Yasir Saeed photography – What a simple LinkedIn email did

It’s been more than a year since the photos by Yasir Saeed photography were taken of me for the ‘Faces of Dubai’ project.  In fact, I didn’t know what to write about the portfolio experience. But now, I know that was an excuse from my subconscious. I, now, know that when I say that I don’t know what to write, it is only the fear of making a mess that is making me feel this way. No wonder then it’s taken me so long to put this post together. Obviously, now is the right time.

It was just a simple LinkedIn email request for connection from Yasir Saeed that has led me to not only have such an impressive portfolio of me, but led him to photograph quite a few of my contacts and friends so that they too can have a snapshot of happiness (see some of them below). Now, I’m not someone who accepts every single LinkedIn invite to connect, considering that there are quite a few dubious ones making the rounds on LinkedIn. But there was something special about the email. I was to find out what that was. Look below to find out what that special-ness was.

Me!

Photo of Samantha Wood, Owner of Foodiva

Sue Tyson, of Sue Tyson Designs. Handcrafted jewelry from murano glass

Paula Horsfall. Co-founder of Remade Dxb

The other thing that bothered me were the photos themselves. It’s not that the photos were horrible. Quite the opposite. Yasir, the photographer, did such a great job that my lack of confidence in posing in front of the camera melted into laughter and funny faces, as you can see below. And yet, after a day of flying on the cloud of ‘photogenic’ and ‘prettiness’, I was back in my lack of confidence mode. I didn’t want the blog postshowcasing my portfolio to be a ‘show off’ of who I am and what I look like.

Yasir is very quick in making ‘click’ decisions and that’s how this photograph came into being!

Spontaneity is an art and Yasir Saeed photography gets it right!

This one is my favourite!

This portfolio captures the various aspects of my expressive face. Go Yasir! Mind you, one doesn’t find me often in this ‘foul grimacing’ mood…

A soft, sweet face, a happy recovery from the photo above!

That’s the thing with us humans. We allow the monkey chatter to take over our minds, our psyche, so much so that we become so strangled and maimed with negativity and low self-esteem. We make assumptions that are so absurd and we take them to be our reality. With this kind of attitude, how are we to move forward to allow us to discover who we really are and take our rightful place in the world? After all, no one can take the place that we alone are meant to take.

So it is with great courage and much determination, that I’m posting this blog post (after all, isn’t this blog all about expressive arts and my face, according to the photos by Yasir above, show expressive-ness to the fullest!), regardless of being assailed by the ‘What if?’ questions from the monkey brain (you know, the ‘what if they don’t like it?’, ‘what if you become the laughing stock?’ I’m sure you’ve had those come up!). After all, wasn’t the photography stint a deliberate exercise in my facing the fear of being photographed and ‘being seen’? Another exercise in my own self-evolution, another way of looking fear and derision in the way and say, “Guys, that’s it. This is MY show. Back off!”?

May this blog post be a testimony of success. Success of the photoshoot. Success in adding a new member into my creativity circle (aka Yasir).  Success in fighting or befriending another fear, whose shadow has ceased to loom onto my determination to squash all other fears.

May this blog post be a testimony that you can do it. Fear and anger, these are all to be faced with courage, for no sooner that you do it, you find they escape into nothingness. And you are free to do anything you like.  Free to be photographed and actually love it.

On that note. Love to get over your fears in facing the camera, like I did? Try Yasir Saeed Photography. You won’t be disappointed. His own journey from the corporate world into the photography business is a testimony of passion and emotion of the ‘photogenic’ kind.

I made it to the Yasir Saeed photography business cards.