Beauty is Truth » events

DC auto show

beautyis — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:11:09 +0000

this is what you get when an utterly non-car person takes pictures at a car show… the only thing i could really get out of it was the smile on my son’s face, which of course made every minute worth it! anyway, this was, obviously, just a personal visit with my family, during the last hour of the last day of the washington, d.c. annual auto show… musa couldn’t get enough of getting into every car he could. i figured taking my camera was the best way for me to spend my time there… :)

event photography: hijabi monologues

beautyis — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:19:37 +0000

i had the opportunity to participate this past weekend in a fantastic performance that is gaining recognition around the country, both in and outside of the muslim community, the hijabi monologues. if you’ve heard of eve ensler, you can kind of guess that this show presents something that is a sort of inverse of the vagina monologues – not related or responding to it, but, as co-founder sahar ullah describes it, taking something public like the islamic headscarf (hijab) and pushing it OUT of viewers’ faces, by making them see the individual wearing it, rather than personifying something intensely private. the hijabi monologues is not actually about the headscarf at all (which i was ecstatic about, because i don’t think there exists another piece of cloth in the world that’s been overanalyzed more), but it presents the stories of various women who just happen to wear hijab. let me be a little more grandiose about it: it helps give voice to a group of women who have, for entirely too long, been spoken for by others who have no idea.
i had been wanting to see it for a while, being a longtime american hijabi myself, but also found out that one of my friends would be performing in the DC show, held at the kennedy center on sunday, nov. 22. so i was thrilled to find out only a few days in advance that the show was looking for photographers!
for the camera geeks out there: the kennedy center does not allow flash in or around shows, so this was a bit of a challenge; i had my tamron 28-75 2.8, but i really wanted close-ups of the spotlit performers on stage; for this i had to use my sigma 70-300 f/4-5.6. in the end it was only my 5D’s amazing high ISO performance and a steady hand (and the fact that i wasn’t the only photographer there) that saved me.
without further ado…

baby maryam’s aqeeqa

beautyis — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:03:58 +0000

for a baby whose existence i only discovered at minus three months (thanks sara!!!), maryam’s appearance into the world sure made me happy! her mom is a good friend of mine from the college park days, and i was so honored and excited to be asked to take pictures of maryam when she was only six days old, the day her family conducted the traditional head-shaving ceremony and held her aqeeqa celebration. (the shaved hair is weighed and its weight in silver is donated to charity… i think!). anyway! so after we shared labor stories – amazing how i never get tired of hearing them and reflecting on my own! – we took some portraits of baby cutie-pie maryam with her hair still on, including some in an outfit her grandmother sewed for her that very morning, and the rest of the images show the actual head-shaving itself. i’ll include a few explanations with some of the images below… sara, thanks so much for the honor and i can’t wait to take more of maryam’s pictures in the coming months! btw, i didn’t get a chance to hold her at all last time – i expect some cuddle time in the future! :)

we started with some portraits using the great big window in maryam’s nursery:

then the arriving family members took some turns holding her while mama got ready:

maryam’s maternal grandmother sewed her this adorable pink shalwar kameez in the morning, just before coming over!

adoring elders looking on:

we took some quick family portraits, too:

after this, maryam was ready for her head-shaving!

her paternal grandfather had the honor of starting it off…

but others, like maryam’s youngest uncle here, had a turn, too:

when it was over, grandma placed the little hat she had sewn for the occasion on the newly-bald head:

this was the only smile i could capture on maryam’s face this day! oh well… next time, more! :)

an extraordinary baby shower

beautyis — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:13:25 +0000

so, maryam and modassir are family friends; modassir was slugging relentlessly through law school and working full-time while my brother and i were gallivanting undergraduates, all together at UNC Chapel Hill in the early 90s, and maryam joined our north carolina community from far, cold michigan about 10 years ago (i hope that’s right maryam!). anyway! at long last, this couple – always a beautiful example to those around them of a loving, happy marriage – is expecting a midsummer addition to their family, and their generous circle of friends threw one GLAM baby shower on june 6th. maryam herself is known for organizing fantastic parties, and so her friends decided to give back to her in similar fashion: the result was a red-carpet extravaganza with the close-knit feel of a “chill” evening at a friend’s house. the organizers and guests poured their hearts into making it an amazing night, and when i was asked to take the pictures, i wanted to capture not only the emotion of the evening, but all the details of the labor of love – pun intended! – maryam and modassir’s friends put forth.
if i’m on your facebook, you’ve probably already seen all of these images, but i chose a few of my favorites to share here in larger format!

event and portrait shots

beautyis — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 06:45:43 +0000

okay so this wasn’t really assignment per se… but it was a chance to take some shots that some people need, while practicing with the new camera as well as a speedlight with a sto-fen cap on it – one of the diffusers i am thinking about using, basically just a plastic white “cap” that slides on to the top of your flash head – so it was VERY helpful to try it out in the lobby of my brother’s office building – an open atrium-style lobby, at night. basically, it took me a while, but i finally ended up putting the flash on manual and dialing down the power and pointing it up and behind me, to get the least shadows and the most even lighting. taking portraits of my brother and his law firm partner up in the office (as well as pictures of raheela!) i found it better to take the cap off entirely and just bounce the flash off the low ceiling instead.
hope that made some sense to somebody :) here are the pictures from thursday evening! the event was a fundraiser for dr. esam omeish, who is running for a seat in the virginia house of delegates – that’s in the last two shots.

i have to also note: i ended up cropping a lot of these pictures, just slightly. maybe it’s taking me some time to get used to the full frame of the 5D, because i almost never ever crop… but it sure is nice to have the freedom to decide! alhamdulillah.

my brother, hassan ahmad:

his partner, ashraf nubani:

my brother in his office, by a desk that had just been mauled by two almost-three-year-olds…

just a couple of shots from the actual fundraiser:

inauguration

beautyis — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:43:57 +0000

generally i’m going to try to keep this blog apolitical… so consider this a post about the making of history, not about my political choices :) but, living close enough to the D.C. area, i thought it would be a travesty if i didn’t make it out to the inauguration ceremony. so after nearly an hour’s wait in the cold at the college park metro station for farecards, a brief reprieve in the metro train, and then more walking in the unforgivingly bitter air, we made it out onto the mall just before the ceremony began, and found our place near the top of the mall, with a decent view of the capitol, just before the guests of honor were announced and led to their seats.
we didn’t stick around for the parade, but here are a few of my favorite shots from the day! these were taken with the 50 mm 1.8 and my 70-200 4-5.6 (sigma) – which is very shaky at full zoom, but still performed serviceably. i am so glad i was there, with my camera, and will always remember this day…

grateful for ali day

beautyis — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:53:23 +0000

that is a bit of a pun, an inside joke somewhat widely known in the northern VA muslim community. but it’s also very serious… it’s what we titled the party we held in honor of ali yunus, a guy who’s always been like my own little brother… because the grace of God gave him a second chance at life.
in a nutshell: ali, 25 and gym-fit, suffered a heart attack on may 4, 2008, the result of a still-unknown virus that by some unfathomable fluke infected his heart muscle. he was living at the time at my brother’s place in sterling, va., and this was about 3 a.m., when normally the whole house would be asleep… but my lazy, night-owl brother was still up, watching TV downstairs. so it was that he heard the “thump” when ali passed out and came to again, and went to check on him… first responders thought he was just dehydrated, but after they discovered further problems and airlifted him from loudoun co. general to the inova heart institute in fairfax, he went into cardiac arrest in the helicopter.
at the hospital, on a pacemaker, he told me, “guess what? i DIED!” with a big grin on his face.
but the pacemaker didn’t seem to be steadying his heart, and two days later he was going into multiple organ failure and asking his sister to pay off his debts. so the excellent doctors wheeled him down into surgery and spent hours attaching ventricular assist devices (VADs) to both sides of his heart… where they would remain for the next two and a half months, over three times the average length of time for patients with VADs. most of that time, ali’s temperature fluctuated between low-grade and high-grade fevers, and most of that time we knew that the chances of him getting out of this without a transplant were 15-20 percent – barring any other complications that might make the outcome even worse. and there WERE complications – the ongoing, unexplained fevers, fluid buildup in his chest cavity that had to be drained… but slowly, slowly his diseased heart began to heal, and by late july they were able to consider taking out the VADs – an exhaustive, nine-hour surgery. and with the VADs out, his recovery sped up remarkably; he was discharged aug. 4, three months to the day he had been admitted.
then followed a four-month cardiac rehabilitation program – for ali, the biggest thing was to finally be out of the hospital, at a place he could call home, even if he was living with his sister and brother-in-law. watching his speech return to normal, watching him gain weight, watching him return to himself, all of this was one of the greatest blessings our family and friends have ever known. so we went all-out to surprise him with this party, and surround him with the close friends who prayed for him and supported his family during the hardest times.
now… on a regular basis i don’t have much photographic equipment with me – yet! so the following shots are all taken with the new 50 mm 1.8, and either without flash at ISO 400-1600 (which can be pretty grainy on the rebel XT) or with the only flash i had – the awful popup thing on the rebel. still, i had some fun with it! these are just a handful of the shots i wanted to help share this story…

here is ali at the party, listening to one of the many speeches made about him:

here are a couple of detail shots from the party: the beautiful party favors that ali’s sister, raheela – my dear friend – put together, and the gorgeous wegman’s chocolate cake that was served among the desserts:

this was how we welcomed ali into the room – one of the strands hitting his face is being gleefully sprayed by my brother :)

and here are, of course, a couple of shots of my son and my nephew, always the life of the party! these two got special mention in the speeches, due to all the comic relief they provided ali’s family during long – make that loooooooooooong – hours in the hospital waiting room…

a shot of me with ali’s sister, raheela… just placed ourselves badly in the light, but what can i do when i’m on this side of the lens?

and finally… here’s one of the issues i had taking vertical shots with the 50 mm lens on my cropped sensor… found myself tilting to fill the frame a little better… the couple shot came out better (these are two friends of ali’s family who helped out tremendously at the party) but, still… here they are!

that’s it for now…