It’s Autumn-atic

Powerman 5000?  Yes.  Anyways, here are a few pictures I took during the Fall season.  I ended up taking a few more road trips, but those pictures will be in separate posts.

 

Red-Handed

9/23/07

For the record, I don’t smoke.  Most of my friends do, however.  So, when we hang out, I usually occupy myself by taking pictures while everyone sits around the peace pipe.  This time I caught myself in the reflection on the metal ball.  We were sitting outside at Sahara sometime at night when I took this.

 

 

Bollywood Musical

11/14/07

A friend was fiming a video for a cultural event he was hosting and asked me to be a part of it.  The concept was to do a parody of a Bollywood film sequence.  While I was waiting for my role to come up, I took some behind-the-scenes shots of the filming.  Here’s a few of my favorites.

 

 

For the Camera

Rikin doin his camera work.

 

 

Lady In Red

This was all at Maymont Park in Richmond.  Such an amazing place to do any kind of photo shoots.  I’ll def be posting up more pictures later from trips to Maymont.

The Fraternal Twin

I could’ve posted all of the Philadelphia pictures into one entry, but I don’t think that would do justice to the unique character of city.  Everything in the previous post was taken in downtown Philly.  The following are pictures taken from West and North Philly.  The vibe is completely different in these areas, compared with downtown.  They’re not at all identical, but they’re def still twins…fraternal twins!

How Meterful

8/4/07

In West Philly, there is an outdoor marketplace that’s over 5 blocks long.  Here you can find all sorts of stuff, clothes, sunglasses, shoes, watches, etc.  There’s a huge Muslim population in the area and you can find many Islamic merchandise stores, masjids and halal restaurants all around this region.  As we parked and eagerly stepped out into West Philly for the first time Tayeeb took a second to fill the meter before we went exploring…

Rebel Movement

Dahman was standing in front of a window in the hotel room, taking in the view, as we were getting ready to head out for the day.  Here, he’s pictured with a shirt he designed, as part of his Rebel Movement collection.

Reflecting Glass

The AICP mosque in West Philly was originally a church that was turned into a masjid.  The windows of the building all have this very decorative design that makes it stand out against all other buildings in the area.

Longing...

A vase full of flowers on a window ledge…looking out into the real world?  Maybe wishing they could get some fresh air…?  Who knows…

Holy Socks

Not the most flattering picture, I know.  But Tayeeb’s socks just seemed to fit right in with the holy atmosphere inside of the AICP mosque…

Inside Out

I’m sure you can guess where we are in this one.  The 52nd St. Masjid is a small prayer room on the second floor of a building that directly overlooks the outdoor market in West Philly.

Hey Lo Ish

Really gettin that glow after praying, no?  Tayeeb continues to take in the sights at the 52nd St. Masjid.

Scrumptious

I know it’s a fatboy thing to do, to post pictures of food, but this chicken was sooooo good!!!  ”Saad’s Halal Place” is a well-known middle eastern restaurant in West Philly, right across the street from AICP.  His rotisserie chicken is amazing, not to mention many other items on the menu.  I think he only has this chicken on the weekend’s though…a must visit for those who like to…eat.  You know who you are.

Graffilly

So, I heard Philly was the birthplace of graffitti.  Naturally, we had to go out and find some street art to see if it was really true.  Not only is Philly just plastered with murals and art all over buildings from all parts of the city, but the graffitti specifically is amazing.  We wandered into North Philly after visiting the Al-Aqsa mosque in that region and we found an abandoned building cooovered with graffitti.  These are some of the pieces that were on that wall.

Illness is a Blessing

I have no clue what this says, but I love it.

So True...

It really don’t, stay tuned…

National Art Gallery

I hit up the National Art Gallery in DC with some friends and saw some…interesting stuff…

My favorite pictures though are of these flowers from the garden outside

 

 

Yelloww

6/30/07

I think it’s a rose…I dunno.  It looks nice though.

 

 

Two Time

Look at that, he found a friend.  How sweet.

 

 

Modern Sculpture

Some Daily Planet lookin sculpture outside of the museum, with a giant hanging sculpture behind it.

O-Town

I took a road trip to Orlando with some friends.  The only picture I took that I actually ended up liking is this one, and it has nothing to do with the actual purpose of the trip…oh well.

 

 

Shifty Eyed

4/6/07

I feel like this is a pretty common shot, the shiny gear shifter.  Here’s my version in black and white from the Nissan Murano we rented for the trip.

Youth Group Meeting

The youth group at Dar Al-Noor is becoming increasingly more active and the group is slowly growing larger and larger.  These pictures are from a game day/planning meeting that was held in the mosque on a weekend.

 

 

A View To The Outside

3/17/07

From the upper floor of the mosque, you can see the dome through the windows.  

 

 

Overcast Dome

 

 

The Good Book

In the main prayer hall, there are bookshelves along the walls.  Here, there is a Qur’an placed in a decorated stand used to hold the book open.

 

 

Father/Daughter

The youth coordinator, Zahid, moderates a planning meeting with the kids while his daughter sits behind him on the steps of the mimbar.  

 

 

Collector of All Words Holy

The microphone that stands near the Imam’s position at the front of the mosque.

 

 

More Than A Page

The Arabic text that’s written in the Qur’an is usually adorned with decorative designs and borders.  Attempts are made to beautify its appearance as much as possible, while still leaving the text clearly legible.  Here is a random excerpt…

Spring Breakin

 

This is the first break where I had my camera.  I was still trying to learn how to use it, but here are some neat effects I was able to capture, the reflection and the light blur.

 

 

Mirror Ball

3/10/07

I was at my cousin’s house and he had some spinny toy with these round mirrored balls and magnets that keep spinning.  This is the only thing they’re really good for…

 

 

 

B Blur

3/11/07

I was sitting in the backseat of a car, me and some friends were driving to go see 300 when it first came out.  I was getting really bored, so I just started messing around and taking pictures of cars as they drove by and kept getting these blurred streaks.  I tried to use the streaks to actually make some designs with my camera, this is my favorite one

A real camera!

 

 

I finally bought a digital camera, a Samsung Digimax L85 point and shoot.  It was a def upgrade from the camera phone days, and I started to really learn the different features to get the most out of it.  So, I actually read the entire manual, quite an accomplishment.  Here are some initial pictures I took when I started to mess around with it.

 

 

Bilal

2/17/07

I was given the opportunity to volunteer at a fundraising dinner for the Zaytuna Institute in DC.  Haji Noor Deen was generous enough to give a gift to each of the volunteers with their names written in Arabic calligraphy.

 

Mo Jank

 

 

Frozen in Time

2/24/07

We were just hanging out in the student commons at VCU after jummah when I took these.  Neither one was really a posed shot, I usually won’t take a picture if I see someone posing at the camera.   

 

 

Late Night

2/27/07

We were hanging out at 123 Cherry late one night and I caught a picture of Sarwar watchin some TV after we ate.

Camera Phone

Before my digital camera, I messed around with photography primarily with the camera in my cell phone.  At the time, I thought the pictures were amazing, but looking back now…I’m not so impressed.  There are a few however that stand out to me, mostly because I like the composition or the angle of the shot.  I think if I had just used a better camera to take the same pictures they would’ve turned out pretty awesome.

 

 

Stay Fly 'Til I Die 4/3/06

Me and Amer took an adventure through the streets of Richmond and wandered into an open-air sewage tunnel. We call it The Aqueduct, I think it’s really called the Ginter Park Creek or something…not important. What’s amazing is that the walls of this entire tunnel are lined with graffiti and art from a bunch of different people.

The whole tunnel is something like 2 miles long, and is pretty much full of art. Obviously, once we found it, we had to see it through all the way to the end. I took pictures of most of the art, but this is one that I just liked because of what it says.

I don’t think the aqueduct is still intact anymore, last I saw, the city was re-routing it’s path. It’s possible that they tore down the walls, destroying the art that was on it. I haven’t been back in a few years, but if I ever do end up down there again, I’ll be sure to update with some decent pictures.

 

 

Magic Carpet 7/14/06

In 2006 I was able to attend the ALIM program in Livonia, MI. As part of this one-month intensive, we would be given opportunities to visit many of the Islamic Centers around the area. One of the centers we visited was the Islamic Center of America, which claims to be the largest mosque in North America. It was a beautiful structure, and the people were very nice and seemed extremely organized.

This picture is of the carpet in their main prayer hall. My camera phone didn’t do justice to any other part of their facility, but I like the way this turned out. After I took this, I started to photograph the carpets at each of the masjids that we would visit. This one still takes the cake I think

 

 

Zu Zu 7/23/06

This is from the Canton Mosque in Canton, MI. We had an overnight program at this masjid during our summer intensive. This is a picture I took of Zuhair during one of the lectures.

 

 

Detroit, What! 7/29/06

This is the last of the camera phone pictures! On one of our visits to local community centers, we stopped by downtown Detroit and visited the boardwalk. Here some ALIM students are sitting on a bench after praying. I think it’s Lake Michigan that was in front of us, with Canada being on the other side.

This was a nice little moment where we got to enjoy the scene and chill for a little bit before being rushed around again. Detroit itself was kinda ehhh…but this was a beautiful part of the city.

Welcome

Welcome to the 123Cherry Photoblog!  This will be a space dedicated to sharing my favorite photographs with everyone.  Many of these will include portraits of individuals who have had a profound influence in my life.  I’ve been collecting pictures that I’ve taken for some time now and finally decided to create this blog to share these images.  I hope you enjoy them, please feel free to leave feedback and keep an eye out for future work.

 

A Big Brown Eye

6/18/07

A detailed look at the eye behind all you see here…

If you look close enough, you can see out my window with the reflection.  You can probably see my brain too…