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Like most babies his age, Rayan was extremely tactile.  It was fun just watching his extreme fascination with the red wicker stools and the fuzzy orange chairs that we have in the studio.  I’m sure they look better than they taste, but he didn’t seem to mind their flavors either way.  Between the furniture and his chewy giraffe, he couldn’t be bothered with the green stuffed animal/monster that his parents have been using as the unofficial “reference chart” for his size.  Another thing I thoroughly enjoyed was this little lick of his hair that would casually flip up during the shoot (I still find it hard to believe that Rayan was apparently one of the “balder” babies in the family).

It was great working with Michelle and Deepak again, and if they stay true to the patterns in their families, I can’t help but wonder if Rayan will soon have a sibling in the family portraits…?    But before we jump ahead of ourselves, let’s share some pictures from this session:

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We started Saturday bright and early at the Fairmont (though not as early as Anjali who was up with the sun at 4am!).  Under a light sprinkle of rain, the groom’s procession with Arun on his horse made its way to the hotel, where first the Sikh and then the Hindu ceremonies went off without a hitch (other than a brief moment when I wondered if the ominous buzzing of the fire alarm – caused by the smoke from the ceremonial fire – was going to be followed by a cold shower from the sprinklers). Then we had a nice long portrait session, ending Saturday at the Legislative Building and starting Sunday at Red River College.  Just as they were on their engagement session, Anjali and Arun were wonderfully patient and so friendly and easy to work with during the shoots.  We got a ton of nice shots through both days – it’s going to take me awhile to go through so many!  But here is a sneak peek at some of my faves from the weekend.

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But before we leave the cold weather behind completely, here’s a wintry engagement session with Anjali and Arun.  We pretty much closed our eyes and picked the date of the shoot a month in advance, and much to our luck and delight, we managed to pick out the first weekend that kicked off our current warm spell.  There was still plenty of snow on the ground at the time and the Forks was packed with snowboarders, skaters, and people out and about enjoying the sunshine.

We started the session outside and Anjali and Arun were kind enough to appease my whimsy and muck through drifts of snow for me – there were some nice wintry blues to be had!  And though it was a nice enough day, 45 minutes of standing around in the snow is enough to chill anyone, so we wandered inside to warm up.  I don’t often get to sit down and chat with my subjects in the middle of a shoot, but we sat down in a patch of sun with our hot chocolates and got a chance to talk about the Olympics, traveling in Europe, and East Indian food.  Even though I’ve shot my fair share of Indian weddings, I definitely learned a thing or two with the inside scoop from Anjali and Arun.  An informative coffee break!

We finished up the shoot inside the building, playing with patches of light from the setting sun.  All in all, a great way to kick off the engagement sessions this year.  Here are a few of my faves:

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Once again Cassandra and Chris gamely followed me around in my whimsical hunt for pictures, and though the day started with a few nerves, the photo session went smoothly and by the time the ceremony and reception had rolled around, everyone was right into the swing of things.  Congratulations you guys!  A few sneak peeks:

Like their families, Manisha and Ace have an easy and real interaction with each other, which made it fun and easy to photograph them together. Having shot Manisha’s cousin’s wedding several years ago, I once again had the pleasure of seeing and working with a whole bunch of familiar faces. Between the two families, there were so many animated characters that it was hard to ever put the camera down that night.  Congrats Manisha & Ace!  Hopefully the images are able to capture the energy of your day!