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This was my first indie wrestling show & I had a blast! Most of you don't know this about me, but I love wrestling. Grew up watching oldschool WWF as a kid. Pro wrestling was one of my first introductions to "alternative" style of dressing & music. This was no ordinary wrestling show. It had so many things that I loved. One, it was at First Street Pool Hall, & most of you also don't know that I love playing pool. Two, punk bands. Some of you might already know that I grew up hanging out in LA's subculture music scenes in the early 2000s. Three, pro wrestling!!! With three things that I really enjoy, this was an event I didn't want to miss. It felt like being a kid again. It was so cool to be up close to the wrestlers at a DIY wrestling show in the backyard of a pool hall. And what a dream come true to be part of an audience all yelling "holy shit! holy shit! holy shit!" as someone gets gets bashed in the head with a steel chair. 🥴 This was truly oldschool wrestling: costumes, make-up, cheesy gimmicks & acting, steel chairs, trash cans, kendo sticks, blood & maybe even a little CTE. 😅 10/10 I would attend one of these events again. Now, I'm not equipped for fast-paced action or sports photography, especially not in low light. So, I did the best I could with what I've got. While this is already a very male dominant sport that usually caters to a more male audience, it was interesting to me that there were about a dozen other photographers & videographers & I was the ONLY woman photographer. To be honest, it was uncomfortable getting stares from them. I also wished there were more women wrestlers & bands. Hopefully, this is something the organisers can put together someday. It would be fun to see more women at the front of these events, both as performers & audience members. 😉 Below are some of my photos from the event! I might want to photograph more events like these in the future, so if you like these photos & want to see what I can do if equipped properly, help me buy a new lens & speed light, which will be about a $1000 investment! I publish & make a lot of work for free & welcome donations if you want to help me work towards some gear upgrades:
Photos were made with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. View from a computer for the full experience! Click any image below to enlarge. 
Six Shooter Scrap  
“Lost Boyz” Eli Everfly, Charming Biagio Crescenzo vs “Frontier Fight Club” Hoss Hogg, Billy Bravewolf 
     Super fun action shot I couldn't believe I got! The audience's reactions were priceless.    
Lois Grain Vs Delilah Doom
 
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To be honest, this was my fav match in the show! Felt like it embodied oldschool wrestling the most. It was so much fun to experience. I love a good old-fashioned heel! The match even spilled into the pool hall at one point. Some videos from my YouTube channel are also included below. Make sure to subscribe if you're not already!
Photos were made with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. ​View from a computer for the full experience! Click any image below to enlarge. 
If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. Some of my fav compositions from the show came from these sets! Photos were made with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. View from a computer for the full experience! Click any image below to enlarge. El Aguaman vs Blood Eagle
     One of my fav shots!  
Main Event: Team Zokre (Zokre, El Genio, El Chivo) Vs Team Spider (Red Spider, Warhog, Vertigo)   
    
  Another fav!!!    If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. Aside from the library punk show I went to back in December, I haven't gone out of my way to go to a show I wasn't working for years. It was fun to see All Out Attak again, whom I didn't even know were still together! They were a band I grew up watching when I was first growing up in the LA subculture music scenes in the early 2000s. They definitely still held up! Now, music photography is not really my forte & I'm not really equipped for it, but here's a couple of photos I was able to snap from their set. I was also able to get some video, but unfortunately the audio sounded like shit, so I didn't upload them to my YouTube channel, haha! Next time. I'll have to remember to get some portraits of the audience next time, too. Photos were made with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. View from a computer for the full experience! Click any image below to enlarge.
 
If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. My fav assignment so far, photographed over 2 days! Shout out to my stellar model, C. 🖤 Between the styling, set & lighting, I'm so happy with how these came out. Especially given that some of these were photographed during mid-day, which can be so challenging for the natural light, I gained some really valuable practice in how to use mixed lighting & flash for fill light, between a speed light & strobe. Photos were made with my Nikon ZF, a Fractal prism filter, a Lightpix Labs Flashq Q20ii (speed light) & a portable Profoto strobe. I will indicate which photos used speed light & which used strobe. Styling by me. 🌼 View from a computer for the full experience! Click any image below to enlarge.  
Played around with a Fractal prism filter for these 2 photos. :)
 All photos up until here were photographed with only the speed light.
These 2 photos used both a portable strobe, synced with my speed light via "optical slave" (hate that word, but there hasn't been another industry term made to replace it yet 😕). Wanted to continue using the speed light to create more fill, but with the direct sunlight shining right on it, it had a mind of its own & the sensor that is supposed to detect the flash coming from the strobe just kept going off randomly, or wouldn't go off when I needed it to! I managed to get these 2 shots, but decided to put the speed light away after this. I'll have to research & see about a radio trigger for it next time, but I do know that the trigger that comes with the speed light can sync with multiple units at once via bluetooth. I might have to invest in a second speed light! All compositions below are photographed using only the portable strobe.
Rare photo of myself on the left, haha! The assignment required us to also make self-portraits, but I am just not a selfie kind of gal. However, I was comfortable at least getting in front of the camera for one shot if I was with my friend, & we actually really had fun with it! I also played around with a few other compositions, such as shooting through objects, as well as playing with the "freeze" mode on the strobe again to create the blurry effect of the flower petals dropping in the frame. I also got to practice my compositing skills with that one. 🤠 
This photos came out even better than I envisioned, with some of my classmates describing them as a "vibrant fairytale" & giving "Studio Ghibli vibes" — both compliments to the highest degree. 🥹 If it weren't for time constraints & our energy running low, there's a lot more I would have tried or changed. But for something photographed over 2 days & the amount of compositions I was able to create, I'm still soooooo happy with the results. Somehow I managed to make my friend look like such a movie star! 🤩 To view the rest of the work I've made during my time at GCC, please visit the tag: If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. A couple of months ago, I decided to sign up for a commercial photography class at Glendale Community College on a whim! Last semester, I was thinking about taking this class in the spring, but I didn't think it would be possible due to my work schedule at the time. Thankfully they ended up being able to accommodate me & I'm able to take 2 days off a week & work from home, so I can take this class. Not only are we still honing the skills we learned in strobe lighting last semester, we're learning a whole artillery of new skills in commercial photography, as well as some training in business practices, which I really need! As I'm trying to pivot my "career" goals & come up with back-up plans to make money, or even side gigs, this class has been way more valuable than any photography class I took in art school. 🥲 I wish I got to spend more time in community college first. The experience has felt challenging, but refreshing & supportive. We've had a number assignments since we've started, but I won't be sharing all of the work I've done. Here's a few of my fav compositions. Photos were made with my Nikon ZF & GCC's Profoto strobes. View from a computer for the full experience! Click any image below to enlarge.  This was for the first assignment for the class! The assignment was really to practice & pay attention to soft vs. hard light & color theory. Since I'm still new at adding lighting to my work, this was a great exercise to start off with! And it was a great way to have me start thinking about how to use color more intentionally in my work. This assignment was very challenging & it took me all day to troubleshoot because my set had so many items & I decided to make my life harder & choose reflective objects. 🥴 We practiced some product photography, but we particularly had to incorporate using the "freeze" mode on the Profoto packs to freeze liquid movement in the frame. As challenging as I made this assignment for myself, it was so fun & I was so happy with the results. To view the rest of the work I've made during my time at GCC, please visit the tag: If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. |
NICA AQUINOIn this space I'll share digital previews of my film photography, updates on new artworks in progress, upcoming programs, inspiration & my other misc interests. Archives
May 2026
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