the happygrrls blog: Profile: Neddy Nyce

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Profile: Neddy Nyce – 2Nyce Photography

Ain’t it funny how the world of social media works? Neddy Nyce and I have been

Facebook friends forever and we follow each other on Twitter, but we never actually met. Well actually, we met in passing many years ago at an event, but I never had the pleasure of sitting down with him and having an actual conversation.

I’ve received his status updates and emails showing his latest photos from his company- 2Nyce Photography, but still we lacked face to face interaction.

Since I’m a girl who thrives on meeting new people and making new connections, I thought it was the best time for us to reintroduce ourselves. So I contacted him.

A few weeks after my initial email, Neddy and I met at Yorkdale for the interview. I was very happy to see that he was a friendly, jovial dude—but more importantly, that he recognized me since my Facebook profile pic is not of me, but a cartoon picture. Lol.

We found a seat in the middle of the mall and Neddy shared with me his start in photography, his inspirations, and his thoughts on Instagram. Here’s what he had to say.

How did you get your start in photography?

I’ve always loved photography. In 1999 I bought my first professional camera. I went around to different events and took photos. In 2001 a friend asked me to come to his wedding..... I went and took a whole bunch of photos. At the time I was just randomly snapping, because I like snapping. I developed them and sent them to him. They liked my photos better than their photographer’s photos. From there they referred other people to me. At the time I wasn’t doing it as a business, but then they told me that I should and I got other weddings from there. It just started to snowball after that.

How do you come up with concepts for your pictures?

I’ll see something in the world and it will inspire me. Like, I was downtown and I passed by a Nutcracker display and I saw a doll hanging by strings and I said “let me see if I can recreate that with an actual person.” I got the shot done, so it looks like the person has puppet arms.

I see that you have many “fitness” photos on your website. How did you get into “fitness” photography?

In 2004 I went to my first fitness show. From there people started to ask me for photos backstage. I started taking photos of people and I developed a liking for it. The fitness clients make up a lot of my business because they are always changing their bodies. If they take photos now, they would need photos by December because they follow a strict workout routine and diet—their bodies change so fast in such a short period of time. In 2 months they can be 40 lbs lighter.

Who are some of your favourite photographers?

One of my favourite photographers was one of my students – his name is Yao (his company - eDZIN). He started with me a long time ago, and I saw him start from the beginning and develop and now he’s pretty much up there as a photographer. We still do shoots together.

What do you think about Instagram?

In all honestly, I understand the social aspect of it, and I understand why people are taking photos and editing them and putting them up – it’s more the connecting with other people and being creative and showing people what you can do with your photos. But as a professional, I’m not too interested in it. In terms of butchering and doctoring of the photos, not too much of a fan. Taking a pic and warping the colours.... it’s showing you shortcuts, to me it looks kinda butchered. There are a lot of people that think they are “big time photographers” because of their Instagram edits!

But it’s open up the door to a lot of different people – I like that part of it. People who never did photography before can get into it and start to do stuff to their photos.

Do you do photography fulltime?

It was my fulltime business for the past 6 years and I decided to slow it down a bit. I am still doing it, but I am teaching as well. I teach photography at the City of Vaughan. I have my own teaching business as well. People will contact me if they want lessons and I take them on as students.

Although the interview was brief, I can now say that I’ve had an actual sit down conversation with Neddy Nyce.

My favourite part of this interview was that Neddy is a perfect example of turning your passion into a career. He had an interest in photography a long time ago, and now he’s not just a successful photographer, he’s a businessman.

It was great meeting you, Neddy. I especially liked that you giggled as much as I do!

If you’re interested in having Neddy snap some pics of you, please contact him at: