Hey, I'm Nicole
FAMILY, MATERNITY, & CHILDHOOD PHOTOGRAPHER · MORRIS COUNTY, NJ
I'm a multi-passionate mom and wife, a deep thinker and feeler, and a noticer of the things most people rush right past.
I love a crisp fall morning outside, whether that's an early run on my own or a slow walk with my family. I've been an athlete my whole life and staying active is how I keep both my mind and body at its best, whether that's a run, an Orangetheory class, or lifting in my garage listening to a random assortment of 2000s punk rock, today's indie/pop folk, or 2010s techno that takes me back to my college days. I could eat peanut butter and banana toast with a touch of cinnamon and agave everyday for the rest of my life and not think twice.
I believe there is no such thing as a coincidence, in the little beautiful nudges and signs from the universe, and that we are connected in more ways than meets the eye. By day I work in health tech at a mental health startup where my work is super analytical, precise, and data-driven. Photography helps light up the other side of me that longs for a little more creativity and freedom.
I lost a parent at the start of adulthood, and it shaped everything about the way I see motherhood. It's why I hold each moment a little tighter as a mom myself, and why I care so much about the moms I photograph. I want you to have these keepsakes now, while you're right in the middle of it. And I want your kids to have them one day too. A way to look back and be reminded of exactly how loved they were.
The photo you'll come back to is almost never the posed one
Here's what I've figured out pretty quickly… the image you'll return to years from now is rarely the one where everybody was looking at me, smiling on cue.
It's the in-between. Your kid burying their face in your shoulder. The look you and your partner catch when you think nobody's watching. The belly laugh that shows up two seconds after the meltdown.
So I’ll be there the whole time, watching patiently… waiting for the small, seemingly insignificant moment that turns out to be the one you’ll keep.
I'm right in the middle of it too
mom to mom
I’ve had a daily meditation practice for over a decade and taught yoga for five years, so I walked into motherhood thinking I already understood presence. Then it broke me open in a way I didn't see coming.
It’s the most beautiful, chaotic thing I know… the highs higher than I thought possible, the lows sitting right next to them. Some days I barely have time to throw my hair up before running out the door. The clutter creeps back over the house by 10:00 no matter how hard I try. Keeping myself emotionally regulated between the noise, clutter, and never-ending to-do list feels like a marathon some days. And somewhere in there I realized I’d nearly stopped existing in our own photos.
So I get it, because I’m living it. I’m not walking into your session expecting you to have it all together because I sure don’t either. But it’s exactly why I want to be there: to help you actually be in it, and to catch these moments for you and with you while these days are still here.
The daily practice that keeps me going of noticing the good stuff as it’s happening before it’s gone, is the same thing I bring to every session. Because even on the hard days, maybe especially then, this is the most fleeting time there is.
My why
I've been into photography for longer than I can remember.... I bought a DSLR in early high school, taught myself Photoshop and Lightroom along with coding back in the Myspace days (am I showing my age yet ha). But for years I carried it around feeling like an imposter, like I had the tools but gave myself no permission to jump into it for real.
The day it hit me..
My son was running up and down the hallway with our dog, both of them losing their minds and bouncing off one another. I was pregnant with my daughter at the time, and I turned to my husband and said, "I feel nostalgic for right now.... I wish I could pause time".
Present moment
I knew everything was about to change again. Another little person, a whole new version of us, again. And in that moment I wanted so badly to bottle that exact second; the sound of it, the way my son and dog looked mid run barreling down our hallway, the laughter echoing throughout the room, and how it felt to be standing in the midst of it.
My gift to you
I can't bottle time for you either, but I can hand you the next best thing: a capture of the ordinary, in-between moments you were fully present for. All so that years from now you can open them up and get pulled right back to how it all felt.
