December 23, 2013
Photographer Nicole Miller is back in Kingaroy at the moment to catch up with family, but then she’s back off to the Gold Coast to launch her second (that’s right, second) international fashion label …
Not bad going for a woman who’s self-taught and has only been in the fashion business for a couple of years.
Her Mamacocha bikinis are selling well in the United States and Canada, and she’s about to launch a series of black and white T-shirts (although the final name for the line is yet to be decided).
But it is her photography which has drawn Nicole into the fashion limelight.
In three short years, her images have decorated the covers of major magazines, including Swimwear Illustrated USA and Swimwear Illustrated Australia.
Almost all her work is shot on location although she does maintain a small studio on the coast for indoor jobs.
She’s shot models for car magazines, including Queensland Street Car, and regularly works with National Amateur Body Builders Association champion Heather Scott-Hunter.
She’s even had her work featured in advertising draped along the sides of a bus!
A more “out there” job was to do the cover photography for Costa Rican-based “Gorgeous Freaks” magazine which featured heavily tattooed, horned and pierced models.
These models – into hooks and crucifixion – were a challenge to shoot but Nicole is open-minded: “Whatever floats your boat”, she says.
It is this open-minded attitude, plus the fact that she’s a woman, which has made her popular with models who feel comfortable with her shooting them for their portfolios and magazine assignments.
A recent job was shooting swimwear models at Jupiter’s Casino. Each model had just 15 minutes to pose by the pool as Nicole snapped away.
She ended up photographing 28 girls in just one day, an exhausting assignment.
Nicole calls on a Kingaroy connection at times to help out when life becomes too busy, working with local photographer Chris Mackay on some shoots.
Over the past few years, Nicole estimates she has worked with at least 400 girls on a wide range of all sorts of modelling assignments.
It’s not everyone who can boast that they’ve had their work featured in Zoo Magazine UK’s “best bums” edition!
