She covers her hair with a hijab, or a stocking cap, or sometimes a helmet. She has sharp eyes and a sly smile. But probably the most striking thing about Noor is how calm she is in the face of chaos.
As we got out of the car in a bombed-out neighborhood during that first trip, she led us around like we were on a tour. We started to hear shelling and gunfire, but Noor was unfazed.
"We're not even close to the front line yet," she said.
She walked us to what she called the back of the front line. It was the backside of a building. The only thing separating us from the front line was the building.
We started asking questions about a guy who was killed the day before. Turns out Noor knew him. He had been part of a team of rebel fighters, known as the Free Syrian Army, which helped pull the body of an old man out of some rubble. A government sniper had shot the man in the chest and killed him.
Noor says the rebel fighter provided cover by shooting at the government sniper. "At the same moment, two rebels ran into the street, dragged the body, and that's it."
Noor photographed the whole thing — the body of the old man being dragged out and the rebel who was shooting to provide cover. Now the rebel shooter is dead.
As we walked through the rubble of the ruined streets, she remembered him — her voice showing no emotion.
"He went to see his family last Saturday ... and then he came back here the next day. And he died," she said.
An Accidental War Photographer
It's this kind of experience that gives Noor credibility with the rebels in Aleppo. It means they give her access, and good access means good pictures.
When the Syrian uprising started nearly two years ago, Noor was a recent college graduate teaching English in a private school.
Protests kicked off around the country, but not the northern city of Aleppo, Noor's hometown.
That's because the business-minded city was more concerned with survival than politics. Noor says she'd go to protests that lasted only five minutes.
Then some in the protest movement took up arms, and last summer those rebel fighters brought the fight to Aleppo. At first, Noor did what she calls "woman things" — cooking for the rebels.
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