It's been awhile since I have written a blog post, I have been quite the busy bee here at Naheedence Photographic. As some of you may know I've been a full-time freelance photographer and videographer since 2006*

Now I have earned my first position as a full-time video production teacher! I am ready to share my knowledge with students. I remember my first cinema study class in high school. It really opened up my eyes, no pun intended, to the power of visual communication. After shooting my first short films I was hooked! I studied journalism and photography in college and the rest is history.

It's been quite the ride and I will share my experiences as a teacher on my blog, and my photography and videography.

I have heard teaching is like running a marathon, hopefully I will be on the winning end! (Eventually ;) I feel so lucky to have had hundreds of devoted clients through the years. I am so grateful and excited for this new adventure in my life.

Longterm I am hoping to hold photography and video workshops at my studio in the summer. I am still available for seasonal assignments, commissions and special projects. 

Cheers!

*Full-time except for when I raised my daughter for 2 years. During that time I worked part-time.

Hepp's Salt Micrommercial VideoCommercial produced in Los Angeles of Hepp's Salt based in Venice and Minnesota.

Exciting video projects are brewing at Naheedence this summer. I have several product micromercials lined up to shoot, produce and edit. Doing everything from start to finish is the best. My clients give me a basic idea and I come up with a storyboard for their commercial. I am looking forward to doing some voice over in my next production. Guess what?! Having me do it all saves you money! It also gives me the opportunity to produce quickly, turnaround time can be between 2-5 days and voila, a social media video creation by yours truly is delivered to your dropbox, inbox or flash drive.

Want a video to entice your prospective customers but don't have the time? Invest as little as $350 and I can create professional grade videos that stand out and look amazing. I work with customers locally and nationwide. I can provide you with the unique content you are striving for. Call or email for a quote today!

I look forward to working with you!

East Los Angeles Tourism Advertisement Short Form Video. For social media. Recently I created a video for a client to capture the eye of tourists visiting Los Angeles. Many people travel to LA without ever seeing "The Eastside". There are visitors out there who are searching for more than Hollywood tours and Disneyland.

Case in point, a couple I know visited from Australia last month had a one day layover. They visited a few places in their short time here: East LA's Boyle Heights to eat, Little Tokyo for a quick walk through and a bar in the Arts District. All of those areas are a quick drive or a 20-minute walk away from each other.

East LA is so culturally rich and flavorful it was hard to cover a lot in a one-minute video! I chose colorful Talavera tiles as the backdrop to my titles because of their beauty. You see them everywhere throughout East Los Angeles. Dancing and mariachi music are definitely part of the rich culture here. The music I chose, produced by Nomadico, is a perfect combo of traditional Latin music and the futuristic sounds of the pulsating city.

East LA is very close to Downtown Los Angeles, a 10-15 minute drive or 25-minute bus ride away. You may be surprised how many fireworks you hear year-round. Your tummy will be happy as you get fresh tacos outside and eat colorful pastries called sweetbreads. Driving through the city you will see Piñatas, palm trees and plenty of street art. I hope my video entices you to visit East LA!

Instagram has been around since 2010, oh how time flies. That is the same year my partner and I moved to LA from NYC. Eight years ago I thought Instagram was for the narcissistic selfie obsessed folks. It still is, but it's also a place where professionals share their photos. It took me a looooooong time to jump on the Instagram wagon, but now that I've been smuggled in I am enjoying sharing more images and video with the world! (My copyright of course ;) Follow me @naheedence for my latest posts.

Right now I am in the middle of a campaign to show how close I am to my photography gear. I take really good care of them and pamper them like I would any pet I owned. They are my pets, in fact. I like to take them out, have some fun, make sure they get enough rest and stay clean.

Therein lies the idea for this campaign. I am taking a metaphorical look at how close I am to my gear. Also, how they are so well coordinated. They help me tell stories. They bring my ideas to life.

The video above is from a photo session I did with Chef Mick from Cutthroat Kitchen and BBQ Rescues. We had a lot of fun and above is a nice taste of what was shot. The music is by Nomadico. I also sampled a snippet of music from Green Velvet at the end of the video, "cameras ready, prepare the flash!

lifestyle interior photograph of sink I love photographing high-end well designed spaces and products on location.  I shot the sink above at a home in Monrovia near Los Angeles. It's always exciting to work in a new space, I get to put all of my photography skills to work. Getting the light right in a new environment is the key part of the photography profession.

I brought along two Alien Bee 800 320 Ws lights, umbrellas for diffusion and my eye. My client, Allstone Group, was concerned with me capturing the detail of the beautiful sink in a "real" kitchen. They wanted me to show how it looks outside of a showroom. I shot at a narrow aperture to show off the fine details of the marble and outline of the leaf design. I did not want any of the details to get lost. 

My client was happy with the shot and that is another key part of my profession!

I am excited to announce I've launched #thediptychproject to the world of Instagram. You can follow me at my Instagram account, naheedence, and get daily photographs or video from your favorite pro. I am @naheedence to view online. You can also like me on Facebook for weekly updates.

Diptychs and triptychs allow you to have two or three images from the same shoot to show a similar idea in one image.

Right now I am displaying portrait sessions using two (sometime three) photos from one photo session. I will branch out with more imagery displaying all of the subjects I shoot: Products, architecture, weddings and more. Using several pictures in one image is a great way to tell a story.

As of today most of the photos displayed @thediptychproject were shot by yours truly. I did see another instagrammer post a couple of their diptychs and I hope it will expand to even more people. 

Following The Diptych Project I am working on some photo montages in the coming weeks. I have several ideas and they will be coming soon to my website and my social media accounts so stay tuned.

Above is a photo I shot of a bride the day after her Mehndi. She is pictured here saying a prayer during her Nikah. The Mehndi (aka henna) ceremony is before the Nikah. The Mehndi celebrates the beginning of a marriage with body art, members of the family and close friends mark their bodies in beautiful patterns. The Nikah is usually the following day.  During the Nikah the vows are said with a ring or valuables exchange and the couple is officially deemed married.

During a Muslim Rukhsati the bride is walked by her family to the groom's family with a Qur'an held over her head. The groom waits for her in the car and they drive away. They depart to their new life and the wedding is complete. Above the bride leaves the wedding reception with her family. These are truly the best times for me to shoot. They are candid, emotional moments, that can never be recreated.