Meet Nupur Agrawal | Photographer & Digital Marketer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nupur Agrawal and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nupur, why did you pursue a creative career?
Growing up I always had this creative/artistic environment around me as both my parents were in some form of music and arts and that trickled down to all three of their kids as well in some ways. Despite that, I pursued my education in electrical engineering and I moved to the USA for my master’s degree. During college, I spent time exploring creative hobbies like dance and painting and eventually started dabbling in photography by taking photos of my friends and family. It took me a while to realize that I loved spending hours learning about this art form rather than picking up and reading a business or engineering textbook and what started as a hobby turned into a creative interest and passion for photography. Pursuing photography gives my mind a creative outlet which helps me stay motivated, de-stressed, imaginative and open-minded in many ways ,artistic or otherwise, in my life.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a self-taught photographer specializing in portraits, headshots, landscapes and most recently flower photography. What I love about taking portraits is that you get to interact one on one with the person and try to capture their personality through their photos and make them feel beautiful inside and out. For my portraits I am purposefully focusing on women who are trying to establish themselves in their profession or passion. Moving to San Diego was a blessing, not just in terms of how beautiful this city is and how I’ve made forever friends here, but also because it offers amazing options to practice your landscape photography skills. The more I explored the city and traveled, the more I found landscape photography to be a peaceful and beautiful experience and an amazing way to build patience.

It was not easy to make it a profession because I moved to a new city where I knew no one while trying to establish my work and also trying to find a full time job in marketing to have a steady source of income. But I remained persistent, tried to network through social media to connect with people and slowly but steadily I was able to establish myself. I recently started exploring flower photography and have been enjoying not only taking pictures of flowers but making them into digital paintings. I am still honing my skills in this area, but I am super excited about it because this will allow me to merge my interest in painting with my photography. Another thing I am really thrilled about is my new website. It was a great experience building it myself with all my artwork in there. Right now it is like my portfolio, but stay tuned for some blogs/articles coming on it soon.

Every artist has their own artistic journey and learnings, but with mine I have learned a few very important things: 1. Be patient but persistent with your work, hard work does pay off eventually. 2. The best work is produced when you trust in your creative process and allow your work to be an expression of you.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
San Diego is one of my favorite cities in the USA and there are a lot of cool places to visit and experience in this beautiful city and while one week is not enough to visit all of the interesting spots, here’s what we will explore:

We will start our first day (Friday) with breakfast at one of the local favorites, Brick and Bell Cafe in La Jolla, to grab delicious coffee and an almond croissant. Followed by a walk on the main street of La Jolla downtown, which is filled with beautiful art galleries showcasing talented artists like Ian Ely and Evgeny Yorobe. We will spend the afternoon relaxing at the scenic La Jolla coves, with a scrumptious gelato from Bobboi. An early dinner at Queenstown Bistro in the UTC/La Jolla area followed by fun-to-look-at and refreshingly tasty drinks at the popular speakeasy Raised by Wolves to end the fun Friday night.

For the rest of the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) we will explore the farmer’s market in Hillcrest where we satisfy our taste buds with fresh foods and produce from local farmers and vendors like Praeger Brothers and Sweet Tree Farms. Next we’ll do some site-seeing at the famous Balboa Park, historic Old Town, then go for a long walk at Seaport Village and Embarcadero, which is a beautiful spot to walk around the day or night. Of course all of this walking and sightseeing would make us crave some good food and for that we will eat in Little Italy which offers a multitude of great restaurants like Buon Appetito and Extraordinary Desserts.

We’ll spend the next four days exploring a few wineries in and around San Diego starting with my favorite, Orfila Vineyards & Winery, which offers guests the option to picnic and enjoy great wine overlooking the vineyards with mountain backdrop. And of course if you are in San Diego visiting at least a couple of the beaches is a must, so I would pick Coronado beach with the iconic and historic Hotel del Coronado, where we will enjoy the sunset with some delicious drinks and ice cream on the beach. During these days we will try some of my favorite local restaurants and food joints like Northside Shack for its delicious, fresh and healthy açaí or coconut bowl, Lucha Libre taco shop, Fig Tree Cafe for one of the best stuffed French toast, and Sab Lai Thai for mouthwatering Thai food.

For the last day of the trip we will grab breakfast from one of the best local bakeries, Canele, whose delicious croissants can easily give competition to croissants in Paris. Followed by a short walk to the Westfield UTC mall for some shopping and a delicious coffee from La Colombe coffee shop. And then heading straight to my two all time favorite spots in San Diego, Torrey Pines gliderport for adventures paragliding over the Pacific Ocean and last but not the least to Mount Soledad to enjoy a 360 view of the whole city and a gorgeous sunset.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I am lucky to have awesome sisters who have always supported and encouraged me and parents who provided a creative environment for me from childhood. But I would like to raise the toast specifically to my husband, Sumit, who has stood by me every step of the way. He has supported me not just emotionally and mentally, but also to the point that he is my plus one at most of my photography shoots or ventures. From helping me to lift heavy gear to pushing me to take risks and keep growing and enjoying my passion, he has been my biggest supporter. I am also very grateful for the love and support from close friends and a network of artists that support me online.

Website: https://www.crimsoncapture.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/photos.Nupur

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/nupur-agrawal-322b6736

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=U0VcEvTPRDlaSmxJfqB8ig