Who am I?

Hi! I’m Nic. I’m a freelance photographer & illustrator. I love animals and enjoy photographing nature. I also like to draw silly illustrations.

First and foremost, I’m a fur-baby parent. I’ve had 10 fur-babies in my lifetime. One hamster, two cats, one cockatiel, one beta fish, and five basset hounds. Only one fur-baby is left, a basset hound (Duke), and we are making sure his days are filled with fun, because life is short.

How did I get here?

It all started back in 2009… I was writing a program in Perl with a database (PostgreSQL). The program would figure out what I could make with the ingredients I had on hand, using my library of cookbooks. I wrote the program, but once I got to the data entry part, I got bored. I was visiting lots of vegan food blogs back then, because we were transiting from vegetarian to vegan. I got the idea to start my own food blog to share my vegan journey and my recipes, it was called The Auspicious Squirrel.

I was also taking photos on my walks of squirrels (of course), geese, my dog (Max) and other cute critters. I had a digital point-n-shoot camera, and soon I realized that my photography could be better and dreamed of getting a dSLR camera.

In the summer of 2010, we moved to San Diego, CA and I also bought my first dSLR camera, a Canon RebelT2i, it was (and still is) awesome.

In May 2011, I took my first photography class at UCSD, it was above my skill level and I struggled a lot. But it is when I took my photo of the train, which pretty much made me love photography. I signed up for a 2 year photography program.

The food blogging quickly transitioned to more photography as I learned more techniques in school.

I learned that what I really enjoyed taking photos of was nature. I did NOT enjoy taking photos of people, as a person who doesn’t enjoy having my own photo taken, I always felt too awkward to make my subjects feel at ease. I also enjoyed working with lighting.

But what really intrigued me was taking photos of the things we don’t think about, but are there if we look.

Which I thought meant macro, but lately I’ve realized that the owls can also be in that category, because the cave is so far away no one can really see what’s going on with the naked eye. I can bring light to what’s going on in there, and that is something I enjoy.

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself, where were we? Ah yes…

In June 2013, I finished the photography two-year course, and I switched from my food blog to this blog.

At first, I wrote quite a few tutorials. I had learned Photoshop in school, but I wanted to help people who couldn’t afford Photoshop and so I wrote tutorials for GIMP, an open-source photography software. I was using GIMP prior to going to school, I dove in headfirst and learned even more, and then wrote tutorials explaining what I had learned.

Sometime in April 2016, my dog (Scarlett) was diagnosed with cancer and she was starting to have trouble walking, so I turned to Zentangle so that I could fill my art desire but still be near her. That meant that I was drawing more and taking more macro photos. I was also taking photos of the hummingbirds that were visiting my feeders.

I spent more time drawing Zentangle. At first, I combined my photography with my zentangle. And for many years I continued to learn Zentangle and become confident with my linework, both traditionally and digitally.

But eventually I started wanting to learn to draw less abstractly.

I have been participating in Inktober since 2017, each year trying to challenge myself to learn something new. The creator of Inktober, Jake Parker, is a teacher at the School of Visual Storytelling. So after taking an inking course for Inktober by him, I signed up for a subscription and have been learning at my own pace ever since. A few years ago, I added a subscription to another school as well (21Draw). I really enjoy adding shadow and light to my drawings, as well as color… I find it very meditative. I like the idea of trying to tell a story with drawings and as few words as possible. So I’m really into drawing expressions.

Last year, Feb 2023, my neighbor noticed the owl in the cave, so I started taking photos again and learned how to edit videos.

But both my dogs (Penny & Duke) were diagnosed with cancer around that time, so I didn’t pursue much photography after the owls left the cave in March, and spent more time drawing so that I’d be home with them. Drawing silly comics and animation.

That brings us March 2024, the owls are back, and I’ve taken photos and videos again. But I know that I still want to draw as well.

I started a 2-page comic that included my 10 furbabies, Duke passed away before I could finish the piece, but I decided to keep working on it and leaving the last panel as I originally wrote it. I finally finished it in November 2024…

So that’s how I got here… I’m a freelance photographer & illustrator and I’m still having fun learning and growing in those fields.

What do I want from my readers?

Yes, I do want something from you.  Comments, feedback, questions!

How to contact me…

The best way to contact me is by leaving a comment on this blog.  I’ll get an email letting me know that someone has commented.  All comments are approved by me before they publish, so if you don’t see it appear right away, no worries, I’ll publish it with my reply. 

That about wraps it up.  I am looking forward to sharing my love of photography and drawing with you!

Until next time…
~nic