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First time at Bob Baker Day & it was wholesome fun! I met up with friends & also got to reconnect with old ones I haven't seen in ages. As one of the generations that grew up in a pre-CGI & AI slop era, it was so fun to see so many DIY puppets & people dressed in their silliest outfits & make-up. I'd also just got a new lens the day before that was more suitable for portraits, so I mainly tried to focus on portraits instead of action shots. I learnt a lot with this new lens & figured I don't need something that opens this wide next time, considering how sunny it was. 😅 Maybe next year I can bring a longer lens, to hopefully get some of those closer-up action photos. The crowds were huge, so it was def hard to get those close-up photos — hence why I also decided to focus more on portraits. Here's some of my fav photos from the day! Photos were made with my Nikon ZF & 24-70mm f/2.8 S II lens. Sharing my photos is okay with credit! I'm on Instagram as @nica_aquino Click any image to enlarge & view from a computer for the full experience.
Variety Stage / Dog Costume COntestThere were a few different categories! Couples, LA icons, biggest goof & I forgot what else. They were all so cute. I wish they all could have won. 🥲
Cirque SchoolThe circus has a special place in my heart & it was so cool getting to see Cirque School do some some circus acts and clowning. While it was small, it was fun getting to be closer up to the performers compared to when I saw Cirque du Soleil. For these photos, I def could have benefitted from a longer lens & will remember that if I go to Bob Baker Day again next year! 
 MiscThe rest are from roaming around the park.
Ran into my former co-worker, Ayrin! She was a teaching artist at my old job & we've not seen each other since before the pandemic. It was so fun getting to see her in action & playing with the puppets for visitors. Here she is with Green Witch & a doggy puppet (I forgot his name!).
 At the end of the day as I was heading out, I ran into my friend Thania, her partner & friend! It was a really cute surprise to the end of an overall very cute day.
By this time of the day, I'd already gotten plenty of sun (although the heat could have been much worse), my legs were sore & I was beat. Hopefully I'll be back at Bob Baker Day again next year. 😁 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.
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Happiest of birthdays to sweet Thania, a dear old friend, a talented cellist & all around creative spirit. Thank you for being generous with your time, energy & space with me, & for letting me play with a new lighting setup I just got! Love you mami. 🖤 Here's a walk through my process below! Photos are from my Nikon ZF using a 24-70mm lens.
I didn't particularly LOVE the lighting on these first 3 the most, but it wasn't terrible for a first attempt! I think what I need to do next time is bring an extra light & maybe more lighting modifiers. 😅 I had a softbox on the light, but the diffusion still wasn't enough for my taste! If there were more time & energy, I would have played a little more. But our time was spent more on reconnecting, enjoying food & chisme together, hehe. Time I wouldn't trade for anything else. I knocked out these portraits in about an hour tho & we still had fun!
I was more satisfied with the lighting on these & I love the very subtle gradient on the cello! This was much more to my liking & a lot less dramatic then what I was trying to go for. But I think maybe a little more fill in the shadows would have been nice. All I did was bounce the light onto the ceiling & I loved the result so much. 😆
 However, my absolute favs are these moody photos I converted to B&W! Can't wait to show you all some new portraits I'll be making sometime this summer. I've been workshopping with a client in the last couple of months & can't wait to help make their vision come true! 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.  I'm excited to share that DoLA invited me to contribute to their weekly editorial column Local's List, their series where they invite LA locals to share about their favorite local spots. When they reached out to me, I knew I wanted to share my favorite places in Northeast LA, where we have lived for over a decade. NELA is home now & I can't imagine ever living anywhere else in LA. Read the full piece: Aside from one of the photos (which I did not originally want to include, but we had to make a last minute substitution that would fit the format), all the photography for the piece is original work by me. I had photography for all of the businesses mentioned, except one — Avenue 33 Farm. If you read the piece, you'll see that the farm is essential to our regular life, so of course I wanted to include them in my recommendations. I reached out to the farm workers & asked if I could take some photos of them for my contribution. The piece itself ended up featuring programming manager, Andrea Oloughlin, but here are some additional photos I took at the farm that didn't make it into the piece! Photos are from my Nikon ZF using a 24-70mm lens.  Gorgeous sunny day shining onto an abundant hillside farm. Peep the baby hummingbird in action!  Photo featured in the piece of programming manager, Andrea Oloughlin.
Some cute photos of distribution manager, Sarah Vargas, among the sage flowers and green bean plants! Now, it was really difficult to narrow down my choices to just 5, so here are some of my NELA honorable mentions:
Cypress Park: Glassell Park: Highland Park: Eagle Rock: Atwater Village:
If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog. To be honest, there's probably some I forgot, but let me know in the comments what you think of my NELA recs or if you think I missed any! 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. |
NICA AQUINOIn this space I'll share digital photography, digital previews of my film photography, updates on new artworks in progress, upcoming programs, inspiration & my other misc interests. Archives
September 2026
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