Ellen Zaslaw Photography

about me

When I photograph, I shoot with an eye trained in both art and psychology. I’ve studied art and art history in places as varied as an artist’s back room, the NY Art Students League, and Harvard. If the play of light preoccupies me, color and composition aren’t far behind. Yet also I’m a practicing psychologist attuned to expression, emotion, connection, and body language. Since that’s what I see, in fact what I can’t help seeing, that’s what people see when they look at my photographs–life. Not just appearances but the way things unfold, the way they feel.

As a seasoned traveler and hiker, I’ve photographed urban scenes and natural landscapes extensively. You’ll find examples of that work, among other things, in my Topics galleries. If the setting for an event is a place of visual interest, I’ll make sure the images reflect it.

I belong to the highly selective Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA) and also the Digital Wedding Forum.

Photography and I go back a long way, although, allergic to darkroom fumes, with film I reached a limit. Since 2006 I have been working in the digital format, shooting for clients who have found me by word of mouth or through my images. My photographs have appeared in Parade Magazine, Condé Nast Portfolio, Piano News, and other periodicals, as well as in publications of YouthBuild USA, the Skoll Foundation, Tonar Music, Steglein Publishing, Hospicare of Ithaca, Bridge Records, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Compos Mentis. Also I’ve done commissioned work for Indigo Films.

While assignments have taken me to locations all over, day to day the action is closer to home in central New York, where wedding, portrait, and family photography are the heart of my activities. Some of the great muses in my life have been the people I’ve photographed. Richly, in a way that I can never repay, they have taught me how to see.

about the job

You’ll find me flexible and attentive to your sense of the photographs you’re looking for. I think of a photo session as representing two kinds of vision, yours and mine, and with mine I’ll do my utmost to fulfill yours. I’m flexible not only in the way I shoot but also in the give-and-take of shaping plans. I am prepared to work in as limited or as full-scale a way as you prefer. I charge for my time, of course, but whether you engage a little or a lot of it, that’s up to you.

In photographing your wedding or other event, I’d be happy to set aside time for posed portraits if you’d like. For some people they are an important part of the chronicle. But most of the time I’ll be recording events as they unfold, in true photojournalistic style. Even when I’m shooting portraits, when possible I’m not so much “posing” people as directing them, situating them but then leaving them to interact or otherwise be themselves. In a sense, many of my “posed” images are candids, natural and characteristic. I work with state-of-the-art professional digital equipment, both in shooting and in processing. I am fully insured, as is my equipment.

Please enjoy browsing through my images, scrolling down through the Wedding galleries and viewing other sorts of work at Topics. Have a look at whatever interests you, and perhaps we’ll have a conversation.

about images displayed on
this site and at Topics

In many but not all cases, I have the permission of people whose images appear here to display them. But if you find yourself here and object, please let me know, and I will gladly disguise you digitally or remove the image.