I’m pretty familiar with this family. In fact, I work with the mom and we’ve been to the birthday parties for each other’s kids. But this is actually the first time I’ve photographed them. That has happened often enough for me and it reminds me that just because you know someone well, it doesn’t mean that they’ll be comfortable in front of the camera right now. I’ve chosen just a few photos of the boys here. As you can probably tell, one brother was much more happy than the other to be photographed

This mom and daughter are really familiar with me and having their portraits taken. This is the 6 or 7th event/portrait session I’ve had which has included them and their extended family. Needless to say, I didn’t have to spend much time warming them up to capture their wonderful smiles. Just a few highlights from their fall session.

It’s pretty rare when two older children are BOTH into having their photos taken. But with the ‘L’ family it was actually pretty fun since both kids were giving me ideas about poses. It makes for a much more interactive session and it shows in how close the family is and how they appear in their portraits. Here are some highlights from the ‘L’ family’s portrait session last fall (yes, I’m still catching up!)

Continuing with updates on recent family portrait sessions, the ‘M’ Family was a lot of fun, but kind of a crazy session. As you can see, they have one older daughter and two twins which means it’s more kids than parents! It was actually pretty funny getting all three settled onto the couch or on the rug for a photo with all of them looking towards me. After the first few minutes I realized they were playing games with me by moving JUST before I was about to take a photo so that was actually pretty funny.

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

Contributing to charity is important for me in my personal life and I like to keep the same attitude for my professional work through Samay Studio. Every year, I try to ensure that Samay Studio allocates at least $1000 of services and monetary donations to charity.

One of the places I’ve donated services for is the South Asian Bar Association Foundation. I first learned of it through a client who’s a member of SABA. As noted on their site, one of the main ways in which the SABA Foundation achieves its mission is by awarding annual public interest fellowships to enable law students to dedicate their time, effort and knowledge for the benefit of the South Asian community in Northern California.

So SABA has an annual gala where they auction off various products & services with the proceeds going to the SABA Foundation. I’ve donated portrait services in the past and I’m doing the same this year. If you’re interested in helping out, you can attend the gala (non-SABA members are more than welcome to attend). I’m donating two family portrait sessions to SABA worth a total of $400. Hopefully they auction for a lot more so that the foundation can benefit even more!

I encourage you all to help SABA as well as strive to help charitable efforts throughout the year!

Continuing with a series of family portraits from last fall, here’s the ‘A’ family with their 4 month old daughter. Look at those cheeks!

I had a lot of fun photographing families at the end of last year. It’s actually a refreshing change from wedding photography since the interactions are so different with a family that’s relaxed and having fun in the park (as compared to couples living through the most important day of their lives!!)

So here’s the ‘T’ Family that I photographed in Mountain View on a crisp Saturday morning. As you can see, we did a little bit of posed family portraits then let the kids (and parents) have fun in the play area. It’s amazing how much of a motivator it can be to tell two little boys that they’ll get to play on the swings & slides after the photos are done! There’s a lot more to share so keep your eyes peeled for more blog posts coming soon!

Well hi there! It has been a looooong time away and I’ve got a very good reason for you. Let me introduce you to my son, Aiden. He was born on the first of this year and I’ve been rather busy with him These are copies of his birth announcement (photos taken by your’s truly). Now that I’m getting back into the swing of things, you can expect a lot more updates from me!

I just had to share a few photos I did for baby A. He’s such a darling and was just 7 days old during this first portrait session. He was just barely 6.5 pounds when born so you can image how tiny he was! Luckily, this little guy was so sleepy that we had a really easy time taking these wonderful photos of him. Welcome to the world little guy!

It’s that time of the year! Holiday family photos!

And what easier way to get wonderful family portraits than with Samay Studio’s Family Mini Portrait Sessions!

Why you should choose a Family Mini-Portrait Session TODAY!

• No boring studio backdrops
• No awkward family poses
• Just relaxed, natural photos of your family to last a lifetime!
• These sessions are short, but they still have just as much love, creativity, and artistry as every photo session we do.
  

More about your photo session:

• Your mini-session will last 25 minutes and include a mix of family group photos as well as candid moments with your children.
• The photos will be in a park setting with the option for children’s playground & benches.
• Up to 5 people can be included in the session (additional people are $25 each).
• We will have some props to be used during the session, but feel free to bring your child’s favorite toy to help ensure a personal experience.

More about your deliverables:

• You will receive your fully edited photos in a password protected online gallery where you can share your photos with family & friends (via email, facebook, etc)
• Your online slideshow will take your photos and set them to music – a perfect way to share your wonderful photos in a fun, fresh way
• You will receive a coupon for your 2 8×10′s and 3 5×7′s which you can order directly through your online gallery for shipping directly to you. Any additional orders you make will have a 10% discount applied
• Holiday Greeting Cards are available too! Inquire about selection of our holiday greeting card options. These 5×7 flat cards are printed on a beautiful pearl finished high-quality cardstock and include custom text as well as envelopes. Cards are available in packs of 25 for $30 each.
• You can upgrade your package to include:
  • Full resolution photos which you can use to print photos on your own – $200
  • Slideshow in DVD format so you can watch on your TV – $50

Sign Up Now!

Fill in your information below and we'll get back to you ASAP about your session. If you don't hear back from us within 2 hours, please feel free to email Jigar or call 650-386-6808

As I’ve been sharing more about the non wedding photography I like to do (namely family photos), I think it’s hitting folks that photography isn’t just about the big moments in your life, it’s about all the moments in between. And so it’s nice to do family portraits…for no other reason than, “just because”. And keeping that in mind, watch out for some information about Family Portrait Days I’ll be organizing very soon which should make it easy for every family to have wonderful portraits made without having to set aside a whole afternoon or deal with boring photos from the chain stores.

So with the summer holidays upon us, I spent some time with the Thekdi family for portraits while everyone was in town. We started off at a park near their Saratoga home, then proceeded to some portraits in their house as well as in their backyard. Here are a few I liked from the session. Enjoy!

This first photo is actually montage of several photos laid out for an enlargement…rather than just enlarge a single photo, this is a great way to show off a number of photos all at once. We actually have a number of these in our own home and we find them to be so much more unique:

N. is into tennis and longboarding so we took some time for some fun shots while he was doing what he loves.

If you liked these family photos, drop me a line to setup a session for your own family!

As long as I’ve been passionate about photography, I’ve been a voracious learner. I openly learn from people who I think have something to offer. Case in point is that I subscribe to a whopping 144 different weblogs ranging from technique blogs to other wedding photographers’ blogs. By keeping track of so much out there, I really feel like I’ve improved my photography end-to-end by leaps and bounds. And for the last couple of years, I’ve really tried to make it a point to share my experiences and learnings from wedding & portrait photography with others. I mean, what have I got to lose? Call it “Paying it Forward” if you will, but it’s all about offering something to others.

So last month I lead an outdoor portrait workshop with 11 colleagues in San Francisco (North Beach & Baker Beach). Since it’s something I’m quite familiar with, I felt I could help others learn some tricks to taking better outdoor portraits. I tried to break things down as much as possible to make sure I could actually deliver against what I was offering to my students.

Before the photo shoot, I held a discussion session about what folks should prepare for with a portrait session including goals around style & location. I didn’t want to dwell on equipment and settings since I felt it would get us away from most important part of the photo session – the couple. I used this presentation as a guide to help everyone focus and reference what I thought were the important things to keep in mind.

You can download the powerpoint presentation here.

After the session, I followed up with each student to ensure they had some specific examples of portraits which they wanted to refer to during the photoshoot. Yes, I had them all do homework I required this because I wanted the students to find what THEY loved and not just try to re-create photos I’ve taken. Not surprisingly, the students showed me a pretty wide variety of reference portraits.

Well, with ALL that said, here are some of the results!

I’ll start with some photos which I took during the photo session. While taking these photos, I was trying to provide specific points for the students to keep in mind and show where & how I position myself for the photos. Again, I tried to stay away from camera settings, but was happy to clarify how to accomplish a shot from a technical nature.

Here’s a selection of the photos from the students. As students were taking photos, I would chimp with them and ask about their settings and most importantly, if they were getting shots that they liked. I was also trying to setup poses/shots for each student based on their personal goals. I’ve picked 3 photos from each that I think represents their time & efforts very well. The photos were taken by the students, but I did the final editing:

After the photoshoot, I’ve spent time with students to go over their experiences before & during the photo shoot. I really want to understand if they learned what they had hoped for and how the session could have been improved.

I certainly found this session very challenging! I know there were just too many students at the session to really give each student the time I think they deserved. Many times I made the mistake of basically just telling the students “okay, go for it” and simply let them shoot away. This confused the students and the couple being photographed. A huge creative concern for me is that I ended up relying too much on poses during this session. My usual portrait sessions are a mix of poses & really casual/romantic stuff. With so many students, I tightened up a lot and just went to “winning poses” for the couple. Certainly, the poses aren’t bad, but I do think the variety of photos and the more casual nature of my usual portrait sessions isn’t represented with how I lead this larger session. I have other areas of improvement I’m still mulling over and I’m collecting feedback from the students about this.

In retrospect, I have a MUCH better understanding of how tough it is to run a formal learning session (call it a workshop if you want). While I put a lot of time into the planning, I still think I have a many improvements I can make to such sessions. I know the students appreciated the time & opportunity and I’d like to ensure that any future learning sessions I lead provide the most for everyone’s time & effort.

Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to thank our models, Krystal & Deven for their time and patience with us! They were real troopers with the posing and the weather. It was quite cold & windy out on the beach. While I’m used it (I was in a t-shirt & shorts), I think I was the only one out there so unaffected by the cold! I wish you two the best with your wedding later this year and I hope you enjoy your portraits for years to come!

Besides Wedding Photography, I’ve gotta say that I just love photographing children. I don’t do as many children and family photoshoots as weddings, but the fact that I’ve got a 2-year girl at home means I spend a lot of time photographing children! These are just a few photos of my little one…we were taking holiday photos last fall and dressed her up. She’s great in front of the camera so we combined a little bit of light posing and just letting her play in the leaves.

Oh boy…where does the time disappear. After months without an update, here’s something which should make everyone smile. The Qureshi family have been great clients of mine for some time now and when Tayyiba, Cody, and little Z-Man were in town last fall, we got the chance to take some fun family portraits.

This was actually Tayyiba & Zamaan’s second photo session with me in 2009. Here’s some of the previous session with his masis

With family portraits, we never know what exactly to expect, so the sessions are way more loose and playful than usual. As you can see from this sampling, Zamaan didn’t leave us much chance to pose for shots…which is a great thing!

Earlier this summer, I took Aparna & Jeff all over San Francisco for their engagement portraits and what a fun time! We got to try out some new spots on that beautiful summer afternoon so it made for some wonderful moments. It was also great since they didn’t mind a little public display of affection while we were taking their portraits

We started out in North Beach, then headed to the Presidio, and finally to Baker Beach. With each location, since we had extra time, we were able to find some cool little spots that helped their photos to be as unique as possible.

Here are some samples!

I just love this next portrait due to the wind blowing Aparna’s hair just so and especially that look in her eyes!



Aparna & Jeff, I can’t wait for your wedding next month!

Mamatha & Ranjeet got married a couple of years ago and I was lucky enough to photograph their wedding in San Ramon. Fast forward to this spring and they had a son just a little bit after we had our own daughter. So it was a pleasure doing a life session focusing on their one year old son, Ishaan. We started off with some clean portraits with a background then moved onto their backyard and finally to Piedmont Park nearby. I’ve gotta say, photographing a child in his or her own environment is key to capturing great moments…

I went a bit more abstract with some of the editing. Since I was getting so many great expressions from Ishaan, I just had to go out on a limb with some of these photos.





The dreamy look in this next photo really just hit it for me. I knew it was out of focus when I took it, but I couldn’t let go of it. I’d say it’s my second favorite from the afternoon.

And what’s my fave shot from this session? The next photo! The sheer joy on Ishaan’s face with Ranjeet in the background is what these sessions are all about!


And finally…the happy family!

Thanks guys for inviting us to your home. We had a great time and hope to see a lot more of Ishaan as he grows into the rockstar he’s destined to be!

The Gellons are close friends of our’s and with their son Zaver’s first birthday coming up earlier this year, I wanted to make sure they had memorable portraits before his birthday. Instead of going out to a park or the beach, we decided to take advantage of Vic & Sophina’s lovely home. We all thought this would not only lead to fun portraits, but make them much more personal.

I had trouble narrowing down the selection of photos for this session, so enjoy this cute and handsome young fellow!

The next bunch of photos are actually from the galf course which is in their backyard.

One of the most popular spots for taking portraits has been Stanford University. While it’s not as popular nowadays as it has been in the past, it still provides some really classic elements like the columns you see in the background of the first photo. There are also great little spots around campus which provide for great variety. In addition to the Stanford campus, we took a little trip to downtown and had some fun walking in the streets of Palo Alto.

This shot is one of the very few where I do any really visible editing. Usually, the photo speaks for itself, but in this case, I felt that adding in the layers of texure & blur helped to give the shot some extra oomph!

When we moved onto Downtown Palo Alot, I was just in love with all the brick facades!




Raj & Jag, congrats and I wish you all the best in married life!

We did a fun & relaxing family session last month in Avila Beach. Where is Avila Beach, you ask? It’s in Central California near San Luis Obispo & Pismo.

We photographed Tejal & Nalin’s wedding last year. And this year, her big sister, Roshni, wanted to do family portraits before the first birthday of her twins. So I joined the whole family at Avila Beach close to where their mom lives. And what a wonderful day it was! The weather in mid-June had been so unpredictable, but we all lucked out and get an absolutely gorgeous day at the beach. Besides the awesome weather, it was great catching up with the whole family since I hadn’t seen them in over a year. It was also pretty cool doing 3 or 4 mini portrait sessions since the whole family was there.

Here’s just a few of the photos from the session:











Happy Birthday Aiden & Alina! I know your mom loves these photos…when you grow up, I expect you to love them too

Catching up on some Spring & Summer sessions we’ve had…

I met up with Shefali & Hitesh after a bit of extra planning & coordination…I live in the Bay Area, but Shefali was in San Diego and Hitesh was in Chicago. So where to meet for portraits when everyone’s in a different city? Los Angeles!

It was actually a lot of fun planning this session out. Shefali really wanted to do some interesting with modern architecture as well as mix in some traditionally romantic photos. So we settled on 3 great spots in LA & the Westside…the Disney Center in Downtown LA, the UCLA campus in Westwood, and the pier & beach in Santa Monica. So let’s get onto the photos!

I just love, love, LOVE the Disney Center’s architecture. The shapes are just so interesting and offer a lot of options for us. And when you get closer, this awesome exterior surface of the walls just draw your eyes in.


This is one of those little nooks that I love about the Disney Center. It’s such a tiny spot and it’s the type of thing I love to find.





For this next shot, Shefali & Hitesh look totally calm, but what doesn’t show on their face is a bus hurtling at them at full speed I didn’t know about this bus until after I took the shot since my back was towards it. Needless to say, we ran very quickly

And moving onto my alma mater, UCLA is always a fun place to do portraits. It’s always so relaxing there on weekends and it really lends to a more fun & relaxing shoot. Plus there’s so many spots for a lot of fun stuff. Here’s just a few of the spots….



And who could complain about Santa Monica on a nice spring afternoon?!

Out of the entire shoot, I have to say, this is my favorite shot. It wasn’t something I asked Shefali to do, but the look in her eyes is just so memorable for me.

And with that, I’m going to end this post. Shefali & Hitesh, thanks for a wonderful afternoon of portraits. I can’t wait for your wedding next month!