Starting as a political news and celebrity portrait photographer in DC, Sam was instantly drawn to wedding photography as a space to promote more inventive ideas. Sam’s focus is on photographic techniques that are deceptively simple but have the potential to transform difficult or uninspiring shooting environments into one-of-a-kind opportunities for every photo made.
I flew to Hyderabad to photograph Naahushi and Sruthi’s wedding, and a few days before all the celebrations kicked off we snuck out for a sunrise engagement session on the ISB campus. If you have never been, the architecture there is a gift for a photographer. Warm sandstone walls, clean geometric columns, spiral staircases, and these quiet open spaces that catch that first low light in a way that feels almost cinematic. We had the whole place mostly to ourselves, which is exactly what you want when you are trying to help two people forget the camera is even there.
What I loved about these two is how easy they were with each other. Sitting on a ledge, a forehead kiss, holding hands going up the stairs, none of it felt staged because it wasn’t. I just gave them a little direction and let the light and the campus do the rest. Getting to spend this slow morning with them before the wedding chaos made the actual wedding day feel like photographing old friends. That is always the goal, and it is a big part of why I love doing engagement sessions before a wedding, even when it means catching a flight halfway around the world to do it.
Photographers… you can find deconstructions of images like these and more over on my patreon feed.
Everything edited w/ my profile.
