We recently connected with Lasanthi Benedict and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lasanthi , thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

While taking a class in photography at Cypress College, my professor asked us to do final project on a photo essay. on something that is meaningful to each person.

After much thought, I decided to work with children with Down Syndrome. When I first moved to the USA, in 1991, I had to do a community service project in High School and chose to work in a daycare facility for children with special needs. One of the kids I was assigned to had Down Syndrome and she was the sweetest little girl ever. She touched my heart, but I remember talking to her parents and being told how the public, especially back then, viewed her in a negative light.

So, I chose to do my project with children with Down Syndrome, and show that they are just normal kids with hopes and dreams just like everyone else. So, I contacted the Down Syndrome Association of Orange County and explained my project and it took on a whole new life from there.

I photographed 16 kids, with ages varying from 6 mths to 16 years for my project. Other than for the baby, once the kids had their portraits taken, they were photographed holding a poster board showing something they like, what they’d like to be once they grew up and finally, they got to dress up in garb for their dream job. It was a very tiring but also extremely gratifying experience.

Once I finished photographing all the kids, and edited them, I made a video, which can be found at: https://vimeo.com/237219772?share=copy (Listen with the volume up on your device)

Since that original shoot, I’ve had some of the kids come back to me for portraits and got referred to other families with children with Down Syndrome,

In 2019, one of the moms reached out to me to ask if I’d be interested in starting an Annual Down Syndrome Awareness photoshoot and of course, I loved the idea and accepted the challenge. The photoshoot usually takes place in time for the World Down Syndrome Day on 3/21 each year and is always an absolutely a crazy and fun event. This year, we did the Fifth Annual photoshoot and several kids have been photographed each year since 2019. I do individual Mini-Portrait shoots and then a group photo. The group photo is absolutely crazy and fun. Trying to get multiple kids with Down Syndrome, all looking at the camera at the same time is absolutely insane. Almost always, we do not get a photo with everyone looking in the same direction and smiling but we go with the flow. Being a person with Down Syndrome means that they will write their own story of life and have their own, unique journey.

I’ve also been referred to other families and have bene photographing children with Down Syndrome ever since for their individual portraits as well. I had someone ask me once,, “Why, children with Down Syndrome?” and my answer was because I love working with them. He then on to tell me that he has a sister with Down Syndrome and that the kids feel that I am comfortable with them and are comfortable with me.

I LOVE photographing all children, but I find myself working with more and more children with special needs, and I absolutely love it.

My shooting style is different and while some other photographers strive to get more formal photos of kids, I love capturing photos that show the kids’ natural smiles, behavior and photographs that evoke emotions. When people look at my photos, they usually smile and laugh, which makes me happy. My clients tell me that that is what makes me stand out from other photographers.

Lasanthi , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

An immigrant from Sri Lanka that migrated to the USA in 1990, I found my passion for photography kinda late in my life. As a little girl, I’ve always dreamed of owning my own business and for many years tried everything from MLM Marketing to making and selling handcrafted, decorative soaps.

It is my parents that instilled the love of owning a business in me from the very young age. In 1996, my parents realized their dream by opening a daycare center which has since grown, through hard work and dedication, and is now a highly successful childcare center in Minneapolis.

In 2014 I decided to enroll in a photography class at Cypress College and my professor Clifford Lester has been one of my biggest supporters since then. He helped me to navigate the world of photography as a career path and advised me and guided me every time I needed some help.

I’ve always been fascinated with photography and cameras but never thought of it as possibly being a career path. In 2012, I was gifted a Canon Rebel T3 and I enjoyed taking photographs of nature, hummingbirds and marine animals. While on a whale watching trip in 2014, our tour boat came into a pod of over 50 sperm whales, which was an extremely rare, history making event for CA. I photographed them and once I heard how rare they were, I contacted the Associated Press and they immediately published my photographs, which went viral. My photos were featured on yahoo world news in images, abc worldnews,, NBC Nightly news with Tom Brokaw and many others.

It was a super exciting period in life for me. I was getting phone calls and messages from friends and family worldwide to let me know that they saw my photos on the internet, papers, tv and such. If you do a search for Lasanthi Benedict and Sperm Whales you will see them too.

That was a major turning point in my photography career and I was hooked. It was also the first time I photographed using all manual controls, except for focus, and nailed it. I was motivated to keep on learning about the craft and loved photographing birds, animals and such. One of my photos of a dolphin mom and newborn calf was also the most popular, number 1 trending photo on National Geographic Your Shot.

After a glimpse of a little bit of fame via photography, needless to say, I was absolutely hooked. I loved photography and truly enjoyed every second I was spending doing photography. I loved it so much that I decided to try and figure out how I can make it a career. Again, I took another class with Cliff about Photography as a career where we explored multiple genres of photography and had to research about photographers that interested us as individuals.

As I’ve worked with children of all ages and loved it, I chose to explore the newborn, children and family photography.. Another one of the requirements of the class was that we research photographers in the genre that interested us and figure out the financial details and such.

I chose to research Kelly Brown, an Australian newborn photographer and the more research I did, the more I hooked. I decided to put my love for working with babies and children and photography and chose that this is what I wanted to specialize in.

I started off thinking that newborn photography would be easy. How hard would it be to put a baby in a basket or a box and take a photo? Afterall, the parents would be happy with whatever I get as it is their baby right? WRONG!

Newborn photography is probably one of the hardest and the most challenging genre of photography ever. Working with days old, fragile, newborn babies require photographers to get specialized in posing the newborns safely and to be able to spot any signs of a baby in distress, learn CPR and other first aid and styling.

Being able to pose the baby safely and artistically, is not something you can truly learn watching youtube videos. There are no schools or training centers giving out certificates for a baby photographer. So, I found a photographer that specialized in Newborn Photography that allowed me to be an assistant and guided me and helped educate me on how to safely pose a newborn and gave me tips on styling each prop / shoot.

One of the most important things I learned during this class and during my time assisting her was that we all will find out own style at some point and will spend the rest of the career trying to perfect that style.

Since March of 2015, when I did my first newborn photoshoot, I did multiple free photoshoots / model calls to build my portfolio and get experience. I always explained to the parents that I was new so they knew that they were not getting an experienced photographer and in exchange for allowing me to use their babies for photographs, they received free images from their shoot.

The more shoots I did, the more hooked I got on baby and children’s photography. I absolutely loved every second of photographing children, (ok, I didn’t love those moments when I got pooped and peed on all over me lol) and my career took off.

Almost all of my clients, fully satisfied with my services and their photographs, went on to book multiple other shoots as their babies grew up and my business / career just took off like a rocket. I was fortunate to have many of my clients referring me to their friends and family, bringing in more and more business for me. Most of my clients come back to me over and over. I just did the 17th photoshoot for one family in 5 years.

In 2021 December, I had a life altering accident. While I was on a whale watching trip with my husband and extended family, I was thrown overboard, into the deep sea and I almost died. I fought for my life with everything I got, and one of the things that kept me from panicking till I was rescued, many minutes later, was not letting go of my camera (I thought my insurance wouldn’t cover the loss) and wanting to be there to fulfill the photoshoots that I had booked several months down the road. I had a MAJOR leg injury from the accident which required 56 stitches and permanent nerve damage. For many weeks, I couldn’t walk, but my motivation for walking were the photoshoots that I kept getting booked for.

Even though I had to postpone some shoots as I was physically unable to do,, I did not lose a single client. In fact, my clients told even more people about me and got me many bookings for when I was strong enough to shoot again. My clients have been incredibly loyal to me.

This accident changed my both physically and emotionally. Made me realize how quickly life can change and how important it is to go after your goals and dreams, whatever they may be. In 2022 June, I was fortunate and blessed to find the most perfect space to open a new photography studio and signed a lease. On the 23rd of July, 2022, I officially opened Lasanthi Benedict Photography studio. It is a small space, but it is my own space and am so very proud of it. I not only have my studio, but all around it, are beautiful backdrops with the most beautiful lighting most of the time that I can utilize for my photoshoots. My clients love that they can do some photos in the studio, but also step out and do multiple, beautiful background.

Something that makes me stand out from some other photographers is the fact that I try my best to capture natural looking photos that evoke emotions from the viewers. I don’t stress about time, (Ie: I have to finish this shoot in XXX minutes) but rather, take the time I need to let the child become comfortable with me and shoot natural looking photos. While the child becomes comfortable, I use that time to make small talk with the parents and create relationships with them.

With newborns, I never stress about finishing the shoot in a certain time. The baby’s comfort and safely is always my first priority. Sometimes, my newborn shoots last 5 – 6 hours, but this because I take time to cuddle with the baby and make sure that the baby is comfortable always. This also helps the parents feel comfortable with me and the relationships created as a photographer / client most always goes on to become friends, which helps foster relationship based on mutual respect and trust. I have clients driving from as far as San Diego and Santa Barbara area to me as they trust me and love my services / photography style.

Since most of my clients have been coming back to me over and over again, the kids have gotten to know me and are very comfortable with me. Most of them come ready to be photographed, and greets me with a hug and a “Hi Las” and jumps into the photoshoot. For about a year, I couldn’t walk without a cane, and I was concerned about the reactions from my little clients, but no one seemed to even notice. Some of my clients even borrowed my cane to be photographed with it.

During my photoshoots, we sing, dance, laugh, scream, jump, run and have so much of fun. My shoots are usually loud, filled with laughter and even since I added a bubble making machine, always include bubbles.

Some of my photos have been featured in the International Kid Model Magazine, (an online and print publication), The Bump, another online magazine and some have gotten accepted to be in exhibitions, including the Juried Student exhibition at Cypress College and OC Fair.

From where I was when I first began this career path and then the accident, which left me unable to even walk, I am very proud of where I am today. I’ve worked really hard to overcome every obstacle that have been thrown my way.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

On December, 26th, 2021, I was in a life altering accident. While whale watching with my husband and family, I fought for my life for over 20 minutes, while waiting to be rescued and had a severe leg injury which required 56 stitches and gave me likely permanent nerve damage and severe PTSD. For many weeks, I was barely able to walk and for one year after the accident, I needed a walking aid no matter how long or short my walking was. The accident, both mentally and physically devastated me.

In order to regain the strength the strength in my leg, I needed to go through lots of painful and rigorous Physical Therapy exercises daily. Having postponed the photoshoots that I had scheduled till I was physically able to do, and knowing that all my clients were behind me, supporting me and waiting for me to get better was a huge motivation for me keep going, Whenever I felt like giving up, photography kept me motivated.

Also, even though we all know that our lives can be cut short any second, having an accident like mine, and surviving gives you a whole new perspective on life. Life truly can change in an instant and while you have life and your physical strength, you have to do your best to make your dreams come true and reach your goals.

When, with a lot of hesitation and fear, and with the support of my husband, family, friends and clients, I decided to open my own studio (which had been a dream of mine waiting to be realized for a very long time), I jumped in with both legs and never looked back.

The perfect location sort of fell into my lap and I knew it was meant to be. I worked hard to create a beautiful, airy, cozy and welcoming place to create magic and memories that will be treasured forever.

For the first year after the accident, I did not feel comfortable enough to work with newborn babies and therefore stuck to older children and babies. I hired help as needed and my clients were always kept informed of my progress and my limitations. Regardless of my limitations, my clients kept coming back to me, over and over and referred me to others. Also, photography gave me an escape from the pain I was in both mentally and physically. I began looking forward to photoshoots and once they were done, to the editing, getting the thrilled feedback from my clients and fans and delivering amazing galleries to my clients.

Life changed for me in an instant, but I was resilient and worked extremely hard to realize my goal and dream of owning a professional photography studio. If you have a will, you have a way and nothing much can stand in the way of realizing your dreams.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

TRUST – In most businesses, a strong trust is the foundation on which everything else rests. Most of us are brand-loyal if it is a product / service that we trust and meets our needs. This is especially true in my field, where I work with your precious babies and children. I always work hard to create relationships with my clients based on trust, respect and providing a personalized attention / service.

My photoshoots are never timed or limited to any number of minutes / hours. Especially with a newborn photoshoot, my clients trust me with their brand new, days old, fragile, precious newborn. They trust me to keep their baby safe. When they come into the studio, they hand the baby over to me and watch my work (or sometimes they take a nap once they feel comfortable enough with me). They trust me to pose the baby safely and create beautiful photographs that bring their visions to reality.

During a newborn photoshoot, I take a lot of time to cuddle with the baby, rock the baby and pose the baby safely. While the baby is being fed or cuddled, I choose that time to get to know my clients, let them get to know me and create a relationship built on mutual trust and respect. Most of my clients leave my studio considering me to be a personal friend.

I have some clients whose kids call me aunty. They become friends with me on facebook and some even drop off little girls for my birthday / holidays. When your clients trust you, and become your friends, chances are more than likely that they will not only come back to you, but will tell everyone about you, helping your business grow.

About 90% of my business is repeat or word of mouth / referrals. I am so grateful to have clients that love me as a person, as a photographer and love my style of work and shout out to the world about me.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.photographybylas.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/babyphotosbylas
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photographybylas
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lasanthi-benedict-photography-63b71411b/

Image Credits
Photographed by and all rights belong to Lasanthi Benedict Photography (http://www.facebook.com/photographybylas)