aamina & ibrahim: aqiqa

January 29, 2012 | Filed Under baby, friends | Leave a Comment

sara and i go about ten years back, to when we were both students at college park. we still live close by each other, but after marriage and first kids, have found it harder to keep in touch face-to-face. so it was a crazy surprise when she facebook chatted me one day late last summer (2011) and each of us suddenly found out the other was pregnant – both due in november!
however, sara was actually expecting twins! as twins often do, they came a little early – aamina and ibrahim, welcomed home by their insanely adorable two-year-old sister mariam. by the time the twins’ aqiqah (traditional islamic head-shaving ceremony) was planned for january, i was so excited to have recovered enough from my own childbirth to be able to photograph the event. in fact, the aqiqah was the first night i had taken zayd out of the home to someone’s house for an evening – and he didn’t cry once! at three months, the twins already had such distinct personalities – hope these come through in the pictures!
so – hooray for babies, and for picking up the camera professionally again seven weeks postpartum :)

saad and mahroo: family-to-be session

July 20, 2010 | Filed Under friends, portraits | 9 Comments

i shot them and he shot us :)… or, my husband and i got together with the madly talented husband-wife team at s2s photography, whose wedding i helped shoot back in february of 2009, and we took pictures of each other’s families. now, mahroo, with whom i grew up in the raleigh muslim community, is expecting their first child next month. i couldn’t be more excited to see these two become parents, inshallah! i must add that these two met us (at the j.c. raulston arboretum in raleigh) the morning after shooting a loooong wedding, so, saad and mahroo, i thank you for being troupers and coming out to meet us anyway!
my family’s shoot is up on s2s’s blog here. can’t wait to meet your baby inshallah! :)

carnival!

May 21, 2010 | Filed Under family photos, friends, personal | 2 Comments

can’t believe i didn’t blog these before! actually found them by accident last night, and realized i hadn’t put them up yet. last month, pennwood shows brought their annual carnival to the sarem farm market just around a couple of corners from our house. we went for the first time last year (musa’s first carnival experience) and i found what so many aging parents like myself have found – that it really is possible to go to a carnival and not enjoy any of the rides yourself, but to go purely for the sake of the smile on your child’s face, and for the funnel cakes (for yourself). oh, and to take pictures, of course, challenging yourself to use only one slightly dinky prime lens (my 50mm 1.8), always shooting wide open, to try to get the best shots you can.
we had ben repeatedly driving past the carnival over its few-week stint at sarem – always by mistake, unless i WANTED to hear the endless, “mama! let’s go right now! i wanna go right now! it’s not fair!” – until we finally chose a warmish, rain-free friday evening to visit (turned out to be the carnival’s last weekend there!). i spread the word and some of our friends came to enjoy the carnival with us, and i daresay a fun time was had by all… :)