We went out to Beaver Dam at Falls Lake with Christine for a quick formal portrait session. I had a couple of new diffusers come in and was planning on testing them out before putting them into use at weddings. While I’m still getting a feel for the new parabolic reflector system, I really appreciate how fast they are to setup in relation to a foldable softbox. The light isn’t as soft as I had expected, however, I think with proper placement and feathering it can be very nice. The silver parabolic reflectors are very useful for outdoor sessions as they are quite efficient with light output. For indoors, I think I would still prefer a large softbox as it would – in my opinion – give a more natural light.

When Shahnaz contacted me about a portrait session for her 8 month old daughter, I got really excited. While they live in Reston, VA and were willing to drive out to me, I was able to meet them in DC since Mahroo and I had to go up to Centreville for a friend’s baby shower. Aila is one of the prettiest babies I have ever seen. She does her own thing all the time – from head butting to pulling hair, from laughing to crawling away. It’s adorable the way she is constantly looking around and trying to observe the world she sees.

When the day of the photoshoot came, DC got hit by a down pour. At one point, the rain was falling almost sideways. Even with an umbrella, my legs were soaked from hip down by the end of the shoot. The colors of DC are wonderful – the parks, trees, and public fields are nothing short of gorgeous. We weren’t able to use any of them as we had planned due to the quick weather change, so we went indoors. The National Museum of Natural History was open, so we decided to start shooting there and went outside once the rain took a break. For those of you who don’t know, lighting in Museums is abysmal.

A little something for the photo-nerds:
Everything here was shot by the Nikon 35/1.8 DX on FX. Aside from minor vignetting (something I happen to like in pictures), the lens is a winner. While not as fast as the Canon 35/1.4L, it’s very sharp and has gorgeous bokeh. I thought I would never say this, but the image quality of the 35/1.8DX is definitely on par with (if not better than) the Canon 35L – at least in my opinion – and I have had both. Anyway, enough nerd talk. Onto the pictures:

Umniya Zaigham Zain, a healthy 6 lb and 1 oz baby girl, was born to parents Zaigham Zain and Ammara Ahsan-Zain on Wednesday, September 23rd at 8am. She just turned a week old today and is a very responsive baby – she smiles when someone makes baby noises, waves her hands around excitedly, and even tries to mimic a whistle when you whistle to her. She is my wife’s second niece to be born this week.

“Ten little fingers, ten little toes, a beautiful pair of eyes and a cute little nose“: