• ICNA Day 01
• ICNA Day 02
• ICNA Day 03

One thing we covered this week which I found extremely interesting was how photos – a lot of the time – are not a proper representation of reality. If you disagree, perhaps you want to see the examples I’m about to give you. Depending on what instance you decide to capture a photo, it could make a world of a difference as to the emotional reaction people have when seeing it.

Below, is one of the most famous pictures in American History. It’s a picture of soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima, Japan during WWII.

This is one of the most reproduced images of all time. I want you to stop and analyze the picture for a minute… what type of emotions does this picture evoke? What is the story or the message this image tells you?

Well, most of us see the representation of struggle. The soldiers placing the flag amidst the rubble. Patriotism. That they are exhausted yet determined to raise the flag of victory… correct?Now, look at the video of the same incident. See if the photo evokes the same emotions as the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s another:

This image was altered for no other reason than to create drama. The man who altered this photo was later fired from the Los Angeles Times.You know what gave it away? Look closely in front of the soldier’s leg.. you’ll see the back of the Iraqi man that is sitting behind him also in front of him.

If you are interested in photography or plan to make films – specifically photo journals and documentaries- make sure that you are depicting reality for what it really is. Don’t take a picture of the one kid at Islamic school sleeping, while the others are captivated by the teacher and say that Islamic School is not of the same quality as public schools.

WAllahu ta’ala alem.
~Shirien

Seeru fil Ard… “Travel in the earth”

Again, any project you want to produce- feel passionately about. And do it for the sake of Allah ‘az wa jal. A long time ago I make a rinky dink video called “Jannah How Badly Do You Want It?”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Not only was it done with windows movie maker, but the grammar! Anyway, the point is that this was something that I wasn’t doing for the sake of making a video but rather, I did it because at a time when my iman was high and I wanted to express that. Little did I realize later, that people were actually sending the video around. Ironically, my brother-in-law sent it to my sister when they were engaged and my sister was like “Hey wait a minute… my sister made that…”

Anyway, I decided to demonstrate the video that was tripod-less and shaky that I mentioned in my previous post. Be creative… This is accompanied by recitation from Salman Al ‘ataybi from my favorite surah in the Quran- Surat Ghaafir.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you want to produce films, Islamic commericals, make stories or even just be a photographer you should always carry your camera around with you. I can’t tell you the number of times I regretted not having a camera with me to catch a priceless moment.

During my trip to Egypt last summer, I took my video camera with me everywhere. I usually go to Masr every year and always regretted not bring my video camera. I know it looks “touristy” but, I didn’t care… because I wanted to show all my friends what I do over there and the places I go.

My problem? I didn’t have a tripod with me. I shot some great footage (really funny moments and all of which I will never put up here to bring shame to myself) but it wasn’t professional; It was shaky. So what do you do when your footage doesn’t turn out the way you want it to be? Turn it into a photo journalism project by freeze framing the footage at the right time. And i’ll demonstrate this with some of the footage I took this past summer. The key to a photo journal are the captions. If you take 3 photos and you put a caption, those pictures should represent everything that story is telling. So I want to share some of my favorite moments from my trip to masr… and remember with every project you do, feel passionately about it. And do it for the sake of Allah ‘az wa jal:

Click the pictures to view the captions and the slideshow, inshaAllah. 

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