Welcome to NJD photography!

I am Niki J. Desautels. I am a photojournalist.  It was in college, in California, where I discovered photojournalism and the art of photographing people, events, and moments. It was here I learned the difference between setting up a beautiful photograph and being prepared to photograph the fleeting, perfect moment. It

is the difference between knowing when the best time to photograph a sunset is and hoping for the perfect moment between two people then being ready, if it occurs, to capture the moment on film. I learned that photographing people and the emotional, unpredictable, unscripted aspects of our life is what I truly enjoy.

"Capturing the moment", a common phrase heard in photojournalism refers to learning to see, to wait for, and to anticipate the meaningful glance or the heartfelt touch.  It is at it's most basic the moment of human interactions. It is about emotion.  These moments are the points where our humanity emerges, sometimes subtlety or quietly, sometimes very expressively, and it is in these moments that great photos are made.

From SJSU I spent a winter on the East Coast, interning as a staff photographer at a paper in Pennsylvania before coming to the University of Washington where I graduated with a degree in Journalism, emphasizing in Photojournalism. I have worked as a photojournalist for several papers here and in California, including the Bellingham Herald, the Daily (Everett) Herald, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

I am a member of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) and the Wedding Photojournalism Association (WPJA), have won awards in photojournalism from the NPPA, the Associated Collegiate Press, and was nominated for the best of Western Washington 2009.

You can find client reviews of my wedding and portrait work online at Yelp!, Wedding Wire, Wedding Mapper and on the Best of Western Washington website.

I am available for weddings, engagement, family and senior portraits, as well as advertising and editorial freelance work, sports and studio photography.

Wedding rates are available on this website, for all other rates please contact me by phone or email.  I love to travel and am available for work worldwide; just ask!  For photography art for your walls, please click here to view the gallery.

For scheduling and pricing inquiries please contact us.