I hope everyone is enjoying their spring break. There’s still time to take advantage of our 2 specials in April:

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I’ve been keeping busy photographing kids, Dance Etc.’s new poster for their upcoming show and the Cougar’s senior lacrosse poster. I’m really excited for this weekend though because Owen is now 3 months old so it’s time to take some new portraits of him. The last session was when he was 2 weeks old so it’ll be fun to see how much he’s changed.

Did you know TNG Photography has Baby’s 1st Year plans? Send us a message for more info.

We bought our house in the fall that was vacant for about a year. Because no one was living in it, the plants did not get watered so just about all the bushes and trees were dead when we moved in. Whenever I’ve found the time, I’ve been yanking up trees, trimming and digging and trying to plan ahead for what the end result of my yards will be. With all this work comes the dreaded cleanup so I threw as many old plants into the back of the truck as it could hold and off to the dump I went. Along the way, a big chunk of tree caught the right amount of air at the right speed and it soared backwards out of the truck and onto Boulder Highway. I pulled over, stopped and ran into the middle of the street to pick up my mess, loaded it back up with the rest of the wooden prisoners and I was back on track. I made it to the transfer station and pulled into door #2 where I was directed to drop the payload behind some garbage. I briefly wondered why they had to be so picky and moved on. I yanked everything out of the truck like Hercules on steroids. I hurled the trees into a large pile. I chucked the wood (that a woodchuck did NOT chuck) with a mighty heave and swept the back of the truck out with my trusty broom.

“–sniff– Ahh…smell that? That’s not garbage. That’s manliness in the air!”

I entered the truck like any manly man would and turned the key to the ignition.

No sound.

I turned it again.

Still no sound.

My manly manliness was now diminished to a boyish gulp.

“Now what?” I thought. “I might be here for days–weeks! I’ll have to abandon the truck and live among the garbage until help arrives and who knows when that will be?’

My despair was met with the perfect timing of a Uhaul truck entering door #2. Three men exited the box truck and I asked them if they could please jump the truck’s battery. They agreed and proceeded to empty their truck of garbage. I joined them in their work and helped unload their payload. My boyish tepidness was now once again transformed into the hulk of coagulated manliness again. I gripped and tossed rolls of carpet and dust filled my lungs as I propelled more trash and chicken wing boxes several yards from the Uhaul. When we were finished, the strangers attached the jumper cables to their truck and my truck’s engine awoke from the dust and breathed new life. I thanked them again for their help and I entered my truck again as manly as I knew how.

The green truck I helmed followed the exit signs as the blaring horns and beeping tractors sent me on my way. I knew I’d be back again someday, but next time, I would not turn off my engine.

 SCROLL DOWN FOR A PERFECT MOTHER’S DAY PRESENT!

My sister gave birth to her baby boy a few weeks ago so I of course had to create some images of the new little newborn. Here are my favorites from the session.

How Much Does Your Mother Love YOU?

Call us today: (702)809-9763

(Click to enlarge)

 

Thanks everyone! I appreciate all of you!

 

-Nate

TNGphoto.com <- Main Las Vegas Photographer Website

TNGseniors.com <- Las Vegas High School Senior Photos. Seniors, go here!

They say variety is the spice of life and lately, variety has been the name of the game. Family portraits, children’s portraits, musicians and even food items for a menu at a popular restaurant in town (I’ll tell you more about it some other time when I’m done with the entire menu). I’m having a lot of fun with each project. Thanks to everyone who is spending the time with me! Here are a few of my favorites:

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Dear Class of 2012 Las Vegas Seniors,

It’s already February and you haven’t had your senior portraits taken yet.  You’re lucky we live in the U.S. because in other countries you’d be imprisoned for life and sent to work in the mines because of your procrastination. Shame on you! It’s all good though! No worries!  I am a kind, generous and forgiving soul. There is still time to get high quality, creative and unique senior portraits before you graduate! Here’s what you need to do:

1) Go to http://www.TNGseniors.com

2) View the gallery and read the survival guide.

3) Call or text us at (702)809-9763 and let’s get your session scheduled!

Real quick, I currently have two personal projects I’m working on. I’m hoping to get around 20 different individuals for each project. Contact us if you want to be apart of this! Here are the quick details:

These projects are fun for me for a few reasons, one being that I get to push my creativity passed its comfort zones so I can continue growing and improving. Second, it just gives me something to do with my spare time. Owen was born a month ago now and honestly, it feels like one long continuous day. hahaha! I rarely see the sun anymore. 🙂 Honestly though, I like to set goals and see them through so I see these as goals that need to be accomplished.

Here are a few recent participants:

TNGphoto.com <- Main Las Vegas Photographer Website

TNGseniors.com <- Las Vegas High School Senior Photos. Seniors, go here!

Today is my 2 year anniversary. It’s crazy how life works. I met Kendra at a bonfire in January of 2009. I walked up to she and her friend because from a distance I thought she looked cute so I had to go talk to her up close. The funny thing is, while I still thought she was cute, I found her boring and uninteresting. hahaha She wasn’t too keen on me either, she tells me. She thought I was a big dork who looked 14 years old. Anyway, she left the bonfire early and I thought I’d never see her again. Two months later, my friend Shane said he wanted to set me up with “this girl named Kendra.” After talking to her on the phone, I recognized her name and she recognized my laugh.

“Uh oh! This was going to be a terrible date! ”

Lo and behold, we had a good time, got married and now we’ve duplicated.  If I wasn’t a religious person, I’d say that we pretty much fulfilled the one reason to live and we can die whenever we like now! 🙂

Happy anniversary to my “boring girl from the bonfire!” Love ya!

We’ve been laying a little low lately because of our new baby boy but we’re picking up the pace now that we’re more adjusted to having Owen around. I have heard that having a new baby is fun and exciting at first but eventually becomes more like a job. Monotonous, annoying at times and time consuming. Is that true? It probably is! hahaha So far though, Owen’s the most chill kid I’ve ever seen. He sleeps through the night most of the time, doesn’t cry much, doesn’t talk back, would give you the shirt on his back, doesn’t talk bad about anyone, loves to listen… 🙂

I’ve also heard many parents tell me that everyone think their own kids are the cutest. I have to agree with this statement. I have noticed, however, that all cute babies now remind me of Owen. My wife and I were sitting on Facebook the other night, stalking old friends and family to see what they were up to. With so many people having kids, there were plenty of new babies to see. Whenever we saw a newborn that was cute, we compared them to our own.

“He looks like Owen!” was said over and over again.

All kids are different of course, but have you ever noticed how similar newborns look to each other?! They all share that same blank look that borders on fear, confusion or queasiness. It’s probably best that we can’t remember being that little. If we could, I wonder how low our pride levels would be. Could you be overly into yourself if you could remember every fart being a shart? 🙂

At just under two weeks old, I set up my lights and background and took a fewnewborn portraits of Owen and Kendra. Here are my favorites:

While I photographed Kendra, our good friends, Thomas and Natalie came and brought their new twin boys. Natalie and Kendra were originally supposed to be due around the same time but Natalie ended up having her twins a month early. The cool thing is one twin was born late at night on November 30th and the other early morning on December 1st. Here are a few of my favorites of their new sons:

Thanks for reading! FYI: The January 2012 newsletter will be hitting your inbox this week. If you haven’t signed up for it, leave a comment with your e-mail and you’ll be signed up. Thanks!

Nate

TNGphoto.com <- Main Las Vegas Photographer Website

TNGseniors.com <- Las Vegas High School Senior Photos. Seniors, go here!

I’ve been MIA lately and here’s why:

Owen was born last Friday morning. I finally have someone to take care of me when I’m old! 🙂

For numbers sake: 9lbs. 6 oz. 22 inches long

Just for fun, here’s a quick few sentences meant to be the opposite of what I actually mean:

I hate this kid. He looks nothing like me. We’re giving him up for adoption.

Really though, he’s pretty cool. He lays there, he breathes, he sleeps, he eats, he pees and poops, he cries, all while continuing to lay there. He’s very talented. I am looking forward to his personality shining through in the coming months. I thought it would be a lot more weird having him around (it’s only been a week) but it seems quite natural having the little guy around. It must be something hardwired into our brains. Thanks to everyone who came to the hospital and visited us!

I’m not much in the writing mood right now so here’s one quick recent business portrait. I wanted to experiment with a new look and decided on a composite image. I’m going to be showcasing a lot more of this unique kind of portraiture. Hope you like it!

Nate

Here’s a new image that I’m particularly happy with. This isn’t your typical family portrait at all! I’m very pleased with how I was able to express both my own (goofy) personality as well as the family’s (fun) personality. I love that I’m able to express multiple sides of my personality through my portraiture. At times, I love the serene, quiet confidence of a soft expression and other times I love to show the the comical side of life through images like the one below. I believe that every good portrait should tell some sort of story.

I grew up in a family of musicians. I was the odd one of the family, having never played an instrument or sang. Despite my lack of wanting to develop any musical ability, I’ve always had an appreciation for good music. I remember asking my brother about a the famous song by Beethoven, Fur Elise. If you don’t recall the song, here it is:

I asked my brother, “Is Fur Elise a happy song or is it a sad song? It seems like it’s neither happy or sad.”

My musician brother educated me by saying something to the effect, “Music is all about telling a story. Fur Elise tells a story when you hear it.”

Even though he didn’t answer my question directly, I understood what he was saying. I can relate what he said to photography and any other type of artwork. My style is consistent with my personality, despite the mood of the image, be it colorful or black and white, soft and contemplative or joyful and exciting.

I can see myself in each “story” and it gives me amazing fulfillment in my life. Thank you to everyone for having me create beautiful and expressive images for you and your families!

Leave a comment and tell me what you think of it.

Christmas is only a week away so make sure you don’t wait much longer and take advantage of our final 3 deals of 2011!

1) Give a PHOTO CLASS

Every family has at least one person who enjoys photography or maybe you’re getting an aspiring shutterbug their first decent camera for Christmas but know they’ll need some help using it. With all this in mind, we decided to start offering personal photographic instruction at a great price. A 2 hour class that will teach the basics of the camera, as well as composition, lighting techniques and other fun tips and tricks.

For only $150, you get 2 full hours of instruction and we’ll even throw in a $100 TNG GIft Card for a future portrait session!

Call us to order: (702)809-9763

2) DOUBLE YOUR GIFT CERTIFICATE

Spend less but give more!

The economy has seen better days so this year we want to save you some money and maximize your gift-purchasing power! Order before December 21st and invest in a $100, $250 or $500 gift certificate and we’ll DOUBLE your gift amount! That means if you purchase a $250 gift certificate, we’ll make it $500! This gift certificate is good towards any of our photographic services in 2012 and is not valid on any pending order in 2011 and cannot be ordered for yourself.

Call us to order: (702)809-9763

3) TIMELESS BLACK & WHITE CHILDREN PORTRAITS

A Gift That Lasts

A 15 minute classic session, complimentary 5×7 gift portrait and a Facebook image to share. These black and whites are timeless and sophisticated works of art that showcase the soulful eyes of a child. This $67 gift is sure to please those with a fine taste in black and white artwork or those who just plain have everything!

Call us to order: (702)809-9763

Thanks for everything! The next blog post will probably have news of my son’s birth…<gulp>….any day now!  🙂

Nate

TNGphoto.com <- Main Las Vegas Photographer Website

TNGseniors.com <- Las Vegas High School Senior Photos. Seniors, go here!

Bill Murray is funnier than you. He’s funnier than me. He’s funnier than anyone you’ve ever met. It’s late at night, my wife is in bed and I’m up watching, “Scrooged.” Is there any current comedian in movies today that will be as remembered and appreciated like Bill Murray? I can’t think of any.

“Scrooged” isn’t the funniest movie ever but I can’t imagine it even being watchable without Bill Murray. My favorite part? When he meets the Ghost of Christmas Present and keeps getting slapped and punched by her and when he finally says, “If you… TOUCH ME AGAIN…I’ll rip your wings off!” See the video below and skip to 4:32. Enjoy!

Earlier tonight I had the pleasure of photographing the head chef at FIREFLY KITCHEN AND BAR for their marketing. If you’ve never been, take a night and get yourself some good food. The duck rolls will have you hooked. Anyway, I can’t post any images at the moment but I will post a few of my favorites very soon. It was quite challenging tonight as it was extremely dark in the restaurant, making it hard to focus the camera and also making it harder to see what needed to be adjusted with posing and composition. It was also PACKED full of people eating their dinner which made me feel a little intrusive with all of my equipment.

With all the people around and how busy everything was around us, I wasn’t able to communicate to the chef as well as I would have hoped.We first started inside of a private room which we needed to be out of by 6:30 and then moved onto the bar area. It was noisy and the restaurant background was fun to see but at this point I still didn’t feel like I was getting the most out of my subject. We later went into the kitchen (I’ve never worked at a restaurant before so this was all new to me) and I photographed the chef doing what he does best…cooking. This was a lot of fun to watch and be apart of. I could really see the skill and passion this man has for his work which I found admirable. When we were all done in the kitchen I asked if he’d be willing to come outside and let me take a quick portrait of him with the building in the background. He agreed but I went outside and the wind had gone from 0mph to winder-wonderland-mph in no time.

I decided to X the outside idea in favor of a secluded area of the restaurant that for whatever reason was completely unoccupied for the night.  I sat him down at a simple little table and put my lights where I needed them. The entire mood was now entirely different from the rest of the night. The hustle of the restaurant was only a wall away but we seemed separated from everything and I could now work on building comfort with my subject. I have always felt that building comfort with a subject is essential to creating an effective portrait. For some it takes mere moments and others it takes much longer but once they are at ease with me and the camera, that’s when the best images can be created. Now being away from all the distractions, I was able to have more of a conversation with the man and learned more about him and his goals for his business. I learned that he has a wife who loves having photographs made of her kids and I got more acquainted with the chef’s sense of humor. I often catch myself enjoying my conversations with my subjects that I forget I have a job to do! I told him I better finish up his portraits and it was at this time that the night’s best images were made. The portraits were simple and didn’t show a whole lot of the environment but the expressions from my more at ease subject made them my favorites from the night.

I’m getting into the nasty habit of now posting photos on this here photogginraphy blog! Forgive my laziness! Here are two recent portraits I made that I’m quite fond of.

Thanks for reading!

Nate

TNGphoto.com

It’s about 1:16am as I’m beginning this blog so it’s officially Thanksgiving. I had a goal to blog today and swore I wouldn’t go to sleep until it was done so feel free to admire my perseverance. 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving! Now, let’s hurry today up so we can get to Christmas! 🙂

Really quick story:

Last week I took Kendra to get a 4d ultrasound. I’d always thought that these kinds of things were kind of faddy and never ended up looking like the baby at all once they were born. Much to my amazement, it turns out, the boy looks just like me. Here’s a sneak peak at my replacement when I’m dead and gone one day! 🙂

Now, to be brutally honest, when he first popped up on the big screen we were looking at, my first thought was, “Oh no. He looks like Clayface from the old Batman cartoon.”

My worry soon turned to intrigue. Intrigue turned to fascination and fascination turned into hoping the kid’s face wasn’t covered in elephantitis.

“He looks JUST like you,” Kendra said with a twinkle in her eye and a gleam on her ultrasound-goo covered stomach.

Although Kendra’s stomach has been growing for almost 8 months now, seeing this ultrasound made this whole thing much more real for some reason.

“Wow,” I thought to myself, looking at my mini-twin, “I can’t blame the milk man now!”

Again, enjoy your time with your families, everyone! The next blog’s going to have some fun recent images, big news and a special offer that’ll blow your mind!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Nate

TNGphoto.com <- Main Las Vegas Photographer Website

TNGseniors.com <- Las Vegas High School Senior Photos. Seniors, go here!

Forgive me, for I have sinned. It’s been almost 3 weeks since my last blog…

It’s been a very fun few weeks. Kendra and I closed on a house and got to move in on Halloween. Trick or treaters came by that night (as they so often do on the 31st) and I am pretty sure that there were only 3 or 4 kids that were actually, well, kids! The rest were all 16 years old and up. I’m 27 and looked younger than a lot of these kids! They had facial hair, beards, stubble, mustaches, goatees…ok, not really, I just can’t grow a good a good beard so my baby face is jealous, but they were still all 16 and older I tells ya! 🙂

We recently returned from our “Portraits in the Leaves” family portrait event in Zion National Park. It was a success! It was so fun to spend the day there with so many great families! Because of the heat, I assume, the fall colors weren’t at their peak and not as vibrant as in the past but it was still beautiful there and made for some great scenic portraits. We are going to make this a yearly tradition to go visit Zion with our clients.

Here are a few of my favorites:

This was early in the morning and the cool air from the night still lingered so we were all a bit chilly!

Thank you to everyone who made the trip!

Nate

TNGphoto.com <- Main Las Vegas Photographer Website

TNGseniors.com <- Las Vegas High School Senior Photos. Seniors, go here!