December on Film | Zafira
Hi!
IT'S 2018. I still can't get my head wrapped around that it's 2018. It's actually insane how fast time has gone. The last few months of 2017 were quite busy and hectic, especially December. It consisted of finishing college work and most importantly, the end of a very very very long term. I was very much looking forward to the 2 week holiday and I spent it quite wisely (I did nothing whatsoever). It was a pretty good month.
Here's December through my eyes.
I love love love the snow. It's something I look forward too very year and this year it actually snowed at the right time of year here in the UK.
In December, everyone who applied for Uni pretty much had interviews. This is my friend Cherie on the day of her first interview!
This year I'm starting I'm portrait series on film, I'm going to photograph pretty much everyone I see and Richard was a great place to start.
This is everyone taking their snaps, Instagram stories, Whatsapp pictures and Whatsapp stories of our wonderful Christmas dinner.
The food was a solid 10/10 just to let you know (yes that chicken was as good as it looks).
Baby Zakariya turned into a big boy this month! He turned one in December and you can already tell by that turtleneck of his, he gets a lot of his outfit inspo from me.
Not only have we been blessed with one baby boy in the family this year, but two! This is Mikail looking as handsome and adorable as ever in his little bow tie.
This was taken earlier in December when we had little family gathering. Liyana in her pretty dress!
Christmas has turned into a annual massive family gathering for us. It's really the only time of year where everyone is free and doesn't have work or college or school. We usually have a lovely Christmas dinner, followed by a game of secret Santa and then a couple of quizzes and games and movies to finish off the day. It's my favourite time of year.
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November & October on Film | Zafira
I'm back with another one of these film blog posts!
In my September post I said I'd combine the film shots from October and November because I knew it'd be a hectic couple of months. But, it's December and I'm finally on a fresh roll of film and I've finally gotten round to getting my previous roll developed and scanned in!
October was pretty uneventful, I was feeling quite uninspired but a day out with my cousins shopping in Manchester slowly changed that. It was nice to be out and about. I think I'd like to do some sort of film series based in Manchester, I have lived here my entire life and I've only just started to explore it.
This bin was looking particularly photogenic I couldn't help but take a picture.
At the beginning of November, I spent a weekend in Birmingham with family to mainly look at BCU as I'm applying there, but it was also really nice to just explore Birmingham a little bit since it could possibly be my home for the next 3 years. This is the Bullring and I love how it looks.
Whilst in Birmingham, I spent some quality time with these two cuties.
Since when did My Little Ponies look like this?
It was Bonfire night when I was still in Birmingham and these shots are pretty decent considering I had no tripod.
This bathroom was really nice but you can't see.
These are pretty underexposed but they have a bit of gloomy vibe and I appreciate some good old Mughal era paintings. This was when me and my family went out to eat in Birmingham.
We went out to local park and took a nice stroll and my little cousin Liyana helped me take some pretty shots.
I've spent the last two months in these amazingly comfy pants from Zara and making this glum face too.
I quite like this even though it's heavily under exposed.
I'm usually never home until after the sun sets except from on the weekends but I spent most of the weekends in my soft office. I luckily caught this shot and the these lovely warm tones it. It makes me feel really nostalgic.
Towards the end of November, it really felt like Winter.
We had a little baby shower for my Auntie at the end of November and there were a bunch of leftover desserts so I bought some in for my friends Sanjida and Cherie. They loved them.
One of my favourite portrait shots I've ever taken on film.
This is the best purchase of the year I think. I bought it from the little boys section in H&M for the bargain price of £14 and even though it's for 14 yrs +, it's quite big and over sized and has kept me warm over the past couple of weeks.
I was kindly gifted this
and it's the perfect bag for me. It matches everything I wear and has tons of space in which is perfect for me because I now use it for college. It's handiest, prettiest satchel I've ever set my eyes on. Expect a 'What's in My Bag' coming very very soon!
My walls are slowly starting to get completely covered in my film shots.
Kitty is the real star of the show in these film blog posts. I might have bribed her with some string but she's just so photogenic. A film roll isn't complete without her pretty face on it.
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September on Film | Zafira
Hi!
I'm back with another post in my film series! I'm quite aware it's mid October, well pretty much past mid at this point but I've been insanely busy at college but I've finally found a little bit of time to show you a couple of snaps I took during the month of September!
All I can remember from September was the stress of being back at college, writing my personal statement and catching up with all my amazing friends. It's weird how fast college has gone, this is my last year and I want to treasure every moment possible.
This is Britt, she smells nice.
I'm currently trying to jazz my room up a bit. It looks quite plain so I stuck pretty much all my film shots up on my walls and it looked quite cute. I think I'll probably end up getting some fairy lights too just to complete that ever so 'Tumblr' look.
This is Cherie and Sanjida. They make college that little bit more bearable.
Here's a snap of Cherie looking cute as per usual.
Lydia and Jazmine having waay too much fun in the art department.
Another cat one. We've become particularly close over the past few days. I often find that when I come home, he/she is waiting for me outside my window.
My mum likes buying fresh flowers every week.
I'm Asian of course my house contains at least one chili plant.
We have a little bit of a jungle theme going on in our living room, it's very nice and relaxing.
Sparkly macaroons are apparently a thing?
Me in the only shirt I seem to own. I don't even look like myself in this it's strange.
I took this on the way home from college. I spend too much of my life sat on a bus.
Since I had experimented a lot this month, a lot of my shots were pretty much under exposed but it's all good, I've got a fresh roll and I'm excited to shoot again. I think I'm going to merge October and November together so get ready for a nice chunky post!
Remember to follow me on all my social media to stay updated and to see some cool behind the scenes and extra shots!
Summer on Film | Zafira
Hi!
So I've decided to start a new series on here. I'm going to start doing a blog post about whatever month it is but shot in film. I hope it gets me experimenting with film a lot more and also one thing I really love doing is talking about my photographs and why I took them which is why this series is pretty much perfect. I love love film. I can't even get over how much I adore shooting on it. I'm always trying to find new and fun ways to document my life and so far, using film has been my absolute fave. I just love how it looks and shooting on it is so so so much more fun that digital. It's exiciting, you don't know what the outcome is going to be.
The first post in this series are some shots I took over summer, I honestly didn't get out much. I spent a lot of time travelling to see family but I was either indoors or in a car most of the time or just at home lazing around.
Here are some of my favourites from over this summer!
Like I mentioned earlier, I want to document my life and I feel like I've currently hit my peak teen years, next year I'm going to be an adult which I don't even wanna talk about. But here's the door to my room which makes me feel so young and childish and I love it.
I own a troll that looks like a roadman. I don't really know why I bought this but it's sat on a shelf in my room looking quite cute.
I remember I took this when the weather because extremely bipolar and it was raining cats and dogs once minute and the next it was so sunny. You can see the grey clouds clearing in the top of the picture. I love taking pictures of the sky.
Just the view outside my bedroom window.
I wanted to take a picture of the moon but obviously considering it was the middle of the night and it was pitch black, the picture didn't come out as great as I had visioned it too but it still looks semi cool.
Here's my cat that isn't actually my cat. I think it belongs to our neighbour but it seems to love me a lot.
Here's my cousin looking pretty cute, I spent a lot of time with family this summer and it was really nice.
A cute tiny little vase thing with flowers in with pink water because my obsession with pink has honestly hit a new level of extreme where I'm basically killing all my plants with this pink water that consists of paint.
I also bought a hat (from New Look) and this shirt (from Zara, also in my prev blog post) which I wore like everyday. It's a cute combo.
I also took this on digital which you can see over on my Instagram, links to everything will be at the end of this post.
Of course there was some pictures of the lovely Hannah on my camera as always. She's my go to model and I had to take some images for my photography project for college. These film ones are quite blurry because I didn't use lighting and I didn't really want that artificial look to them. But, I really like the different tones and hues in these and I don't mind the blurryness at all. These were all inspired by the photographer
.
Here's a behind the scenes of the star face shot, this is my fave image I've ever taken.
Also for my college photography project, I had to choose another phtotographer and create images inspired by them. So I chose
and here's a behind the scenes. If you check out my Instagram, you can see one of the final versions from this set! Links to all my social media will be at the end of this post.
It was Eid on September 1st and here's me looking overly happy in my Eid outift.
I took this the day before college started, pretty sure I was procrastinating and avoiding all the work I had to do.
Make sure to follow me on Instagram and my other social media to find out when I post the next post in this series and when I just post in general!
Shooting on Film | Zafira
Heelllllllllllllooooooooooooo!
When I was younger, I was so fascinated by film strips. I remember how my dad would have them laid out when he was sorting out all of his photographs and I would just love to look at them. These brown strips with these tiny pictures in them were the coolest things I had ever seen. I'm pretty sure my dad shot on film for quite a while, even in the 00s when digital was a lot more popular, I still remember him shooting pictures of me and family on film. Now it's just so fascinating and utterly amazing looking back at the pictures because I can literally see the whole of my life and my family's life in images. I love how my family always document everything, it's one of the reasons I started getting more into photography and taking it more seriously. There's nothing I love more on the weekends then looking through the endless photo albums. It's a joy. Film shots look so good, I love the different hues and tones the images have. They just feel a lot more raw and gritty than digital. I asked my dad if I could borrow one of his film cameras recently and it's what I've been playing around on for the past few months. It's been amazing. I love film now.
Basically during my first set of film photos I was really dumb and when I told people I was shooting on film, they were like huh wut so I opened the back of the camera to show the film itself which is a big no no unless you want something like this. I still think these look so cool which is why I've kept them. I love the sunset-y colours, reminds me of the Instagram logo.
And then some of the pictures from my first set were two images merged together which had some quite strange outcomes but this is one of my friend Britt that I took at college. It's actually two separate images. The right side is of an image I took inside where she was leaning against the wall but you can only see her knees and the second image is one where she was sat on a bench outside but these two images have merged together and they kind of fit as one in a strange way lol?
The cutest candid of my friend Sunny.
The final one from my first set is when it snowed really heavily back in Jan/Feb time for about 20 mins and then it rained and all washed away.
My second set came out so well and it is truly when I realised film was the love of my life. Here's another snap of Britt with a swanky fringe this time.
This is probably the best picture I've taken in my entire life.
Here's me with the brightest thing in my wardrobe.
The famous pink jacket I wear pretty much everyday.
This was the day one of my favourite people in this entire world died.
My lovely boots when they were shiny and new.
I took this when I was on a shoot with two of my hilarious friends from high school.
When I started getting more into photography a few years back I would always take pictures out of my bedroom window. I don't what but there's something about it that looks so calm and peaceful. It was also really fun seeing how everything would change throughout the seasons as well which is something I might try with my film camera and document all the flowers growing and sky being blue and stuff.
Somewhere in London.
Columbia Road Flower Market which was amazing btw.
Me looking extra cute in my pink jumper from Bershka at the lovely Flower Markets.
That's all I have for now, make sure to follow me on Instagram for updates and just some really cool pictures!
The Wedding Series: Part 2/2 - The Mehndi, Wedding and Home Shenanigans | Zafira
Hello!
Sometime in July, I did the first part of this series and here I present to you the last. I spoke a little more about traditional Bengali weddings and how the whole process works so I won't go into too much detail here. To conclude what I said in the last post, a typical Bengali wedding has the Cinifan (engagement), the Mehndi (wedding pre-party), the actual wedding and sometimes people like to take it that one step extra and throw a Walima (an after party). It's chaotic and crazy but I love weddings. In this post, I'll show you some of the pictures of the Mehndi, the wedding and a few little bits we did with the new bride after she was welcomed into her new home. I'll explain what is going on for every picture so don't worry if you don't understand. Enjoy!
T H E M E H N D I
At a Mehndi, everyone basically takes pictures with friends, family and the groom or bride.
We boogie.
Get our henna done.
And everyone joins in, including the little ones.
We wear traditional clothing and get dressed up, not overly dressed though, we like to save that for the wedding.
There's always something yummy to eat too like these fruit thaals and those amazing desserts.
Everything is always made to look super duper pretty.
Here's a fun fact. all the little flowers that you see hanging and the ones on the wall are ALL handmade and we hung the curtain bits all by ourselves too. We're pretty handy when it comes to this sort of thing.
Here's one of my uncle dressed in traditional clothing infront of all the food that's been made for him. At the Mehndi, everyone comes and takes a seat next to him, takes a couple of pics and feeds him something.
T H E W E D D I N G
For the wedding we changed the setup a little bit and added some gold chiffon. The bride comes home with the groom at the end of the wedding and they sit here and drink milk and do some other traditional stuff.
We all get very dressed up including the groom.
All the neighbours were out watching us leave the house to the wedding venue and it was just too adorable not to capture this moment.
This is such a good idea for a guestbook! You write your little message to newly weds on the heart and slot it into the frame.
Snap snap.
This is when the bride walked onto the stage to her husband.
Both the groom side and bride side make a necklace of flowers for the couple and these are exchanged on the wedding day.
This is the best bit. There was so much cake leftover.
Aaand this is the bedroom that we decorated for them.
H O M E S H E N A N I G A N S
The next morning or what usually turns out to be afternoon, the new bride will make breakfast for everyone in the house. The breakfast food is given by the bride's family.
The bride then has to cut a fish to cook into a curry.
She grinds all the spices.
After all that she gives everyone a snack and this includes a banana and popcorn most of the time. We also played a few games with her but I can't show you those pictures since all of them have my family in them and I respect their privacy.
I'd like to say a huge congratulations to the newly weds and I wish you the best in life. I can't wait to see the whole family together again for something just as special as this ;)
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The Wedding Series: Part 1/2 - The Engagement | Zafira
Hi guys and welcome to my blog!
Wedding season has officially arrived in my family which means I'll spending most of this summer holiday going to and from weddings. If you didn't know, I am Bengali. Bengali/Asian ish weddings are absolutely crazy and consist usually of 2 or 3 parts. The first part of the whole wedding shindig is the Cinifan. More commonly known as the engagement party which is what I went to on Sunday. The second part is either the actual wedding ceremony or the wedding and the after party which is called a Walima mixed together. Then the last part of the whole procedure is usually the Walima but some families throw the wedding and Walima together.
If you even understood that then you deserve a gold star.
This weekend it was my uncle's Cinifan (engagement) and I took a couple of pictures of my family making things for it and of the event its self. At Bengali weddings, people usually take these things called Thaals. The only way I can describe it as is a decorative platter but you'll understand it better when you see the pictures. Anyway, it was a hectic weekend of madness and I had so much fun. Congratulations to my uncle on his engagement and I can't wait till the wedding!
Here's a couple of pics!
Make sure to follow me on Instagram as I'll be posting more pictures from the Cinifan on there. Links to everything is at the end of this blog post!
Winter is Here! | Zafira
WINTER IS HERE!
The temperature has dipped and it's started to get a little more chilly here in Manchester. I was not at all expecting any snow this year, at least not until around March/April time but one gloomy Saturday morning, little white flakes fell from the clouds and covered little old Manchester in a white blanket of pretty snow. Even though I'm a summer baby, I adore the winter time. Especially when it snows! There's something quite admirable about frosty mornings and darker days. Also it means sweater weather! I live in sweaters or jumpers as we call them here. I took a couple of pictures around where I live as well as up in Derbyshire where the snow was a lot thicker and the weather was absolutely freezing. Enjoy!
I have no idea what happened here.
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A Month In Bangladesh | Zafira
Hi guys and welcome back to my blog!
So during this summer, me and family headed up to Bangladesh to visit family and to also explore the small South Asian country. For me, this was an eye opening journey as I discovered a lot about Bangladesh, it's traditions and the people there. In all honesty, Bangladesh isn't one of the prettiest places in the world at first but you can see the beauty of the country in the people there. What I loved most about Bangladesh was the amount of pride people had in their country and how much they love it. A majority of the people there don't take anything for granted like many of us do in countries like the UK where important factors of life such as education are handed to us on a plate. Last time I went to Bangladesh was about 7 years ago in 2008, I was too young to understand of how much an important holiday it was and how much things would change when I next came back. Bangladesh was very different this time for me, I focused too much on the minorities and things weren't important such as bugs and the fact that it was about 40 degrees and I was melting . The only thing that should have been important was grasping hold and creating memories of what could be one of the last visits to my somewhat home country. ALTHOUGH I was a major fusspot throughout a big quantity of this holiday, I did create a few memories and on here, I'll share a few with ya ;)
ALSO ALSO ALSO, I'd just like to let you know I didn't use a fancy shmancy camera, I only used my small Canon Powershot A2500. It's not got top notch quality but it took decent pictures and was easy to carry around.
I hope you all had a lovely summer and enjoy my pictures!
I'm really really pleased with how these shots and edits came out. I hope you like them! Make sure you follow me on Instagram and Flickr, I post regularly :)
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Exploring London: Portobello Market | Zafira
Hi guys and welcome to my blog!
SO we've finally come to the end of the London series. It only took me like 4 months. But anyway, we've reached my final and fave part which is Portobello Market! I'm a huge fan of anything vintage and antique and Portorbello was filled to the brim. I found so many amazing things and everything I saw was just beautiful.
Since we've come to the end of the London series I'd just like to thank my wonderful Auntie Mahmuda for being the best tour guide ever. I can't wait to come back to London and explore more exciting places!
Enjoy and remember to see all the pictures I took at Portobello Market, go visit my Flickr!
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Exploring London: Victoria and Albert Museum | Zafira
Hello and welcome to my blog!
Victoria and Albert Museum is the third part of my London series! It is such a pretty place with a range of different arts and designs. I was very intrigued by everything I saw and it is now one of my favourtie places in London. I highly recommend you to visit whenever you are in London.
To see all my pictures of the V&A Museum, head to my Flickr. The link will be at the end of this post :)
Sneaky song 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjPyvoLXPs4
Sneaky song 2 :
Sneaky song 3 :
Sneaky song 4 :
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Exploring London: Saatchi Gallery | Zafira
Hello and welcome to my blog!
This post is all about the Saatchi Gallery. It was one of my favourite places that I had ever visited. The art was so beautiful and moving. I also got a lot of inspiration for my own artwork.
*I'm very active now on my Instagram so follow to keep up to date with my blog! Link is the end of this post :)
On with the pictures!
Sneaky song 1:
Sneaky song 2:
Sneaky song 3:
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Exporing London : Brick Lane | Zafira Ahmed
Hi guys and welcome to my blog!
So I spent a couple of days in London and took waaaaaaay too many pictures. I've decided to start a 4 part series here on my blog on my adventures in London. So keep up with my blog within the next few weeks as I'll be trying to put them up as soon :)
To see all the pictures head over to my Flickr. The link will be at the end of this post.
Here's a couple sneaky songs I've been loving:
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