maryam: four months old!
January 7, 2010 | Filed Under baby, friends | 2 Comments
i haven’t had a chance to blog about baby maryam in a while, but her monthly portrait sessions are going great and as you can see she’s QUITE the happy camper for the most part! it’s so exciting to watch her grow like this, and such an honor to be the one to capture the first year of her life this way. all the smiles you see here are thanks to grandma, who managed to get some fantastic giggles out of maryam while i was snapping away! towards the end of the session, though, she discovered her lower lip was more fun to suck on than to smile with 
maryam, auntie ayesha loves you lots!
sam & sanjana I
January 4, 2010 | Filed Under wedding posts | 16 Comments
i’ve been blessed with the opportunity to share two of samjana’s… i mean… sam and sanjana’s important wedding occasions with them, over the past two weeks, and i can’t say enough how thankful i am to both their families and friends for welcoming me so warmly, taking care of me, trusting me and being patient with me. sam and sanjana are one of those couples with a truly meant-to-be story, from the fact that sanjana’s family were present at his shahada (conversion to islam) six years ago with no idea he would one day join their family, to the way each one’s abiding faith and devotion to God draws them toward the same goals. i felt almost wistful watching them proclaim their union (their actual vows were exchanged back in august) and take this first step of their lives together, because their journey ahead – working and studying abroad, coming back home for graduate study – is SO the young american muslim dream, and i’m, like, past that stage now and so, i can’t help but feel tremendous excitement for them!
the following images are from the first of the two wedding events, on dec. 26, 2009 at the knoxville convention center, given by the bride’s side of the family, who are from bangladesh. one note: if anyone’s confused by the one particularly blurry picture, with what appears to be (and actually is) the groom upside down in the air in the process of being bodyslammed to the ground, let me just clarify that while this is NOT a traditional or recommended method of regaining one’s shoes after the shoe-stealing ritual, it WAS possibly the most exciting moment of the wedding and i had JUST inserted a brand new card into my camera and just barely managed to get this shot – so even though it’s not top-notch, i had to include it!
sam and sanjana, thank you again – jazakumullahu khairan – for letting me be a part of your celebrations! i hope you enjoy these images… there’s plenty more… and inshallah i truly hope we get a chance to meet up again soon, either abroad (one can always dream…) or when you guys get back!
happy new year!
January 1, 2010 | Filed Under family photos, friends, portraits | 6 Comments
okay, so i’m not much of a new year’s person, to be honest. BUT, i do love good times with good friends, and i happen to have a bunch of gorgeous, unbelievably photogenic friends who are really good sports with me and my camera… so i took my equipment over to my friend humera’s house tonight to get some portraits of the people i love. my plan was to practice doing some off-camera lighting… but i’ve only succeeded in realizing even more how much i have to learn about it, so there’s only, like, one shot in here with flash. otherwise… i mean, i was shooting with a canon 35mm 1.4L wide open on a 5D at ISO 1000… why even bother with the flash?? have i mentioned before how much i love this lens?!
humera, jawad, aatif, rubina, shaf, imran, and my growing family hassan, rabiah, issa baba and baby imani – thanks so much for a wonderful evening!
