"It is not easy to get parents to trust you in the beginning. It is difficult in terms of the time you put in to get the exact shot you want. And children's behaviour cannot be predicted. At times, it can take 20 to two hours. Sometimes it is difficult to hire studios, as they prefer to rent them out to established names. Especially if it is on an urgent basis, " he says.

Also, the climb has been financially tough. "For the first year or so I didn't charge anything for what I clicked. How could I? I was not known. Who would pay me for my pictures?" he says.

It was only after the second year that he started charging and in the third year that he started making a profit. In October 2005 he started Fingers and Feet, for which he had to invest approximately Rs 8 lakhs.

The studio though not state-of-the-art is self-sufficient. It has three 20 ft lights, a Canon 400B and Canon EOS30 cameras and three lenses ie 50 mm, f 1.8, 75*300 mm, f 4-f5 and 100 mm, f 2.8.

Today Ankur commands middle range fixed rates, which fetch him decent profits.

However, there are other perks of the job like travel and lots of opportunities to meet new people and of course the excitement of running your own show.