Before she ever stepped foot in a Loma Linda University School of Nursing (LLUSN) classroom, Nicole Mackey spent years learning how to be present with people during the most important moments of their lives. As a self-taught, full-time photographer (or “mom-tog,” as she puts it) she built a career out of a hobby, capturing precious moments with newborns, maternity sessions, and family milestones. In 2025, Nicole graduated from LLUSN, closing one chapter defined by a camera lens and opening another where being present and providing excellent patient care go hand in hand. As her story reveals, the two professions are more closely connected than they might appear.
Nicole Mackey’s path into photography began with a simple act of generosity. When she was pregnant with her oldest child, she and her family treasured having professional maternity photos taken. When a family member could not afford the same experience, knowing firsthand how meaningful it is to have these moments captured, Nicole offered to take the photos herself. This fulfilling experience of giving the gift of lasting memories to a loved one led her to pursue photography as a career.
As she explored professional photography, Nicole found herself especially drawn to newborn sessions, chasing details that exist for only a fleeting window of time. “Babies are only little once,” she explains. “From one day to the next, their features won’t be the same.” Similarly, birth photography pulled her in with its urgency. “The adrenaline to catch these moments is high… you only have one shot to capture it,” she says.
What Nicole loved most about photography wasn’t the technical craft, but rather what happened when families saw the results of her work. “We all have insecurities about ourselves, and when you get in front of a camera and get to see the results, those insecurities are taken away. You see yourself from a different point of view,” she says. Through the years, her camera captured sacred, unguarded moments: children playing while their parents watched with quiet, overwhelming love; or a father witnessing his baby’s birth. “All those huge emotions in one image truly felt like I could see how their lives changed in an instant,” she reflects.
Not every session Nicole photographed was filled with joy. Through her work with Forever Footprints, an organization that provides remembrance photography and support for families experiencing infant loss, she was invited into some of the hardest days of people’s lives. One experience in particular stayed with her, influencing her decision to pivot to a career in nursing.
You are serving others no matter the circumstance. They need, and you get to provide, exceptional care, show compassion, and treat those you care for with respect and dignity
Nicole received a call from Forever Footprints and was told the baby she would photograph might not survive long enough for her to get to the hospital due to severe genetic abnormalities. By the time she arrived at Loma Linda University Medical Center, the baby had already passed. “The room was quiet, and the baby was being held in her mother’s arms,” she remembers, “...surrounded by family and friends and the child’s two older brothers.”
It wasn’t the grief in the room that left a lasting impression on Nicole, it was what came after. She observed the nurses doing all they could to support the family, allowing them space to gather together and grieve as their pastor arrived to offer a blessing, and helping create keepsakes of the precious life that was lost that day. “All around, the compassion and care were so heartwarming,” Nicole says of that day that quietly redirected her career. Experiences like this one didn’t just shape her personally, hugging her own children a little tighter and refusing to take precious moments for granted, they planted the seed for growth in a new direction.
A New Chapter
Nicole had once pictured herself as a doctor, but life and family took a different course. While an interest in the medical field persisted, it wasn’t until years later when her children were older that timing aligned during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I knew it was my moment to change careers,” she says. “My kids and I could be doing school together while we were all at home.”
Still, the decision to return to school after years away came with real fears: the time it would pull from her children, how she’d perform academically after being away from the classroom for so long, and the financial strain it would place on her family. She remembers asking herself, “Will I fail my family if I don’t pass a class?”
Despite the uncertainty, Nicole found that her years behind the camera prepared her for nursing school in ways she hadn’t anticipated. “I grew resilient when panic could set in, and I was able to talk to people and gain trust by listening and understanding that everyone has their own story, and we are there to help them live through it.” She felt particularly prepared for her rotations in labor and delivery, postpartum, and pediatrics. She found her photography experience gave her insight most of her classmates didn’t have. “I understood how C-sections would go. I knew how labor would go and how explaining what is happening is still critically important during the chaos,” she says. “With experience capturing births, I knew what to expect and was able to help my classmates to experience it as well.”
Ask Nicole what photography and nursing have in common, and she doesn’t hesitate to share: “You are serving others no matter the circumstance. They need, and you get to provide, exceptional care, show compassion, and treat those you care for with respect and dignity,” she says.
For years, Nicole Mackey stood behind a lens, documenting the beginnings, and sometimes the endings, of families’ stories. Now she steps into those same moments not as an observer, but as a caregiver, present to walk alongside her patients through whatever comes their way in the hospital. It is, in many ways, the same calling she always had: to notice what matters most in someone’s life and be present to make sure they don’t face it alone.
