We were lucky to catch up with Nicole Leiner recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicole, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?

I currently manage my own social media and believe that I always will. Personally interacting with my followers gives me an insight on what they enjoy most and also helps me feel like part of a community.

Nicole, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My mom was a Sears mom. She would take our family to have portraits professionally taken in a studio 3-4 times a year to document landmark events like birthdays and holidays. When we weren’t at the Sears studio, she was still capturing our lives constantly through film. I am now able to look back and cherish those memories and believe she is one of my greatest inspirations in becoming a photographer. I am a portrait photographer and enjoy working with and meeting new people. I started out as many other photographers do by taking photos of my friends on a small digital camera, putting them in trees and painting their faces with lots of makeup. I am so grateful they let me practice my craft on them to help me get to where I am today. I try to add a creative edge to my portraits to give them more depth and meaning. When I work with my clients I always aim for it to be a stress-free experience – I want them to feel like we are hanging out and there just happens to be a camera there. I take self portraits occasionally and know how intimidating and uncomfortable it can be to have a camera pointed at you so I do anything I can to ease that tension! I want my work to make people stop scrolling. I want my clients to show up as their most authentic selves and help them see themselves the way everyone else does.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is making my clients see their own beauty. It takes a lot of trust to allow someone to photograph you, especially when in your mind you’re thinking to yourself “that’s not my good side”, “that angle is going to look horrible – I’ve tried it before”, “what does my hair look like? how’s my makeup?”, “does my smile look weird?”. To help combat these intrusive thoughts, I show my client/model the back of my camera frequently as I am photographing them and seeing the excitement on their face followed by “oh my gosh, I look like THAT?” is always so worth it. Once I build the trust in the beginning of the session, my client/model will typically let me have the reigns and fully trust the process.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I often felt like I was playing defense when I told my friends and family I wanted to be a photographer. They would tell me I needed to get a college degree as a backup plan then turn around and hire other local photographers for their family photos and senior portraits. Ironic, right? Luckily for me, I was hired at a local company as their in-house photographer when I was a sophomore in high school and have been with them for over 10 years now. Even though I had the steady job most photographers dream of, when I graduated high school I still felt like I needed that backup plan. I pursued a degree in biology to eventually become a pharmacist and once I got about three years in and was studying Organic Chemistry I realized it absolutely was not what I wanted to do for a living. I decided to take a year off from school then went back to major in graphic design and digital art but felt as though the projects I was being given weren’t truly aiding me in my growth. I made the decision to not feel pressured by my family to continue pursuing a college degree which ended up being a pivotal moment in my career as it has led me to where I am today.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nicoleleinerphoto.com
• Instagram: @nicoleleinerphoto
• Facebook: Nicole Leiner Photography
• Other: Tiktok: @nicoleleinerphoto

Image Credits
All photos are copyright Nicole Leiner Photography