Both Teri and Sam have had a difficult few years – and their wedding was a very emotional tribute to the delicate way life goes on without the loved ones who move on too soon.

Teri’s loud, demanding and motivated – and that’s the way our family makes us. Sam is funny and laid back – which makes these two a perfect pair.

Even though it snowed, sleeted and rained all day on Teri and Sam’s outdoor wedding plans, the whole thing came together beautifully. And really, that’s how life goes – we just have to make the best of it! 

More images to come.

Aubrey and Jon – have fun on your Honeymoon – your wedding was a blast.

Different than winter shoots for the holidays and back to school photos, spring is the perfect time for a relaxed session that celebrates this new year of your life.   Your family is more than just the photo on your holiday card. You are moving, flowing, growing – constantly progressing and changing. Are you preserving where you are, right now?

Growing up, our parents and families kept several bursting photo albums – tangible books with little slide-in compartments to save photographs that were actually printed!  These books told the stories of our lives, year by year. Unfortunately these days, those albums have disappeared. We’re of the mind that digital photography has been a great thing, but we also don’t want to forget to archive – to document and preserve.

That’s why we’re presenting a brand-new package for families of all kinds to conquer these issues. It’s called LIFE IN PROGRESS. And we’re extremely excited to present it to you.

       What’s included:

• 1.5hr family photo session at the location of your choice
• 20-page, 10″ x 10″ professional, archival  linen album of your favorite session images with the option to add additional pages
• 5 of your favorite images in digital format
• Digital slideshow to share with friends and family
• Online gallery for print ordering
• $375

Your album will be simple and beautiful – perfect for the coffee table, but solid enough to hold this year’s faces and giggles forever. The best part is, it doesn’t live on a computer or a flash drive. It can be held, shared, and enjoyed freely without worries of compatibility or screen resolution.

My beloved assistant Taylor adds:

If you’re at all like me, you might be a little short on inspiration for what to get your mother or grandmother for Mother’s Day each year. Going out for brunch is always nice, but in my case, with both mine and my husband’s family so far away, this isn’t usually possible. I often find myself struggling to come up with something both my mother and mother in law will love, but is equal in value. What could be better than presenting each of these ladies with a customized, archival album of some of their favorite people? 

She’s right! Which is why we’ll offer you the option of printing multiple copies of your album to share with the other special people in your life.

Contact us soon to discuss your Life in Progress session – Mother’s Day is coming up soon!

A friend of mine, who I have had the pleasure of photographing, mentioned that she’d like to see a post about before and afters – what a photo looks like SOOC (straight out of camera) and what it looks like when I deliver it to a client.

I’ve been working hard over the past couple of years to perfect my method – which means, I’ve tried to make the image right in camera, rather than having to fix something later. It takes time to learn your camera and to learn what light does…and what light does is what photography IS. It is all light.

Anyway, I’m going to share a couple of before and after shots with you, with a little explanation of why I chose to process the image the way I did. I am by no means the expert of all experts at image processing – but I have been able to nail down my specific style. I continue to learn new techniques each day.

What you should know:  I shoot every photograph in RAW. If you’d like to know exactly what RAW is and means, click here.  RAW files are basically negatives – digital negatives. They perform like a plain old film negative would. They need to be “developed” by a software program – their information must be deciphered and compressed in to a TIFF or JPG. Most digital SLR cameras can shoot in raw OR jpg – you can choose. While RAW files are simply shot, like film, inside your camera; JPG files are both shot and developed inside the camera. All of the decisions about what that image will look like are made by the camera’s settings. This isn’t a bad thing – but the difference is control. I want control. So I shoot everything RAW.

RAW files are just color and light data. I have my cameras programmed to produce the most basic file possible – I don’t let the camera do any color correction, profiling or compressing for me. I make those choices after the job is done. For small jobs, I’m able to process images individually, and for big jobs like weddings, I process them in bulk groups.

This allows me to choose the contrast and saturation levels of the image (something that is very specific with my style , and that I like to have complete control over) without losing any quality to the image. However, because of this, files right out of the camera are realllllllly dull looking – even if they are correctly exposed.

Now, on to a couple of images.

This image of Kate and Ed is dull out of the camera, but has the exposure I was going for. All I needed to do was apply a camera profile (In this case, I used a preset called VSCO Film in Portra 400), and set blacks and contrast. I thought the image was just a touch cold, so I changed the white balance just slightly to the warm side. For this particular set, I was able to edit several images at a time – as I took many in this location that needed the same color treatment.

This image of Ali and Luc was taken on a freezing cold, thick foggy day. They picked the location for this image – right in front of the ship’s helm. It’s really difficult to shoot on foggy days, because the light is so dull. Because of the light, once I put a camera profile on this image (VSCO Fuji 160) , I opened it in photoshop and darkened the background to make the couple stand out more. Even though I would have processed most of Ali and Luc’s images together in bulk, there are times when a formal photograph needs extra attention, on it’s own. Like this one.

The last image for today was shot for an album cover. Because it’s an image that will be printed large, I spent a bit more time working with it. Out of camera it has the exposure I was going for and the basic color. I developed the RAW file using VSCO Portra 160, and then opened the file in Photoshop. The client is a singer/band leader and this particular image is extremely stylized. Because of this, I touched up her curves and tucked some lines on her body and face – much more than I’d do for a portrait or wedding photograph. It’s got to be an attention-grabber. You’ll see a bit more hair, a bit less skin, brushed face and brightened eyes – but she’s still natural. That’s the key.

Again, it’s most important that you can take an image with your camera that looks good on the LCD. The more work you need to do to an image after you’ve got it on the computer, the more you’ll damage it’s integrity. However, being able to control the basics, like contrast, color balance and color profile is great for allowing you to have a particular style.

Maybe I’ll share more another day!

Mother Nature decided to play games with us and rain off and on all of the day of our scheduled shoot, so Kate kept me updated right up until the last minute on what the sky looked like. Thankfully, right about when our shoot was scheduled to start, the sun broke out of the clouds and blue sky spread across the bay area. It was the perfect afternoon.

The best thing about this couple so far? They do not take themselves too seriously. Kate has an infectious giggle and it wasn’t hard to get some real smiles out of these two!

Nice to meet you!

My name is Taylor, and I’m Nissa’s assistant at Nissa Nicole Photography.  My primary role as her assistant is to help make sure that Nissa’s schedule is running smoothly, so that she is able to focus more on the creative aspects of the business. While Nissa will be your main contact when booking a session, I may at times step in and assist when needed.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.  I’m happy to help where needed, and I can’t wait to meet you!

When Nissa suggested I start helping out with the blog, I was so excited. One of my favorite blogs is the blog of an assistant to a well-known cake decorator in NYC. I enjoy seeing the behind the scenes stuff as much as I enjoy the actual finished product, and I am hoping to follow that template when writing for this blog. What you can expect to see is anything from wedding ideas, tips for improving your photo shoot, behind the scenes looks at photo sessions, editing sessions and a lot more. Is there something you’ve always wanted to know about photography? Is there something you’d like to see on the blog? Drop me a note!

A little about myself- I am an East Coast transplant living in the South Bay. I have known Nissa for almost five years, and she is one of my dearest friends in the entire world. I am a passionate believer in her work, and she has been photographing my daughter (who is at press time 3.5) since birth. I received my BA in Media Studies from the University of San Francisco, and met my husband in San Francisco as well. For fun, I love creative activities like sewing, writing, and yes, even photography (though I am very, very novice).  I am also an animal lover with two dogs and two tortoises.  My next venture is learning to play the electric guitar my husband got me for Christmas – if I ever find the time!

He’s a happy little dude…with a good kitty friend who is always keeping an eye on him.

Something that is great about my Dad is that when you suggest something to him, he doesn’t just do it – he pushes it to the limit. I woke up one morning to a cup of coffee and a map outstretched on the table with little dots in the places where he’d found standing red barns.

We had a lot of fun journeying out in to the middle of nowhere to search for barns with a paper map.

The last day of our visit in Wisconsin, it snowed a beautiful, delicate layer over everything. A few old buildings were just itching to be photographed. 

From start to finish, their day was full of happiness (Alison didn’t get upset ever, even when her flowers came with soaked, damaged ribbons!).

Because Luc is a real Sailor (he drives those gigantic container ships you see rolling in under the Golden Gate Bridge) and the couple lives on a boat, their wedding was on the water. The ceremony was at the tiny…and I MEAN TINY (but super cute) Fisherman and Seamen Memorial Chapel at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, and the reception was on a boat just off the pier.

It was a cloudy and cold San Francisco day, but the couple and their party were champs – even when we took our last formal photos at the roof of the boat, in the windy sea air.

Good luck, Ali and Luc!

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