Today we’d like to introduce you to Trang Nguyen.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Ever since high school, photography was a hobby for me. I took my camera with me on trips and when I went out to try new food spots, but I had never shot portraits or even people in general. I think it was the second year of uni, so 2016, my boyfriend’s friend was graduating high school and he asked me to take his senior pics. I was really nervous because it was a huge milestone for him and I did not want to mess it up… I did exactly that.
At the time, I didn’t know anything about lighting, composure, framing, literally nothing! Because when it was just a hobby and I was using a Rebel T5i set on auto… we went out into the city at 12:00 pm which is literally when the sun is AT IT’S BRIGHTEST lol. Long story short, the photos came out terribly (he’ll tell you they look great to make me feel better). The sun was so harsh on his face, as were the shadows, there were maybe like three good pics that came from that two-hour session. I felt so terrible after going through the photos that I put up my camera for an entire year.
Flash forward to April 2017, my food photography and travel photography had gotten a bit better, I was scrolling through Instagram one day and I was looking at some photographers photos on those feature pages and in my head I thought “I feel like I could do this too…” or “Damn, I wish I could shoot like that” Then I rethought about Scott’s senior photos and asked if he’d be down to do another shoot and he said, hell yeah.
Before the shoot, I had saved any photos that I liked and studied them and would try to apply the same style to it, it was definitely progressing and I felt confident that I could improve from there!
I spent a lot of time teaching myself how to shoot on manual, understanding what the different settings on my camera do, how big a difference the focal length of a lens had, how to use Photoshop and Lightroom, etc. Then my friend Allie, who was already a photographer with her own business, invited me to a meet up she was hosting, there, I got to meet and work with so many wonderful people. Then, I started practicing on my family and friends to where I felt comfortable enough to make my own IG page and reach out to models on IG to see if they’d like to collab. That’s how I discovered the DFW photography community and the beautiful creatives that come with it. The rest is history from there. 🙂
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Pursuing photography as more than just a hobby wasn’t easy mainly because I was stepping way out of my comfort zone and even now after being in the industry for a year I have trouble doing that. I have always been very self kept/quiet. I have terrible social anxiety and have a difficult time connecting with others because I get so easily flustered and caught up in my own head, especially in bigger crowds which is what most photography meet-ups were like. But I mean even like one-on-one interactions too… I’m just an awkward person in general, to be honest, lol.
In the beginning, another challenge was telling myself not to get caught up with the crowd. It’s easy to feel that your work needs to look a certain way/style which can disturb your own creative thinking process and take away that sense of individuality. I felt myself getting warped into that and didn’t like how I felt my work wouldn’t ever compare. Instead, I began focus on how to improve my technique and creative process and just focus on myself, so I learned how to play with Lightroom and created my own presets from there 🙂
So, as you know, we’re impressed with T. Nguyen Photography – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
What I’m most proud of? Honestly, I don’t know where to start. I started my business half-heartedly because I didn’t ever think anyone would want to get their photos done by me; it was just a place to dump my photos but it turned into something bigger!
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I am taking a break as of late, it takes a bit longer than I had hoped, but my day job keeps me very busy and weekends are kind of my “me time” to recuperate. I have been itching to get behind the camera though and I have mood boards pinned on Pinterest and saved on IG ready for when I do jump back into the game!!
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
