Vivid Memories’ is a blooming wedding photography and cinematography business that covers special events. It is run by Ravinesh Roshan and his wife Mariam Makanji Roshan.
Ravinesh started the endeavour in 2016 after his father’s passing to provide a comfortable life for his mother and realise his true potential.
“After his passing, I got my first camera, I’m a musician as well so I play the guitar. I was thinking in my head to start doing music videos and at a very young age, once can be so ambitious,” he shared.
“So I got the camera and I had friends who were already doing wedding events. These guys would do double bookings at times and would ask me to help them out. “That’s how it started. I had zero knowledge of photography at that time, it just happened at a gradual pace.”
Originally from Labasa, Ravinesh moved around a lot with his family as his father worked in the maintenance section of various resorts in Fiji. He attributes his ability to adapt to different situations to this period of his life and says it also helped polish his management skills.
“I used to work at a call centre and corporate bodies before. The creative side of me started when I was doing graphic designing,” Ravinesh said.
“Designing uses a collection of images and composes them together but photography is all about capturing one moment, which is more valuable.”
Losing his elder sister to an illness in 2002 pushed Ravinesh to make the most of life, and to value and cherish its simple moments.
Ravinesh is a practical and hands-on individual. He has expanded into software development and website development, and has done work for various corporate bodies.
“I learnt it myself by watching YouTube videos and resources on the internet, I don’t have a degree and that’s okay, it doesn’t define a person.”
Majority of his clients are Fijians who have migrated and later returned to get married in Fiji.
“They recognise quality and ’ know what they want. I’m a firm believer in quality. Never compromise on that,” Ravinesh said.
Mariam and Ravinesh met unexpectedly after the first wave of the pandemic in 2020. She would later be his wife and he would become her business partner.
“I’m in church, facing the audience and she happens to be coming in,” Ravinesh reminisced.
Mariam said this was on a Friday. During a youth service she noticed a guy playing the guitar.
“I didn’t see his face, what attracted my attention were his fingers playing the guitar,” she said.
As they began conversing, she shared her interest in photography with him.
“He asked if I was interested in photography. So I said okay I’m interested and went with him to three events. It was hard but interesting to know how people spend on these kind of services,” Mariam said.
“But before that he actually approached me to go to the gym with him, then photography became a suggestion.”
Mariam grew up in Tavua in a Gujrati family. At first her parents refused the idea of her relationship with Roshan but eventually gave in as time evolved. After three months of dating, the duo decided to get married at their church in 2021, witnessed by their close friends and family.
“I have a different understanding on how life partners can be, because it takes a lifetime to basically learn and know about your spouse and even after 50 years together, you keep learning about each other,” Ravinesh said.
A typical day for the power couple would include doing household chores and running erands, feeding their dogs, and lots of editing. Editing could take up a whole day. They get out when there is a need to do outdoor photography shoots.
“The good thing is we operate from our home. We don’t have to get ready and waste our time travelling, when we’re hungry we can eat and rest then get back to work.”
Mariam said after facing difficulties in applying for leave of absence when her husband would go out for photography gigs in the West, she decided to resign from her corporate job and invest her time fully in the business.
They said their aim was to create a brand name that relied on developing personal connections with their clients and one with people could always rely on.