tawab and laila: baltimore wedding photography

July 13, 2010 | Filed Under wedding posts | 13 Comments

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

July 9, 2010 | Filed Under wedding posts | Enter your password to view comments

posing practice, and much more

June 12, 2010 | Filed Under practice shoots | 3 Comments

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!