There are assignments where you go to take photographs.

And then there are assignments where you realise that photography is only one part of the job.

The BWF World Championships 2026 in Delhi was the latter.

I was part of the official photography team covering one of the biggest badminton tournaments ever held in India. The tournament brought together some of the best players in the world, including An Se-young, P. V. Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, Unnati Hooda, Chirag Shetty and many other international and Indian stars.

But for me, the biggest takeaway wasn't just the photographs I made.

It was learning how to work at the pace of a major international sporting event.

It started with an application that didn't go my way 

When I first heard that the BWF World Championships were coming to Delhi, I applied to become the official sports photographer for the tournament.

My intention was to handle the photography for the event.

I didn't win the bid.

At that point, it would have been easy to simply move on.

Instead, I reached out to Avijit Das, who had won the photography assignment. We spoke about the tournament, the scale of the work and, more importantly, how I approached sports photography.

That conversation eventually led to him bringing me into the team.

And suddenly, what had initially been a missed opportunity became something much bigger.

The official photography team consisted of Avijit Das, Paras Mendiratta, Shivam Yadav and me.

That decision by Avijit ended up becoming one of the most important parts of my experience at the tournament.

The scale of the assignment became clear very quickly 

I have photographed several national and international sporting events before.

But this was different.

This was my first time being part of an official photography team at a tournament of this scale.

The BWF World Championships were held at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi from 17–23 August 2026. The venue itself had undergone a major overhaul after criticism surrounding the India Open earlier in the year, with significant work done on infrastructure, cleanliness, lighting and athlete facilities.

From the photographer's perspective, however, the biggest challenge wasn't the venue.

It was the pace.

We were working roughly 12–14 hours a day.

We could arrive around 9 in the morning and still be working at 10 or 11 at night.

And there weren't really long breaks in between.

Because we were covering the tournament as an official photography team, the expectation wasn't simply to photograph the action and go home with memory cards full of images.

We had to get those photographs out while the tournament was still happening.

That meant learning a completely different way of working.

Learning the art of live filing 

Before the tournament, I had downloaded Photo Mechanic specifically for this assignment.

I had used Lightroom and Photoshop extensively before, but Photo Mechanic was new territory for me. I needed something that would allow me to move through large volumes of images quickly, identify the strongest frames and prepare them for delivery without wasting precious minutes.

The workflow became almost mechanical.

Photograph the match > Come back. > Cull. > Shortlist. > Edit. > Upload. > Get back to the court.

And repeat.

This process is known as live filing.

Instead of waiting until the end of the day to deliver a complete set of photographs, the photographer continuously files selected images during the event so that they can be used almost immediately.

For this tournament, we would generally aim to identify around 10–15 of the strongest photographs from a match, edit them on the spot and upload them to Google Drive.

And then we had to get back out there.

The interesting part was that we weren't necessarily waiting for a match to finish.

A badminton match can go to three games.

But it can also finish in two.

So if we waited until the final point before beginning the workflow, we could easily find ourselves with the next match already underway while our photographs were still being processed.

We therefore had to anticipate the match.

Ideally, we wanted enough strong photographs by the end of the first game or the first one-and-a-half games to return to the media room, complete the workflow and get back to the courts.

That meant constantly making decisions.

Which photographs matter?

Which expression is stronger?

Do I already have the winning moment?

Do I need another frame?

Is this technically perfect but visually weaker than the previous photograph?

There was no time to overthink.

You had to trust your instincts.

The 10–15 minute problem

One of the biggest challenges was the tiny window between matches.

If a match went the full distance, we might have only around 10–15 minutes before the next players were on court.

That short window had to accommodate:

• Downloading/transferring the photographs

• Culling

• Selecting the strongest images

• Editing

• Exporting

• Uploading

• Getting back to the court

And then doing it all over again.

Sometimes another photographer's match would finish before they had completed their upload.

That's where the team became extremely important.

We weren't working as five individuals.

We were working as a team.

If one person was caught up with an upload while another match was already starting, someone else would step in.

If a colleague needed help, someone would help.

If one photographer had a problem, the others were there.

That became one of the most valuable lessons from the tournament.

At this level, technical ability matters.

But teamwork matters just as much.

Day one: my camera decided to make things interesting 

And, of course, technology had to add another layer to the experience.

On the very first day, I had a shutter failure with my camera.

Not exactly what you want when you're standing inside the media area of a major international tournament.

Fortunately, I wasn't alone.

The team immediately helped me connect with people who could diagnose and resolve the problem. With their help, I was eventually able to sort it out and continue with the assignment.

That incident set the tone for the rest of the tournament.

There were going to be problems.

The important thing was how quickly we could solve them and get back to work.

Photographing the world's best 

Of course, behind all the workflow and logistics was the reason we were there in the first place:

the badminton.

And this tournament gave me an incredible opportunity to photograph some of the world's best players.

There was something special about photographing athletes who have spent years reaching the absolute top of their sport.

An Se-young, P. V. Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, Unnati Hooda, Chirag Shetty, And many other Indian and international players.

When you're photographing at this level, you're not simply looking for a technically sharp photograph.

You are looking for the moment.

The tension before the serve, The reaction after winning a point, The exhaustion between rallies, The celebration, The disappointment, The concentration.

The tiny gestures that tell the story of what is happening on court.

And because we were working under the pressure of live filing, there was no luxury of saying, I'll come back later and find that moment.

You had to get it now.

Learning from photographers around me

Another part of the experience that I really valued was being surrounded by other professional photographers.

The tournament brought together photographers from organisations such as Reuters, ANI, Hindustan Times and other major media organisations, along with photographers working directly on the official assignment.

For someone who has been building a career in sports photography, being able to observe how experienced professionals work in this environment is itself an education.

And having Avijit leading the team made a significant difference.

Avijit has spent years photographing major sporting events and has worked across cricket and several other international and domestic sporting assignments. His experience meant that there was always someone who understood the demands of the assignment and could help us navigate problems as they came up.

For me, that was one of the biggest advantages of being part of this team.

I wasn't just covering a tournament.

I was learning how experienced photographers approach a tournament of this scale.

A tournament that had something to prove

There was another interesting layer to the event.

The BWF World Championships were being held in Delhi after the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium had faced criticism during the India Open earlier in the year.

The issues had included cleanliness, air quality and disruptions caused by birds and even a monkey entering the venue. In preparation for the World Championships, BAI and the relevant authorities undertook extensive work to overhaul the venue and address those problems.

By the time the World Championships arrived, the atmosphere was noticeably different.

The venue had been upgraded, the facilities had been improved and the focus was firmly on the competition.

From our side of the fence, that meant a huge amount of work happening quietly in the background.

While the players were preparing for their next match, we were preparing our next set of photographs.

While spectators were watching the action, we were thinking about the next upload.

And while one match was happening on court, we were sometimes already thinking about the next two.

More than just photographs

The tournament also gave me the opportunity to photograph people and moments beyond the matches themselves.

There were Indian sporting legends, international stars, coaches, officials and important guests.

I also got to see several prominent figures attending the tournament, including Union Minister Kiren Rijiju.

But what stayed with me most wasn't any particular celebrity encounter.

It was the feeling of being part of something much larger than an individual photographer.

A major international sporting event is an enormous machine.

Players, coaches, officials, volunteers, broadcasters, journalists, photographers, organisers and support staff all have their own roles.

And for the first time, I felt that I wasn't simply observing that machine from the outside.

I was part of it.

What live filing taught me

Before this tournament, I primarily thought about sports photography in terms of making great photographs.

After the tournament, I think about it differently.

At the highest level, sports photography is also about speed, consistency, decision-making and reliability.

You need to be able to recognise the right moment. You need to make the photograph, You need to decide quickly whether it is worth keeping, You need to edit it, You need to deliver it.

And then you need to forget about it and concentrate on the next match.

That is a very different skill set from simply going home with a good collection of photographs.

And I think live filing is going to become an increasingly valuable skill for photographers who want to work with professional sports teams, media organisations, federations and large sporting events.

It's one thing to produce a great photograph.

It's another to produce a great photograph and have it delivered while the event is still happening.

Tired, but fulfilled

By the end of the tournament, I was exhausted.

Twelve to fourteen hours a day of shooting, transferring, culling, editing, uploading and running back to the courts will do that.

But it was the kind of exhaustion that comes from knowing you have pushed yourself.

There were moments when I was tired enough to wonder how we were going to keep going.

Then another match would start.

Another rally would happen.

Another photograph would appear in front of me.

And you would simply get back to work.

Looking back, that is probably what I enjoyed most about the experience.

It forced me to optimise myself.

There was no room for unnecessary steps.

No room for spending five minutes deciding between two almost identical photographs.

No room for perfecting an edit that didn't need to be perfect.

The tournament forced me to become faster without compromising on the quality of the photographs.

And that is a lesson I will carry into future assignments.

My first major official tournament

I have covered international and national sporting events before.

But the BWF World Championships were different because this was the first time I was part of the official photography team for a major international tournament at this scale.

That distinction matters to me.

It wasn't simply another assignment.

It was an opportunity to understand what it takes to work inside a professional sports photography operation.

I learned new software.

I learned live filing.

I learned to work under much tighter deadlines.

I learned how important teamwork is.

I learned how quickly things can go wrong.

And I learned that sometimes the difference between getting the photograph and missing it is simply how efficiently you handled everything that happened before it.

Most importantly, I came away with photographs that I am genuinely proud of.

Photographs of world champions, Indian stars, emerging players and moments that I would probably never have been able to experience from anywhere else.

Looking ahead

The BWF World Championships were physically demanding.

They were mentally demanding.

And at times, they were chaotic.

But they were also one of the most fulfilling experiences I have had as a photographer.

I am grateful to Avijit for bringing me into the team, and to Paras, Mrindita and Shivam for being such supportive teammates throughout the tournament.

When I look back at the week, I don't just see seven days of badminton.

I see a week that pushed me to work faster, think faster and become more efficient.

I see a new skill set in live filing that I can take into future assignments.

And I see a door that I hope leads to many more opportunities in professional sports photography.

Sometimes not getting the opportunity you initially wanted turns out to be the beginning of a better one.

Final Thoughts

A missed bid turned into an opportunity to be part of the team.
The team turned into a week of intense learning.
And the week left me better prepared for whatever comes next.