Laddoo is one of my favorite people in India. He is a barber
that has been cutting my wife’s family’s hair for three generations now. I met
him during my first trip to India and have seen him on every visit since. He
always comes over to the house and gives me a fresh cut, shave and massage. It
is traditional for barbers in India give really great head and shoulder massages
after cutting your hair. Laddoo even cracks my neck as part of the massage,
which is kind of scary, but it has always made my sore neck feel better. On our
latest trip to India I asked Laddoo to pose for a portrait since he is a very
important person to me in my wife’s hometown of Hazaribagh. I also made a
surprise visit to see his barber shop and made a portrait of him and his
brothers in their space. Of course Laddoo being so generous, he had to give me
another trim and massage (I think there is some footage on instagram if you
follow @pjbellinger). Before leaving Hazaribagh I had several prints made of
all the different people I made portraits of, and I delivered them to each one
in person. There is something special about giving and receiving prints. Prints
create a connection that is missing when you only deliver electronic files. In
this case it was a nice way to say thank you and farewell until next time.
Tips for photographers:
These are the photos that make all of the hard work worth
it. They are special photos that can happen in the blink of an eye if you are
on your game. For the portrait of Laddoo by himself, he posed for less than two
minutes before he was on his way. I scoped out the white wall on previous days
and knew it would be lit up nicely in the afternoon sunlight. I put Laddoo in
direct sunlight coming from camera left. Since half of his face is in shadows,
we call this split lighting, which I really like because of the contrast. The
whole front of the house and driveway were lit up with sunlight in front of
Laddoo to create nice catchlights in his eyes. The portrait of Laddoo and his
brothers was created during a bright sunny day with a single speedlight held by
my little sister in the back of the shop to create rim light, or backlight on
the subjects. Because the speedlight is all the way in the back of the room it
has the effect of lighting the whole room. It’s a lighting technique that is
somewhat overused but is a fast and convenient way to add a bit of drama to an
otherwise natural light environmental portrait.
I am portrait photographer Paul Bellinger, and I have an
unmatched passion for the art of portraiture. I have put many years into the
study of everything about portraiture, from the timeless classics by the great
masters of generations past, to the leading portrait artists of today. My hard
work and dedication has paid off and my portraits are increasingly
being sought after for magazine covers and editorial features, and I have on
set experience with large-scale fashion, celebrity and sports photo shoots. I
specialize in dramatic studio portraits of individuals from headshots and
professional business portraits, to fashion and glamour.
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