As I was writing this post, I couldn’t stop thinking, “Am I my one and only blog reader?” If I am, please let me know. If I am not then please let me know too.

I’ve decided to do a short photo challenge because I love challenges. Chanllenges always help me with bettering myself, and make me happy (If I win). If you’d like to participate, you are welcome to participate.

I feel amazing after finishing teaching adults at night. I’ve been teaching ESL night classes for the past 6 weeks. It was tiring even though I enjoyed teaching them. I am glad to have my nights back, and hopefully I will start hitting the gym soon. I never use the word hit like this and just wanted to try. Even though planter fascitis is still there, I am tired of being so lazy.

How are you doing? I would love to hear about you.

Again, every blog seems more interesting with a visual. This one was taken in Monterey Bay, CA last year in fall. I wasn’t planning on photographing the stranger.

I am the kind of a person that always want to do the best. Best might be exaggeration, but I want to feel as if I am one of the best. That’s why I’ve decided to try a 4 week photo challenge. Because of my super busy schedule (sounds like a super star), I can’t do an everyday challenge. I picked the theme for each week because now I know my strengths and what I need to work on or I want to work on. Good news is, my brother, Adnan, has also agreed on doing the challenge. Since I’ve announced his name, he has no way of getting out of it. If you are interested in challenging yourself, please feel free to join us, and send me your photo at info@memoriesbyfaria.com Just shoot me an email saying you are interested. Here we go now.

Week 1: Sun flare

Week 2: Backlit

Week 3: Motion

Week 4: Black and White

Few weeks ago, I went to Strawberry, the small town near Payson, to visit the oldest standing school in Arizona. I’ve always been into visiting schools/colleges in every new city. I know, right? You must be thinking, what’s wrong with her? I’ve been there before, but that was a long time ago, before I bought my nice, fancy camera. This time I was fully prepared. If you haven’t been there, feel free to give them a call, and schedule a visit. Take a look at the date on the globe. It was one of the original globes.

The flag has only 42 stars. Isn’t that amazing? 

Raise your hand if you’ve used chalks in the good old days. Now my students act pretty surprised about chalkboard.

While I was teaching math yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice how colorful, and beautiful our popsicle sticks were. Since I teach 2 different math classes and have my homeroom, I have 3 different sets of popsicle sticks. Color coding has made my life easier with keeping track of the different classes. I realized that this is something so simple, but looked so beautiful, at least at that moment. We have simple beauties all around us. We just need to slow down and appreciate the beauty. Don’t forget to take your time to smell the roses because beauty is everywhere. All around us.

Happy Birthday to the CUTEST nephew EVER ! I maybe biased, but I really think that my nephew is the cutest baby right now. Can’t believe he turned one this morning. Also, happy birthday to Memories By Faria and Faria Munmun Photography. Actually, it was yesterday, but I can’t believe I forgot my own business’s birthday. I guess because life’s been very busy and hectic lately, but of course in a good way.

I got to photograph another wedding last Friday, and this time was with Image Industry, Scottsdale AZ. It’s super exciting because I might be able to shoot more wedding with Image Industry. I will get to do what I love more often. Am I super lucky or what?

Speaking of luck, my wish #4 is complete. My logo is done and I am loving it. The best part of the logo was the process which Julie Story made so wonderful and fun. This clearly reflects my new branding. Stay tuned for the website which will be publised way sooner than I expected.

My wish #7 was fulfilled too. Do you remeber what it was? It was updating my headshots, and Surefire Photography helped me out with updating my headshots. Another fun experience, and seriously, I can’t believe they got me to pose, ME! I am fantastic behind the camera, but in front totally clueless. Michelle and Sean were so much fun too. I am so glad I can call them my friends now, and I am not making it up. They really two amazing people.

Wish #21‘s been completed too. Can you believe it? 2 wishes done already. I have a new facebook page. Please like http://www.facebook.com/fariamunmun It is super awesome and uber cool. I’ve never used the word uber and honestly, not sure if I just used it correctly or not. Did I?

I will end this post with a sneak peek from last Friday’s wedding with the new logo. Hope you like it.

Not sure whether should I call myself a wuss for getting sick so much, or should I feel as strong as an ox for going in to work with a high temperature. Don’t forget, I work with children which is the disneyland for all kinds of germs, and can get very very stressful. I had to call in sick on Wednesday because I just got sick of feeling sick and teaching. I have to admit, I thought about my students a lot. They are kind of cute for the most part. When I went back to work on Thursday, of course they all asked me how I felt, if I needed anything and so on. 2 girls handed me 2 letters and just ran away from me. Both of the letters were very sweet about how much they like me, how much they’ve learned, how smart they feel for the first time in their lives, but one touched me the most. This student has a pretty difficult life without the presence of any parent. Her exact words were, “You are like a mother to me.” “If you were my mother, I will make you feel better.” “I wish you were her.” Of course with a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes, but they are only 9. Touchy moments like this reminds me at the end of a day when I feel like I can’t take it anymore, “This is why I am a teacher.”

My previous blog was about everything that I wish I knew, but you must be wondering, “Did she know anything then?” Yes, I did know something because I met or found out about a few amazing people/photographers that helped me come this far. I will forever remain greateful to them.

I have a friend, actually he’s my older brother’s friend, but he’s also like a big brother to me. He is a photographer, and he got me hooked with Nikon, and maybe he didn’t realize it, but he taught me a lot about photography without even actually teaching it.

I started Nudrat Owens ‘s blog over 2 years ago. I just loved her passion for photography and other great things in life in general. The best part is, she’s also from Bangladesh just like me. She gave me encouragements and advice on different things in life when I first started. I needed to read those words. I haven’t met her in person yet, so I have to say that I read. I learned about OSP through her blog and made new friends there.

I met Melissa Jill last year. When I first went out to lunch with her to meet her, I was very nervous but super excited. Since then she’s been a blessing. She introduced me to the PUG, to ABC and a few other people that opened new doors for me. She gave me suggestions that improved eveything about my business.

Last but not least, Julie Story not only helped me tremendously with my logo, but taught me branding, and helped me find out my branding. Her suggestions, infights and friendship have taught me a lot.

I will go more in depth about each of my experiences little by little. If you are starting out your own business then be prepared to be amazed. Check out the following photo. The first one is the misconception, and the second one is the truth.

If you are new, hope you are also blessed with a few wonderful people to guide you through this journey, but no matter who you know or who you have as a mentor, be prepared to work your **** off to succeed. And remember Failure Is the Pillar Of Success.

Can’t believe my fall break is over. I feel like I need another week to prepare myself to go back to work. I did have kind of a productive week. Worked on my website, and finally I came up with a design that I am loving it, although would love to get professional help to make it something very unique and fantastic, I am happy for now. Logo is almost half done. Yayy ! ! I am super excited.

I shot another wedding last weekend in San Diego with two showiteers. Yep, showiteer is a cool name for cool people. ok. Just kidding. I second shot with Trevor Dayley and Denise DeCarbo. It was really wonderful meeting these two wonderful photographers, shooting with them and learning from them.

Last night I met with my two girls, two other wedding photographers from the LA area, before I came back to Phoenix. We met at Viva Madrid in Claremont. It was really wonderful seeing their beautiful faces, and finding out about Lily’s engagement. I am so excited for her. I met Lily and Kristine at the styled shoot in June in LA. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch with each other, and these two beautiful ladies are always really inspiring and full of AHA moments for me. I am really excited about exploring film photography now. We had so much to catch up, and talked about film photography, different photographers,  WPPI and business and marketing.

I have a few wonderful and unique ideas for engagement shoots. I am dying to do these shoots, but need to find the perfect couple. Hopefully I will find these wonderful couples soon.

Very soon it will be one year anniversary of Memories By Faria and birth of Faria Munmun Photography. As I look back, I can see all the mistakes that I made, and everything that I wish I knew before I began my journey. I was telling my mom the other night, the beginning of my photography journey was same as jumping in the pool before learning how to swim, and then try my best to survive. Yes, I had moments when I seriously felt like I was drowning.

                If you are starting or planning on starting your photography business, there are a lot of things you should be aware of. I’ve decided to blog and record my steps as much as possible so that 5 years from now, I can take a look back and re-evaluate my decisions and steps.

                1) I wish I knew photography is 80% business and only 20% photography. If you didn’t know this, now you know.

                2) I had no clear goal, plan or vision about my business. I knew that I wanted to do very well, but had no idea how to go about it. I knew I wanted to do wedding photography; however, I wasn’t sure how or when to get into wedding photography. Thus, I started as a portrait photographer. My logo and website were also geared towards portrait photography which I realized later weren’t helping me with wedding photography.

                3) I had absolutely no idea about branding. Now I know that branding is a lot more than logo, website, business card etc. I will blog more about branding after I rebrand my business.

                4) Did you run into the problem of finding the first client? I did. Big time. I had absolutely no idea how to find the first client.

                5) I am sure we all failed to identify the right client for ourselves. I’ve received a lot of inquiries and even worked with a couple of clients that weren’t the right fit for me, or I wasn’t the right fit for them. That is totally fine, but I wish I was warned about this. I had to learn it the hard way.

                6) I wish I had someone encourage me to take bigger risks. I am still very new to photography business, and I promise, I won’t be afraid of taking risks anymore, but I had to let go of a few opportunities in the past. Now I will never find out what I’d missed.

Last weekend I had the priviledge of photographing Elizabeth and Canyon’s big day. I know Elizabeth from work. She is a Wonderful teacher and a very creative person. Her DIY touches at her wedding were beautiful. I absolutely fell in love with the center pieces The bird cages were beautiful, and the cake decoration was stunning. It was decorated by her friend/florist Erin Mooney.

Everyone at the wedding was touched by Elizabeth and Canyon’s love for each other. These two were so much fun to work with and so in love. I was in tear again during their vows. Not because I cry a lot, but because of their love and their beautiful, genuine vows. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from their wedding.

I love this shot.