Today we’d like to introduce you to Nour Bajbouj.
Hi Nour, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was a second-year psychology student at a university in Syria when the Syrian War (still on-going) started. I had to stop school, and spent my free time trying to document crimes going on in my city. My father feared for my safety, so he sent me literally overnight to neighboring Jordan, where I managed to get a visa to the US to stay with family. This was in late 2012. I left everything behind, and came to the US to start a new life and hopefully continue my education. Long story short, I ended up finding the love of my life in 2013, and after getting married we travelled the world (for his work) before eventually moving back to Dallas, TX in 2015 when I had my first child (Adam). A second child later in 2018 (Ibrahim), and I was really feeling lost. I never continued my education, and I felt like I was wasting my life away. I always wanted a professional camera since I had a passion for (amateur) photography. I wanted a professional camera just to take family pictures, but my husband always discouraged me from such an expensive purchase since “we have cameras on our phones”.
Finally, in late 2019, I told him I wanted to become a professional photographer, and later that week we bought a nice camera for me to practice on. Many free photoshoots and hundreds of hours of practice and courses later, I finally started Nour B. Photography in March 2020 – talk about timing! It took until early 2021 for my work to start getting noticed in my community, and I have been thriving since!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Like everything in life, nothing has been smooth, and for that, I am truly grateful. Some of my biggest struggles have been learning English (still learning to this day) in order to better communicate with my clients, as well as learning to grow a business from scratch. I am grateful because many times I feel like I could do much better with my business, but then I look back at what I have been able to accomplish so far and that is my reminder to keep going.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a professional photographer, and I am currently specializing in wedding photography. I am known locally for documenting the Palestine protests alongside my husband, which took place in Dallas, TX in May earlier this year (2021), where a few of my Instagram posts went viral, and business inquiries skyrocketed. I am most proud of this coverage because I dedicated a lot of my time to raise awareness for such an important issue to me, and in return my community showed me tons of love and support that still makes me smile to this day. One of my dreams was to also become a wedding videographer, but I knew that I couldn’t do that without extra help, so somehow I managed to convince my husband to take on this role, and with my guidance and support he ended up become my part-time videographer, and this also allowed my business to grow further.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I spend a lot of time on instagram since that is where most of my clients come from. I love to engage with my followers through stories and clips from behind the scenes. Each wedding I shoot is a huge collaboration of venders, and I love working with new vendors all the time. Also, at times I like to use my social posts as ‘shoutouts’ to my clients, especially ones that own/run local businesses. My platform has a lot of engaged people, especially from our local middle-eastern community, so many people come to me for their branding photos since they know they will get amazing photos, and a shoutout from me to their target audience. I like to work with genuine and passionate people, especially people in the wedding industry.
Contact Info:
- Email: queenb@nourbphotography.com
- Website: https://www.nourbphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourbphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nourbphotography/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ-kFAtBLwMPdrEttUz9hCA
Image Credits
Nour Bajbouj
