The reluctant photographer

Nicole Mordecai never set out to become a photographer.

Until she started taking pictures of her daughter, Rachel, and her teammates playing soccer, she had no idea she even liked photography.

It happened quite by accident.

Rachel began playing on Weston High School’s varsity soccer team when she was a freshman. A teammate’s mother took game photos that first year, but when that student graduated, the team lost its photographer.

Mordecai said her husband bought a Nikon camera, handed it to her and volunteered her as the team’s new photographer. She took pictures of the team’s first scrimmage.

“Every single picture was blurry,” Mordecai said.

She took a few days off from work and “consumed every sports photography video on the internet.”

Until then, she had only taken family photos. On top of that, she was not a sports fan.

“It’s quite different when your child is participating,” she said.

The coach pointed out the best vantage points, and Mordecai captured photos at every game.

“I was actively doing something, being challenged, learning about photography and improving my skills all at once,” she said. “I really loved it.”

Then she began to take photos of her daughter’s horseback riding events.

“After three years, I was a pretty good sports photographer,” Mordecai said.

Thus began her 12-year-and-counting photography career. Since those early beginnings with sports photographs, Mordecai has broadened her horizons considerably. In fact, some of her photos are currently on view at the Weston Council on Aging in a solo exhibit.

The show is simply titled “Photography” because the photos do not fit into one central theme, explained Mordecai.

Between the pictures

Mordecai’s photography career has taken some interesting twists and turns. When she first began shooting pictures, she worked full-time as a software engineer for a technology firm. Eventually, the firm laid her off, and she launched her own software design business. She closed the startup when her mother became ill and shifted her focus to caring for her mother and establishing the photography business.

In the beginning, Mordecai mostly photographed local community events. However, in 2020, when COVID-19 struck and in-person events ground to a halt, she pivoted once again.

The Lexington Arts and Crafts Society, where Mordecai is a board member, had planned several gallery shows. When they moved the galleries online, she set up a small studio and wrote up a guide so people could photograph their artwork.

“I actually started teaching online at that point, and that’s what I’m still doing,” she said.

Getting creative

Mordecai likes to experiment and manipulate her photos to achieve special effects.

She throws out phrases like light painting — a photography technique using long exposure — motion blur and multiple exposures, all done with her Nikon camera or the newest iPhone.

Photoshop can also come in handy when she blends images.

“I like it all. I’ve never enjoyed specializing,” she said. “I like learning new stuff and I’m just trying things all the time. I’m never content doing the same thing over and over.”

The possible exception is her wildlife photography.

“I do love wildlife photography, which is just sort of straight photography,” she said.

Her training in sports photography has helped with wildlife shoots.

“Sports photography is the best training you can get for wildlife photography — learning how to shoot things that move fast,” she said.

On the road

Now that she has fewer responsibilities, Mordecai enjoys traveling to take photos.

“In the last couple of years, I’ve been going crazy traveling all over the place,” she said.

She has photographed sea lions in California, bears in Alaska, landscapes in Iceland and a peacock in Portugal, to name a few.

Looking ahead, Mordecai said she will continue to teach and travel and enter competitions.

Always eager to give back to her communities, Mordecai runs the Newton Camera Club and is on the boards of the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society and Weston Media. She also donates photos to the town of Weston and has put together a volunteer photography corps to take photos for the Weston Observer.

“I’m really quite busy,” she said.