Rising Stars: Meet Thao Trinh Nguyen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Thao Trinh Nguyen.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
A little back story, I was born in Vietnam, my family immigrated to the US when I was a toddler. We were refugees in the Philippines before finally making it to the US. There was an act that was passed for children of the war (Vietnam War) to come to the US due to their fathers being American soldiers. My dad is a child of an American soldier, so that’s how my family was able to escape Vietnam and come to the States to build a new life. My parents raised my brother and I and had 2 more children in Maryland, where they call home for the past 31 years.

My first memory of holding a camera was around 5-6 years of age. I remember it being something special, kids weren’t allowed to touch it without an adult’s supervision. Then dad brought home a Polaroid camera from work, this was when it was cheap to go through so many photos, and my brother and I had a blast playing with it.

We also had a camera recorder. It was probably in late elementary when my family bought a ginormous camera recorder, the ones in the late 90s-early 2000s. I remember playing around with my siblings pretending to report snowstorms at our apartment complex in Maryland. I also remember disposable cameras were brought on field trips to capture memories that can tell a story of my day. I believe this was when my interest in telling stories and capturing moments sparked.

I have to say it was during my last two years of high school where I had to take an art elective. I chose photography. I became fascinated with how film cameras work during this class. We even had a dark room to develop our photos that we took on these manual film cameras. Even made my own little pinhole box camera.

Fast forward to emerging adulthood, this interest of mine slid back to just a hobby instead of passion. Growing up in a family where your parents escaped communism in hopes for a better future for their children puts a lot of pressure on finding the right/best career. It took a while for my parents to even be ok with me going for psychology in hopes of becoming a counselor. Art has always been an outlet for me, whether it’s drawing, painting, music, or poetry, it’s all art to me. I love it all.

I remember in college, I would borrow my friend’s camera to take pictures and she would tell me my photos were really good! It started with landscapes, close-ups on nature findings, I remember where I wanted to capture nature’s little wonders because it was so fascinating to me that God created these little vines so intricately captivating. Or how one leaf can have many shades of oranges and reds. At the time taking these photos reminded me of how beautiful it is to be alive to experience God’s wonders for His creation. I’ve always wanted my art to spark something for people. I wanted people to see how beautiful the life around them really is.

It wasn’t until after I graduated and had my first big girl’s job I was able to own my camera and started taking portraits of friends to practice and eventually engagement photos that lead to wedding photos. I love capturing people’s true essence when they’re in the moment, whether it be just laughing at my corny jokes or lovingly looking into their loved one’s eyes, I love being able to capture that for them and show them, this is how they looked! Beautiful!

Being a mom and COVID really made me rethink about photography, why not chase this thing? We only have one life, why not do something we’re passionate about and challenge ourselves to be better at it? I remember looking at my son when he was maybe 1 and thought I wanted him to have a mom who chases her dreams because I want him to be able to chase his dreams without reservations. I’ve had a few clients here and there and have been able to get in on concert shows to challenge my craft when it comes to low-light and fast movements. I love concerts, and I love capturing people being passionate at what they do, it’s also one of my passions now.

I would say my portrait style is more of a journalist approach, I want to tell a story with my photos, I like candid shots more than anything else. I’m open to elopement shoots and concert shoots for the media. I’m currently learning and trying to figure out how to get onto a media company and have assignments to shoot. Somewhere local because for now, I’d like to stay in GA for my son, but once he becomes an adult and has his own thing to do, who knows what I’ll do. The big dream is to be able to travel and capture portraits and tell stories similar to Humans of New York but global.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it has not been smooth. I’ve mentioned this in the previous question, right now the challenge is to juggle the demands of being a single parent and also hustling to find gigs to better my craft.

I’m not with any media so to get into concert shows, I’m shooting for free to expand my portfolio. The photography community is extremely sweet, always willing to answer any questions and would give many pointers. I met one photographer at a concert and she was so nice. She really encouraged me to reach out to everyone and ask to photograph shows and gave me some advice on what to do and what not to do. But I will say it does seem like everyone’s a photographer in ATL. So it does make it hard to stand out, you have to find your niche, I’m still learning and working on mine.

I will say it’s all been self-taught for me when it came to photography so that part was challenging at first figuring out what aperture, ISO works best with certain settings, etc.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a photographer who does family and baby portraits, concerts and events and headshots. I’ve done engagement shoots, weddings photography, and even birthing photography.

I’m most proud of being one family photographer for all three babies’ newborn photo shoots/family portraits. My style would be a journalistic approach. I capture the in-between moments during family shoots and have learned that those are so sweet to families.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love how convenient Sandy Springs. We have access to multiple highways that don’t take 30 minutes to get to. There are multiple parks for families with young children to have access to. Sandy Springs has the convenience of being in a city with things accessible to you without having to be the actual big city like Atlanta. I like that it’s not too city-like and it’s not too suburbia-like, it’s somewhat in between the two.

I will say the cost of living here is pretty high. That would be my least-liked thing about Sandy Springs. It’s a struggle with all of the inflation happening.

Pricing:

• Headshots $125
• 15 min Mini-shoots $150
• 30 min family shoot $300

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tbacon115.pixieset.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/light_house_photos/
• Other: https://tbacon115.wixsite.com/lighthousephotos

Image Credits
Personal photo is by Linh Vi Castro with Image Bearers Studios www.imagebearersstudio.com All other photos by Light House Photography