a glimpse from my canada trip
November 4, 2009 | Filed Under family photos, nature, travel | 4 Comments
i already facebooked this image so i assume most people have seen it :) but thought i would share it here as well: my favorite shot from the canada trip (my husband, son and i visited niagara falls and toronto from october 18-22, stopping a night in upstate NY on the way home). here, my husband had dropped me off along the cliffside to take nighttime shots of the colored lights on the falls; after i had taken more than enough, just when i was starting to wonder if he had left me there and gone back to the hotel :) he popped up behind me with our son on his shoulders, to scare me! on our walk back upstream to the car, i got this shot of them with the floodlit falls behind them…
eid mubarak!
September 22, 2009 | Filed Under family photos, friends | 2 Comments
sunday was eid al-fitr for most of the muslim community in america, and much of the rest of the world as well – a remarkable occurrence of unity not unnoticed on the day of! perhaps that was just one of the signs of how blessed a day it was – it certainly felt blessed! could not have been a more perfect day – that blue in the sky in the images below? for real. smiles, bright sunlight, crisp-but-warm weather… a joyful communal prayer with a meaningful sermon, then lots of presents for the kids and plenty of excellent food… especially sweets! the only thing missing from my perfect eid was the chance to put some henna (mehndi) on myself… but at least i snapped a shot of a friend’s decorated hands.
so, this is entirely a personal post, but if you’re visiting and don’t know much about eid in america, i hope this helps… we had the prayer in the morning at the muslim community center in silver spring, md., then went home for the first round of the kids’ eid gifts with my husband’s side of the family (my adorable nieces, five years old (almost six!) and eight months old); we then went to lunch with family and friends, and then drove to my brother’s house in virginia to hang out with my nephew and do some more gifting. i think i had a nap somewhere in there too – a perfect day, subhanallah!
all the pictures are taken with the tamron 28-75 2.8… proving that in the right lighting situation, this lens can totally rock the clarity and colors!!
family time: “wings of fancy” with the boys
September 11, 2009 | Filed Under family photos | 3 Comments
last week my parents were here, and we took my son and nephew to “the butterfly house” – actually known as the wings of fancy exhibit at brookside gardens in wheaton, md., where i’ve done a few photoshoots, too. my nephew wanted to go so badly, but he ended up being not so happy with all these bugs – for bugs they are! – flying about him! still, it’s a magical place, with the bright flowers, the scent of overripe fruit and the still, humid air, and jeweled wings fluttering all around you. i hadn’t taken personal pictures in so long… but i do try to take pictures of these two boys when they’re together, for my parents. i didn’t have my long lens with me, so no real closeups of the butterflies… but a few shots i liked! after the exhibit we just sat on benches in the gardens to feed the flushed, sweaty boys their snacks (well, at least my nephew… mine doesn’t like to eat, and yes, he’s said so himself), and then went home. it was a beautiful day, so i just wanted to share some of these pictures here…
what happens when i ask issa to “make funny faces for the camera”… :)
happy belated fourth!
July 6, 2009 | Filed Under family photos | 2 Comments
took my son to see the fireworks in columbia, md, since we thought it’d be too much to go all the way to DC with him and try to get in, around, and out of the crowds. although i’m still bummed that i’ve NEVER seen the fireworks in washington, DC on july 4, and this my ninth year living in the region!
still… my son’s first fireworks experience went pretty well! he was scared at first – then spellbound (see the expression on his face in the first shot!) – then he started to enjoy it, and then as soon as it was over he started whining that he wanted to see more! we went with a friend and his daughter, too…
i made a point of taking my whole kit to experiment with taking pictures of fireworks for the first time, but i left the bag in the car and then my hubby parked it far away, so i took these only with the 50 1.8 on the 5d, no tripod, no zoom. so all of the fireworks pictures are cropped! and, since i really didn’t know what i was doing… not that i’ll be doing this again anytime soon, but, if anyone reading has any tips for photographing fireworks, feel free to leave them in a comment!
