edelman, LookWhosTalking, Eleve, WishBoxStudio, PR Pundit, WhiteXP Media and SoDelhi.

Travel within India and abroad was extensive this year.

Jaisalmer with Suryagarh was one of those once-in-a-lifetime hospitality experiences that will be hard to replicate. Bikaner with Narendra Bhavan. Ranikhet for the annual trip with the parents. San Francisco with Google. Paris with La Biennale Paris. Avignon with Mathieu Lustrerie Chandeliers. Singapore with Yotel. Vietnam for a vacation. Even an eleven hour layover in Hong Kong was utilized! Varanasi, on Holi, with my friend who was here from Japan. And within Delhi to Jama Masjid.

The opportunity to photograph the interiors of the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi, courtesy Instagram and the President’s Press Office was one of the highlights of 2017. As was the trip to San Francisco, courtesy Google, for the international launch of the Pixel 2 smartphone, among other Google products.

A ton of photographs from personal projects.

EyesForPeople portraits with almost 300 people photographed. EyesForStreetStyle India On The Road continues to be something I photograph and publish regularly. Street Style photography commission by WWD at the India Art Fair was another one of the highlights of 2017 for me. I kicked off the EyesForInfluencer series in earnest and managed to photograph and interview and publish two features. A third one has been photographed and I have yet to get around to interviewing the influencer. It is a series where I spend a day with people who influence me. I would like to do more of this but since it’s a personal project so far, finding time is a struggle.

Images from the Rotten Fruit project were quite popular on social media!

Some luxury brand clients included Zoya Jewellery, Q Experiences with their Destination Antarctica Cruise, Queo Bathware and Sotheby’s.

queo

The pretty extensive and comprehensive project with India’s first Madame Tussauds! Another highlight for the amazing year I’ve had in 2017.

The JW Marriott Mussoorie photography & branding project was another extensive one that put all my skills to use.

A video for Motorola, Instagram features with Snickers, Chivas and Horlicks, launch blog feature with M&M’s and Asian Paints and many more brand-building campaigns on my social media platforms.

There were also lots of photographs around eyewear from Ray Ban and footwear from PUMA.

The Behind The Scenes feature with UrbanClap that kicked off the trend for my blog stories in 2017 – so many more comprehensive brand features than ever before! And the multiple speaking gigs – at the Bloggers Confluence by SoDelhi and one at Pearl Academy. I love getting on stage and having a ball with the audience.

I made many new and much-smarter-than-me friends. It’s been incredible.

Oh! And I discovered five new beautiful fragrances.

I even got the boy to pose for one of my personal style blog posts!

If you’re keen to dig deeper, you can see all the thousands of blog posts from 2017 on Naina.co!

Thank you for reading, watching, commenting, re-tweeting, re-posting, sharing and re-sharing my work and photographs. 2017 was wonderful and 2018 is going to, hopefully, take my Naina.co brand to the next level. HUGE announcement is coming soon and I hope my work will find a wider audience and make more people smile. Of course, the added revenues are not something I am going to be complaining about anytime soon.

Here’s to more travel, more great brand stories, memorable experience, lovely people, illuminating conversations, beautiful photographs and inner peace.

I wish you a very happy new year!

May 2018 ROCK and then some.

Cheers!