The one that got away – Dylan Seedin
The youngest of three tech-enthusiastic brothers, from his teens Dylan Seedin had always had an interest in smartphone photography. But while he was at uni (Business Admin.), one of his siblings bought a camera proper, which Seedin promptly borrowed to take portraits of his classmates. People began to ask if he would shoot their birthdays, and when he found that there was money in it, he began to train himself (YouTube, et al.), and to develop his personal style (speciality lighting).
He didn’t plan to go professional – “Sri Lanka doesn’t pay well in the arts” – until two months’ experience of the corporate world convinced him otherwise. So he moved into small events, then fashion shoots, then started actively approaching clients. In 2016 he was listed among the Top 150 international wedding photographers by SLR Lounge, since when work has taken him to Hawaii, Italy, Indonesia and elsewhere.
He will admit to dropping a lens over a Greek cliff edge (“you don’t make that mistake twice!”),and once set his own shirt on fire lighting a long-exposure wedding shot using a firework. “I’m prepared to try a lot of things to get what I want.”
The one that got away
‘About eight years ago, I saw a Turkish Airlines advertisement, including a timelapse of Göreme National Park in Cappadocia, the UNESCO site where everyone takes photos of colourful hot air balloons over the ancient troglodytic dwellings and religious sites. Ever since, I’d been in love with the idea of it. So, in 2017, I took a trip to Turkey with a friend.
We had just two days for the Cappadocia leg, because the weather reports said there’d be high winds at the other times and so there wouldn’t be balloons. The first day, everything went perfectly to plan. We flew in a balloon, very early in the morning, in a clear September sky (it was about -2ºC!), and it was beautiful: something very different.
The second day, I had arranged a driver, explained to him where we needed to go – to an exact location – sent him the pin on Google Maps. And he said “Yeah, no problem.” I’d visualised a drone shot, with a very specific angle of the balloons flying over, from a particular spot. I had the perfect frame in mind, so I was making sure that we’d be there at a certain time, close to the caves, so we’d get the balloons coming directly over the mountain ridge – and even then only if conditions were right, because balloons don’t have a steering function! But I had a plan so that it wouldn’t look like every other picture, and I thought that this might even sell, because not a long (lot)of people get that angle.
Explaining what I wanted to the driver was difficult, but I’d showed him the pictures, told him about the abandoned cave-dwellings… but in his head he was somewhere else, and he ended up taking me right to the standard tourist lookout spot – where all those other photographs are taken from – and by the time I realised it was too late. And on that one day, of course, the wind was just right.
Perhaps he thought that this would make a better picture. But he forgot that I’m the photographer!’
The shot that he got
‘The picture that’s been most memorable for me was from a three-day Indian celebrity wedding a few years back, in Tangalle. It was like a royal ceremony. I had to sign an NDA!
The couple (Bollywood actor and producer Aftab Shivdasani, and his wife-to-be Nin Dusanj) had booked a whole hotel, with its stretch of river, and were about to enter the function area on this paddle boat – and then it suddenly started raining. The hotel guys had put umbrellas into the boat, just in case; but the bride and groom were already out on the water, so they didn’t have much choice.
I had lenses that I could use in the rain – long-range ones, which basically push past that falling water – so I got the 7200 from my assistant and started clicking away. But a lot of photographers would also not have liked to keep on working in those circumstances. The equipment is supposed to be weather-resistant, but over time, you know… No-one really wants to put that kind of investment out in the rain.
But that’s what it takes to get the best shot, and we ended up with pictures that were amazing.
And the couple actually loved that it rained, because I made it look very romantic. The picture worked because they both were enjoying themselves, and it’s a kind of candid moment: just them in their bubble, in the middle of the river, being themselves. I couldn’t even direct! So through all the noise you just get these two, and it’s quite intimate.
They’d wanted my style of photography, but this was a picture that I didn’t expect. It was included in the final wedding album, and it went viral round India, because Aftab is such a big deal. And people wanted to know who the photographer was – so that was good.’
‘Seedin’ the clouds’. Pic by Dylan Seedin