Contemporary Photography For Discerning Cosmopolitan People
Looking for a photographer who understands multiple cultures? Well, step right in. My name is Seshu and I am a wedding and portrait photographer based in the heart of Connecticut, with easy access to clients across the nation and around the world.
I feel truly blessed and fortunate to experience the most important moments in my client's lives. Saffron will be as much about you as it will be about me. It's a diary, a repository and an open canvas all wrapped into one.
I greatly value your comments. If you would rather email me your thoughts, you are more than welcome to do so at saffron [at] seshu [dot] net. If you are checking to see if I am available for your event or want to commission me for a portrait session, please use the contact form on this site.
If you enjoy seeing the images or reading the posts, please subscribe and spread the word. You may also be interested in Tiffinbox, a blog I publish for photographers and artists worldwide.
Hawk's Landing Country Club | Southington, Connecticut
In early November, on a crisp evening in Southington, Connecticut, I photographed Kinjal and Sandip's engagement ceremony. The event took place at the Hawk's Landing Country Club.
Kinjal and Sandip set the tempo for the night with their truly grand entrance, dancing their way through their guests. Skits, toasts by friend and a diverse collection of music kept everyone on their toes laughing and dancing through the night. I was pleasantly surprised to know that Kinjal had organized the decorations and the scrumptious food all the way from Tampa, Florida, where she and Sandip both live. The pictures you see above tell you clearly that everyone had a great time and so did I.
Kinjal and Sandip, I was truly honored to photograph your engagement ceremony and party. Here's wishing you both a wonderful and beautiful wedding in California and lots of success into the future.
A Post Wedding BELOVED Session in Central Park & Prospect Park
Mid-September of this year, I was honored to photograph Saima and Raju's wedding at the Green Tree Country Club, in New Rochelle, New York.
With busy schedules and a wedding to plan, Saima and Raju opted to do their engagement session with me after their wedding. Instead of posing them or asking them to smile unnaturally, I chose to invite them to engage with each other by asking them some light-hearted and some serious questions. Their expressions and honest responses to each other gave me the chance to capture those moments for them. This was my first, day-long BELOVED session and I loved hanging out with my new friends.
I'll be posting more images from this session in the next few days, but I wanted to share with you Saima and Raju's feedback right after we wrapped up. Just so you know, Saima is doing her residency after medical school and Raju is soon to be a New York city police officer. A truly amazing couple.
"We had an incredible time. We really appreciate the time and energy you put into making our session a success. I think that we may have started off a little unsure of how to be comfortable in front of the camera, especially on 5th avenue, but you made it much easier to relax. You really engaged us in conversation and the fact that we told you more about ourselves, and learned more about you made it that much more natural.
The invites were interesting. They definitely gave us a particular theme to focus on, and distracted us from thinking about the camera, which in and of itself is pretty impressive. I'm sorry that I couldn't do the more serious invites- with Raju having recently completed his firearm training, we've had a number of conversations about the reality of the dangers he may face and anything that includes the word "last" is particularly sensitive, which is why I was not quite ready to participate with that set of cards. But otherwise, I think in general, they were fun, and elicited genuine emotion that judging from the photos you gave us glimpses of, you were able to capture.
Starting the day with hearing your approach and goals of the session also helped us think about what exactly we would want to come away with- and the candid, or semi-posed pictures of us engaging with each other are truly timeless. For that, we thank you.
The last thing that I wanted to mention was that having the full day made a huge difference. It took us quite some time to relax, which I'm sure you noticed. Aside from that, having more time gave us the luxury of selecting those multiple locations and producing moments that may otherwise not have occurred - I'm specifically thinking of that side street with the perfect lighting in Brooklyn Heights, and the tall greenery in Prospect Park. They were completely different and equally amazing and I'm so glad that we were able to do both, and more. We didn't feel rushed, and that helped us come away with something very special."
Save Time Wearing Your Lehenga or Sari On Your Wedding Day
I work with a lot of South Asian clients - Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi. The wedding day is a busy one for most couples, but I think you will agree it is especially so for brides and bridesmaids when they have to get ready for the wedding ceremony and then reception.
They have to do their hair. They have to do their makeup. Then they have to wear a lehenga or a traditional wedding sari.
This may very well be the first time that they are wearing an outfit that is part of their culture. And it isn't easy to drape the fabric around yourself in a way that is elegant or aesthetically pleasing. Yeah, the guys do have it easy, don't they?
Most brides and bridesmaids opt for a professional to do their hair and makeup but I haven't heard of a professional lehenga or sari draper. Usually the bride's aunt or mother steps in and helps out as they do have years of practice. As a documentary wedding photographer, I love the interaction and the emotion between the bride and her mother, aunt, sister or even another bridesmaid. Visually, all of this makes for interesting images, but I can tell (yes, even as a guy) that it is a huge time suck and both brides and bridesmaids would rather be done with it quickly.
I don't know the couple. But when photographer Amar Ramesh posted a link to this cross-cultural wedding experience on Twitter, I had to watch and share it here.
I assume the couple is French, only by the rolling credits at the end of the 12 minute video clip. Compared to the weddings that take place most of the time, it is a very modest celebration, yet it is filled with so much joy. What that highlights for me is this - the couple and their guests make a wedding happen more than the venue or other goodies. You'll notice in the film that people's expressions and interactions with their guests are the most important. There was very little or no posing either. And did you see what troopers their guest were in sitting down on the floor to eat off of banana leaves?
Yeah, my kind of wedding.
The movie was shot by Lokesh Moorthy. I am not sure if the couple worked with a professional photographer. When I learn more about this truly adventurous couple, I'll update you here. Thanks for watching and reading. Would you design your wedding in a similar - simple, yet wholly elegant - manner? Do post your comments below.
Let's get one thing wide out in the open so that we are all working off of the same page. Well-meaning people, after seeing my images, will often say this:
"Wow, those are great images. Your camera must take great shots." [CRINGE]
Cameras, film and now memory cards are nothing more than tools for me. They are like a painter's brush or their canvas. Or, a chef's KitchenAid mixer. Sure, having the latest and greatest may feel good, but a photographer still needs to know how to use them appropriately. And this is where friends and uncles who have graciously offered to photograph your wedding for free will fail. It's usually not an option for most of my clients because they value images, expect them to evoke pleasant memories and want to pass those on to the next generation through wedding albums.
The 2003 image above was created by using film, is from a Chinese-American wedding reception in New York City. Lots of toasts, lots of posed portraits through the event. It was among the first 10 weddings I ever photographed.
The First Days Of Film
Ok, now that I have that off of my chest, I wanted to tell you that I have been thinking a lot about my first days photographing weddings.
Kodak TriX, Fuji Neopan 800, Portra 160 and T-Max 3200.
Those were my film choices when I started in this business. No, I am not afraid that bit of information will date me. I feel those of us who have worked with film before have a better sense of the aesthetics behind those final images that make it into your wedding album. So, yes, I am one of those photographers who actually exposed black and white negatives, hand-processed them and printed images on RC or fibre-based archival papers. The color negatives were usually processed by a custom lab, which also created contact sheets for me.
If you were heavily into instant gratification back then, well, you could end up going a bit batty. Things simply took time. Lots of time. Clients understood that the process was long. And, they were willing to wait.
Then came digital.
First Beginnings In Digital
When my first son Rohan was born, I "graduated" to a Nikon 950. I was curious about this new tool. The lens swiveled gracefully up and down which I thought that was very cool. I recall that the images out of that camera were often very RED. A newborn baby, already quite pink, looked like he had had just been sunbathing for a week. I knew no way of adjusting the white balance on that camera; the first of three things that determines accurate skin tones (the others are correct exposure and managing the red channel). [Thanks to Doug Levy for educating me about the red channel issue.]
Years later, I upgraded to a Nikon D70, Nikon D80 and then to the Nikon D90. But IGS, instant gratification syndrome, was in full play. I could see the images, move them into a folder and send them to my favorite custom printer after I had edited them. You would think that this process was easy, but it required buying more memory cards, batteries, local hard-drives, storage space in the cloud, a faster computer and software for processing all of these images. And to keep up with technology, there is the biennial purchase of a new professional digital camera body to replace that "older" version.
Back then as a newly minted dad, I'll be honest, I was frustrated by the learning curve and also the time it took away from my family. But my clients expected digital files on discs and so I opted in and started photographing weddings using digital cameras. The good news is before each wedding season (that is right now), I reevaluate my digital photography workflow, so that I can get my client's wedding albums into their hands faster. I am excited about the changes I have made for my clients, and subsequently for my family, in 2011.
Will I Give Film A Second Chance?
But back to film. As my friend Jonathan Canlas, suggests in his widely acclaimed guidebook called Film Is Not Dead, it is a lot easier to work in analog. A father of five kids, Canlas, has even more commitments to his family than I do. The way he sees it: You photograph a wedding, you send the film in to be processed and scanned and then the images arrive on a DVD. You are welcome to enhance the images further for final prints or wedding albums, or upload them to a gallery service like Pictage. You are literally done. Result: Happy clients.
The debate rages on whether the final scanned images from negatives do or do not look different than their digital counterparts. Canlas feels his images do and my friend Sephi Bergerson says "film-like" effects can be easily reproduced through the use of Photoshop actions or Lightroom presets and doesn't see any logic in going back to film.
Well, from my perspective, they are both right. In the end, then, it comes down to which workflow makes the most sense for your business and what your clients expect. If you read Canlas' guidebook, he outlines his workflow very lucidly. Mine, which is all digital at the moment, follows the footsteps of Richard Esposito, who helped me set up my system.
I believe I will give film a second chance if I can make it a natural part of my workflow like Jonathan Canlas, Riccis Valladares or Dan Milnor.
What Do My Clients Want?
The most important question I ask, however is: what do my clients want? If you are getting married, how important is it for you to have a photographer who is experienced working in both film and digital mediums? Do you believe the final products - albums, canvas prints or folios - will look and feel different? Have you considered how your memories will be archived for generations? Does film have an advantage in that regard over digital files? What are your preferences? How will your wedding images be different? For you, is it the medium or the approach of a wedding photographer that's most important to you? In the comments section below, please tell me. I am eager to hear your opinion about all of this.
If you are a potential client who is wondering if I can shoot a wedding with nothing more than a trusty analog camera, the answer is SURE. Will I? For the right clients, you betcha. What's more, I am more than happy to pull out my 4"x5" Wista Field Camera to create some very cool portraits of my couples too.
Or, if Rohan would have his way, he will want me using this fun film camera.
Sandra, Robert and Eddie, I am totally honored that you chose one of my images for Image Of The Day. Thank you.
I can tell that Wedtog is all about improving and elevating the standards in the wedding photography industry. Keep up the great work. If I can be of any help to you, please let me know.
My friend Hari Srinivasan sent out this Tweet and I had to share the accompanying video:
"Funny- Cultural Spelunking http://bit.ly/dRyz4v Wonder what he would say about a South Indian wedding"
For most desis the wedding experience is so ingrained in us that we take it for granted. However, this animation video shows how welcoming Indian weddings can be for those outside our culture. Indeed, it's this warm embrace that even I look forward to every time I am asked to photograph an Indian or Pakistani wedding. I have yet to go to one where I have not been asked whether I have had something to eat or drink.
David's video above got it right and he put it together in a very clever and elegant manner. Now, as Hari asks, I wonder if I should invite David to a South Indian wedding. What would his experience there be like and what would his video show?
Sound off below in the comments section after you have seen the video. If you have been to a South Asian wedding, what did you experience? What did you take away from that celebration? How did it make you feel to be at an Indian or Pakistani wedding?
Reconnecting With My Passion For Wedding Photography
Six months is a long enough sabbatical. What do you all think? The last time I blogged here was back in August 2010. It was on my birthday, to be exact. So, you are probably wondering, how or more likely why I fell off the map. The answer is a bit complicated but to simplify things, let me just say I temporarily lost track of my focus. I think we all do from time to time. But to come back full circle and to reconnect with my passion has been the greatest blessing of all.
Oh, sure, even though I was distracted, I continued to make images photographed several beautiful Connecticut weddings, one in Dayton, Ohio, one in New Jersey, one in the Berkshires with my friend Parris Whittingham and second-shot one in Chicago with Tara Sharma. I even photographed a couple of awesome weddings with Carrie Draghi.
It was a thrill to do so because other than helping the primary photographer out, I had carté blanche to do my own thing. I could flex my artistic muscles a little more each time I went out and I thank each and every one of those who took me on as their second photographer for the trust and patience they showered upon me. I'll never forget their generosity.
Through the 2010 wedding season, I racked up a lot of air and road miles photographing for other photographers. At the end of 2010, I felt as though all the work I had produced wasn't truly mine. In some instances, I couldn't mention the weddings publicly. In some others, the images were quarantined until the primary photographer had blogged her or his images first. All of these are valid reasons and are part and parcel of agreeing to work as a second photographer. I don't begrudge any of those protocols because I believe it does provide a certain quality standard that I see slipping in the industry.
Over the course of the year, I became all too comfortable in the role of a second photographer and the extra time I had of course meant that I could spend more time goofing off marketing myself on Twitter and Facebook. I also spent a great deal of time growing Tiffinbox, a blog I have been publishing for photographers since 2003. Photographers from around the world now look to it as a place to learn about photography, be inspired by other photographers and to impart their experiences in this business. It's an exciting space on the Internet and I invite you to subscribe to it if you are so inclined.
There were a few crucial changes at home that guided me more towards doing more portraits locally, in my home studio. I started a one-page website called Connecticut Headshots and continue to photograph business executives, actors and models. The images from these sessions, I told myself, would feed into a new robust portrait business called Seshu Portraits.
Being a father of two children meant spending a good deal of time photographing them as well. You may remember that after my younger son had to be taken to the ER at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, I started Phases + Faces: The Kids Of Connecticut, a photo book project to raise money for the hospital. This project has kept me busy as well allowing me to get to know a lot of Connecticut children and their parents. I do ask that you keep your eye on Seshu Portraits, where I will showcase each of the children I have photographed so far.
Also in 2010, I was contacted by Navneet + Mandeep, whose wedding I photographed in 2008. Navneet wanted me to photograph their newborn son, Armaan, and I was of course thrilled to continue working with her and her beautiful family in Massachusetts.
Today happens to be my birthday. One of my goals was to have an electronic newsletter published for my friends, family, clients and fellow wedding vendors. Well, MANTRA, as I call it, is out.
What you need to do to receive it in your inbox is to simply fill in the form you see in the left hand column that says "Free Newsletter" (there is truly nothing to buy). Confirm your email address in an email you will receive and you will be all set.
If you have any suggestions, opinions or topic ideas, please do not hesitate to contact me at mantra@seshu.net. So, I hope you will join me by subscribing to this e-newsletter and letting your friends and family know too! Thank you.
This time around, you can take a look at the entire issue here, without subscribing.
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