Ahlam Raffii
A couple holding each other close, caught in motion blur
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Meeting the horse in the low winter sun
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the best days,

Documented
The Way They Felt

Based in Bahrain · Available wherever you're going

A family lying together with their baby between them
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Hands held, rings close up
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unposed, always

There is no such thing as a natural photograph of someone being told to look natural. So I don't ask. I stay near, I stay quiet, and I wait for what was going to happen anyway.

The hand at the small of a back. The breath before the tears. Your mother straightening your collar in a doorway, not knowing anyone can see her do it.

Nearly everyone warns me in the first ten minutes that they are hopeless in front of a camera. Twenty minutes later they have forgotten I am holding one — and that is when the photographs start.

Galleries

Three rooms of work. Each one opens on its own page.

A hand reaching back for another against an open skyWeddings & Engagements A family standing together outdoorsFamilies & Motherhood A portrait in golden lightPortraits & Branding

Sessions & Prices

Everything arrives as a private online gallery of high-resolution files, yours to keep and print.

01

Weddings & Engagements

Booked by the hour, second photographer included on full days, and a walkthrough of the running order beforehand.

200 BHDan hour

02

Families & Motherhood

At home or outdoors, unposed, kids allowed to be kids. Most families book one or two hours.

140 BHDan hour

03

Portraits & Branding

Personal, editorial or brand portraits. One location, real direction the whole way through.

160 BHDan hour

let's find your day

Book A Date

  1. The date
  2. The shoot
  3. You
  4. Send
A sheet hung between the trees, and a mother dancing with her baby
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Choose Your Day

Crossed-out days are already taken. Pick any other one — nothing is booked or charged by choosing it, and I answer every request myself.

 

Available Someone is deciding Taken

No day chosen yetPick one from the calendar and it will appear here.

What are we photographing?

Everything is by the hour, so you only pay for the time you need.

Half hours are fine. Most sessions run one to three hours.
Total—

And you?

Just enough to reach you. Nothing goes anywhere else, ever.

Does this look right?

Nothing is booked and nothing is charged by sending this. I reply within two working days.

Total if we go ahead—

Payment is by Benefit, and only after I have confirmed the date is free. I hold a confirmed date for 48 hours while you pay.

thank you

It Is With Me

I have your request and a copy is on its way to your inbox. Your reference is .

  1. I check the date is still freeWithin two working days, personally, from contact@ahlamraffii.com.
  2. You get an invoiceWith the Benefit payment details. The date is held for 48 hours from then.
  3. You pay, I confirmA receipt arrives and the day is yours for good.
  4. We plan it togetherA phone call, or a coffee if you are nearby.
Have a look at the galleries

Meet Ahlam

hello, I'm Ahlam

I laugh too loudly at weddings. I cry at the speeches — every single time, without fail. And I have never once managed to stay out of a kitchen where something good is happening.

This is the job I wanted, and I still cannot quite believe I get to do it. People let me into the best days of their lives, and the ordinary ones too — a Tuesday morning with a new baby, a grandmother's hands, a child who will not sit still for anybody. I have met babies in the operating theatre before their own parents have held them, masked and trying to keep my hands steady. I do not take that lightly, not once.

The part nobody warned me about is how many of you I would end up keeping. Clients turn into friends here more often than not. I photograph a wedding, then a first baby, then a second. I get sent holiday photographs. I get invited to things. It is easily the best part of the whole business.

So if we work together, expect someone who is genuinely delighted to be there — because I will be.

Ahlam Raffii standing in a field with her camera
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Palms against a white wall, black and white
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Where I work

Bahrain, mostly.
Packed and ready otherwise.

Home is Bahrain and most of my year is spent here — the light at Bilaj Al Jazayer an hour before sunset, the quiet end of Sakhir, a courtyard in Muharraq, your own garden in the evening, or the corner of your sofa where everyone always ends up anyway. I know where to be and when.

But I travel gladly, and often. If you're marrying across the Gulf, eloping somewhere quiet, or flying your family somewhere that means something to you, take me with you. Travel inside Bahrain is included; anywhere further is quoted honestly — flights and a night's stay, nothing padded.

ManamaMuharraqRiffaAmwaj Bilaj Al JazayerSakhir The GulfEuropeWherever you're going