Before 10-year-old Nicolas Puac ever held a professional camera or built an online following of nearly 59,000 people, he had to wait out a four-month family medical crisis that put photography completely out of reach.
Born and raised in Stuart, Florida, and now living with his family in the Torino neighborhood of Port St. Lucie, Nicolas first asked his mother, Kara Puac, to teach him photography after watching an online video of a brightly colored flower. Kara, 32, had shot photos as a hobby when Nicolas was a baby using a standard Nikon DSLR, and she agreed to show him how to use her old gear.
Soon after, however, Kara developed placenta insufficiency during her pregnancy with Nicolas’s youngest sister, a complication that prevented her body from supplying the baby with adequate nutrients. Hospitalized in Orlando two hours away from home while her husband worked two jobs, Kara delivered her daughter via C-section, and doctors gave the newborn just a 20 percent chance of survival in the neonatal intensive care unit.
For the next four months, while his baby sister fought to survive in an Orlando NICU and his mother traveled back and forth every weekend, Nicolas put his camera ambitions aside without a single complaint. Instead, he and his 13-year-old brother helped care for their younger brother and assisted their mother as she recovered from surgery.
When his baby sister finally came home healthy and household life settled, Kara asked Nicolas if he still wanted to learn photography. Using her old Nikon, he immediately began taking pictures that surpassed anything Kara had shot herself. As a thank-you gift for helping hold the household together during the hospital stay, his parents saved up to buy his older brother Oculus virtual reality gear and upgraded Nicolas to a full-frame mirrorless Canon R8.
A Five-Minute Highway Stop That Went Viral
At first, Kara set up a Facebook page for Nicolas simply as a digital folder to store his pictures. Within three months, the page grew to nearly 59,000 followers, with fans from across the country sending him lenses and lighting equipment from his wish list.
His biggest local break happened by accident along a Florida highway. Spotting a patch of wildflowers blooming in the median, Kara pulled over onto the left shoulder for five minutes so Nicolas could hop out and snap a few frames.
Because stopping on the highway median is prohibited except in emergencies, drivers passing by began posting in a local town Facebook group with more than 100,000 members, speculating that there was a runaway child or a police helicopter search underway. Kara jumped into the comment thread to apologize, explain that there was no emergency, and share the wildflower photos her 10-year-old son had just taken.
The local uproar immediately turned into admiration for Nicolas’s eye, prompting so many residents to ask where the flowers were located that the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office issued a public reminder warning drivers not to pull over on the highway to take pictures.
Commenters in the group urged Kara to submit Nicolas’s work to local art venues. She contacted the Peacock House of Art in Fort Pierce, where Nicolas was accepted as the gallery’s youngest member, hosted a debut reception where he signed cards for guests, and now has framed prints hanging for sale. He also became the youngest member of the Treasure Coast Photography Center in Fort Pierce, where older photographers have mentored him on technique.
Backyard Creativity and National Recognition
At home, photography is a family affair. Whenever Nicolas wants to test an idea, his two brothers, his mother, and his one-year-old sister step in as models.
That backyard teamwork produced what Nicolas considers his best photograph to date, a piece titled Eyes of War that won a national People’s Choice Award in the third-to-fifth-grade division of the K12 National Photography Competition.
To set up the shot, Nicolas asked his older brother to pause his video game, put on a play army uniform, and head into the backyard. After applying dirt and dark eye makeup to his brother’s face, Nicolas used a macro lens to capture an extreme close-up of his brother’s eye. During post-production, where he and his mother work together to learn editing software, Nicolas composited flames into his brother’s pupil in Photoshop to create the reflection of a battlefield fire.
Depending on the assignment, Nicolas rotates between macro lenses for tight floral details, telephoto zoom lenses for birds in flight and butterflies, and wide-angle lenses for sweeping Florida landscapes.
Balancing Homeschooling, Weddings, and Community Service
Because Nicolas receives a steady stream of messages from fans ranging in age from 6 to 80, Kara acts as his “momager,” spending an hour or two sorting through his Instagram and Facebook inquiries. That schedule keeps Nicolas off social media during the day so he can finish his homeschooling coursework, edit client galleries, and ride dirt bikes with his brothers.
Still, Kara never books a project without her son’s sign-off. Every shoot inquiry and technical question is brought directly to Nicolas so he only takes on projects he feels excited about.
Through his online booking site, Nicolas handles client sessions, branding shoots, and recently photographed his first wedding at age 10 with his mother working alongside him as his second shooter. Before accepting the job, Nicolas candidly warned the couple that because he was 10 years old, there might be a few mistakes, though the wedding day went smoothly and delivered a full gallery of sharp portraits.
Alongside his paid bookings, Nicolas regularly donates his time to community causes. On Purple Thursday in October, he photographed a healing yoga retreat for women who had escaped domestic violence. Late that same month, prior to Halloween, he volunteered to shoot a ribbon-cutting ceremony for The Mark Academy, a local nonprofit that mentors underprivileged high school students in public speaking and life skills.
When organizers at The Mark Academy told Nicolas beforehand that they did not have the budget to pay him, he told them it did not matter because their mission was helping the future, and as a 10-year-old, he was part of that future too. While showing another youngster at the event how to use a small camera, Nicolas came up with the personal motto he now sends to fans who message him online: “If you have a passion, pursue it”.
Looking Toward New York City and Beyond
Even with a gallery residency and a national student award under his belt at age 10, Nicolas has set clear long-term goals for his career. He hopes to earn an official sponsorship with Canon, shoot assignments for National Geographic, and eventually make enough money from his photography business to retire his father from working two jobs.
In the nearer future, Nicolas also has his sights set on visiting New York City, where he hopes to take on a photography project and meet some of his New York fans in person.
Images reproduced with permission of Nicolas Puac. All images remains the intellectual property of the artist. All rights reserved.
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