i got a wonderful surprise when canon (the little white fluffy friend) dashed into my office half estatic and excited and half trembling with fright haha. it rained that day so we had to hide under the shelter and shot along the corridor. it was definitely lots of fun and i thank velda & the family for engaging me to photograph their family portraits. especially when they take one every 10 years lol! 

one good thing about my neighbourhood at my office area, is that even though i was standing in the middle of the road, with an umbrella clenched in my neck and camera in one hand, the cars actually patiently stopped and waited for me to be done - can you believe it?! they didn’t even horn me :D wow, just amazing! i love tiong bahru even more ;)

# shot on film

here are some behind the scene pictures of the portrait session with wendy. many thanks to sel who took the photos <3 haha the last picture taken by sel are some portraits that were taken in chiangmai. would you buy them? would love to hear your thoughts :)

the boys were away, so we scheduled a shoot! this is part one of a series of shoots that wendy will be doing with me all the way till the little one arrives :D at this moment, when we were snapping away, we didn’t yet know if the little “lemon” (says the doctor) was a boy or a girl but we were all extremely excited anyway. truly, every child is a miracle!

i suggested to wendy to write a love letter to her baby before she found out the next day whether the little one was a boy or a girl and what were her wishes and words of love for him/her. i read about this idea on the internet and i feel like it’s something so special.

it seems so long to hold a life in one’s womb for 9 months or so and dealing with so much discomfort and what nots that this precious moments of photographing each phase and writing a letter would remind us of the incredibleness of it all and when this phase is over, you’d have all these photos and words to bring you back to that moment. 

oh and when wendy, all excited, showed her hubby the photographs - marcus clapped. haha now i know he’s one who has really high photography standards and i’m not trying to downplay my photography but i believe that the portraits of wendy and his little one encompassed all their hopes, faith, joy, love, struggles and bond as a couple and these are the photographs that have the most meaning and emotion and i aim to beautifully capture their journey…

www.nicolethen.com (info@nicolethen.com)

before-after shot

alright, it’s about time i announce the student-collection for nicolethen studio! here are some of my favourite shots of shinyee. it was one fun shoot and this time we got a little time to head outdoors for a bit to shoot in the sun. she looks simply stunning <3 love it lots :D

you know me, i LOVE photographing real girls!! everyone has lots of fun on the shoot, we have a good laugh, i get to spot-bring out-then capture your beauty (even if you don’t believe or see it…YET!) and i absolutely love telling girls how beautiful they truly are. so please, don’t think you have to look like a model to come to the shoots ok!! just come ;)

so here’s the deal, you have to be a student to shop the student collection of course ;) your student pass will be requested upon booking! all portrait sessions for the student collection will be conducted in-and-around the studio only and on weekdays!

drop me an email at info@nicolethen.com with the subject header [double book me - student special!] to qualify for this special, share with me your name/contact, who you’re doing the shoot with and why! plus any queries or things you’d like to share with me :) i look forward to hearing from you girls!!

* ps. want to hire shinyee as a model, drop me an email too! teehee

i saw a couple of tweets from peeps in the US saying “happy mothers’ day” and i kind of freaked out. like erm…isn’t mother’s day in May? i double checked with google, and wikipedia said it was in May so phew…haha, not sure what’s going on in the US though. but anyway, remember how i shared there’ll be a special booking voucher for nicolethen studio. that will be announced in March? YES!! I made it :) haha with a couple of days left to march.

moving into the new studio while still handling all the assignments and day-to-day work of running a photography company was pretty daunting but exciting too! and i have yet to explain why i’ve moved into a studio environment. well, to me, my business is a discussion between you girls and myself. and i must say i have such wonderful people who truly understand and respect why i charge what i charge and yet are honest about how they feel about the pricing. 

my work has always been known as on-location shoots in scenic places that i have sourced but i found that it requires a good 2-3 hours of preparation before the shoot to reccee, spot & plan locations, check the lighting, traveling to those places and then if i want to bring props to the shoot (which i love to do so), i need to book a cab and also get an assistant to help me take care of our things that are left in a public space while we walk off a few meters to shoot. so by moving in-studio, it saves a TON of time and traveling/assistant fees and thus allowing me to provide a service at a price point that works for all of us!

i know i said that shooting in a studio set up is not my ideal location and when i say that, i’m referring to the white backdrop and flash lights. but now, when i invite you to an in-studio session with me, think of it as i’m inviting you to my crib! i shot a maternity shoot with wendy the other day and she commented how i made the little studio room look so much more spacious in photographs. so yup, let’s make this a new term and definition! when you think nicole’s studio, don’t think of white backdrops and stuff but think of this little white quaint room with cute furniture and natural lighting and a beautiful alley way to play around with ;)

this shoot i did with my mom was done in nicole’s studio (haha ok, weird i’m referring to myself in the third person but i’m just referring to this room/space) and i just thought it was something really special to give my mom beautiful portraits of herself because she is beautiful and i just want her to remember that ;) after she had seen all the photographs and i had uploaded it on my ipad, she excitedly showed it to my dad who genuinely exclaimed that he had a taiwanese actress as a wife and it made my mom blush with delight. i couldn’t have been happier <3 

so i took the last shot, which is a before-after shot, just to show you how i coaxed and directed my mom into a shot that brought out her beauty. to me, photographing portraits of the ladies, is not just about a cool shot, but about removing anything that distracts you away from their beauty. when you look at her portrait, you must see her first and that she is beautiful!

mother’s day is coming, so schedule in a session with you and your mom! it’ll be a special gift, we’ll do individual portraits but take some time to photograph the both of you together. if you’re a mommy yourself, it’s time for a pampering session - bring your own mom/ bring another mommy-friend (then get the hubby to take care of the kids) / etc. of course, other then just mommy-sessions, if you just want to come in and get beautiful portraits of yourself with your girlfriends, just double book me too!

drop me an email at info@nicolethen.com with the subject header [double book me] to qualify for this special, share with me your name/contact, who you’re doing the shoot with and why! plus any queries or things you’d like to share with me :) i look forward to hearing from you girls!!

# and thank you for reading to the end of this post!! haha

the last time Crystal did a photoshoot was for her pre-wedding shoots some time back and what she really needed was a passport photo but she decided to get some beautiful portraits of herself along the way too! she came all ready with a gorgeous newly done hair dyed in shade of plum that just glowed in the sun.

i love photographing everyday girls, there’s always this excitement for the shoot that just makes the whole experience something fun and punctuated with lots of laughs. and Crystal has one of those low-laugh-tolerance haha, it’s really easy to make her break out into a beautiful smile. 

the other best part? other then capturing crystal’s beauty? was when she brought the photographs home and shared them with her hubby. i got a text from her sharing with me home mesmerised her husband was the entire night! (hope you don’t mind me sharing it crystal! haha)

sometimes our lens get foggy or dusty or dirty and we forget our beauty but it’s sessions like these when the lens is made crystal clear and you can see in true reflection how beautiful you really are!!

to loving ourselves *clink* i think girls totally deserve it ;)