Beauty is Truth

nadiya & khuram: wedding

beautyis — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:19:06 +0000

i can’t tell you how excited i was to start my new year off with nadiya and khuram’s wedding! i’ve known nadiya online for a little while now and we have a lot of friends in common – both “IRL” and on facebook :). she is herself an artist and photographer – a beautiful soul inside and out – so was truly honored that she asked me to take some pictures at her wedding! it turns out also that i only had a few degrees separation from khuram, too – he’s the cousin of a friend of mine, and knows my own family (previously unknown to me though!) anyway – held at the nur center in falls church, virginia, their ceremony was beautifully simple, bringing together nadiya and khuram’s families and closest friends to celebrate with them. thanks so much, both of you, for letting me be a part of this!

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 :)

2011: year in review

beautyis — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:42:28 +0000

so everything takes me a while with the whole new baby and two kids instead of one thing… here, two weeks into the new year, is a selection of my favorite images from wedding and portrait sessions through 2011. at the very end down below, there’s an image my second shooter amber wilkie took of me (five and a half months preggo and looking a hot mess after eight hours of shooting) with some of my most awesome clients – osman and lubna, at their walima in july in DC. and the very last image, i just blogged prior to this – but it might be my most favorite image from all of 2011 :) thanks SO much to my family, all my clients and my amazing second shooters for taking this journey with me last year – can’t wait to get started on 2012!!

all the reasons i’m a wedding photographer…

beautyis — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:32:40 +0000

…all come down to this. meet my newest, born at 4:19 a.m. sunday, november 6, 2011. born just before dawn on a time-change sunday morning, just like his brother five years ago. born a week and a half early, before i could finish all my editing work for the year! born on the day muslims around the world celebrated eid al-adha, the festival of sacrifice, as over two million pilgrims completed the annual hajj pilgrimage in saudi arabia. we have two eids every year, and give gifts to each other on those days, just like christmas. i can’t help feeling blessed to think that god gave me this gift on eid day… not just baby zayd, but the new brotherhood with my firstborn, musa. there is nothing more beautiful in this world to me.

i do also want to say thank you to all of my 2011 clients who waited patiently for their pictures throughout my crazy last trimester and after the birth! i am of course taking a little break from shooting, but should be back in business early in the new year – so yes, i’m taking 2012 bookings :)

in case you’re interested… the first few pics are from the hospital/ride home; i did a little shoot with both boys when zayd was six days old. at about two weeks we shaved his head – an islamic tradition for newborns – and those images were not taken by me but by my wonderful friend ayaka, who happened to spend the night when i went into labor and stayed home with musa while we went to the hospital; the later images are from around the one and one-and-a-half month marks.

little pumpkin: baby and family portraits

beautyis — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:14:55 +0000

for my last official photography commission of 2011, i had the pleasure of working with amna, the sister of one of my brides from last year, and her beautiful family. i absolutely fell in love at first sight with baby ayah… she smiled when she first saw me and i was hooked!! amna and amer wanted some shots in a pumpkin patch, so we met up at clark’s elioak farm to take advantage of a gorgeous, sunny fall afternoon among the pumpkins and fanciful sculptures there. amna and amer were incredibly patient with their 9-months-pregnant photographer – thank you guys so much for that, and for your patience in waiting for these pictures since my own baby decided to show up a little bit earlier than expected!! it was such a pleasure to see you guys again and i hope you enjoy the pictures!

wajiha and awais: a dc love story

beautyis — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 06:19:04 +0000

we met at the gate to chinatown, and wajiha and awais were filled with stories about how each one had lived down the street that-a-way at one point, or used to study in that location. it was such a pleasure to do my first urban couple’s session with two people who knew this part of the city so well – and had such a clear emotional connection to the places we walked. plus – they are so much fun! and – stylish, gorgeous, smart… the list goes on. wajiha and awais, i had such a great time meeting you guys and photographing you too :) so here they are – chinatown, the national portrait gallery, and the streets in between…

rachel and reed: portrait session

beautyis — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 02:53:19 +0000

about a month after their wedding, rachel and reed joined me in all their wedding finery back at their lovely, rustic wedding venue, the lodge at little seneca creek, to take some bridal and couple portraits with more leisurely time. we traipsed back behind the lodge and across the long lawn to the woods – it was more “them”, rachel assured me, and it was quite “me” as well. the early afternoon light and autumn air were simply lovely – as was rachel, of course! here’s a few of the shots we took there. rachel and reed, thanks so much for meeting me out there again – for getting dolled up again – and for trusting me, again, to take your pictures :)

family portraits: great falls, va

beautyis — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 02:12:43 +0000

mehreen first contacted me last winter about doing some family portraits after i had shot her cousin’s wedding a few months before; with the cold weather and her little boy, the idea of outdoor portraits didn’t work out at the time. but we managed to get it together for this fall and i was delighted that mehreen liked the idea of shooting at great falls park in virginia – one of my all-time favorite haunts, a place i used to hike alone as a student when i first came to maryland over ten years ago. the colors were just starting to come out last weekend but the light and the falls were as lovely as ever – and mehreen’s adorable little boy had a blast watching the falls and the kayakers, pushing his stroller over the gravel walkways, and running rampant over the leaf-strewn grass.
thank you guys so much for meeting me out there and trusting me to photograph your beautiful family! i hope you enjoy these photos as much as i enjoyed visiting the park with you and capturing them :)

rachel & reed: maryland wedding

beautyis — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 05:56:58 +0000

i’ll always remember my last wedding of 2011 as one of the most simply beautiful, love-graced, genuine weddings i’ve ever photographed: just like rachel and reed themselves, and their love for each other – plain to see, bright enough to shine on everyone who joined them to celebrate at their latesummer ceremony. it was such an honor to be chosen to capture the day, and such a pleasure to be welcomed so kindly by not only both families but their guests as well.
the two-part wedding began with the signing of the ketubah in the presence of their families, and continued with a ceremony out on the green lawn behind the lodge at little seneca creek, under a simple chuppah. after some portraits, the couple and their families joined their guests inside the lodge for an evening of warm celebration.
thank you so much, rachel and reed, for inviting me and my second shooter jessica shepard to capture your day. i wish you both the best in your new life together! and thank you, too, to jessica, for being there for me :)

raj & swetha: philadelphia wedding

beautyis — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 04:34:48 +0000

having grown up in north carolina, i am never as worried about hurricane weather as i probably should be… so i wasn’t terribly apprehensive about getting up to philadelphia for raj and swetha’s wedding the weekend of hurricane irene, in spite of all the hype.
still, it had its impact – rain all day, and a good chunk of the lovely couple’s guests were unable to make it at the last minute. but let me tell you… nothing could dampen the spirit of the guests who remained, or dim the obvious joy of raj and swetha themselves as they celebrated the last of their wedding events.
raj and swetha got married earlier this summer, also in philadelphia, in a traditional hindu ceremony photographed beautifully by zoshia minto. this reception that i had the honor of joining was held at the hilton city avenue, and included a traditional religious ceremony as well as a reception replete with performances and speeches that drew admiring applause, laughs and tears alike from everyone present (i’ll always remember the john locke shirt!)
raj and swetha, thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your day – and for making me feel so welcome and taking care of me too :) hope the images below bring back some wonderful memories for you and your families!
also, several of the images shared below were shot by my second shooter marcella treybig, whose support, energy, talent and creativity were an incredible help to me the whole weekend – thank you for everything, marcella!