Beauty is Truth » friends

aamina & ibrahim: aqiqa

beautyis — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:53:34 +0000

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

beautyis — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:48:55 +0000

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!

beautyis — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:38:37 +0000

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… :)

Protected: family pictures: maryland portrait photography

beautyis — Sat, 08 May 2010 02:23:25 +0000

cherry blossoms

beautyis — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:13:44 +0000

it’s a little late, but while i still had the 45mm 2.8 tilt-shift lens and my beloved 35mm 1.4L after yasmin and tyseer’s wedding, i had the chance to take it out to DC at the tail end of the peak of cherry blossom season, and used them to practice on one of my favorite subjects – a dear friend of mine. so, here are a few of the images i took that day – thanks, shaf, for climbing in that tree, and jumping out again :)

spring at the harbor

beautyis — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 06:56:19 +0000

i cannot tell you guys how thrilled i am that the season is finally turning… with a day like today, we couldn’t help but go up to baltimore harbor to spend the afternoon with family and friends, enjoying seafood and sunshine. i had rented the amazing canon 85mm 1.2L lens for a shoot this weekend and wanted to play around/practice with it, so this was the perfect opportunity. it also helped having a couple of extremely photogenic and photo-happy friends who really didn’t mind my experimenting ON them with the lens… as well as experimenting with them in photoshop… :) thanks humera and jawad! i really love you guys!

happy anniversary, saad and mahroo!

beautyis — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 10:25:04 +0000

may the laughs keep coming :) and may Allah bless you with countless more years of joy, strength, and blessed prosperity!

wintergreen, va

beautyis — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:32:20 +0000

our family took a trip this past weekend with a group of other young families to one of our favorite spots – wintergreen, a ski resort located in the virginia mountains about three hours’ drive from the DC area. i’ve been there twice before – once with my husband, before we had musa, and once last summer, to shoot this wedding. we had a wonderful time – most of all, watching our children enjoy themselves, but also enjoying some winter sports, good company, good food and lasting memories. naturally i took my camera along… though here i am sharing just a few images of my own family (like musa on the bungee-trampoline!), and mostly some of the breathtaking scenery at wintergreen – utterly magical in the snow and fog, and exhilarating in the winter sunlight under a blue sky.

maryam: four months old!

beautyis — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:45:50 +0000

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!

happy new year!

beautyis — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:50:13 +0000

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!