Nina Nelson Photography

04/10/2026

My new website is up!! Woo-hoo

I've separated my fine art work from my commercial work and I really hope everyone follows me on both because I will be sad if you don't.

Here's the scoop: Nina Nelson PHOTOGRAPHY will be the fine art stuff (fancy-schmancy) and Nina Nelson PORTRAITS will be my commercial work (also fancy-schmancy, but commercially so). Both still have the acronym of NNP (thanks to my friend, Patricia who suggested that!) so I don't have to change my paperwork!

I'm loving the fine art stuff, guys. It's fun and it feeds my creative soul. I like that it's just me and my muse. I like that I only have to answer to myself. I like that I can try things and fail and not feel horrible about it. I like that I can play. I like that I'm meeting other photographers and gallerists and curators and collectors and artists. I like dressing up and going to exhibitions. I like that Nina Nelson Portraits is my angel investor and is funding Nina Nelson Photography so Nina Nelson Photography doesn't need to make money right away in order to feel validated and worthy. I can do it for the sole reason and enjoying it and creating.

So thank you to the Nina Nelson Portrait people who hire me—because you're funding my art. And everything I do there feeds into what I do for my commercial clients.
Go check it out. did a fantastic job. Go check her out too.

04/03/2026

Huge thanks to Sandrine and for highlighting WOMEN in the #55 magazine. Bowlero was chosen as one of the 25 images to be included and she (and some of her sisters from the Waiting series) will be published in the upcoming magazine. Not only will this be the first time I will see the series together in print format, but some of my heroes were also included in this exhibition so I'm having a bit of a "pinch me" moment.

03/22/2026

03/10/2026

Found out today that 3 of my images were selected as FINALISTS of the annual VOICES competition! 36,000 images entered (that’s A LOT of photos!) across 15 categories. Thank you to all my Click Photo School teachers who’ve helped me get to this point. To .cox , there is a sprinkle of your magic teaching pixie dust in each image.

Bowlero is a “POP OF COLOR” category finalist.

03/10/2026

Found out today that 3 of my images were selected as FINALISTS of the annual VOICES competition! 36,000 images entered (that’s A LOT of photos!) across 15 categories. Thank you to all my Click Photo School teachers who’ve helped me get to this point. To .cox , there is a sprinkle of your magic teaching pixie dust in each image. ❤️

These 2 are finalists in the CHASING LIGHT and ALTER EGO categories.

(The portrait-oriented finalist in next post)!

03/01/2026

Honored to be part of the Topographies of Self Virtual Exhibition! Such a meaningful exhibit. Go check it out online.

02/09/2026

Homework for a class I’m taking through the with Photoshop guru .

01/19/2026

#2 in the Red Riding Hood series.

This project has been beckoning since I took my first Red image five years ago. I’ve toyed with several ideas but a discussion with an intelligent, cultured friend sparked this idea and— it took off.

This project will show Red as a symbol of women’s fear of men—walking or running alone in the woods, walking alone on a dark isolated sidewalk, in a parking garage, in an office, at home in a marriage—all places where women pass from a place of light, safety, innocence over to a darker threshold of looking-over-your-shoulder-walk faster-be-small fear.

If you’re a female in the woods would you rather meet a man or a bear? What about a wolf?

01/15/2026

Mark your calendars: January 31st. 4-6 pm. Carriage Barn Arts Center. Waveny Park. Photos, photos, and more photos! Look at the variety!

01/12/2026

Mark your calendars! Thanks to (for organizing and hosting) and juror of The Gordon Parks Foundation for jurying this exhibit. 600 is a lot of images to look through!
Happy to see a lot of friends on the list as well. January 31! Come and have a glass of wine or water and look at some beautiful images.

01/08/2026

I went back to Missouri over the holidays and found a new antique barn had popped up in my hometown (population 190). The outbuilding is open to the elements and as soon as I saw the booths and Dianne’s Fine Desserts, I knew I had to use this location.
Colorwise, I had my red and yellow, so I went back in and bought this beautiful blue dress for $5 and asked the owner for permission to come back and shoot here. She said, “go for it. Move anything you need.” I came back that afternoon and the next.
This reminds me of Lola from Barry Manilow’s song Copacabana-Lola at the end.
This is Dianne at the end.

“Still in that dress she used to wear…she sits there so refined…she lost her youth…now she’s lost her mind.”