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That butterfly tattoo on Brittany’s leg is actually Amaree’s footprints when she was born! How cool and creative is that?

And here is a pic of the little 10 week old bunny that the kids were playing with – there were rabbits and goats and chickens and ponies and horses – the kids (and Sharmila and I) had a blast!

That’s the reason I love photography. Meeting new people, capturing their lives and playing with animals – all in a day’s work!

Every time I do a senior shoot, it takes me back to my own high school years. You learn so much about life as you grow older, go through college and start working. You may love some of the things you did back in high school. You might want to change some of the things that you did back then. If only you could hit Rewind and go back and relive your life. I imagine a lot of us feel that way. High school is, for the most part, a fun, carefree time in one’s life.

Amani goes to Troy High and wanted to get her senior pictures done. She was amazing to work with – she was every photographer’s dream since she was ready to do whatever I asked of her, including jumping in to a water fountain (which we never got to do in the end). She has the most amazing personality and has a great sense of humor.

Amani, here is a sneak peek of some of your photos. Please click on the gallery below to start the slideshow. Please hit the Esc button to exit the slideshow.

A special thanks goes out to my wife Sharmila and Amani’s friend Eakta for helping me during the shoot. From helping Amani with her clothes to helping me with my lighting and posing to giving Amani company during the shoot, I could not have done it without their help, so thank you! Amani, you have an awesome future ahead of you and both Sharmila and I wish you the best!

(Note: These pictures were taken with a point and shoot)

Richie and I at the wedding:

Rak, Ash, Milind and I at the reception:

It was great seeing all our friends and just hanging out:

The guys chillin’ by the bar talking about everything from cops to gun ranges to golf lessons:

And one of Richie doing his thing on the dance floor towards the end of the night

It was a great night of hanging out with friends, eating, drinking and dancing (and being a part of a wedding where I was not the photographer and could just relax and enjoy myself)

Sharmila calls it a Martian – she keeps saying “There is a Martian spaceship in our living room!”.

With gear in tow, I drove up to Grand Haven and we decided to shoot by the light house on the beach. Here is (another crappy) iPhone pic of the beach with the light house in the background. I loved the rocks in the foreground and wanted to use them to create some images.

Driving up to Grand Haven, I told myself that I wanted to create something different than the traditional bridal portraits that you see of a bride in a park or on the street. Not that those arent’s pretty and if all we had was a park to shoot in, that’s what I would take, but we had a beach, we had beautiful sunsets and we had “big momma” In fact, that is why Rebekah told me she wanted to work with me for her bridal shoot, because she wanted something different. So the pressure was on to create something unique – both for Rebekah and for my portfolio.

While we waited for the sun to set, we shot some black and white images indoors. Rebekah looked very pretty and I wanted to take some old Hollywood style glamor infused images – here’s one of many that we took.

Once the sun started to set, we stepped outside for some beach images. Time to put “big momma” to use. Grand Haven being on the west side of Michigan, I knew we’d get an amazing sunset. The sky was turning all sorts of amazing colors, so I asked Rebekah to stand really still and thanks to her steady nerves, my tripod (so that I could blur the water), gelled flashes, a custom white balance on my camera (to get the cooler blue tones), some lens filters (to get the deep blue skies) and some Photoshop work (to bring back some of the original orange in the sky, add some blue and purple in to mix and enhance the overall colors and get them to pop), I ended up with this image.

Yes, sometimes, a lot can go in to creating just one image, but when it all comes together and matches the image I see in my head, it’s worth it for me. Rebekah, thanks for holding that pose for my 3-4 second camera shutter shot

The next image is my favorite image from the session. We used the rocks by the lighthouse for the shot. I love the tones in the image and the overall moody, dramatic feel of the dark clouds and the dark rocks contrasted by the misty waves and the white gown. I saw these elements and thought of how marriage is paved with moments of pure joy and happiness and moments of struggle and that as she begins this journey, she is embracing that duality of marriage. That’s what I wanted to project as I was planning this shot.

Rebekah, you were so awesome throughout the shoot and thank you for patiently trying shot after shot with me. Hope that you like the images. Lots more images to come!

It was a long day of driving and shooting, but we managed to get some nice pics out of the session. I got the chance to try out a bunch of things on this shoot – new location, new gear, camera tricks, new Photoshop techniques, and best of all, Rebekah’s complete trust in me and her patience and willingness to try things made it such a great experience.

I’d love to try my hands at a stylized Indian bridal portrait someday – maybe on a desert in Vegas – how cool would that be – a beautiful bride and the color of her red dress against the harshness of the cacti and the dry desert sand, combined with miles of sand and bright blue skies. Or a decked out Indian bride dancing on the sand while a poor old man and a young boy sit on the sand, playing instruments. Contrasting elements make for interesting shots. Lots of ideas in my head folks – anyone want to do a bridal session in the desert heat?

As always, comments are welcome. If you wish to leave a comment, I would request you to please leave a comment on this blog post (below) rather than go back and comment on my Facebook status, the reason being that it’s easier for me to come back to this post and find/read all the comments rather than have to dig up the FB status update to read the comments.

Thanks for checking out our blog and we hope that you like the images.

A pic of Rukmini – how pretty is this little girl?! I love the fact that the lighting gives her a 3 dimensional look in this image – almost as if she’s walking out of the picture

Another pic of the little model. She has such a pretty smile. I love this pic of her.

The “littlelest” one in the family, Janaki. So adorable and the curliest curls you’ve ever seen! She didn’t care that I was running circles around her trying to take her photo – she just kept doing her thing. She has such a personality and is so cute! She was stylin’ for this photo shoot! She loved that orange tub and would not stop playing in it! Loving all the colors in this shot. I always tell my clients – make sure the kids are wearing colorful clothes – now you know why

As always, thanks to my wife for coming along and helping me with lighting and keeping the kids entertained while I took my shots.

Padma, we had a great time meeting up with you guys and playing with the kids and taking photographs. I’m off to Grand Haven on 6/25 to shoot a bridal session, but I should have the rest of your images ready in 10-12 days. Hopefully Rukmini and Janaki will like their pics

The 1st two are my favorite from the session – love the edgy look to these pics. As I said in my last post when I shot with Antoanela, I am drawn to creating glossy, magazine ad type images when it comes to shooting fashion and that’s the look I was trying to achieve with these 1st two shots:

Fashion and glamour photography is a new area for me and it’s something fun and different than my wedding, portrait and newborn stuff that I shoot, the reason being that with fashion shoots, you can get creative, mix in models with props and get different, funky looks that you can’t get with weddings and portraits. So while I will continue to shoot weddings and portraits, I look forward to doing more fashion work and creating exciting images for my portfolio.

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Really happy for Rakesh and Seetha and their new arrival due in a few months! It was a fun day and a great party!

After talking about their passion for the Housewives show and General Hospital, Sharmila and Claudia posed for a picture:

A pic of my wife and me in our soccer jerseys.

Brazil vs. USA – bring it on!

Sareeka’s baby was such a happy baby – super cute! They are a really nice couple – we definitely have to hang out!

Little Serena who would not pose for me the whole day finally decided to allow me to take a quick photo just as we were leaving

Hung out with the family and friends, met some new friends and had a lot of fun. A great way to spend the long weekend. Hope everyone had a great weekend as well!