Nadia + Mujtaba | Couple's Session

I just shot a couple's session for these two lovebirds. They had been very unhappy with the wedding photos their photographer had taken two years ago and asked me to fit them in when she got back from med school in the islands. It started to rain and everything got dark, but we did our best. I wanted to keep the session very "personal" and implement the use of some off camera lighting. Enjoy!

New Site Launched!!!

So, it's been a long time coming - I finally launched my new site. Waited for this one for over a year and a half and had been planning to launch it close to New Years 2009. I absolutely love the way it came out and find it to be something I can grow into. This coming year, I want to press hard on branding and image - hopefully, this site will be a vital tool.

Check it out: S2S

Weddings Magazine Makeup Shoot

Last year Weddings Magazine approached us about an open slot for advertising in their publication -- which so happens to be one of the largest distributed and longest running wedding publications in this area. They offered us a discounted deal if we would photograph before and after shots for some makeup artists featured in the magazine. We agreed to it and setup a shoot a few months later. The photoshoot was to be done at an upscale club house where we were given a tight hallway to work with. The photos had to be half body shots displaying dress details, makeup, hair, and jewelry.

This is actually a joint project now as Sahid Limon, who was working with me back then, took the pictures as I assisted with lighting. Then, I was responsible for post-processing and creative development to get the photos ready for printing. Below are some of my favorite "After" shots showing all the girls fully prepared. I've shown the unedited image as it was captured by Sahid Limon and then how I processed it.

Shopping, Reminiscing, and Packaging

The temperatures are dropping and it's becoming really quiet outside. There is something to be said for the calmness that winter brings -- I love the mellowness, the understated atmosphere, and winter clothes. Winter also brings the opportunity to stay in and think and that (along with finals, work, and papers) have kept me very busy for the past two weeks. Now that secondary midterms and papers are all in and finished, I have loads of post-processing and album designs that have to get finished this weekend and considering I'll be in NYC tomorrow morning visiting family, I'm left with today as crunch day.

Anyway, before we get to the main topic of the post, check out the winter shopping list:

So, back to all things "wedding photography"...

Looking back over the past year, I find myself very content with how far this business has come and how it has changed me. Deciding to solely own the business has been one of the best choices I've made and it has lead to a lot of new questions and challenges. One of them being identity. Business, like people, needs to have an identity, a clique, a standard, and a vibe. It's branding 101 - "what two words do I want people to think of when they see my business, logo, or work?".  After a long time of grappling with the subject, the two words that I wish for are "classy" and "personal".

This subject quickly branched off into a lot of sub-topics, one of which became the subject of today's post... 

Packaging. 

It's easy to overlook the significance of packaging in regards to branding, however, it is a cornerstone of identity building. Look at Apple; sure some of their products are amazing in terms of functionality, but owning their products has become more than just a purchase based on the merit of the product. It's developed into a pop-culture. Why? Because from A to Z, their marketing and branding is rock solid. As with other similar companies, their products will come in top notch designer packaging. Why? ... For a vibe.

If you pay $700 for a phone or $2,200 for a computer, you're going to want to receive the product in beautiful packaging -- even if the packaging will wind up being thrown away. It's the principle of the fact -- people like pretty things.

I've been doing lots of research to come up with a variety of product and packaging options. For today, here are some really nice accessories for the final high resolution DVD of images that I offer:

Got to go and start packing... I'll post some stuff up from the NYC trip when I get back. Have a wonderful long weekend!

Maryum + Sajid | Album [Slideshow]

So, this was one of my biggest weddings ever and required me to travel to two different states. At the time, I was working with Sahid Limon of Limon Photography. The wedding, like typical Southeast Asian weddings, consisted of four days - two days would be held in Youngstown, Ohio and the other two days would be held the following weekend in Newark, Delaware.

After developing hundreds of pictures, I designed the couple a 15x10 landscape album - it opens up to a gorgeous 30x10 print. the album design was done solely by me, but it features pictures from both Sahid and I. Since the spreads are a little too wide to post within the blog, I've made a slideshow of it here: VIEW SLIDESHOW

My goal with this design was to use cloth and vintage textures, but not let the background take away from the pictures. The textures themselves were stock images from various different resources - they had to be heavily edited to appear as they do.

A Different Approach... Timeliness

In the spirit of being efficient in the service that my company provides, I have been considering a new approach to the way we do things. As wedding photographers we are continually improving our post-processing, lighting, and photography techniques. We integrate the newest products into our packages. After all, a business needs to adapt and continuously provide the client with reasons to come back. Many photographers compete with one another on actual images produced, however, not too many realize that the quality of service they provide as a whole is just as important -- many have outdated business structures and inefficiencies in their work flow.

I've decided to promise clients something that all of us can appreciate: a little extra attention -- specifically, attention to timeliness. 

The workflow I've developed provides attention not only to the pictures, but also the delivery process itself. Just as clients shouldn't have to be pressed into limited packages or to count hours and minutes, clients should have their pictures in hand as quickly as possible. 

By that token, I now offer:

- proofs within forty-eight hours of the wedding event.

- finished album designs within two weeks of the wedding date.

- delivery of albums within ten days of client's final design approval.

- DVD of post-processed images within 3 weeks.

People hate waiting. It's time to give people what they want.

Hanna + Ziyad | Engagement

I had the opportunity to cover Hanna's "official engagement dinner". A lot of Egyptians have a formal party with a 'sherbet' drinking ritual to mark the engagement of the couple. So, think of this shoot as pretty much an engagement session - except that it was at the Radison and there were probably 200+ people there.

Most of the time, I was inside covering the dinner and speeches. I, literally, only had 5 minutes to grab some pictures of the couple by themselves. So, no time to really get any creative juices flowing - took them outside, made them laugh, shot a few frames, and then went back inside.

Enjoy the pictures: