Nursery Reveal, a Few Maternity Pics, and Other Updates

I realize I haven't really posted any personal stuff on here in a while.. this year has been going by so fast.. God really is so good and I can NOT thank Him enough for helping Fred and I to accomplish so much.   Now we are just patiently waiting for our baby boy to arrive.

As of today, I am 39 weeks and 5 days.  William's due date is in 2 days on the 25th.  We'll see when he decides to make his grand entrance though hehe!

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you the nursery :)  I have to thank Pinterest and Etsy for helping inspire me ... I don't know where the elephants really came from (it is by no means an indication of my political views hahahaha), but I really like the colors grey and yellow so... this is just what developed.  I didn't want to make it toooooo elephanty as when the baby gets older, he may not like elephants at all.. so I tried to keep it plain and simple.  Not to mention, I didn't have tons of $ to spend on nice bedding or accessories, so I whipped out the sewing machine and relearned how to use it to make curtains, bedskirts, and other things :)  I did see a teal dresser at ikea and felt like it would be nice to add some teal into the grey and yellow mix as well :)

Without further ado, here's a slideshow of my nursery!  Just kidding, there'd only be like 10 pics in it hehehe!  And below that, I'll post a few maternity pictures as well!

 

I designed the bible verse in the left picture via photoshop, and just ordered an 11x14 print to frame.  I saw some options on Etsy but they cost twice as much so why not do it myself HAHAHAHHA!  The zigzag fabric and the elephant fabric are from fabric.com.  The clock is from ikea.  The artwork in the right picture is just scrapbook paper from Michael's.. I made an elephant pattern and cut it out hehehe!  Total cost: about $13 bucks including frame.

I used curtain rod holders from Ikea (about $3 total for a set).. The wooden dowels are from Lowe's.  I sewed the fabric to make it into a little sling to slip books into.

Those are just vinyl decals you see on the wall, very easy to apply and I ordered them on Etsy for around $20 bucks.

There's me and baby Will chillin.  I do miss wearing jeans.  I should have at least bought some more neutral sweat pants to wear so I can match LOL oh well!  But yeah, there's my nursery :)  I'm still debating on a chair for the room.  I do have a glider but currently it's in my bedroom for the first couple of weeks.

In other news, here's some images from my cousin-in-law,  Joan of es-sense, took while we were in Cali around my 7 month mark hehehe!  She photographed our wedding and it was so cool to have her photograph us again at this new milestone in our lives! :)

And here's some images of me that Fred took at my 39 week mark :)

I don't want to forget.. any of it.  What a ride this has been... With God's help we were able to purchase our first house last July.. which is so close to my church and also to Fred's job.   Truly a blessing, and better than what I could have ever dreamed of for our first house.  I have a feeling this will be the house our children will grow up in.. our lifetime house :)  Now, we're just waiting for our new "guest" to arrive.

And lastly, I am so thankful I was able to rebrand the business this year, and meet so many wonderful couples and families along the way!  Rebranding has to be the best thing I've done for my business to date.. to get a fresh start and to really be able to offer the quality service and products that I'd want for my own photography experiences!!

Thanks all for your support throughout this amazing journey.. it's only just begun!  I look forward to sharing pics with you of my baby boy in a few weeks :)

Here's to New Beginnings :)

Yay it's been a few months in the making but I'd like to make a huge announcement:

NTME Photography is now 

Natasha Esguerra Photography!!!!

Wooohooo!!! And with that comes a new website, among other things!

Here's a screenshot of the new site!

www.natashaesguerra.com

Over the next few weeks I'll be completing the switch (for instance, getting Facebook to allow me to change the fanpage name hehe), so I thank you in advance for your patience through this process.  I felt this was the next logical step in being able to provide my clients with an even higher level of service, and to make it easier for people when I introduce my business name to them HAHAHA!  

Back in June, I was able to take Jerry Ghionis's 5-day workshop and I have to say it was definitely an eye-opener and game changer, both for my photography and for my business in general.  I am thankful that I was able to invest in such an amazing workshop and honestly, I don't even know which workshop could top his hahahahaha!  But yeah, thanks to the workshop, I was basically kicked in the butt in terms of finally changing my business name.  NTME, it was fun while it lasted hehe :)

As always, thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of me and my art throughout these past few years.  I am thankful above all to God for helping me to get where I am, and for the guidance I know He will continue to provide me along the way.

Here's to the photographs I've taken, and the ones I have yet to take :)

Teasers: Tara's Hair Salon

Yesterday I had the pleasure of working with Tara of Tara's Hair Salon in a shoot to highlight her talents as a hair stylist.  Here's some teasers from the shoot which we held right in her salon using whatever what was around!  Can't wait to show you more images, but hopefully this will hold you over!  It's something I've never had a chance to do before and I'm glad we were able to collaborate!

MUA: Jaclyn (JWood Artistry)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/JWood-Artistry/199882053383948

Here's the FB album as well:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150540128502136.369644.308828302135&type=1

New Website to Celebrate 2 Years!!!

Yay!

On February 5 of this year, NTME Photography celebrated its 2 year anniversary!  I am just so thankful as I didn't know what to expect when I started this business.. they say you should have a plan, but all I knew is that I enjoyed taking pictures and wanted to touch the lives of others through doing this!

2 years later though, I do have a plan, I have goals I wish to reach, and dreams that I will entrust to God.  No matter what happens, I just pray I will be allowed to keep doing what I love as it really has brought such happiness in my life.

I know I just unveiled a website like last August, but here I am again!  I've been using Showit for my webdesign, and felt that I wasn't using it to its full potential, so suddenly I found myself redesigning it over the past 2 weeks.  Thanks to everyone who helped me through my rounds of edits, your input was VERY valuable and I definitely incorporated  a lot of suggestions into my final design.

I put the link at the bottom of the post, as I hope you will go along for a journey with me through the post first HAHAHA :)

Here's some screen shots of my original site:

Main entrance page:

Wedding home page:

Now here's the EVOLUTION.. What I first started with, it's definitely a bit busy and hard to keep the focus on the center panel where all the images would be.  But I liked the personality, as it reflects me HAHAHAHA:

Gallery home page draft:

And this is what I ended up with (more focus on the panel where the images will be, as a lot of people suggested to make it bigger and everything else smaller).  I wanted it to reflect my personality but not to the point that it's ... too playful?  So I toned it down a bit.

Gallery page final:

Main entrance page:

 Weddings home page:

 About us!

Portrait home page 

(I decided to still keep a bit more of the .. color and my random facts panel with the portrait site lol):

Blog page:

Hope you like!  I am feeling very accomplished since I designed it myself.  I guess when you don't have the extra thousands laying around to get someone to do a redesign for you, you do what you can with what you got HAHAHAHA!  I'm very happy with the redesign and feel it's SOOO ME!!!!

Love you all!

Thanks so much for the 2 years, please help me to reach my 3rd by spreading the word :)

www.ntmephotography.com

Where the NTME comes from..

Usually when I hand people my business card and it says NTME on it, they don't read it as such.  I always find it amusing because I totally understand why most people won't get it on the first try.  I didn't mean to be so difficult when it came to choosing my business's name, it just happened this way.  But let me explain the method behind the madness, and why I ultimately ended up choosing a name that usually befuddles most people when they first try to pronounce it :)

When I thought about starting my business, I was coming up with some really not-cool names.  For instance:

"The Happy Photographer" (huh??)
"Sunshine Photography" (bleh!)

Come on Tasha, HAHAHAHAH!  Enough said.

So I was like, what if I use my name?

"Natasha Esguerra Photography"

Looks great, most people do it this way, but then I'll have another problem - pronunciation LOL.  In the time I've been married to my wonderful husband, I've heard a total of 2 non-filipino people pronounce it correctly, and I'd like to take a stab and say it's because both of them were spanish-speaking hehehehehe!  It's filipino name, of spanish descent... or something like that.  Most people will not get it, and that's totally fine :)

So I decided to try some initials.

E Photography. 
Nope.

N.E. Photography
Standing for Natasha Esguerra, but N.E. sounds like "any", and I don't want anyone to think I'm just "any" photographer hahaha!

What if I add another initial?

N.M.E. Photography
Standing for Natasha Marshall Esguerra, but now I have another problem.  N-M-E sounds like "enemy" LOL

Okay let's add the T...

NTME Photography
(Stands for Natasha Theresa Marshall Esguerra... Hmm.... This is different... and I will appear first in google searches if someone searches my initials lol...)

Edit:  I just googled "NTME" and I actually come in second to something called "Nameless Tile Map Editor", whatever that is LOL!!

The issue though with NTME is I now get the following when I hand someone a business card:

Oh cool, "N-Time" Photography?
Oh cool, "Not-Me" Photography?
Oh cool, "N-Timmy" Photography?



But once I clarify that it's my initials, all is gravy.  I chuckle to myself every time, because I know I brought this upon myself.

So that's where NTME comes from - my name abbreviated.   I was thinking that after being in business for a year, I'd consider changing it to "Photography by Natasha Theresa" (which I am kicking myself for not thinking of during the initial name-choosing process), but I think it's a little late, and people told me I should just keep it.

So now I embrace it.

And so there you have it - I am NTME.  And the images below are what NTME is all about :)

Yay for N-T-M-E!! :)

Mini T-Shirt Shoot in 10 Minutes with Mini-Tutorial

So, I had a chance to shoot a few t-shirts for Dan, a friend from high school who now has his own t-shirt printing business!

It's just a little project as he decides what types of product shots he wants for his website, and also, it's something new and different for me, as you know I like to do here and there.

Dan's business is called T-Shirt Time Printing, and here's his fanpage!  If you like what you see, become a fan and show a fellow small business your support!

Thanks to my friends Dee and JP for helping me out with this project.  They may become the face of T-Shirt Time Printing hehehehe!

Now for the mini-tutorial:

To take these shots, I literally had 10 minutes in between lunch and my first choir practice of the day hehe.  It was a Sunday and my Sundays are filled with church services and choir practices :)  Not to mention, it was a bit cold outside and you can't have people walking around in just t-shirts for too long during this time of the year lol.  But my friends aka my male models were great sports so they toughed it out hehe!
 
I used one off-camera flash with no modifier, to camera right.  For the brick shots, I could've went natural light, but I don't think it would've popped as much.

Below please see the natural light shot.

92mm, 1/160 sec, f/4.5

It was.. alright.. or 'aight' hehehehe.  I mean, I could've went with it but.. I wanted the brick to be a bit darker.  So, I adjusted my shutter speed and aperture to make the background darker, how I wanted it to look in the pic (with the intention of adding flash back in to light my subject properly again).

100mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6

Once I added my flash, which I set manually and adjusted until my subject was properly lit, this was the result.  There's really no set formula for what setting to put your flash on.  It's trial and error unless you use a light meter, which, I do not (I commend those who do, I just haven't been able to get around to it lol).  But for me, if the flash is too bright, you can either fix it on the flash, or you can have your flash stand (or person holding your flash) move back a little.

Some light still does spill onto the background b/c I didn't have too much space, and my subject is about 6 feet away from the wall, but it is still a bit darker than with the natural light, and also, my subject has some nice shadows to add more depth to the photo and the t-shirt.

So yeah, here's my mini product shoot in 10 minutes.  Longer ones to come :)  I figured there are a few things I need to adjust and pay more attention to, which I will do so next time!  But it was a fun experience, I love trying new things!