my photography diary; the first adventure

Life is difficult, it has its constant downs and, though rarely, it sometimes has its ups too. And this is what we live and thrive for, the ups.

Two girls going through the stresses and hardships of life, a bond too strong for life to shatter with its obstacles, two girls who share their favourite moments together, and one adventure which this story is about.

Since forever I've wanted to try portrait photography, and though I had a ton of friends whom I have tried this with, I've always wanted to go to the streets, pick a subject and take some pictures of them. And two weeks ago I had that opportunity.

In between the constant pressures of academia, @mariamfathyh and I decided to go on a couple of hours of a getaway and just walk through the streets of Al Fardous city with nothing but a camera and a 100 pounds each which our grandma had given us earlier. We had no plan in mind, we were just gonna take a couple of pics for my photography assignment -which was a total fail- and then shoot a couple of pictures of Mariam to update her Instagram account, but this day turned out to be a day that we will for sure never forget.

Story #1:

For some reason or another, Mariam found a palm tree with which she fell in love and wanted to take a bunch of pictures with different -stupid- poses. Which she did. And which people noticed. And those people included two dudes standing in balconies and a passerby who was looking in a profoundly intrigued way at her.... that was until he walked straight into a street light pole. Hilarious scene; even the dude quietly laughed at himself which was cut short with Mariam's loud laughter when I told her what happened so the guy hurriedly left the area, still laughing a bit though!

Story #2:

As two chicks who grew up sheltered with two overprotective pairs of parents, it's not every day that we get to experience buying foods and drinks from non-brands since they are normally unsanitary and unhygernic..... sooo that's exactly what we decided to spend the money grandma gave us on! While walking aimlessly through the streets of Al Fardous, we saw a juice shop called 'Fruit One,' translated to 'فروت العائلات'! And, yes, it makes no sense to me either! Apart from the complete amazement of the shop owner of our camera, and apart from his constant 'subtle' questions regarding what kind of people we are, what's our job, what do we study, everything was completely normal -apart from the not so great drinks we had- until the owner asked us to take a picture of his shop. He never asked us to give him the picture, but he did ask me to post it even though I explained to him m u l t i p l e times that I do photography as a hobby and not professionally but, ma 3alena, you'll find the picture in the collection posted with this post!

Story #2.5:

This isn't one of the main story arcs, but it was funny enough to include it here. After finishing my drink, I couldn't find a trash can to throw the cup in, and I definitely do not throw trash in the streets because that is definitely not how I roll. So, while looking for a trash can, a child came up to us asking for a drink. Do we know that kid? No. Do we have any extra drinks to give that kid? No. Are we rich enough to buy him a drink? Maybe, but the shop was far away by then and I get too stressed out to think clearly under pressure so that didn't even occur to me before now. However, did Mariam find a solution? She sure did! While I was -trying- to explain to the child that we do not have any drinks to give him, Mariam grabbed my cup filled with ice from my hand and gave it to him! Just like that, a smile spread across the kid's face and he walked away sipping from the by-then-empty cup. What kind of energy did Mariam elude at the time? Iconic BDE.

Story #3:

And the last story; the story this is all about; the story of my first experience with legit portrait photography. While waiting in the juice shop for our drinks to get ready, Mariam and I spotted a girl with pastel pink hair in the distance. We both agreed that we needed to take a picture of her STAT! The only problem was, though, that we have neither ever walked up to someone before and asked them to take a picture of them. So, in the span of 8 seconds walking down from the juice shop in the girl's direction, I gathered all of the @jessicakobeissi inside of me and studied the girl's energy along with Mariam and decided on how to approach her without giving off 'hi-I'm-a-creepy-person-who's-gonna-take-pics-of-you-and-sell-them-to-some-foreign-mafia-that'll-kidnap-you-and-sell-your-organs' vibes! Thankfully, the girl was nice and open to the idea of me taking a couple of pictures of her and posting them on social media, and although her friend seemed a tad bit suspicious of us, we even exchanged Instagram usernames for me to send her the pictures and later on her friend seemed to have come around!

Overall, this adventure was a great way for both Mariam and me to de-stress and a great first-timer for both of us that I am sure will change us both into more confident photographers!

Moral of the story; don't be afraid of getting out of your comfort zone and walking aimlessly through the streets of your city looking for things to do and memories to make because, honestly, YOLO is much more meaningful than being a qUiRkY 2000's abbreviation.