professional photography

Anyone following Brockit on Twitter or Facebook knew that this was a fun project for our studio. It had all the right ingredients: incredible people, photogenic location, high energy, and some unique challenges. I finished a week of work in the Detroit & Ann Arbor area and headed to San Francisco to meet awesome Brockit assistant Emma at SFO. Though we made the assistant call-out on the Brockit Facebook group, the stars aligned and Emma, who worked most of our Lake Superior weddings last year, was in the area and served as chauffeur and assistant for a couple days. Satish and Vani were a great couple to work with! Let me back up – not only were they great, their family was incredible. We were so well received, accommodated, and pampered with Indian food and drinks, that we felt completely at home. I think Vani’s family was surprised at our ability to eat hot food though – everyone kept on saying, ‘be careful, you know that is very spicy, even we don’t eat those peppers!’

We started in the morning with some traditional ceremonies inside the house, then moved to a traditional ‘American’ setting and attire for the early afternoon. Beautiful locations and not a cloud in the sky! After a long lunch we watched the transformation of Vani as she was adorned and clothed in traditional and ceremonial markings, jewelry, and clothing. I’ve captured many a bride’s transformation, but there was certainly something magical about Vani’s. The flowers sewn into her hair, the gold thread in her sarong, the henna on her hands… beautiful, beautiful.

Going long on these preparations, small caravan raced at a disturbing (even for me) pace out to the temple through California rush hour traffic. Unlike an ‘American’ wedding, there is no slipping the time in a Hindu wedding. Stars and planets do not care about traffic… On to the temple and the non-stop ceremony. If you haven’t been to a Hindu wedding, woah…. incense and rice in the air, along with the smells of insanely good food, kids running everywhere, and non-stop ritual on stage. Thanks so much to Gowtham aka: @sgowtham in Houghton who for the price of a couple beers at the KBC gave me all the tips on Kanya Daan, Panigrahana Hathlewa, Saptapadi, etc… I don’t think I missed a thing! Emma switched lenses like a pro for me as the scenes changed quickly, and Vani’s family guided my barefoot self around the stage like I was a sibling.

Technically I shot most of the day with natural light. I added a strobe for the outdoor, afternoon scenes, but kept the aperture open and focal length as long as possible for the intense ceremonial action on the stage. I was surprised to fill 24GB pretty quickly, so thanks again to Emma for fast CF card swapping, and thank goodness the D3 has dual slots.

I couldn’t help but spend a few extra days out in CA. While my friends in Northern Michigan had snow, I had 74 degrees, sunshine, and not a cloud in sight for days… ahhh…

— GALLERY —

Highlight and storefront galleries here, and some selections below.