Hello everyone!!!!  Thank you for stopping by my blog.  My name is Nicky Byington.  I am a portrait photographer who specializes in photographing Special Needs Children in the Central Valley (This includes Manteca, Ripon, Salida, Modesto, Turlock, Ceres, and Oakdale)! 

Please navigate to my SPECIAL NEEDS page to learn where my passion for the special needs community began!  You can also go to my Behind The Scenes page to check out some videos from a few different types of sessions :)

In the meantime, please enjoy this video my photographing Angelina!  I met Angelina through Manteca Parks and Rec's Challenger League, where I volunteered as a coach!  The Challenger league is a fun, non-compeltive sports league for special needs children.  As you will see in the video, Angelina is fisty and super fun to be around.  She already knew most of her poses that she wanted to do and was ready for every single photo!

,Last weekend I took photos of Parker, who is a 2 week old newborn.  His mother was so kind to let me take a few videos with my phone so I could make a small behind the scenes video for everyone to see! Everyone photo session is different but you can see a small glimpse of one of my sessions.  Please for forgive my boring angles and timelapse clips in the video, I set my cell phone on a tripod and just let it recorded for a few minutes in different spots in the house.  

I am a portrait photographer in Modesto California, who specializes in photographing Special Needs Children!! This includes Manteca, Ripon, Modesto, Ceres, Oakdale and Turlock...yes I travel for my sessions!  Check out my Behind The Scenes tab under "Galleries" to check out a few more videos on different photo sessions :) 

Also check out how my passion began with photographing Special Needs Children! 
​Click SPECIAL NEEDS or navigate to the main website!

Here are a few behind the scene photos :) 

iOn April 27th 2018, I was honored and so happy to be invited to photographs the children in Annie's classroom!  Please navigate to my Special Needs page to learn how I became involved with photographing Special Needs Children in the Central Valley!   

A few months before April, Neil Halfey asked me if I could come take photos of the kids in Annie's class so they could use those photos to surprise her at her retirement party.  Without hesitation, I said OF COURSE! 

A few years ago, I was actually a paraprofessional who worked in the Severely Handicapped classroom right next to Anne's classroom, so I knew her and most of her children.  I worked as a paraprofessional for about two years and provided respite care for children with a wide range of special needs also!   

When I arrived in the morning around 9am, all the kids were having breakfast.  I visited with the kids and talked to Anne where she would like photos taken.  She wanted to do a mix of outside and inside in different areas of the school.  We went to the playground, library, the swings and the wall ball area!  As you can see in the photos below, every single child adores and loves Anne!  We had so much fun with the kids!

This is the collage made for her retirement party below.

So August 11th was a magical surprise for Cindy!  Her fiance (boyfriend before the photoshoot) and I cooked up a plan to add a surprise proposal into her what she thought was just "anniversary pictures".  Cindy and Ray had been together for 9 years and Cindy wanted Anniversary picture done, little did she know she got a little surprise with that. 

I remember when Ray texted me a picture of the ring.  I was floating down the Stanislaus river in Knights Ferry and he said "Do you want to see the ring"?  Of course, I said YESSSS.  I could barley see my phone screen because it was in a plastic protective sleeve since I was floating down the river.  As soon as I got a text back, I looked and could see the ring even through the plastic screen with water drops all over it!  I was so happy because now it was becoming real that he was really going to propose during our photoshoot. 

At the same time, Cindy would ask me what she should wear for her "anniversary pictures" because she wanted to look nice but not look like she was going to the prom.  She was stressing because she had never had any professional photos taken with Ray since they have been together (9 yearsss!).  
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While I was helping Cindy figure out what she wanted to wear and prepare for pictures, Ray and I were talking about code words for the proposal.  We planned a day trip so we could get several different locations and varieties in pictures.  Cindy wanted trees and nature in the photos so we planned to go to a National Park along the coast and than to a beach!  I asked Ray when he wanted to propose and he said that I am the professional and whenever works.  We figured out a code word or code phrase so he knew that I was ready when he proposed (because I didn't want to be adjusted camera settings or changing lens when he actually proposed). 
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 After getting a few sunrise photos in the small sketchy parking lot, we kept going along the coast.  Again I spotted another spot I liked...we were driving on a windy road through the mountains!  I was getting nacuous so I wanted to stop, but I saw this HUGE private property and had to stop!  The National Park idea did not go as we planned, so we moved on from that idea.  We got several awesome shots here, but this was not the place for a proposal. 

Soooooo we kept driving until we hit the BEACH!  We took some fun photos close to the parking lot at the beach before the actual proposal and beach!  Ray and I secretly convinced CIndy to change outfits to a pretty dark dress with a jean jacket because these were going to be the photos and the dress was Ray's favorite outfit that she brought (Cindy brought several outfits to change into for different places we did photos at).  Cindy really enjoyed the pictures we did on the bridge. ​

NOW IT WAS TIME FOR THE BEACH and the PROPOSAL! 

She was sooooo surprised and had no idea! Now enjoy engagement photos.  We traveled to San Fran and finished out pictures throughout San Fran :) 

Parker Boling was born on October 15th around 4pm, weighing 7lb 12oz and 21inches long! I was fortunate to be invited by the Boling family to come to the hospital and take photos of Parker.  Parker is only a couple hours of old in the photos!  

I loved that only though he was just a few hours old, he was already soooooo loved.  He had family (sister, brothers, grandma, aunts and uncles) and friends present for his arrival!