Nashville Portrait Photographer | Fizzah Raza Photography
What is lifestyle photography?
Fizzah Raza Photography is boutique portrait photography studio based in Nashville and specializing in beautiful, fun and modern photos. We provide photography services to Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, Hendersonville, Spring Hill, Mt. Juliet, Antioch, and surrounding Middle Tennessee.
We offer a few different types of portrait sessions:
Lifestyle Family Portraits usually take place in your home and at times, a fun scenic outdoor location. We strive to document the fun, fleeting memories that will be cherished for years to come. We don't believe in stiff, stuffy photos where everyone wears khaki pants and a white shirt. We LOVE to bring out the fun, crazy, silly moments as well as the quiet, tender moments that make your family special and unique.
Glamour Makeover Sessions are one of our favorite types of sessions to photograph, mainly because we want to celebrate women and their relationships. Women carry the world on their shoulders - they are moms, daughters, sisters, friends, wives/partners, bosses and so much more. We love to pamper our glamour session clients with hair and makeup - these sessions can be scheduled for individuals or for small groups of friends or family members. It is a beautiful way to celebrate yourself and as a bonus, you will have photos to remind you of how gorgeous and loved you truly are.
Personal Branding Portraits are perfect for solo entrepreneurs or small businesses. We love to collaborate on content creation for lifestyle brands that want to share their story and passion with the world. These are often a mix of studio and on location portraits that focus on creating clean, story driven marketing images. Personal branding sessions are ideal for fashion bloggers, lifestyle bloggers, travel bloggers, anyone in the beauty industry, chefs, bakers, marketing experts, small business coaches, life coaches, or really anyone with a small business with a story.
As a small business, we value the connection we have with our clients and strive to provide the absolute best customer service and experience. We offer a limited number of sessions each month and sessions often book out 2-3 months in advance - please plan accordingly. We'd love to work with you - contact us today to schedule your portrait session. We can be contacted using our contact form or email us directly at fizzah@fizzahraza.com to schedule your portrait session.
Memories to last a lifetime
We live in a digital age and we consume so much in terms of images now that sometimes it is easy to forget the power of a photograph. I’m talking about that sensation when you hold an actual photograph in your hands and you can immediately feel yourself back in the moment - the sights, sounds and even smells. Or when you look through old photographs of your parents or grandparents and realize they have a lifetime of memories before you were even born.
Exist in photos
Moms and dads - I am talking to you now. Moms, I get it - you spend your entire day and many times, hours at night, taking care of people. Your little people. They need so much and they need you so much - it is unlike any other relationship and bond. It can be overwhelming even while it is beautiful - there’s no shame in saying that. Whether you are a working mom or a stay at home mom, it can be so challenging to practice self care. I’m a mom of two very little children and most days, I am the last one to get dressed because I have to get the kids cleaned up and fed. And when I do get ready, I grab the closest, cleanest pair of jeans and a t-shirt, whip my hair up in a bun and call it a day. I have a closet full of my pre-baby clothes - cute tops and nice pants, skirts etc. But I don’t reach for them as often as I should because I subconsciously know there will be food, spit up and paint on them by the end of the day. So, sometimes I get that you don’t FEEL like being in the photos with you kids. You’d rather fill your iPhone album up with all of their adorableness. But trust me when I say you NEED to exist in photos with your children. Your children will cherish seeing their parents in the photos with them. They won’t care what outfit you were wearing or what size your dress was. They won’t care that your hair wasn’t perfectly curled or that you weren’t wearing makeup. They will see and FEEL the love that you have for them and just how much you cherish them..
Dads, I’m going to give you a similar spiel. Photo shoots are probably not your ideal way to spend a day. And you’re also exhausted - you work so hard for your family so that they are well taken care of and you put in your dad hours to boot. It takes energy to help around the house, be the best partner possible, chase little kids around and ease their tantrums. When you’re kids are off to college or getting ready on their wedding day and your family cracks open the family album to reminisce, it is so imperative that they see all their fun and loving moments with their dad. These are the moments our children will hold onto long after we are gone.
I am passion about photographing people
I feel so strongly about this because of my own story and it is probably what drove me towards photography even from a young age. My family moved to the US to start a new life and we arrived with two standard sized suitcases for a family of 6 (later 7, when my youngest brother was born). Nearly all of our possessions had been looted during the political and social upheaval before we moved and that included many of our photos and albums. I have a total of 5 photographs of myself as a baby, a couple of my siblings and absolutely none of my parent’s wedding. Even as a child I remember wanting to use our cheap used film camera to snap photos of everyone. Unfortunately, looking back most of those photos were terribly exposed or cropped...or blurry. But there were some gems here and there which were worth hanging on to.
A few years ago, when I visited my cousin in Australia for the first time they brought out their album. It was like most family albums - the kind you slide 4x6 photos into plastic sleeves. Most of the people in the photos were extended family members I had never met. But then I saw one of my mom with her sisters laughing at something as they sat on a bed - they were maybe in their early 20’s and it was someone’s wedding. And I saw my grandmother when she was in her 40s. I had never seen my grandmother like that - I only was able to meet her when she was already in her 70s. It was a very powerful experience for me and I pored over every detail in the photographs - the bedspread, their shoes, the items on the night stands. I wondered for days and weeks what their daily life was like - the mundane things.
I recently was helping my mom clear out old papers and happened to find her driver’s license from Kenya in one of the boxes. I couldn’t stop looking at it. My mom - now in her late 70’s - looked drop dead gorgeous in her 20’s with her hair coiffed and cat eye glasses. She had this demure but smirky smile like she knew something I didn’t. It sparked this wonder in me about what her life was like before she was my mom - what clothes did she wear, what fun things did she do with her family and friends, what did she look like as a child? I felt this tremendous sadness also though because I didn’t own a single photograph which I could look at beyond her driver’s license. You can only imagine how often I photograph her now that she lives with us.
I already felt strongly about photographing people when I first began my creative journey, but I didn’t understand the full force of my drive until I dug deep into my own story and how not having visual records of my family history has played a part in my road to becoming a photographer.
This personal drive to document life and to exist in photos also plays strongly in my desire to create portraits for women through my Glamour Makeover Sessions (see some amazing before and after photos here.) Document who you are and what you look like right now, not after you've lost the weight or fixed the wrinkles or found the right set of clothes. Your loved ones don't care about any of that and I promise, when future generations look at your portraits they will be so thankful that you passed on such a treasure.
Because I am so passionate about storytelling, I incorporate that into my Personal Branding sessions as well. I love working with other solopreneurs, lifestyle brands and small businesses to communicate their brand story and bring it to life visually. In an Instagram ready lifestyle, how we present our brand and business to people matters - how we connect with them on an emotional and visual level is key. Let's work together to create photographs that will tell the world the amazing gifts you bring to the table.
Professional Experience
I have been a professional photographer since early 2012 and have poured so much of my time into education and practice. I truly am a big believer in always finding avenues for personal and professional growth. I have taken numerous workshops and classes with world renowned photographers and business experts. I read and watch tons of videos every week in order to hone my craft and perfect my skills. Nothing beats actual experience and with each session, I learn more about how best to work with people and ways I can up the level of my photography and my client experience. Bottom line - I am a hard worker and a nerd that loves to learn.
My passion for photography and for people drives me to want to learn more and more and to become a leader in my industry. My work makes me so happy and gives me such energy that on most days, it hardly feels like work. I can easily lose hours in a day focused on photography and business if I am not careful - I do set boundaries for myself in order to find a balance in life.