Joni & AJ Engagement

Yesterday, took some engagement photos for Joni and AJ. They are getting married August 1st. Woot! I also might be the photographer at their wedding too... but we'll see. :)

Yesterday was an annoyingly sunny and windy day, but I got some pretty good shots.

Also, my mom came to town yesterday so I took some pics of her. :)

Busy busy...

So I've been actually getting out there and DOING some photography lately. Now... I know I'm a lazy person and all that, but the satisfaction of taking a good picture motivates me to take more good pictures.


I photographed Jessica and Dave's wedding on February 14th. Jess is a friend from high school and such a sweet, lovely girl!!! I'm so thankful she let me photograph her wedding... and with no previous experience. Honestly, I didn't enjoy the wedding part. It's too fast-paced and stressful for me. But I absolutely loved doing the Bridal shots. Here are a few from before the wedding, the ceremony, the reception, and the bridal shoot:

The day after the wedding, I also photographed this lovely lady name Lisa. I met her though Model Mayhem (which is such a nifty website). We took some pictures here in Midwest City at a park right next to some railroad tracks. The pictures turned out better than I could have hoped for and Lisa was a pleasure to work with. Here are a few photos from our shoot:

I'm trying to take a small break for now, but I have several more people interested in my services... so I'll be going back to taking more pictures soon. :)

Been a While

I have not posted in this thing for far too long...

My latest adventures in photography have been few and spread out.

I got a new camera over the summer:

Not brand new, but still much better than what I was using: Fujifilm Finepix s9000.

Took a small bunch of pictures of both of my sisters, Taleah and Lena. Lena's where part of her senior pics. We drove to downtown OKC to the Myriad Gardens the first time. The second time, we went downtown again, but to a random little park on the street. Here a few unedited pictures:

We had a good time and got many nice pictures. Now that it's fall, I intend to take Lena out for some lovely pictures with the colorful autumn trees in the background.

A few other people expressed interest of having their Senior Pics done by me. I have at least two weddings to do in the next couple of years, maybe three. And I just recently took Halloween photos for Walgreens. Here's a preview:

The last one was Corpse Bride and definitely my favorite costume of the night. =] I think all the pictures could have been 10x awesomer if I had control of the lighting rather than just the store lighting. hehe But they weren't bad.

Latest Photo Shoot

So yesterday I felt like shooting photos of my twin sister Taleah.

It was a mess. We are so ghetto.
Note to self: Buy lighting equipment.

What happened was this:
Taleah dressed up in "punk" clothing with bright pink make-up and cute pigtails.
I set-up the lights. One behind her, one in front to the left, and another in front on the right.
The lights were 3 desk lamps (see? Ghetto!).
My little sister Lena helped too. We propped the lighting on laundry baskets since we don't have tall lamps or light stands.

All-in-all... it was pretty pathetic, time-consuming, and tiring.

It took forever to convert her bedroom into a "studio". And I don't have actual paper or anything for the background... we used a wall which has a really annoying texture.

Anyways... I took TONS of photos. It was slow-going, but I got some good ones. Also got some with one of her kitties too. Very cute.

I'll post pics on my DeviantArt soon.

My Photographic History

I started photography in 9th grade with a $40 point-and-shoot. Sad, I know. As it was my first time in the darkroom, I was completely awful and clumsy. Regrettably, yet expectedly, I barely passed with a C. The only thing I took away from that disheartening experience was that I learned to operate a darkroom and other processes need to know to develop a roll of film.

I hated photography at that point.

The following year, on my 16th birthday, my parents bought me a my first digital camera: a Nikon Coolpix 3200. Wasn't too shabby at the time, but definitely not a camera for a pro.

At the time, I wasn't a pro, of course. Not even close. But with that little camera in my hand, I felt something. A certain excitement, a fascination, an oncoming obsession. I took pictures of family and friends for the most part. Lots of pictures. That summer, my family took a trip to California. Now... I live in Oklahoma. Oklahoma, to me, is friggin' boring and doesn't have a whole lot of appeal to one who likes taking photos. California... THAT was a beautiful place. The beach, the palm trees, everything. So there began my first "artistic" shootings.

When school began, it was my junior year and I got into an AP art class. I took pictures mostly of things around the house. My concentration ended up being on stairs. I didn't really pick stairs for any reason except that I happened to have lot of pictures of stairs. Also, my pictures were all heavily edited... my teacher said "color and design" were important... so I worked on it. And I made a score of 4 out of 5. I was very proud of myself.

Also, during this time, I signed up for a DeviantArt account. If you are an artist and you do NOT have a dA, GET ONE. I stress this because I found that DeviantArt is an amazingly helpful site for upcoming artists. I believe it was that site that pushed me to do better and made me the photographer I am today. I kid you not... whoever made that site is a genius. They have plenty of art for you to study and analyze, other artists of all levels to give you feedback on your work, helpful educated people ready to give advice, resources (such as stock photos, program applications, etc.), and much more. What they say about their site is as follows:

"Join the largest art community in the world! As a member, you can collect favourites, submit art, and track your friends and favourite artists. "

Now... back to ME. ;) My senior year, I decided to take another AP art class. My aim was to get a 5 this time. My concentration... on love.














(This HDR photo taken with Fujifilm Finepix S9000)

My nikon coolpix camera, at this time, was working very poorly. Very, very poorly. All my pictures came out purple! But lucky for me, I had a job and had saved up enough money for a new camera.

I knew nothing about cameras. I did a little research, but definitely not enough. I found that people seemed to want cameras with a high number of megapixels. And I thought I should get one that takes "fast" pictures. So for those couple foolish reasons, I bought myself a $500 Fujifilm Finepix S9000. If only I knew more... *shakes fist* ... things would have been different. I am really not too keen on that camera these days. *sigh*

Now, a whole year later. I have the same camera. Though, I have gotten 1000X better.

Oh, and I got another 4 on my AP art test. I was quite pissed about this first, but, now, I think that the people grading those tests are just laughably incompetent retards. They can't tell the difference between somebody with a skilled and passioniate understanding of photography and somebody who quickly snapped a few photos in a day. Okay... I'm not saying I'm that good or anything. I know that I have so much, still, to learn and many weaknesses to conquer. But in the one year between which I took those tests, I improved just SO much... I developed a whole different way to view the world. Oh well...

So... we're up to date now. I'm taking a college Photography course. B&W film. And I am learning so much. In just two classes, I finally understand how to work a 35 mm. Before this, I usually set the camera on Auto. Gosh, I am so ashamed. :p The only reasons my pictures turn out pretty good is because of the postwork I do on photoshop. I've always loved that nifty program. The camera I am using now belongs a friend of mine. It's a Canon EOS Rebel GII. I like it so far.

Anywho... I want a new camera. I guess some kind of Nikon or Canon. Doesn't make a damn difference to me. I guess the new cameras Nikon is coming out with seem alright... the D3 and D300. But that's not the part I'm excited about... I desperately want some lenses! Wide angle, macro, telephoto... that's right.... I want 'em all. Starting with a wide angle... *drools*

After I get that, I still need lighting equipment as well as background stuff, filters... oh, and a studio! Ha! I wish.

A beginning...

I decided to create a blog to document things in my life that are related to photography... or are important/interesting.

Hopefully if you're reading this, you already know that I am Nadia and am passionate about photography. You may not know, however, that I am 18, I love video games, and squirrels rock my socks. =)

I have been into photography for about three years now. I just began college and am taking three classes at the moment: Photography I, Photoshop I, and Astronomy... and photography is most definitely my favorite. Though, I am also a big fan of photoshop too. And I stars are pretty so I guess I really like astronomy too. Man, I have it good this semester.

This, I hope, is the first of many posts... feel free to comment. I won't bite.