Meet the adorable and fun-sized 22 year old, Dhanisha Ganase (better known as Nisha), the owner and founder of The Little Lady Photography who not only takes pictures of people, and places, but also animals in need. From doing non-profit animal charity work, to helping with animal rescues, as well as helping spread awareness of animal rights, Nisha definitely is someone to look out for and someone who inspires us!
We really want to get to know you better (interests, quirks, pet peeves, favorite band, anything you’d like to share with us!) Growing up as a child, I was exposed to playing and caring for dogs and cats on the streets and my love for animals grew from there. I’ve always been that kid who could not stay still and wanted to travel to distant places and see unfamiliar faces. I had always loved to experience different cultures and lifestyles. I can say that although I grew up in a city, I’ve never admired buildings and structures as much as I admire trees and the sky. When it comes to music, well, anything with a beat that’s so different from the rest would catch my attention, for example, EDWARD MAYA. My biggest peeve is when people pick their noses in public.
What made you decide that photography was your calling and how did the name The Little Lady Photography come about?
I was interested in photography when I had my first camera in 2009 as I enrolled in Segi University. We all had to own one just for 2 lessons yet I felt that I should put it to good use and figure out what I could do with it. It slowly become a hobby and now, my passion. Who would have known? Haha.
Oh well, The Little Lady Photography came about when I had decided to try to name my photography page with a name that’s rather different, other than my name. My partner of four years now used to call me “Little Lady” due to my petite size, of course.. haha! With that being very close to my heart, I decided to go by the name The Little Lady Photography.
Besides photography what are you passionate about?
Besides photography, I had always loved horse riding and motorbikes. I guess one is just natural speed and the other is manmade speed. Horse riding came about when I was much younger as my dad was with the Malaysian Military. A couple of years back I was pretty close to sitting for my O-levels in horse riding, however that had to be tossed aside as college ate up all my time. Now, 3 years down the road, here I am trying to learn my way with motorbike riding, I’d love to someday be able to perform stunts with the bike!
We heard you also do photography for charity? This is something new to us! Tell us about it.
Yes I do! I often help out with Malaysia Independent Animal Rescue and a couple of independent rescuers in photographing portraits of rescued or shelter dogs to increase the chance in adoption. I find that photographs really speak a thousand words, and these dogs need their stories to be told from their furry faces and a good photograph really can capture so much attention. I also have been doing documentation photography for MIAR during their big rescue missions, like the DBKL rescue that took place a month ago for example. I was happy knowing people said they could actually feel the emotions through the photographs.
Why did you decide to photograph animals instead of just people?
It all started when I took photos of my dog, Perdy, and looking at it did upset me, knowing that I never had photographs of her growing up since the day I adopted her from SPCA 13 years ago.
Knowing I would never be able to recall her as a little puppy and the things she did, it made me realize that I should photograph every moment of my dogs. I had always believed that Malaysians should cherish their dogs and cats just like they would cherish a baby, photographing their first moments and moments after that. After almost a year of running up and down MIAR’s shelter and my home trying to learn the nature of dogs and cats, I was finally able to photograph almost any dog or cat that comes my way.
Since then, I have been encouraging my friends and the public to just take a chance in getting photographs of their furry friends captured before they grow up and leave to rainbow bridge. That way, we would be able to reminisce those moments when we look at beautiful pictures of them.. the way they looked like running, or when they bit your favourite shoe, or how they would tilt their heads side ways 🙂
There are plenty photographers who can capture photographs of people and events but not many photographers understand how to photograph your furry best friend.
As a female photographer, what are the challenges you face?
Well, as a female photographer, I guess the biggest challenge is to convince people that you know what you’re doing. People tend to think photographers should be men as you’d have to carry heavy equipment and get down and dirty with certain events, so they stereotype women as the sort who just can’t or won’t go to the extreme. However, I am glad that now Malaysia is getting more open-minded and are supporting women photographers more than they were before. As for me, being a petite woman photographer, my personal challenge is my height and well, my size. Nothing a stool can’t fix! Haha!
What are your biggest accomplishments and things you are most proud of?
As I was growing up, I always had a dream to be one of the known photographers who works for National Geographic. Where I’d get to travel and photograph the wild! I was so close to living that dream when I was one of the TOP 8 winners for the National Geographic Young Photographer Awards 2012. I was the only female photographer amongst 7 other guys who got the chance to travel to Bali for a week with Jino Lee (Canon Singapore’s Resident Photographer) and we lived our dream of being a travel photographer for the week. We constantly traveled and photographed day and night in Bali. It was an amazing experience!
You can find out more about the little lady of The Little Lady Photography here:
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/thelittleladyphotography
Twitter : https://twitter.com/DhanishaElvira
Email: thelittlelady.photography@gmail.com
