I am honored to present to you today, the wedding of Kyaw & Suzanne. I’ve shot a lot of weddings over the years, but this particular wedding is very special and close to me. The reason being is that Kyaw just so happens to be one of my closest childhood friends. Back in the 90’s, I was a lonely 5th grader who had just moved to Queens New York, and didn’t know anyone other than my family. My english was still rusty, so I wasn’t as confident about talking to others or making friends. I remember in school, Kyaw was one of the first person who actually made the effort to talk to me, and we instantly became friends. After a few weeks, we became best friends, and pretty much did everything together. Besides hanging out in school and going to most of the same classes, we had our after school ritual of going to the local deli to get some sour straw candies, and then heading over to a comic book store right across the school, which not only had comics, but also had arcade games like NBA Jam, Monster Truck Madness, and Street Fighter II. To a kid in the 90’s, that’s basically the holy grail. Our time mainly consisted of collecting NBA and Marvel trading cards (I still have them somewhere), reading comics, playing games, talking about which girls we kinda liked, talking about how strict our parents are, going over to each others home and playing more video games, and talking about really important topics like ‘Which power ranger is the best’ [that would be the Green ranger of course!]. To be a kid, have no worries, and just play video games all the time… those were the days. I would give anything to go back to that time! After a year and a half, we moved to North Carolina, but Kyaw and I still remained friends, and kept in touch.
Fast forward 20 years, and I found myself moving back to New York. When I met up with Kyaw again, it’s like nothing had changed, and both of us were instantly reminiscing about the good ‘ol days of 5th grade. What was even cooler is that Kyaw told me that he had finally met the girl of his dreams, Suzanne. Kyaw met Suzanne through a site called how about we, and by his 3rd date, he knew that she was the one, and had asked her to marry him. I was super stoked for Kyaw, but even more excited when he told me that he wanted me to photograph his wedding! I of course had to meet this dream girl, so I had the chance to meetup with Suzanne, and even through the brief encounter, I could tell that she was an amazing person, and had a very down to earth personality. On top of that, Suzanne has one of the best hand writing that I’ve seen on anyone! I know that’s a strange thing to mention, but no one really writes these days, so it’s a remarkable skill in my opinion. These two have such a natural chemistry, that there’s really no surprise that they wanted to marry each other.
This was a very fun wedding, with really fun people all around. Suzanne looked stunning, just regal in her dress, and I’ve never seen Kyaw as happy as he was on their wedding day. It also had a lot of fun quirks that only someone growing up in the 90’s would appreciate, such as basketball trading cards as table gifts, superhero themed cufflinks, and customized sneakers for all the groomsmen! It was an honor photographing this wedding, and I am really happy for one of my best friends fo find true love. Without further ado, I present you the wedding of Kyaw and Suzanne. If you like any of the photos, feel free to click the ♥ on the photo directly, and/or leave a comment below. Please also hit the like on the facebook page, because it feeds my ego!
Today I bring you the Valima celebration of Nitasha and Shahryar that took place last week in Greensboro North Carolina. For those of you who are not familiar, a Valima is generally the 3rd program in a South Asian wedding after the mehndi and the Shadi. This is a celebration from the groom’s side of the family, and is the first time he officially introduces his new wife to his hometown and community. Sharyar and Nitasha were officially married a few months back, and now was the perfect time to hold the valima program. The event was very relaxed and full of family and friends. It was great to shoot again in greensboro, and I had a great time working with this lovely couple. Without further ado, I present some of the images from their day.
Happy holidays everyone! 2013 is almost over, and 2014 is right around the corner. With the new year almost here, I’m taking a new approach to everything in my life… from my personal life as well as my business. I want 2014 to resonate a change in everything I do, to make things better, faster, and way more exciting than ever before. Personally, I’m moving to a new city, making new friends, hopefully finding the love of my life, and finally getting into shape (no really, it’s true this time). Professionally, I’m moving to a much larger city, covering a wider range of clients, establishing new systems, speeding up workflow to deliver products even faster, working additionally with my commercial video company, and trying to get into the video/film world while maintaining a photography business. In other words, I have a full plate ahead of me, and I’m ready to tackle it all!
With all these changes, I decided that a new website was a must. I wanted a new site to not only bring about a new change, but to make things easier and more efficient for all of you. Gone are the days of Flash, as this new site runs on HTML5. This means that you don’t need the latest version of Adobe flash player to view the site at all. On top of that, the website and the blog will run effortlessly on your tablets and/or mobile devices.
Although this is a brand new site, the style and overall features will feel quite familiar to my previous sites. You can browse photos from the home page as well as the portfolio section, and get all the necessary information on the other tabs. You can also visit the facebook page, twitter, as well as pinterest page from anywhere on the site by simply clicking on the icons.
The blog has loads of improvements over the old one. From now on, there will be fewer images on the blog, and they will load much faster. Hovering over the images, you’ll notice a “P”, which is a Pin-it button. Clicking on this will let you pin any of the photos directly to your pinterest pin-board! You can also like an image by clicking on the heart on the top left. You know that couple looks too darn cute, go ahead, just like it already.
In addition, you can now directly like a post on the blog, share them through various social media outlets, leave your comments, as well as like our facebook page all the way at the bottom. Go ahead, give it a try!
Hope you guys like this third revision of the website. I promise to post a lot more stories, and try my best to make the overall web experience a lot more exciting. If you have any questions or see something not working out for you, shoot me a message from the “contact” section. Be sure to like us on Facebook as if you haven’t done so already. I want to thank and send a special shout-out to Tim and the team at Rawfolio for working with me continuously to make this website possible. I highly recommend these guys if you’re in need of a website, so give them a shout if you’re in the market.
