All images and this site are © Photography by Nadine

About Nadine

About Nadine

Nadine is a professional photographer with twenty years of experience. Her extensive travels have allowed her to photograph wildlife, people and places all over the world.

She maintains three online galleries under the "Photography by Nadine" studio name:

    Images as Art showcases some of Nadine's photographic artwork documenting her travels and time spent in nature.
    Cowboys and Western  focuses on all things western and cowboy - cattle drives, branding, wildlife, horses on the ranch and the range, cowgirls and rodeos
    Four Legged Portraits represents a niche Nadine has found in animal and equestrian photography

Much of Nadine's work is produced as Giclee prints in limited editions, and is available for sale to the public and commercial accounts. She also
                                     accepts commissions. Works are also available  online and at the following locations:

To commission photographic artwork, contact Nadine directly.

While looking at Nadine's galleries and ecommerce sites, bear in mind that the colors on the computer screen may not match the actual colors of the print. The images on this site are for your enjoyment and/or purchase. Please respect the fact that they are all copyrighted. Thanks for visiting.

Through the lens of Nadine VerStandig
Originally published August 21, 2008 <direct link to article>


By Lauren LaRocca
News-Post Staff
 
  Through the lens of Nadine VerStandig
 
 
"Cooling Off," by Nadine VerStandig.

 

POOLESVILLE — While Nadine VerStandig always liked taking photos, it was a life-threatening brain aneurysm five years ago that brought her passion and talent into focus.

"I started seeing things a little differently," she said, walking the small lane toward her barn. "It made me appreciate all the little things."

Now a professional photographer -- she started her business, Photography by Nadine, over two years ago -- she does commissioned work of landscapes, seascapes, wildlife and animal portraits. When doing commissioned animal portraiture, she goes to the pet's home, so it is comfortable, "and then I just start shooting pictures."

She is known mostly, though, for her Wild West shots -- horses, cowboys, ranches -- probably because of the volume of photos she's taken in this genre.

"I must've lived in the Old West in another life," she said, sitting in her studio in a flannel shirt, jeans and cowgirl boots. "When the other girls were playing with their Barbie dolls, I was watching Bonanza."

It's both the beauty and the history of the Old West that is attractive to her.

"I've been to Tombstone (Arizona)," she said. "It's not a movie. It's real."

In the works is a coffee table book that will take a historical look at the Old West.

When she's not taking photos, she's riding horses, spending time with her two sons or traveling.

She has traveled extensively throughout the United States, sometimes going to Colorado, South Dakota, Arizona, and so on for shoots, sometimes for vacation. Regardless, the camera is on her at all times. Even when she is at home, on a ranch in Poolesville, she said she can spend all day roaming around the yard, taking shots of the hills, the horses, the barn.

"I may take 200 pictures. I don't limit it," she said. "I may shoot and shoot and shoot, and then I bring it home and edit."

She has traveled beyond the U.S., as well. A trip to Kenya brought several shots of wildlife -- chimpanzees, a rhino, cheetahs, lions. Several lions. One photo shows a pride of females on a rock, "one of those things (my fiance and I) just stumbled across," she said.

She uses Giclee prints for her work, giving the photos an almost 3-dimensional quality.

One photo on her studio wall shows an Arizona sunset through a barbed-wire fence. She looks at it as turning everyday images into art.

"For some reason, it stops me," she said.

She recently went to Arizona to take photos of Price Canyon Ranch (pricecanyon.com), from cattle drives to riding to branding and castrating, buildings and landscapes.

She got underneath one of their horses and took a photo of its belly. In another shot, she captured the shine of a cowboy's spurs.

"I never would've thought of doing that," ranch owner Alicia Kemmerly said. "I would've taken a picture of the whole coowboy or the whole body of the horse."

Kemmerly said another photo of the ranch shows a sunrise over the mountains, perfectly centered through their triangular dinner bell. "She has a very artistic eye," Kemmerly continued. "For us, as owners, it's very cool to see (Price Canyon Ranch) through her lens."

VerStandig has no desire to do staged portraits. Cowboy portraits, however, are a different story.

"Cowboys are natural people," she said, "not all finicky and fussy with matching clothes."

She pointed out a Giclee print on her wall of a father and son standing next to a wood-frame barn. "All I did was hold up the camera. That is their natural pose," she said.

Her work is currently on exhibit at several galleries and hotels throughout the U.S. -- Arizona, Wyoming, New Mexico, Oklahoma. Near home, her work can be seen at The Design a la Carte Design Center in Annapolis and at Art Matters Art Consultants in Rockville.

"There's beauty everywhere," she said. "I guess I just feel a kinship with the Old West. I'm like a misplaced cowgirl."

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