Portrait Shoot at Salon In-C

Model: Moorthy Christeen

HMUA: Salon In-C

Date: 15-Aug-2021

Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka

Insiya from Salon In-C reached out to me asking if we could collaborate on an Indian bridal dressing shoot. She wanted some images that could be used on the marketing material to promote her Salon. She has always been one of the most pleasant people that I had the pleasure of collaborating with in the past, so I jumped at the request. She was already dressing Moorthy when I got to her salon. So I captured a few behind the scenes and then moved on to another indore area in her Salon for the shoot. I used a lot of natural light and some continuous light from the location for this shoot.

A Man in a Woman's Clothes? Challenge Accepted!

Model: D.M. Pasan

HMUA: D.M. Danush

Date: 09-Jul-2021

Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka

Pasan reached out to me through Instagram, asking whether I would be interested in collaborating on a shoot with him. The idea was that we would dress as an Indian bride and pose for me at a Hindu temple. The idea was controversial, but it would a creative challenge if done right. Sri Lanka is volatile when it comes to religion and cultural norms. We knew that we were walking on a very fine line on both these fronts.

We discussed this shoot for weeks. We planned the time of the day for the shoot since this was going to be more of a natural light shoot done outdoor. I spent a lot of time on Google images, studying poses and framing used by wedding photographers when they were covering Hindu Weddings. One thing that I always believe is that a shoot becomes successful when all parties involved bring their A-game to the shoot. In this case, Danush had done an amazing job with the makeup and dressing. Pasan carried the shoot with confidence and feminine grace that was needed for the shoot. He did not break the character even for a second. I wanted to share a few clicks from this shoot as the second Photo Story of my blog.

Reminiscing My First Studio Portrait Shoot

Model: Yenara Sanuki

HMUA: Insiya Mansoor of Salon In-C

Date: 26-Mar-2021

Location: Studio Shashin, Colombo, Sri Lanka

For a number of years my interest in photography had been inclined towards street photography. During a book-exhibition in the late 2019 I stumbled on to a book that teaches creative aspect of studio portrait photography. The inspiration hit me, and then I started exploring. For about two years I consumed as much material as possible on this subject. I spent hours studying different photographers, watched their videos on YouTube, and mentally prepared myself for this next adventure in my photography journey.

This shoot was my first introduction to Yenara. I hired her for the shoot through a modeling agency. This is also the first time I collaborated with Insi. She and I connected through Instagram and we were already discussing about a collaboration when this shoot came up. It was also the first time I was working in this studio. The experience was so great, I ended up returning to this studio with Yenara for two more shoots, and continue to be friends with Insi to this day.