Summer is almost over!  With all the weddings, meetings, traveling, this summer has been the busiest ever.  Today, I wanted to take a break and bring you the wedding of Munawar & Uzmaa.  I was referred to Uzmaa by Ayesha and Mansoor, who’s wedding I just happen to have shot a few years back.  I was excited about this wedding because A) I would see a lot of familiar faces, and B) it was going to be in Dearborn MI.  Not sure if any of you have been to Dearborn before, but it’s a pretty awesome place.  I call it, “Arab central in the heart of the US” because there are tons of middle eastern people, stores, cafes, and restaurants there.   On top of that, this wedding was on the 4th of July weekend.  Ford headquarters is located right around the corner of where the wedding took place, so I got to see a lot of cool, classic Ford cars on the day of the wedding.  Uzmaa and Munawar were simply awesome.  These two were one of the nicest clients I had the pleasure of working with, and they were up for almost anything I asked them to do, even if it meant standing in the dark while flaming sticks were being waved around them (see last image 🙂 ).  I had a blast at the wedding, had a great time in Dearborn, and enjoyed seeing a lot of friendly faces.  Check out the pics below:

Skyping Internationally to family overseas – you bet!

He had to find his name in her henna

One of the Classic Fords that was parked in the parking lot

It took us 20 minutes to do this shot because we couldn’t find anyone with a lighter or match. I’m glad we tracked one down though 🙂

Congratulations again Uzmaa & Munawar!

Special thanks to the Kazi’s for referring the wedding and helping me feed the kids… well…  future kids that is.

Today I am pleased to bring you a post that is filled with firsts for me. A while back, my friend Faisal said that one of his close friends and neighbors, Davina, was looking around for a wedding photographer. I met with Davina and her fiance Ty, and we all clicked right away. They loved my pictures, and when I heard the details of their wedding, I was super excited about working together. I was excited because this was going to be my very first mixed wedding. It wasn’t just any normal mixed wedding. Davina has a Chinese background, while Ty has a Sudanese background, so it was one giant melting pot of goodness. Another first for this wedding, it was on a Thursday! Ty is in the Navy and could take off only during certain times, so Thursday was the only time that things were working out. The fact that I got a weekend off in the summer was a good enough reason for me to book this. Another first was the fact that they had a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. I always wanted to shoot a tea ceremony, so I was thrilled to get an opportunity to photograph it. This was also the first wedding I did where the ceremony took place in Davina’s backyard. I love this aspect of the wedding, and feel that more weddings should start incorporating this method. Having a wedding at home or somewhere outdoors is much more personal, typically better for photography, and lets family really immerse themselves in the experience. So to all of you future brides, give outdoor wedding a chance (but never in direct sunlight)!  Lastly, this was also the first time where I shot outdoors, and the temperature was around 100° with super high humidity! Everybody was sweating up a storm, except maybe the bride.  Luckily, the ceremony was short and sweet, and I didn’t melt into the earth after 🙂 Despite the crazy heat, I had a awesome time with these two and their families. The wedding was such a blast, and I had such a good time with them, that I decided to make a slideshow of the wedding… one of the longest I’ve ever made. So without further ado, enjoy the slideshow. If you’re a bit lazy and don’t want to wait for it to load, simply scroll down to see all the awesomeness.

Le Pictures

Congratulations Again Ty & Davina!

Special Thanks to Aamir for helping me second shoot this one.

Also, thanks to Faisal for referring me to the lovely couple and coming out to be a test dummy the day before.

The Summer rush is in full effect, but I wanted to bring you all a quick little E-session of Roshan & Julie.  Roshan, or Rosh is the handsome older brother of one of my previous clients, Sumeet.  If you don’t believe me and want to check to see the resemblance, then I suggest you click here and check out Sumeet & Rita’s awesome E-session.  Sumeet wanted to surprise his brother by getting me for his wedding, so you know I had to step it up.  We started off near the railroad tracks and got some cool shots with an abandoned train.  We then moved on to downtown Raleigh, and got some shots at some of Rosh & Julies favorite places.  Once we were able to cool down a bit, we ended up heading to Rosh’s place, which had an amazing lake and trail in his backyard.  Rosh brought out his dog Zelda (what an awesome name for a dog by the way), and we all had a blast running up and down the trails.  It was a really hot and humid day, some of the locations didn’t pan out, time was not on our side, but in the end… all 4 of us rocked it out, and made it work.  Matter of fact, one of my all time favorite shots was taken at this session.  To see the amazingness of this couple, scroll below.  Special thanks to Blue Mango Restaurant in downtown Raleigh for letting us use their place to take some shots.  Great restaurant and good people, you guys should check them out.

This shot below is probably one of my all time favorite shots