Beauty is Truth

saba and ahad’s shaadi: new jersey wedding photography

beautyis — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:46:34 +0000

ever since saba first got in touch with me about her wedding, i had been absurdly excited about shooting it – a desi wedding outdoors! in a garden! with butterflies! there were so many personal, thoughtful details in saba and ahad’s planning that promised to make this one of the most beautiful weddings i’d ever seen, and it certainly fulfilled that promise. golden afternoon light, gardens abloom and sunglitter on the water, an absolutely stunning bride and groom surrounded by loving family and friends…
i met saba at her family’s beautiful home in ringwood, where she proved to be one of the most relaxed brides i’d ever encountered not to mention jaw-droppingly gorgeous! my amazingly talented second shooter, vida carson, met ahad and his family at a hotel near the wedding venue to capture their pre-ceremony moments. and we came together at garden falls, a lush garden venue with a decorated platform over a pond for the wedding ceremony, and an enormous tent to host the reception. we took some portraits of the couple and their families before all the guests started to arrive; ahad and saba entered separately onto the petal-strewn platform for the wedding ceremony, at the end of which a box of butterflies were released into the evening air.
saba and ahad chose butterflies to symbolize the transformation of their lives through their wedding celebration – the start of a new stage, the first steps of a new journey, the union of two persons and two families into one. saba and ahad, i thank you both again for giving me the honor and pleasure of capturing your memories of this celebration, and for allowing me into your lives for this brief moment; i pray that God blesses your marriage and your lives together with health, happiness and love that grows stronger each year.

saba and ahad’s mehndi: new jersey wedding photography

beautyis — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:46:33 +0000

what an incredible weekend! saw more of new jersey than i’ve ever planned to and while i have to say – it’s not a u-turn, new jersey, if it’s shaped like a pretzel instead of a “u” – when you drive up north a little ways, and the land starts to roll and curve and show its bones – it’s actually quite beautiful. there, i said it!
it certainly helped, of course, being there to photograph something as beautiful as saba and ahad’s wedding! i have so much to share, but i’m starting with the mehndi, which was held at the rasoi banquet hall in monmouth junction, just south of new brunswick. saba and ahad’s mehndi was a gorgeous celebration of everything their families cherish about them – plenty of memories and laughs shared through performances, dances and one hysterical slideshow. saba and ahad, thanks so much to both of you and your families for welcoming me into your midst to capture these memories! and many thanks, also, to fred of access video, whose video light made my photographic life so much easier!!

saba and ahad: teaser

beautyis — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:17:53 +0000

…aren’t they gorgeous, mashallah??? gotta get home before i can do a full blog post, but i wanted to share one of my favorites as soon as i could! much, much more to come…

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!

tawab and laila: baltimore wedding photography

beautyis — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 05:13:13 +0000

one of the joys of becoming a photographer based in a local community is discovering new connections: although i’d never met the bride and groom, laila and tawab, i had known tawab’s lovely sister mashel back in my grad school days… come to find out, tawab’s bride is from north carolina, like me, and we have just a degree or two of separation there. it was such a pleasure meeting both of them (and meeting tawab’s adorable nieces!); laila was every inch the princess bride, just stunning, and their families arranged a gorgeous reception at baltimore’s martin’s west that i’m sure will be remembered by all the guests for years to come.
this was my first time shooting an afghan wedding, and though i’m familiar with the culture and similar traditions in other muslim cultures, i truly enjoyed experiencing (and photographing) this party: from the renowned talents of expatriate afghan phenomenon ehsan aman to the hauntingly beautiful traditional dancing performed by laila’s cousins – and the mouthwatering afghan dinner. tawab, laila, mashel, and the rest of your families, i thank you so much for the honor of capturing your wedding, and pray that God blesses your marriage and your new journey together.

Protected: mahvish and omar: virginia wedding photography

beautyis — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:08:47 +0000

posing practice, and much more

beautyis — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 04:25:49 +0000

so even though the summer season is picking up, i couldn’t resist the opportunity to meet up with some old photography friends for some practice shooting this past week… back in october of 2008, just a few months after i had first joined the most incredible photographic community in the world on flickr, i was able to travel up to frederick to join a bevy of photographers with much more experience (and more batteries, huh, bill?) than me, and had an amazing day trying to learn how to take better pictures of people… ideally, pretty brides in wedding dresses. i learned about reflectors, off-camera flash, composition, focusing and more – and particularly the importance of having back-up batteries, as mine ran out of juice just before the brides got into a stream to “trash the dress” – and made some good friends among a disparate group of people with one thing binding them closely together: geekhood. for cameras. i’m sure you guys are all cool in other respects!
anyway! so… i’ve missed many meetups since then, but found out that the fantastic folks at hopeland studios were putting together a meetup with some real-people models focusing on flow posing, and i thought it could be extremely helpful, as posing for portraits is an area i’ve been looking to work on. plus, as much as parenthood thrills me to the bottom of my heart, i have to admit that the luxury of an evening out, by myself, among other adults, indulging my creative side, was pretty darn tempting…
well, we absolutely lucked out, i must say: a generous and kind hostess, a dedicated and friendly group of photographers, gentle sunshine, clear skies and warm air through the evening, and – our models? two couples – one getting married in two weeks, the other having been married for 20 years – both classy, gorgeous, funny, patient, both absolutely radiating the love they felt for each other… the list goes on. kathlyn, rob, marcie and pedro – i mean, dan – i can’t thank you guys enough for letting us contort you around for hours while keeping smiles plastered on your faces it was SUCH a pleasure meeting you all and i truly hope you get as much joy out of our pictures as we did learning to take them properly
a note: the off-camera flash shots shown here of the two couples used a hotshoe flash inside a large softbox, triggered by alienbee cybersyncs, which was set up by my friend and sometimes-second-shooter, the amazing rehan bashir, and the photos of kathlyn in her gorgeous wedding dress at the end used a hotshoe flash firing through a shoot-through umbrella, triggered by pocket wizards, set up by bill millios of hopeland studios. me – i’m still working on being able to set up lights properly and get results like these… might be investing in a good softbox in the near future!

Protected: iqbal family: virginia portrait photography

beautyis — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:41:12 +0000

omar and alia: durham wedding photography

beautyis — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:54:53 +0000

i have so much to blog all of a sudden! and i know i haven’t been doing so well! so i do apologize… but first, i’m truly excited to share some images from omar and alia’s wedding, which took place may 30 at the beautiful millennium hotel in durham.
i’ve said before, i love shooting in the raleigh muslim community, because it’s where i grew up; i actually came to this wedding through an old friend who is now a cake decorator and baker extraordinaire – whose wedding was, incidentally, one of the VERY first i ever shot, years ago! but i also knew the groom’s family from childhood; omar’s sister, reem, was one of my good friends growing up, and i knew her parents pretty well, too, from the local masjid. and i’m pretty sure i have seen alia’s family over the years… years ago!
anyway. whether i remembered them or not, it was an absolute joy to see how truly happy omar and alia were with each other: there is usually something about every wedding that stays with me long after i’ve finished processing the pictures, and what i will always remember from this one are the smiles on each of their faces when they looked at each other. they’d get LOST in the middle of all the music, lights and people – subhanallah! i pray that your marriage always grows in the light of that love, omar and alia, and that God blesses both you and your families.
since alia – and many of the women who attended this wedding – wear hijab, i won’t be sharing many of the pictures from the earlier part of the day, or the women’s section after the men left and they got down and partied! but here are some of the moments i CAN share, including the fantastic groom’s cake alia had made as a surprise for omar, as well as some of the general fun and horsing around that went on as the evening progressed.

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…