Umamah Tarvala Photography

26/12/2021

First batch of photos from the Christmas event :) The rest of the photos will be up this weekend - make sure you've liked the page to get notified!

24/12/2021

First batch of photos from the Christmas event!

24/12/2021

09/11/2021

Receiving my scroll 👩🏻‍🎓yes my name got butchered. But I also submitted the phonetic spelling of my name as “ooh-mar-mar … mar pronounced much like the word far…” guess I got what I asked for

20/10/2021

I’m posting this photo because behind it, I felt a bunch of emotions I fought to contain in the moment. At my graduation earlier this year, parents were not allowed in the hall due to COVID-19 restrictions, but my family were in my heart every step of the way to collecting my scroll.

Whilst sitting here, in my photographer mind I saw a little clip of a flip book, with snapshots of major life events that have brought me to where I am today. I thought of the bumps I had been through, and the times I thought I’d never make it alive (reminder: I grew up in endz) let alone graduate as a Doctor. I thought of the times where I lost my peace of mind and thought I’d never regain a quality of life worth living. I thought of the lengths my Ammi had gone through in order to ensure I was educated about my faith, but also educated about the world in many aspects, such that I could gain the sort of experiences and knowledge that wasn’t entirely possible for her. I thought about the dips in my life, without which I wouldn’t have learnt the valuable lessons that I share today. I thought about what it means to me and my family that now I am here, as a responsible adult, passionate about using my skills to help better human life. I felt inspired. I felt ready. I felt brave.

Now, I don’t know if the above captures half of what I felt then, but basically, this picture was an emotional moment. Yeah.

17/10/2021

Since becoming a Doctor, I’ve had a few parents ask me for medical school advice on behalf of their children. When I was starting out medical school, I wanted to know how to score well in my exams and how to ace my assessments whilst bulking my portfolio for later down the line. I took lead roles at university and joined a bunch of societies, going above and beyond. We’ll, let’s just say I was both fortunate and unfortunate (depending on how you see it) realising early on my journey the importance of good mental health and well-being. Once you lose that, it’s so difficult to be able to to excel in other areas of your life. I suppose this is easier to believe genuinely once it’s you who has been through it. Therefore the advice that I give to parents is vague. I remind them to encourage their children to look after themselves and to establish a study style that works for them - I often get a shocked facial expression in return. I vaguely had this advice from my brother and then-good friend, but I didn’t feel it until I had my first major fall. Remember that academics is a part of your life - it isn’t your life. Take care of yourself first and everything else will fall into place iA.

09/08/2021

WFH this morning, now on the way to my final day of induction ☺️ Doctors Mess Ball (Surrey) photographs are now live on my page Tarvala.com

19/07/2021

🪄 Harry Potter themed super formal, which I shot a while back on my beginner camera 📸

19/07/2021

Here is a selection of photographs I took at an event celebrating medical students being halfway into their studies 📸

03/07/2021

Wolfson College Winter Ball - a selection of images from the album (full batch of photos on my Facebook photography page Tarvala.com)

27/06/2021

Throwback to when my photography for St Hugh’s College Ball got published in their magazine 📸 It was such a fun event to photograph! Swipe to see some photos from the evening 😁