Portrait Shoot :: Marissa

I am so privileged to be able to work with such amazing people! Marissa and I went to school together years ago and hadn't seen or talked to each other in probably 8 or 9 years, but it felt like two old friends catching up after just a few months of not seeing each other. Crazy right? loL

Destination: London

Is anyone watching the Olympics? I'm excited to watch the track & field and swimming competitions! I left London about 3 or 4 days before the games started, but that didn't stop me from having the most amazing experience!

The Tower Bridge - London, England

The Weather is quite "Lovely"

I have so much to write and talk about, yet so little free time to type. My stay in Ireland is over and now I've moved on to Great Britain's, London! Mom and I flew in from Dublin and are staying with a fav. cousin of ours, Sony, while we're here :). We just got in this afternoon so we will start our journey of exploring the city tomorrow (after we have crumpets and tea of course). I can't wait! Don't be surprised if I come home with a wanna-be British accent loL

xoxo

Portraits in Practice

The other week I had the pleasure of working with a dear friend of mine, Lachelle James, who is leaving for New York City in a few days for an amazing internship with a top fashion designer! I wanted to hang out with her and have her style a "just for fun" photo shoot before she left. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed catching up before she departs! I wish her the best during her internship, I can't wait to visit!!! :-D

Destination: Ireland

I'm havin' great craic (Irish term for "fun") out here in Ireland! Lots of touring, laughing, talking, and picture taking. Tomorrow we attend the 1st of the three day convention, "Safeguard Your Heart" and I couldn't be happier. The weather here has been sunny for the past few days, I can't believe it. It is so beautiful here. Cool, calm, peaceful, and so green, I could definitely picture myself living here. Everyone I've met thus far is extremely peaceful and nice and the scenery here is breath taking!

Destination: Ireland

The countdown starts now! Just three more days until I'm jet setting off to the land of green (which is just my first stop). I can't wait to make great new memories! 

C.R.U.S.H.

Alright, so what do I find attractive? Physically speaking...a great upper body! A dude that has muscles and clearly works out, but isn't so big and muscular that that is all you see - a big chest and huge arms. Most of the guys I've liked and dated have been slim, but actively work out so in my opinion they have nice "medium sized" muscular arms, a strong upper body and of course a nice pack ;-) (abs).

I like guys and don't discriminate, but the last time I found a white guy attractive physically AND liked their conversation...? I think I was 11 or 12. So I was a little shocked when he walked through the door and immediately, I wanted to know who he was. A 6'2, dirty blonde, bluish/hazel eyed, slim, yet muscular white guy. Thinking to myself, "hmmm he's cute." His roomate and my friend introduces everyone in the room one by one. He says "Hello. Nice to meet you all." WHAT?! Woah, woah! Wait a minute. WAIT. A. MINUTE. You're British?!...I'm smitten. loL!

I've been told I'm a flirt and a heart breaker (I don't think that's the case, but if you happen to be the one who's heart I broke let me just say I sincerely apologize and it was completely unintentional). I have no intentions to do anything with this guy, but for real he's a cutie! I strike up conversation immediately because, I'm going to London in the next few weeks and it's common ground convo. DUH! I ask, he answers. He asks, I answer. I could listen to him all day.

We all head out to eat dinner. Our initial group of 8 quickly turns into 4 after some decide to go somewhere else for dinner. Oh well. It is he, two friends, and myself. We go somewhere good a cheap lol. Unfortunately (but not so unfortunate) we have to wait for about 30 - 45 min. before we're seated. We're all practically starving! But this does give everyone time to get to know each other a little better. "How old are you guys?" we all answer 22. "Ahh man, you guys are making me feel young." "Well, how old are you," I ask. "How old do you think I am?" We all guess, between 20 and 24. "18."

Haha! Come on, stop it. Seriously? "You look like you're at least 22." I guess it's because of his height. Could also be the first impression he set. He seems quite mature. The pure fact of knowing he is 4 years younger than I am would usually immediately put my wanting to explore things to an abrupt halt! Why didn't it happen this time? Let me just clarify, I have no intention of exploring anything with anyone right now. But I found myself continuing to "slightly" look for him this weekend while we were at the conference. Weird.

I'm assuming this is what you would call a crush? loL. I am too old to be talking about crushes I think. But like I said, he's a cutie, has a lovely voice and yes has that upper body that I find attractive. Oh well, the conference is over and I enjoyed the weekend. Maybe our paths will cross again sometime, but if not, it was very nice meeting him.

xoxo,
Nina

BRAND NEW PROMO VIDEO!

I am so freakin' excited to show this off! The amazing Javier Fick was my videographer and a joy to work with! I've been a fan of his work ever since I'd met him, well over a year ago now, so it was a dream to finally get together to shoot this video with him!

Nina Grace Photography - Senior Portrait Session from Javier Fick on Vimeo.

Long Time No See...

Geez! It's been soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long since I've last posted. I'm sorry ya'll, but a LOT has happened (good and bad) and I just couldn't bring myself to talk about anything to anyone. I'd rather not dwell on the negative part of the past, so I won't! I just want you guys to look forward to a lot of new posts and good times coming soon!

xoxo
Nina!

What do you do when you feel like you're loosing the one you love?

Omgosh, my heart felt the biggest drop in the history of my life this past weekend. I thought I lost my best friend. The most wonderful person that I can stand to be around all the time, I thought they'd gone from me. It was the most terrible feeling. I couldn't sleep, I didn't eat, and I had a very sad and unnerving day.

What do you do when you feel like you're loosing the one you love? What can you do, anything? Do you fight or do you let it go? Do you support their decision to make them happy even if it hurts you in the process? Should you even care? Maybe you tell yourself you are taking things waayyy out of proportion and things are not really as they seem. Maybe you put on a smile thinking, "if I just act this way things may turn around for the better." Or maybe, you have a serious, deep, heartfelt, loving conversation with that person you love - bearing all of your feelings and making yourself so completely vulnerable in front of that person -   and figure out why things are headed in the direction they are.

Possibly you'll hear and learn that it isn't you. Possibly you'll understand that they are trying to grow up in world that is filled with so much pressure, stress, and anxiety and they just want to protect you from the difficulties and hardships they are facing. Maybe you will understand that you are not loosing the one you love, but growing in your friendship. Growing in trust and love. No one tells you about the ins and outs of a friend ship, the nitty gritty, dirty and slimy part. They tell you, "it's hard!" or "don't do it, you might get hurt!" (or for those who have gotten burned, they say, "you WILL get hurt!") but they don't tell you why you it's hard or why you may or may not get hurt in the process of growing in a relationship. I can't tell you either. It's an ever evolving story for me. I'm always learning and growing. I hope to continue to grow and learn with the one I love.

                             The path that leads to a place that you will just have to see for yourself

St.Pete Beach :: A Commercial Shoot

  The details of St.Pete beach....#1 beach in the nation.

The Trunk :: A Promo Shoot

The Trunk Boutique is one of my favorite locally owned boutique stores here in Florida, so I was thrilled to do a promo shoot for them! These photos were taken quite a few months ago (shame on me for waiting so long to post). I think it is so important to promote local businesses - I mean, I'm a small local business so it is important for me to support others just as they support me. I'm so happy to have gained such a good relationship with the amazing talent behind The Trunk!

Spring Break + New Room Ideas!

Everyone knows spring break is right around the corner, or if you're like me and live in St.Pete spring break has already passed and you've missed your "week long break" opportunity to redecorate your room lol. Oh well. Sooooo...I've been thinking and I think I want to paint one of my walls or just part of my wall with chalk board paint! While I'm at it maybe I'll paint this little night stand of mine too..? Who knows! I've been wanting to paint my room and dressers for the past year now and I have yet to ride over to Home Depot and buy paint or brushes - I've been scared. I've been scared and scared away from voluntarily going to Home Depot, Lowes, or any other warehouse type facility for that matter! My dad is a Home Depot junkie and when I was a kid we'd stay in that place for hours it seemed like, going through those dreaded dusty aisles looking for that particular screw, paint color, light bulb, or worse....plants in the garden area! (cue scary killer movie music!)

So now at nearly 22 years old I haven't stepped foot in home and garden improvement store in almost....hmmm maybe 3 or 4 years? Something along those lines. I think I can bite the bullet and go get some paint though. It's time and I really want to change my room around a little now. So like I said I've been thinking about the chalkboard wall. What do you think, yay or nay? I've been pinning ideas on pintrest of what may work for me. I don't want to cover an entire wall black because I only get one large window worth of natural light to my room and I don't want to over cast that with black walls, but I do think it would be kind of cool to just write some reminders to myself on my wall. I already have a mini white board, why not add to it. Tell me what you think, have you been seeing this new trend of chalk board walls? Do you like it, not like it, never even thought about it? 

seeing the entire wall like this doesn't look so bad.

Preview :: 2013 Senior Model

These girls are so much fun, I had a blast working with all of them! The craziness of hair and makeup while putting together outfits reminded me of the madness I used to go through (and still do on occasion) for different big events in school! We all had fun talking, laughing, and getting to know each other. We had the lovely April Barron as our hair stylist and makeup extraordinaire, Miss Hershley Oge! I can't wait to do it again! Here is a sneak peek of our fabulous photo shoot the other week. A new surprise is coming soon and I'm so excited to share ;-)

Preview :: Cozette

This girl is stunning, I mean her fro is pretty amazing right!? I'm a just a bit jealous of it loL. I can't wait to share more photos! But until then, here are a few sneak peeks...

Fixed At Zero!

 

Any of you know this song and/or this band? VersaEmerge! It's always exciting for me to watch this video because 1) I like the song and 2) I know Sierra Kusterbeck! We went to middle school and part of high school together (we were both interested in musical theater) and the first time I saw this video last year I was pretty much blown away because I remember her leaving high school to join a band. Little did I know she would make it this far! Shout out to Sierra!!

I was doing a little bit of research on Payless shoes and ran across an image of Sierra holding a shoe, turns out she is helping promote a new line at payless called, Brash. Pretty awesome! Check out the link. The shoes are kinda hot and the videos of Sierra and the rest of VersaEmerge in Paris are very cool.

Keep Saint Petersburg Local :: Launch Party!

So I'm pretty much in love with this non-profit, Keep Saint Petersburg Local! It was a couple of years ago when I visited Asheville, NC that I realized I always visit the local downtown areas....in every city other than my own! I'd buy from the local community or just go exploring downtown, but I didn't know what my own downtown looked like and hardly ever shopped local here in St.Pete. I saw this sign in the window of a shop and snapped a picture. For some reason it really touched me and from that moment I decided I was going to establish relationships with people from my own community, shopping local and having a love for the creativity and business here in St. Pete.

Here we are two years later and I know pretty much every local shop in downtown and most of St.Pete for that matter! I've collaborated with quite a few independent business owners and constantly buying from places like The Trunk Stylists or Gold & Maiden! loL....I love this city and apparently I'm not the only one.

The other night Keep Saint Petersburg Local hosted their launch party which introduced me to a butt load of new local businesses and creative artists like myself! It was pretty awesome, plus the party was hosted in the gorgeous Nova 535 venue which is (independently owned) artistic, funky, and modern! I'm def. going to reach out to a few new people (now that I know about them, thanks to K.S.L.) and businesses to help spread the wealth of knowledge, love and exposure. A big thank you goes out to all of the staff behind K.S.L. especially Olga B. and Sheri K. - they are great!