Toronto Wedding Photographers, Destination Wedding Photographers | AliphAurMeem » Personal

Cute Things

AliphAurMeem — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:32:11 +0000

I hate checking mail! Not email; the old postman, two bills and a million flyers, snail mail! Having dodged it for weeks, after much struggle today, I dragged my feet to the mailbox around the corner and came back home with a 4 inch thick stack of multi-colored shiny pieces of paper, 99.9% of which will end up in garbage moments later. Somebody needs to take a satellite picture of me holding all this paper waste and send it to Al Gore!

Anyways, after all the tearing and shredding, at the bottom of the stack I found a small yellow envelope with our names on it. I turned it over and it said “If undelivered return to: Uroos Ali …” followed by an address. I opened the envelope, and inside I found the cutest little card congratulating us on the birth of our little one! Now, we’ve meet Uroos twice, one for the initial client meeting, and second when she came by to sign everything for her wedding this December. But the fact that she actually kept up with what was going on in our lives, and took the time to go out, find a card and mail it, means a LOT to us! I immediately went upstairs, woke Mehreen up and started waving the card in her face.

So Uroos and Khalid, we couldn’t just send you a lame email saying thank you, which you’ll still get. Your card gets its own entire blog post!

Oh, btw, Afroz turned a month old today!

On Valentine’s Day

AliphAurMeem — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 02:23:57 +0000

On a cold December evening, she sat in her dark room, a solitary light emitting from her iPod playing Norah Jones. An iPod he’d given her earlier in the summer when things were brighter. She counted the little change she had. It wasn’t enough. She thought about her bills. What little there were, her mom paid. The only thing she really spent any money on was the GO train she took to downtown and then TTC to St. George campus. And then she decided. If she walked every day from union station to university she could save enough to get him a gift. And so she walked.

Years later, they danced to Norah Jones on Valentine’s day in their little home in the suburbs.

Arugula salad with Apple and Tomato Slices garnished with Feta Cheese and Cashews and topped with Raspberry Vinaigrette

Beef steak with Baby Roasted Potatoes and Garlic Mushrooms

And to end the night, Meem made the most delicious out of this world Chocolate Cake Balls!

Happy Valentine’s day everyone.

Ottawa Photographers | Plan Canada – Meet Rabia & Our First Letters

AliphAurMeem — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:05:24 +0000

Back in December, we wrote about our first sponsor child Irfan. At the same time we also sponsored a girl, but the correspondance from Plan Canada about the girl got lost somewhere in the courier world. So we followed up by phone and Plan Canada sent us another information package about Rabia!

Rabia is 12 years old, lives in Pakistan with her parents and four other siblings. You can find out a little more about Rabia by reading the text in the following images.

To our very pleasant surprise, in today’s mail we received hand written letters from both Irfan and Rabia. Irfan had some help writing his letter because, according to the letter, his writing isn’t legible. However, Rabia wrote the letter by herself! We’re so proud of both of them! We can’t wait to write back.

(Sorry about the quality of the iPhone pics; We were too excited and eager to blog about it!)

Love Grows

AliphAurMeem — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:00:16 +0000

Love. It’s hard to contain it in a definition. What it’s not though, is a statement. A combination of words thrown together in empty shells of conversations. It’s organic. It grows. I don’t mean it grows in strength or intensity, but that it lives. It ages. It scars and wrinkles. In that growth may dwell moments of intense weakness, where a mere whisper may cause it to vanish altogether. And out of those weak moments, giant spirits of hope evolve. When you can’t fix things, but only know that in the morning, you will try again. You will simply try. And love … will continue to grow.

Wedding Photographers Toronto | Re-inventing Ourselves

AliphAurMeem — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 04:40:39 +0000

As wedding photographers, one of the things we feel the need to do, is to constantly re-invent ourselves. That means constant learning; be it shooting techniques, lighting techniques, post processing, or just improving and strengthening our visual aesthetics so we can see shots before we click. And due to the nature of wedding photography, there isn’t a whole lot of practice or experimentation that can be done in-the-field so to speak. When a couple hires us, we don’t go in and “try” stuff. At the same time, we know that we need to have an ever-growing arsenal of shots and techniques in our belt to be able to pull them out and use them in tight spots.

Consequently, we are always using each other as guinea pigs to try out new stuff on our off days. A good by-product of having to do this is that we can end up with some shots of ourselves that we would otherwise never take. Interestingly enough, we both fight to be behind the lens rather than in front of.

We took the following shots in this little corner in our building gym. This is what the corner actually looks like (sorry about the noise; iPhone picture):

These following shots were taken in this same corner without any backdrops.

In case you are wondering, Mehreen was listening to Black Eyed Peas.

AliphAurMeem Photography | Plan Canada – Sponsor a Child

AliphAurMeem — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:03:00 +0000

Hello In’ernet. We haven’t been very regular in updating our blog recently mostly because we have been extremely busy editing and designing for our clients this year. We are also revamping our whole portfolio and line of products, as well as meeting lots of fresh faces for next year. All in all, things have been busy for the good.

Today, we also wanted to take a break from our regular wedding photography related blog posts and write on a more personal note, and help promote one of the programs we recently became involved with.

Over the last couple of years, among many other things that we have been blessed with, including family, friends, and career, we have seen our photography business grow from mere thoughts and whispers to a big part of our lives and a full fledged running operation. As an extremely miniscule token of our gratitude, we wanted to turn over some of our blessings to those who may not have the same opportunities in life that we do.

After some research, the program we decided to be involved with is called Plan Canada. Plan Canada has been around since 1937, is currently active in over 60 countries, and is all about building communities in the lesser fortunate parts of the world. Some of the things that were important to us were

- being able to communicate with the sponsored child(ren)
- being able to plan a visit and go meet our sponsored children in person and see how our contributions have made a difference in their lives
- being able to sponsor children in a country of our choice

Plan Canada met all these criteria and more. They advocate equal rights, promote and encourage education, enable children and their families to meet the basic necessities (clean water, free healthcare, etc.) and much more.

This holiday season, with so many families struggling to make their ends meet even here in North America, we encourage you to spread the love. Be it here or abroad. Make someone part of your family. Reach out and touch someone.

Pay it forward. It’s bound to come around.

Happy holidays everyone!

We met these two cuties in Nathia Gali, Pakistan. They saw us walking around with our huge cameras, came up to us and offered to take our picture. The offer was reciprocated and flashes of emotion followed on their faces. Disbelief, Apprehension and Hope. They paused for a brief second in which I was able to take this picture before they held hands and ran off.

AliphAurMeem Photography | Eid Mubarak!

AliphAurMeem — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:16:19 +0000

More information available at our Toronto Wedding Photography website www.AliphAurMeem.com

Happy Anniversary Ottawa!

AliphAurMeem — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:40:44 +0000

Asad and I moved to Ottawa exactly a year ago today. I remember it was a decision that we made with great difficulty. You see I hate moving. When I moved from Pakistan to Canada I hated it. When I moved from my apartment to a new home in Mississauga I hated it. I hate moving. I didn’t think moving to Ottawa from Toronto would make me feel any differently, but boy was I wrong. I haven’t loved any city as much as I love Ottawa. Ottawa is one of the most sincere cities I have lived in. The sincerity and genuineness reflects in its people. I have made friends here in the past year whom I cherish. I have had the pleasure of being a part of their special day and then carry on being their friends. We have watched movies together, driven around Aylmer singing eighties songs and stared at the naked blue guy for three hours straight (Jawad and Bushra know what I’m talking about). Yes, it truly has been a memorable year. As I reach this hallmark in my life I can’t help but think of all those things I’ve learned and all those things I have lost. Ottawa, here’s to you:

Thank you Ottawa for making me see through my self
Thank you Ottawa for introducing me to me
Thank you Ottawa for giving me freedom

I love you Ottawa! Happy Anniversary.

More information available at our Ottawa Photography website www.AliphAurMeem.com

Ottawa Wedding Photographer | Afroz Aur Usman

AliphAurMeem — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:18:00 +0000

She walked into our lives wearing yellow shoes on a bright summer day. With her restless eyes constantly running, she talked about her wedding, our book collection, the view from our downtown condo of the Ottawa river, Mehreen’s hair, food, life in Ottawa, life elsewhere and much else. Half an hour later she left. The two of us shared a look and then muttered something along the lines of, “She’s cool. [Pause] Why does she like us so much?”

A couple of weeks later she was sitting in our living room, three of us plopped on our white IKEA couch, her hogging the remote control in one hand, a plate in the other, as we all ate something delicious Mehreen had cooked and watched “So You Think You Can Dance”. A little while later we shared our funny YouTube finds, the laptop hooked up to the TV laughing our asses off.

Then there was the time she decided to be our Ottawa tour guide; the time both of them dropped by to give Mehreen company after the accident; the time they came by on Mehreen’s birthday leaving their best friend’s wedding earlier; and of course the numerous times she’d run into us at weddings and yell and wave frantically upon our first sight, “DOST! HELLO DOST¹!”

We still don’t know why you like us Afroz. But, we like that you like us. And we like you too. A lot!

And Usman, we like you too, coz YOU’RE THE MANAGER! (sorry internet; inside joke – maybe another blog entry some other day – you’ll be hearing a lot more of these two).

Afroz and Usman are getting married this weekend in Ottawa. And we’ll be there as their friends, and their photographers. Gitty up!

1. Dost is Urdu for Friend.

Montreal Photography | W Montreal

AliphAurMeem — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:59:07 +0000

For our second anniversary, we pulled up outside W Montreal. I parked nervously between a Lamborghini and a Jaguar coupe right outside the hotel in the 15 minute parking zone and walked into the reception. I gave the receptionist my name and then asked which way to the parking entrance. I was told that the hotel has a valet service and if I’d give him the keys, he will gladly have it taken care for me.

“But I’d really prefer to park the car myself. Is that possible?”

“Most certainly sir! May I know which car you are driving?”.

An awkwardly long pause followed. Then I said it.

“Ummm Ford. Focus.”

The receptionist gave me a polite smile and I handed him the keys without any further hesitation or cause for embarassment.

You see, in my defense, I’d just had an accident, this was a rental car, and I was trying to protect it from wind itself if I could.

Aaaaanyways. We spent the rest of the weekend at, what we now call, the best hotel we’ve ever stayed at (including Hilton Cancun). The W Montreal. Everything from the service to the decor to the hospitality to the atmosphere of this hotel is worth every penny. Here are some of the pictures from our trip.

The Lobby

Our floor

The Room

About the dark pictures, the whole hotel has a really club like feel to it, and this is how dark the actual room is.

The most relaxing rain shower ever!

City shots

Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal

Les Glaceurs – Cupcake & Ice Cream Parlour

The amazing view I had later one night at Starbucks. This guy was standing about two feet from my face, scratching non-stop for a good half an hour. They were all looking at a laptop their friend had.

Before leaving, we slow danced to this song in our room playing on Mehreen’s aged iPod. Oh and the room also had an iPod player/alarm clock.

More information available at our Montreal Wedding Photography website www.AliphAurMeem.com