We recently had the chance to connect with Stephanie Nembhard and have shared our conversation below.
Stephanie, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
We have recently welcomed another baby into our family! Lately, I have enjoyed watching my children interact with our newest addition. It brings me joy to see the love they have for their baby brother, and the special connection that the siblings share. I am excited to witness their interactions and look forward to the memories they will create together.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am Stephanie, the owner of Stephanie Nembhard Photography. I am a portrait photographer, who specializes in families. From maternity, to newborn, to all families- I love capturing special milestones and life moments for my clients, including pregnancies, births, birthdays, engagements, and other special celebrations. I truly enjoy getting to know the families I work with, and watching their families grow throughout the years. My aim is to capture the beauty of life’s truest moments between loved ones, which is why I seek to capture authentic moments of love, laughter, and joy during a session. Being a teacher, and a mother to young kids, I often try to place myself in the shoes of my clients by being very flexible, understanding, and accommodating. From my own experiences, my goal is to be understanding, flexible, and helpful before and during sessions. If I can achieve having my clients, especially fellow moms, feel stress-free and confident during a session, and in love with their photos once their gallery is delivered…then that is a huge win for me!
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
Growing up I fell in love with experiencing other cultures, traveling to other countries, and making friends with people from diverse backgrounds. In high school, I went on my first international trip, without my parents, to Europe. During this trip, I feel that I learned many life skills, learned to be independent, learned to step out of my comfort zone. I also developed a love for travel and immersion in other countries and cultures. Later, during my college years, I participated in study abroad programs, and lived with host families in other countries. It shaped my view of the world, my desire to learn additional languages, and ultimately, my studies and career path as an ESOL teacher. My perspective on history, culture, politics, cuisine, as well as, my ability to connect with people from different cultural backgrounds, were all influenced by these experiences abroad. Moreover, I enjoy working with my clients from different backgrounds, and highlighting the beauty of the diversity in the Northern Virginia region.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I would tell my younger self to be more accepting of myself, to love who I am and fully enjoy every stage of life. Don’t rush time, take in every moment. Don’t try to be like anyone else or change who I am for anyone, just be me and enjoy my youth to the fullest. You are perfect just the way you are!
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
They would say what really matters to me is family. 100 percent. My husband, my children and my dog are my world. And all the wonderful friends that feel like family. I feel blessed to have so many amazing people in my life! At the end of the day, what really matters to me is to make memories with the people I love- to love hard, and laugh hard! Never forget to cherish every day and to make the most of this beautiful life.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
If I only had 10 years left, I would not waste any precious moment and I would stop caring about all the trivial things, I would focus on doing what makes me happy all of the time. Instead of adding to my bucket list and planning to do these things sometime in the future, I would make it happen…do the things, go to the places, be with the people. Make every day count. Oh, and also document it all…..take a million pictures and videos to encapsulate it all!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://stephanienembhardphotography.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephanienembhardphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StephanieNembhardPhotography/
Image Credits
Stephanie Nembhard Photography
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