sample albums

May 29, 2009 | Filed Under products | 2 Comments 

i’ve been busy! but i finally managed to snap some shots of my new sample albums yesterday at naptime, so i wanted to share them. i have a ZILLION pictures to blog – all personal, from a week spent in raleigh with my parents, and a wedding i went to as a guest there (uhh… with my camera…) – but i wanted to at least get these up!

these first images are of the “Traditional Matted Album” i offer; this is a 20- or 30-sided leatherbound 8X8 album with a cameo window in the cover; this is one of the two options i offer muslim brides who wear hijab and would like to have a wedding album containing images of themselves without hijab. the pictures would be captured and processed by me, then printed at a local, professional lab by women only (i have an arrangement with this excellent lab), picked up by me and hand-mounted into this album, assembled by me in the privacy of my home studio. the images in this sample album are a mix of portraits from wedding, family and individual portrait shoots i have done.

this next series shows the “Wedding Book” i offer; professionally produced at the amazing forbeyon. it’s an 8X8 album with stiff, slightly glossy pages on which the images are printed directly (not photographic prints). the result is classy and enduring, at less cost than a flush mount album but with a similar design style. this cover shows the standard cover material option (black) with a cameo image printed on metal, but there are many other cover options. this sample album showcases the beautiful, loving wedding of jamil and mahdiyah which i shot back in march.

finally, here are some images of the “Coffee Table Book” i offer; this one i had made at 8.5X11, but a variety of sizes are available, up to 11X14 and 12X12. like the wedding book, this book contains images printed directly on the paper, which is a lustrous, heavyweight but flexible page, hinged at the spine so that an open spread lays flat just like a wedding book or album spread. this sample features some of my favorite shots from mwana’s wedding, shot on april 25, and includes a dust jacket over a brown fabric cover (the fabric being one of the standard cover options).

mother’s day portraits at brookside gardens

May 15, 2009 | Filed Under friends, portraits | 10 Comments 

we had so much fun the last time at brookside gardens that we decided to do it again on mother’s day, this time with the whole family!
fatimeh’s family are some of my most favorite folks… each person is as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside, and i hope you can see some of that in the portraits below. one of the memories we wanted to capture is that of four generations of women: grandmother, mother, daughter and grandchildren, in one image. fatimeh’s father is an imam in washington, d.c. – you might see him leading prayer on the sidewalk if you drive down massachusetts ave nw on a friday afternoon – and her mother is a strong, sweet-natured soul with a wealth of knowledge about health and nutrition, among other things! they’ve raised a remarkable family and it was absolutely a pleasure to hang out in the gardens with them on a sunny sunday. thanks to the guys for cooperating with me taking headshots of them in front of pink flowers! :) and for helping out with the flash when i needed it. brookside gardens doesn’t allow lights on stands, but i was able to set up my 430ex II on its mini-stand with the cybersync receiver attached, and it worked out well once i had my exposure set correctly.
here is a selection of my favorite shots from the day! once i get my act together, my next post will showcase some of the new sample albums i’ve gotten in the past couple of weeks – i’m so excited about offering these albums and can’t wait to show you all!

mwana & mohamed in love

May 7, 2009 | Filed Under wedding posts | 9 Comments 

mwana was a college friend of mine, and when she contacted me about taking her wedding pictures, she said she had been trying to find someone else to do it, so that i could just enjoy myself as a guest! but to be honest… i was thrilled to be her photographer! to see someone so in love through the lens of your camera is a joy for any wedding photographer – something we enjoy enough to make a living off of – but when that person is someone you know and care about, it means that much more. and seeing how happy mwana was – how happy mohamed made her – just made prayers flow from my heart. i’m SO thrilled for you, mwana, and i hope you enjoy the pictures as much as i enjoyed taking them!

the selection below is mostly from the portraits we took right before the ceremony; more to come later!
oh and one other note – i also did mwana’s henna (mehndi) the night before the wedding; i usually make my own mehndi paste, but this time i obtained homemade henna cones from the awesome and ever reliable sanober, a wonderful, talented lady in the clarksville area who runs a salon out of her home. check out the color of her henna on mwana’s hands!