Nisha Haq Photography

2016

Tegan & Faizan Fusion Wedding Blessing - Hampshire Wedding Photography

"Thank you so much for yesterday! We were so glad you were the person documenting our special day, everyone mentioned how nice you were and what a great job you did! The sneak peaks look brilliant and we can't wait to see the rest! Once again thank you so much for being there yesterday we would definitely recommend you to other people and use you again in an occasion."

It's been a crazy busy summer wedding season this year and I'm delighted to share Tegan & Faizan's wedding blessing photos from May 2016. It was exciting as they had booked me only the week before thanks to a recommendation from Southampton Solent University, where I studied BA Photography; so only had a few days to prepare for the wedding day. When I heard of where they were getting married, I was astonished that there was this relatively unknown venue being used for weddings in the gorgeous Hampshire countryside. Rookesbury Events Limited (formerly known as Rookesbury Park School) is simply a stunning venue located in Wickham, especially on a hot summer's day and couldn't have asked for a better setting for Tegan & Faizan's wedding reception.

Also I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Tegan & Faizan had already gotten married 2 years prior to their wedding day, so at first I was a little confused to why they were having a wedding! They mentioned how they had more of a Muslim Asian ceremony when they first married for Faizan's side of the family and were wanting a Christian English ceremony to celebrate Tegan's traditions. It was a beautiful marriage of the two cultures and what a fantastic fusion of the two family's backgrounds. After hearing this, I was buzzing before the big day as this was my second multicultural wedding in a row, after Christy & Geofrey's.

Some highlights from they day was the touching church ceremony followed by bubble confetti, seeing all the men in Tegan's family dress in black salwar kameezes, a traditional Asian dress, and taking gorgeous photographs of the bride & groom on the beautiful grounds in the countryside. They're such a fun and loving couple that I had such a great time photographing their sunny wedding blessing. Certainly one of my highlights of this summer!

Thank you Tegan & Faizan! x

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, by Nisha Haq

2016

Christy & Geofrey Caribbean Wedding - Southampton Wedding Photography

"Nisha photographed our wedding and from what I've seen so far they are absolutely stunning, She's very professional and fun to work with, and Nisha as an individual is very pleasant, we will definitely be using her services again! #happycustomer"

So happy to share these fun photographs of Christy & Geofrey's wedding day back in March 2016. It was so lovely to photograph a Caribbean wedding in Southampton, taking the bride, groom & group portraits in East Park after the ceremony. The group portraits came to be quite spontaneously! It's not every day the photographer becomes the wedding planner on the day on their first solo wedding, but was so happy to have taken these stunning photos. There's lots of little spots in Southampton for pretty portraits and so glad to have thought of this place last minute. Life's all about capturing moments, and in this case making them too! :)

Having started the wedding photography side of my business this year, I was looking forward to book up some dates, especially in Hampshire. It was so lovely to be approached by Christy to photograph her wedding, which happened to be only 6 days before. Of course, I said yes as I was ready to get stuck into wedding photography and was looking forward to using my new Canon 5D Mark III for my first wedding. Not only was their wedding little under a week away, Christy phoned to say she was also 8 months pregnant and that it was a Caribbean wedding. How exciting!

I was overjoyed to photograph Christy & Geofrey's unique wedding. There wedding was filled with so much passion, full of life and personality. There was so much energy during the ceremony and group photos I couldn't stop snapping away as I wouldn't want to miss an excitable and happy moment. They've been such a pleasure to photograph and get to know that it's been a pretty awesome experience to document such a vibrant day. I think these pictures sums up how much love & laughter there was at their wedding.

Thank you Christy & Geofrey! x

P.s Congratulations on your beautiful baby girl!

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, by Nisha Haq

2016

Beauty Portraits with Melissa - Hampshire Lifestyle Photography - Southampton

It's been a jam packed summer this year and I've loved meeting and photographing lots of wonderful people. One of the first photoshoots to kick off the summer was photographing this beautiful woman, Melissa, in June. You may have seen a sneak peak from my 1 year anniversary blog post, where I described Melissa as simply captivating.

We had just met only hours before this impromptu photoshoot when she was invited round for a group meal at my flat where we all helped out to make a delicious roast dinner. It was lovely how Melissa took an interest in my wedding photography and that's when I knew she was a lover of the arts. I felt like a schoolkid who had a crush and was shy asking the other person out. When I've photographed gorgeous women in the past, it's usually come up after a few meetings and conversations and then an arranged photoshoot happens. This time round I felt the time had to be 'now' as Melissa was moving to Berlin the week after and I couldn't be sure I'd see her again.

It was then I plucked up the courage and asked if I could take her portrait. She was pleasantly surprised that someone would want to take her portrait and flattered too. I was worried she might say no as she hadn't prepared for her photo to be taken at a moment's notice! In the spirit of embracing life's spontaneous moments, Melissa kindly agreed and mentioned how she'd love to help out with my photography in any way she could, which was touching. After few minutes brushing her hair and touching up her lipstick we were ready to shoot. I hadn't really thought of where to photograph as I was preparing myself for Melissa to say no, then I saw some green trees and bushes outside my bedroom window and quickly thought 'that could look nice'.

I was actually surprised at myself at how stunning the photographs came out. With no preparation, it's hard to tell whether the nerves might affect the shoot but as it was so casual, it just felt so natural taking photos of Melissa. As soon as I met her I had an instinct Melissa would be a natural at being photographed and here are the gorgeous images as proof...

Thank you!

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, by Nisha Haq

#girlboss

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to Nisha Haq Photography!

I can't believe it's been a whole year since I last set up my photography business in June 2015 ever since receiving a £5,000 grant from Solent LEP, HM Government's Regional Growth Fund. I've been so lucky to turn my photography passion into a fully functional business and fortunate enough to put so many smiles on happy customers!

They say the first year of business is the toughest, which I can certainly say has been hard work. Without determination and drive the hard work pays off and am so blessed to photograph so many amazing people, be invited to a couple's special wedding day and continually develop my photography and meet new people who inspire me to stay strong. It's so worth it!

I'm fortunate to have such a supportive, intelligent and inspirational partner, Rob, who continues to help me back on my feet when I've felt the stresses of running a business, balancing two jobs and a social life too. Having a Navy partner has proved its challenges with often limited contact when at sea, but I feel it only makes us stronger knowing we can get through life's ups and downs together. Having an equally driven partner has only made me want to succeed more.

Some of you may know I have been working full time and have just started a new exciting job as a Marketing Officer / Graphic Designer at Grange Park Opera in Hampshire a few days ago. I'm looking forward to this new venture and will be continuing to run Nisha Haq Photography part time. I think this will be a thrilling new chapter in my life and look forward to applying new marketing & design ideas to my business whilst applying my photography pizzazz to the opera! I simply love the arts.

It's been a crazy year with so many exciting challenges, accomplishments and experiences that it would be an even longer blog post to get through all of them but here are few of my favourite moments from my first year of running a business. Also here's to being a #girlboss! (I've just finished Sophia Amoruso's book on being a girl boss and it's a recommended read!)

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, by Nisha Haq

2016

SENSE Session - Photography & Branding talk at Southampton Solent University

On 8th March I had the wonderful opportunity to guest speak at SENSE (Solent Entrepreneurs' Network for Sustainable Enterprises) at Southampton Solent University and it was fantastic talking about a subject I love: photography & branding! Working as a graphic designer full time in the day and photographer by night, it was a fun putting together two passions in my life in a presentation, and gave me a good excuse to dig out the various design and photography books/magazines I have on my bookshelf!

The March session 'Using Photography to create a Visual Identity for your Brand' was a great follow on from the February session led by a good friend, graphic designer, Tom Snow Design who talked about creating a brand identity and logo design. It was lovely seeing regulars from the group as well as new faces to learn more about how photography can really uplift or detract from your business branding.

Having graduated from Southampton Solent University in BA (Hons) Photography in 2014 and having been active in entrepreneurship activities such as undertaking the Solent Creatives student course 'Creative Entrepreneurial Freelancing Practice' as well as being successful in the University's student business start up funding; it's been brilliant joining the SENSE network for Solent graduates and being invited to speak at the session. Greg Sandford, Entrepreneur-in-residence at Southampton Solent University thought it would be great to learn from each other's strengths in the group. There are so many talented creative people you network with at Solent, it's a sort of skills sharing network as well. Greg, who organises the SENSE sessions stated:

“I knew I could rely on Nisha to deliver a well-prepared, well-researched and above all thought-provoking session for SENSE members. As with all of our workshops, it’s given me a lot of ideas for my own business.”

I found the photography & branding session really fun to deliver to the group where I covered topics such as decoding well-known brands and their websites, how photography brings a website and marketing materials to life and the power of using images in social media to share and market content. With a mixture of entrepreneurs who have newly-established business and new ideas for businesses in the group, it was interesting having a brainstorming activity looking at their brand values and ways they would like to represent their business. It was eye-opening to see such a range of small businesses such as graphic design, furniture sourcing and interior design, photography, hand-made luxury chocolate, tax advising to name a few in one room.

The session ended on a 'Google Yourself Challenge' to see whether the first hits on Google Images represented their business and visual identity. It was fun and a little nerving to see live what everyone's businesses appeared online to potential customers, but it was all part of the development process.

After the session it was lovely to hear comments such as "It was very motivating & refreshing" and having a lovely buzz and chatter of conversations. Certainly a big smile on my face and everyone who attended!

Solent University graduate and interested in joining the SENSE network in Southampton?

April's session will be led by Lottie Turner, Risk manager at NHS Trust and Business Manager at Tom Snow Design where she'll be giving a talk about improving presentation skills for your business. Come along to the 6pm session at Southampton Solent University on Tuesday 12th April 2016. More info here.

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