Picture-perfect plays, Singhal captures community through freelance photography

His phone just wouldn’t suffice. Sophomore Ansh Singhal needed something better to authentically capture the action of his brother’s volleyball game. He eagerly looked around for a solution to his problem. 

“The mom of one of the players on the team had a camera and I asked her if I could use it,” Singhal said. “It all started from there.”

Singhal kick-started his photography business in March. Merging his love of sports and passion for taking photos, his work focuses on spotlighting student athletes around CHS. Athletes can book Singhal through Instagram direct messages to capture photos of them on game days. 

This year, Singhal worked with the Coppell Cowboys Football Booster Club. He was given field passes by Coppell football booster club president Jennifer Cusano for JV games and worked with coaches to gain access to varsity games. 

“Mrs. Cusano approached me at one game,” Singhal said. “She said ‘I saw your photography, if you want to come shoot for the Coppell Booster Club, I would love to see you shoot for us.”

Singhal enjoys the fast-paced nature of sports coverage. He enjoys the thrill of keeping pace with the players, analyzing the field and anticipating plays in hopes of getting the perfect shot. His favorite part of the job, however, is the time he spends at home editing his work. 

“The post process, I’ve always loved,” Singhal said “I love editing the photos and looking back on them.”

Through YouTube tutorials and constant trial and error, Singhal taught himself how to use Adobe’s editing software to enhance his photos, adding another layer of personality to his work. He continues to experiment with the effect of color curves and the impact of different lighting on his subjects as he focuses on perfecting his craft and curating a recognizable style. 

Though Singhal’s portfolio largely revolves around sports photography, his skill set also encompasses portrait photography. 

“I did a lot of graduation photos around April and May,” Singhal said. “I started photography in March, so it was pretty early. I’ve gotten a lot better since.”

As his business grows, Singhal hopes to expand the scope of his photography, finding new lenses to capture his passions.

“It’s always up from here,” Singhal said. “I want to keep growing and expanding and get better.”

Seams of inclusivity, Sikder redefining genderless fashion

Within junior Neha Sikder’s notebook is her latest sketch: a cropped black top with a crescent-like slit on the collarbone.

This is one of the many designs in her repertoire that aims to change the conventional look of genderless fashion while ensuring sustainability.

“Society has grown a stigma around men in feminine clothing and there’s this notion that clothes dictate your gender identity,” Sikder said. “I want to show that you can wear what you want, all while being ethical.”

Inspired by the idea of “fluid fashion,” Sikder set out on a journey to build a business that sells clothing empowering personal expression and utilizing zero-waste engineering. In June 2022, Desoire officially launched.

On the Desoire website is Sikder’s first creation, “The Cropped One.” 

“I wanted something that was a mix between masculine and feminine – something different but muted,” Sikder said. “The top is cropped and fitted, which is different than what you see with most baggy [genderless clothing].”

To turn her idea into a tangible product, Sikder first created a few sketches that she sent to her patternmaker in Italy. This sketch was turned into a pattern and sent to Decode MFG, a manufacturing group in Brooklyn that specializes in using every inch of fabric to minimize waste when creating clothing. Sikder also sent them around 120 yards of cloth made out of fibers extracted from beech wood, a biodegradable material. 

The Council Fashion Design Administration is a certified fashion group that Sikder used to find manufactures.

“That’s how I found Decode,” Sikder said. “It’s a group of [under 10] people – I like slower fashion because if you’re doing mass production, obviously that poses environmental concerns.”

After the garment was pieced together, it was sent back to Sikder for fitting, where adjustments to the pattern were made. 

“Because the clothing is unisex, I had to account for both men and women,” Sikder said. “I had to pick both a man and a woman whose measurements I thought were suitable for my target audience and blend the two to create the actual measurement chart. It took about four sample runs to get the fitting right.”

After finding two micro influencers, Nicholas Cicio and Rebeca Tomescu, to model her product, Sikder officially released “The Cropped One” on Oct. 27. Her second piece is already in its works.

“I put it off for a long time, so it was a mix of emotions,” Sikder said. “I felt bad before because I hadn’t put the product out yet, but it felt good [to finally] put it out. It was a bittersweet moment.”

Revved up, Vasireddy’s detailing business hits the fast lane 

Senior Saikrishna Vasireddy examines his work, a 2019 Mustang meticulously detailed from the exterior body to the interior center console. As the sun glistens on the newly polished vehicle, Vasireddy embraces pure satisfaction.

“Cleaning someone’s car might not seem like it makes a big impact,” Vasireddy said. “But, for example, take your room. If you clean it up, you feel five times more productive. When my partner and I go out there and clean some hard-working parent’s car and they get in and feel ready, that’s what makes their day.”

After watching CHS 2023 graduate Yash Adabala detail cars, Vasireddy realized that starting a business with him was a no-brainer.

“Once we got together, it just made sense,” Vasireddy said. “I helped him start building the brand. I put together a website, social media and business cards, then started marketing our company so that we could actually go do things.”

From there came Knight Shine Car Detailing, Vasireddy and Adabala’s official mobile car cleaning service “where your car gets the royal treatment because cars deserve a knight in shining armor!”

After reserving a time slot through their website, Vasireddy and Adabala drive over to the customer’s home as early as 6 a.m. to begin detailing their car, which takes up to one and a half hours.

“Detailing is everything: the tires, the entire outside, the leather, all cloth interior, dashboards and more,” Vasireddy said. “We scrub them down and clean them with certain products. We have special products that we buy and we know exactly what products we have to use on each part of the car.”

Most of Vasireddy’s knowledge on detailing cars comes from YouTube videos, but he plans on gaining certifications in the near future. Slowly, Vasireddy is working to reach his target market of higher-end car users, such as Porsches and Mercedes owners.

“There’s a community behind these cars,” Vasireddy said. “The people who own those cars are trying to be something better. We already have a couple of premium cars, but that’s the goal is just to keep going up and up and clean cars.”

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