So Caught Up

Congratulations, to me.  With this post, I’m officially caught up with all of the backlogged pictures I’ve been trying to put up.  These pictures are from recent trips I’ve taken down to Richmond to visit friends at VCU.  It was interesting being back again, seems like so much has changed.  I guess that’s just how it is when you’ve been out of it for a while.

 

So Sharp

09/2008

Nadder was hangin out with us in the Commons and I took this picture of him while he was talking to someone.  The lighting was amazing around this time and this was my favorite picture from that weekend.

 

Dilated Peoples

10/2008

This is my brother’s eye.  He just came back from the eye doctor, who gave him something to dilate his pupils.  It was so ridiculous that I had to take a picture.  You can see out my window though, through the reflection in his eye, it’s pretty crazy.

 

Lookout Point

Sarwar and I visited the City Hall Observation Deck in Richmond.  From there, we could see most of the downtown area.  It’s a pretty amazing view, check it out if you ever get the chance.

 

Freshman

Zafar’s a great guy, one of the many new freshman at VCU.  He has having a good laugh in the Commons while a group of us were hanging out.

 

Go Hard

Sarwar was trying to act hard while we were hanging out in the Commons.  That softie couldn’t even hold it, and started to crack a smile anyways.

 

Resurrection

The Cary St. Gym is being completely renovated and rebuilt.  Because of it’s status as a historic building, the school can’t tear down it’s walls.  Instead, they left the original brick walls up and completey gutted and emptied out the insides.  Now, they’re rebuilding the entire thing around the walls, it’s a pretty interesting sight.  Too bad this is going to become the supergym across the street from 123 Cherry after I already graduated.

It Is, Na?

Labor Day weekend, some friends and I took a road trip to Columbus, OH for the annual ISNA convention.  It was a decent trip, Columbus was surprisingly tight.  The conference was fun, all in all I’d say it was a good getaway.  

 

 

Footsie

09/2008

Frog was chillin in the hotel room as we waited for everyone to get ready so we could head to the Convention Center.  

 

 

Diva

To his credit, Frog does not actually own that shirt, it belongs to his younger, more flamboyant brother, and he apparently grabbed it on accident before leaving for OH.  This meal was aight.  Nothing to rave about.

 

 

Keep On Rollin'

Ali wheels his luggage to the car on our last morning at the conference.  

 

 

Hey, MR!

Amir, aka Mujahideen Ryder, is a well-known Muslim blogger and a friend.  We got to meet up at ISNA and I ended up sitting behind him in one of the main session lectures.

SLR Action

I’m growing more and more fond of SLR cameras and really want to invest in a Digital SLR.  I got a chance to mess around with one that a friend has, and I’m posting some of those pictures here.  There are also pictures that I took over the summer with my 35mm SLR camera in this post as well.  It’s an SLR festival!

 

Going Green

Oct 2008

I was using Nadia’s camera (left) at a DC Green Muslims meeting in DC.  Here, she’s taking the minutes of the meeting while Muhammad (right) leads some discussion on planning upcoming events.

 

The Legend

The Umair Khan.  At a trip to Smith Mountain Lake with some old VCU heads, Umair, who is a Judo master, was taking a break from all the fishing/swimming/sunburning/skull-cracking to check his email.  

 

Natural

Muhammad enjoys a nice hot cup of tea while facilitating a discussion at a meeting for the DC Green Muslims.

 

Ripple Effect

Hanif, Sadiq and Frog row out in a canoe on Smith Mountain Lake and go exploring.  I had an episode with that very canoe earlier in the trip, but we won’t go into details on that…

 

Focused

Nadia was concentrating on the discussion at the DC Green Muslims meeting so she could write out the minutes in an organized diagram to help with the planning of future events.

 

Morning, Sleepyhead

Shak just woke up and went straight for a bowl of cereal.  Not often do you get to enjoy a nice breakfast on a deck, overlooking Smith Mountain Lake.  He was too sleepy to really notice though.

Summatime in the District

I been tryinna branch out and meet new people, so I’ve been hitting up DC more often to hang out with the awesome people that live up there.  I got invited to a picnic in DC during the summer, so there are some pictures from that, and other ventures into the city…

 

Double Entendre

June 2008

I like this picture alot, because I was trying to make Lena (right) and NJ (center) both the subjects for the picture simultaneously.  I think the fact that the lens on my digital camera isn’t very powerful allowed me to do that, without blurring out one or the other.

 

Joyful

This was the first time I got to meet NJ.  She was super duper cool.  She’s an amazing architect and photographer, check out her website.

 

Doe-Eyed

Amir was a nice kid that was at the picnic.  He’s originally from Alabama.  It was pretty interesting actually, most of the young professionals at the picnic were from places all over the country, very few were actually locals. 

 

America!

This was probably around the 4th of July in Georgetown.  Zaynab was expressing her deep partiotic love for the flags atop the lamppost, while an airplane flew by her right ear.

 

BFF

Zaynab and Mariam sharing a moment under some foliage in Georgetown.

 

Binging

My youth group took a trip to Mandarin Halal Chinese in Springfield for a guys’ dinner.  Here, you can see all the food laid out, while it still lasted…

The Open Water

For Father’s Day, our community organized a fishing trip out in the Chesepeake Bay.  My dad was super excited and me and my brother were like, eh…whatever, but we were with it for my dad.  At the last minute, he bailed out, cuz he hurt his ankle, and…for some reason…me and my brother ended up going anyways.  I’m seriously not a fan of fishing, but, the boat ride was pretty nice.  Here are some pictures of the shenanigans at the fatherless Father’s Day Fishing Trip.

 

Ready For It

June 2008

Somebody came super prepared…Billal’s dad was chillin with the uncles and enjoying a good laugh while we waited for the captain to drive us out into the deep water.

 

King of The World

I was having a Leonardo DiCaprio moment at the front of the boat, while the captain drove out into open water.  You know what I’m talking about.

 

Chameleon

Jawad’s dad was blending in surprisingly well with his surroundings.  Even his hair was flowing at the same angle as the fishing poles…those fish didn’t stand a chance!

 

REM

Yousuf was catchin some hardcore nap action on the boat.  We were out there for a pretty long time, starting really early in the morning.  Everyone was a bit tired…

 

Personal Guard

My brother wasn’t really keeping guard, Ayyaz just happened to fall asleep on one of the only benches in the boat, so we had to sit around him.  Later, my uncle held a fish up under his nose.  It made for a pretty funny picture, but sadly, it didn’t wake him up.

 

Ridin' The Waves

Sami was chillin with the shades while we headed back to shore after a long day of fish hunting.

 

The Catch

There lies half of our catch, the other half was in another cooler.

Fire It Up!

After graduation came the season of BBQ’s…summer!  I got to attend so many BBQ’s over the summer, it was amazing.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the festivities.

 

Eyein' Candy

06/2008

Karim was scoping out the food while we waited for dinner at a graduation party.  

 

Hometown Heroes

A group of us gathered and hung out at the WWII Memorial in DC.  We got a group shot with marsOne (bottom left) before she moved out to FL.  

 

Next Course

Huma was in the middle of lunch at a grad BBQ and noticed a little boy already having dessert…jealoussss…

 

The Culprit

Saad was caught off-guard, I think he was smuggling some ice cream before having finished his lunch, tsk tsk.

 

Stay Hydrated

Nabil enjoys a soda while we were at a grad BBQ, waiting for the host to finish roasting the meat for dinner.

 

Candid Camera

Ayyaz was trying to record some memories during the grad BBQ.  This was the only time I saw him holding the camera, I guess we’ll just hafta rely on our actual memories.

 

Reunion

Naveed, along with other VCU kids, got to hang out again at a grad BBQ with friends he hadn’t seen since school ended a month earlier.  I think it’s safe to say, we were all happy to be reunited.

This album just made me hungry, thinking of all those BBQ’s…

A Land Called…

I finally graduated from college in May.  My whole family came down for the ceremony and afterwards we went to eat and chill in Maymont park before I headed out of good ol’ Richmond.  I had never actually fully explored the park in the 5 years that I was in the city, I really missed out.  This was a nice way to wrap up the college experience though.  There’s quite a few pictures that I really like from this day and I had a hard time cutting them down, so this is a longer post.  Hope you like them as much as I do.

 

Rosy Cheeks

May 2008

My cousin was trying to smuggle out a rose from Maymont’s garden.  I caught him!  

 

Statuesque Stature

My uncle came down from Fredericksburg for the ceremony.  Here we are in the convention center afterwards, waiting for everyone to get together so we can go eat.

 

Into The Wild

Maymont has pathways that take you through trees and over small hills to lead from one part of the park to the next.  My uncle was standing in front of one of the paths that comes out of the woods and leads into a big opening with a waterfall.  Here, he’s taking pictures of everyone posing in front of the water.

 

Discovery

This is the waterfall that’s in the park.  As soon as we found it, my uncle and cousin darted down to get as close as they could to the water.

 

Happy Family

My mom and dad were having a good ol’ time by the water.

 

So Tropical

The park had some amazing views, I was really impressed.  Parts of it would seriously make you doubt this was in Richmond. 

 

Take You Under My Wing

My uncle got this sudden urge to stand on one of the poles along the pathway.  Naturally, he was joined by my cousin.

 

Paying Respects

My uncle wandered off and found some sort of memorial.  It looks like he was visiting a grave, though I highly doubt that’s what it was.  I still don’t know what exactly he was doing there, but I love that tree behind him.

 

Lakeside

There was a beautiful lake in the park, surrounded by colorful trees and flowers.  Here, we were getting close to sunset and we were making our way out of the park.

 

Surrounded

 My cousin was taking pictures of another uncle-cousin pole-standing fiasco that occurred later on.  

 

Thankful

Good thing people listened to that sign.  My uncle was chillin on a wall that lets you look out to the entire park.  It was a beautiful sight, especially when the sun was setting.

 

Final Bend

The family trekked towards the exit as the park was about to close. 

 

Get Close

 In front of the steps that lead into the waterfall area, my uncle was being goofy while I was taking some pictures.

 

Bravo

This little area was set up probably for a wedding or something.  My brother and cousins sat down on our way past and randomly started applauding.

 

Restroom

Yes, I think this was the restroom in Maymont Park.  Pretty classy.