Change in NBP Services

Happy Labor Day, Lovelies!!

August 4^th marked one year since I've done my first wedding as primary photographer. It was a rush and great responsibility, but it was fun and rewarding in the end. In the past year, I have had a number of clients and potential clients asking if I perform engagement or wedding photography. Though it was a fun experience, unfortunately, I have officially taken a number of things OFF my list of services.
Due to time restraints, I do not have the ability to dedicate the time

• Wedding services (including engagement sessions)
• Family portraits 
• Senior sessions
• Boudoir Shoots
• Heads Shots
• Professional Promos

All of my clients deserve the best product and dedication and to your shoots, however, I cannot currently devote that, and do not want anyone to feel neglected. That is why I have complied a list of Cincinnati-based photographers I trust can deliver exactly what your request is worthy of.
(In no particular order.)

• Danielle Sawyers - Vignette Studios
• Nikki Petty - Nikki Petty Photography
• Jesse and Macy Fox - Fox Weddings
• Stephanie Jane - Stephanie Jane Photography
• David and James - MK Photography
• Brian Ambs – Brian Ambs
• Stacey Downey – Stacey Downey Photography
• Nikita Gross – Nikita Gross Photography

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me and I'll help as much as I can. nicolebergerphotography@gmail.com

Teamwork

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to work with wonderful photographer (and best friend) Bethany Puterbaugh. For this project I worked as Art Director on-set and post-production retoucher off-set. Check out some of the shots:

Photographer: Bethany Puterbaugh
Assistant: Khoi Minh Nguyan
Model: Leah Cultice
MUA: Lydia Brock
Stylist: Beth Hitchcock

Photographer: Bethany Puterbaugh
Assistant: Khoi Minh Nguyan
Model: Leah Cultice
MUA: Lydia Brock
Stylist: Beth Hitchcock

Photographer: Bethany Puterbaugh
Assistant: Khoi Minh Nguyan
Model: Leah Cultice
MUA: Lydia Brock
Stylist: Beth Hitchcock

Sticks & Stones May Break Your Bones, but Charlie Will Kill You

The haunting season is upon us; yes you know the time of year when stores are stocking up on candy and dentists are eagerly awaiting all the cavities they’ll have to fill. Spider webs, though hated any other time of year, are being used as decoration on front hedges and windowsills. Yes, it’s the time of year of treats being the bargaining tool to save yourself from tricks and orange and black are the colors we dawn out of tradition. It’s a bittersweet time of year, but the time of year The Dent Schoolhouse prepares for.

The Dent Schoolhouse © Nicole Berger 2012

Located on Harrison Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dent has been an attraction for over two decades, but was an actual schoolhouse until it was closed in the 1950’s. Known for the story of its murderous janitor, Charlie. According to the tale, students taunted Charlie before they’d suddenly gone missing in 1942 and were never found until 1955 in Charlie’s basement dead.

Charlie the Janitor © Nicole Berger 2012

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Calling Out for Help

As of February 6, I am going to be entering a photo competition called “In Your Dreams” put on by PhotoPlace Gallery. I had begun a project based on a number of reoccurring nightmares I began to experience in 2010 and will be submitting 5 images to the gallery in hopes of being selected; however, I need help selecting my top photos.

© Nicole Berger 2010-2011

If you could please take a moment and click on the image above, you will be taken to my Facebook Fanpage and the corresponding album consisting of photos you can choose from – please ‘like’ your TOP 5 ONLY.

Thank you so much for helping me with this.

Didem Mert – Sculpture, Potter, and Printmaker

There’s some about a simple project that helps someone out and gets me shooting that just makes me feel well rounded.

During my last semester, I took a ceramics class to fulfill one of my final degree requires, and during that class I got to know an advanced ceramics student, Didem Mert. Didem is a Cincinnati-based artist attending NKU to earn a BFA degree in ceramics. She asked me if I would be interested in taking photos of her work to put on her website and submit to shows – naturally I agreed and met her on campus one evening for a shoot. She did a large collection of mugs (that I actually helped remove from the kiln not even knowing they were hers), and the final glazes came out pretty beautifully.

© Nicole Berger 2012

© Nicole Berger 2012

© Nicole Berger 2012

To see more about Didem’s work, check out her website: DidemMert.com

Graduation and Personal Projects

Things feel quite different now that I’m out of school completely. A college graduate – something I’m not quite sure I ever planned to hear or expected to say, but that’s what I am. A “professional” photographer, or at least in the process of becoming; I’m no longer a student, but officially trying to make a living through photographs.

I began a personal project mid-semester last year I’ve titled “Ink’d” and it’s surrounded around the idea of tattoos. This was something that has interested me all my life, but something I never took into deep consideration for a very long time. Why? I’m not sure, but I think it was intimidation of people with tattoos – guilty of getting caught up in the stigma or stereotype of people with tattoos being arrogant or mean – because everyone knows if you have a tattoo you’re automatically a “badass” no one wants to mess with, right? Cue my sarcasm.

It has only been in the past few years (with the increase interaction with people with tattoos) that I’ve learned how down right ignorant I was and that it was my own made up conclusion that tattoos were some kind of taboo to get near. Secretly, I’ve always wanted one, and now I admittedly want four, and it’s because that stereotypical bias has been broken that I feel comfortable in saying I have the belief, tattoos are the second skin you grow into over time – and showcasing that is why I wanted to do this project.

A work in progress and something I want to keep as an on-going personal project, in two months, I photographed 22 people and as soon as I have space available, will be shooting more.

© Nicole Berger 2011

To see the project: Nicole Berger Photography

Summer Workshop

Originally, I decided to take this summer workshop so I could be that much closer to graduation, but that changed once I realized how helpful this workshop is actually going to be for me in the end.

I was talking to a friend of mine about how much we don't really know about our cameras when we walk into Photo I. Personally, I realized a while back that when I didn't know anything about my camera - merely played with the options to see what it could it do, I got "better pictures."

I use this loosely because I know most of those photos were awful, the subject matter was soft, if not downright uninteresting to say the least, but that photo was better because it was different.

Instead of doing something pointed and ridged, I was actually just having fun. Sometimes it's nice to just take a picture, look at the back of your camera, and go, "Damn! I didn't know it could do that!" I can't speak for anyone else, but I feel wide-eyed and curious all over again.