Dawn Nicoli

Dawn Nicoli is a woman with a multitude of talents. Dawn is a world class photographer, an exceptional writer, and an incredible human being. She has spent most of her life creating aesthetic beauty and has an innate beauty that radiates from within.

Dawn was raised in a wonderful caring family in Westfield, Massachusetts where she attended school and remained until the photography bug took hold and she pursued her passion attending photography school at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. To finish her training, she chose San Diego City College and ended up not wanting to leave our beautiful town.

There was one secret that was revealed to her when she was just six years old, and that was that Dawn was adopted. “I can remember my mom sitting me down and telling me in the most beautiful way. She told me that she and my dad couldn't have a baby, but there was a woman, my mother, who had a baby and couldn't take care of her. She said that God put us together, and we magically became a perfect family.”

Dawn understood and was blessed with an incredible childhood, but she always wondered who her birth mother was, because she would gaze around at all her friends, and they all looked like little clones of their mothers. She always wondered if she looked like her mom as well.

Dawn had shared this with her babysitter who told her that when she got older, she could go to the big Catholic Monastery from where she was adopted, and they would have to tell her who her real mom was. When Dawn turned 18, she set out to do just that, but sadly found out that it wasn’t quite that easy. “One of the saddest days was when I found out that it was a sealed adoption meaning that the information was locked and sealed away.” Dawn is not a woman who easily takes no for an answer. She continued searching every way possible to find out the coveted information.

In the meantime, Dawn had pursued her photography career. “I knew when I was 16 years old that pho-

tography was what I wanted to do. I took an elective course in dark room photography and learned how to process film. That same year, my mother won a trip to Acapulco.

She couldn’t go but passed the trip on to me and my best friend. This was a pretty big trip for a 16-year-old to take, from Massachusetts to Acapulco. My girlfriend and I went, and we hired a taxi to take us up into the hills to photograph the Mexican people. We spotted this family of pigs walking across the street and as we followed them with our cameras, they lead us to this little hacienda. A Mexican father was standing over a hearth

with a large machete. He was cutting vegetables for the family meal with all his little children in the background, looking at dad preparing the meal. I took that photograph in black and white. And then I came back to Massachusetts and developed it in the school darkroom, excited to show my friends a scene they could never have imagined. At that moment I knew how powerful photography could be. It became a means of communication, a means of showing somebody something that they couldn't fathom and a way of expressing myself.”

Dawn was hooked and knew she had chosen the right profession. During her studies at San Diego City College she was enrolled in a Photography Business class and one day during the class, somebody came in and put a note in front of the teacher's eyes and he read it at the end of the class. It was this note that would start her on her photojournalism career. The note informed the class that channel eight, KFMB, was looking to hire freelance photographers and to call Bob Kari, the art director, at the number provided. Dawn jotted down the number, thinking that everyone in the class would be flooding the director with calls. “I ended up getting selected for it, along with another guy from my class, and come to find out we were the only ones that applied. This was what I guess you would call one of those life lessons. I realized that if you don't reach out and try to make something happen, nothing ever will.”

Dawn loved her time there. “I worked for three years creating photographs for the station’s feature stories in TV guide. I would find the models and locations to depict the theme of the story.”

Dawn freelanced for about 10 years just doing all sorts of different jobs while she waitressed to help pay the bills. “I wondered what the heck was ever going to happen to me. Warnings my parents gave me about my career choice kept haunting me, but when you love something so much in the back of your mind, you just know it will work out. I was working for the Sheraton hotel as a concierge and a banquet waitress. Because I loved photography so much, I would wander down to the hotel’s basement as they started transforming it into an exhibit hall. They would roll out this carpet and create exhibit booths for annual corporate conventions. I‘d venture down there on my breaks and I just started photographing the set ups. One day a woman came up to me and asked if I was a professional photographer? Of course, the answer is always YES. She handed me a card that said Greyhound Exhibit Services. The woman explained to me that they set up these big shows all over the country. Well, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was traveling all around the United States, photographing these exhibits for different associations. Each association would put my forms in their packets so that ev-

Photos courtesy of Dawn Nicoli

By Judith A. Habert

ery exhibitor could get an eight by ten of their booth. It was a fun job.”

Dawn did the corporate conventions for seven years and then transitioned into weddings. “I’m a people person and the emotions during a wedding were so much more appealing to me than exhibit booths. While experiencing the extraordinary San Diego venues, photographing weddings, and preserving my client’s memories, I built a very lucrative business.

It was at this point that Dawn had met her husband, Bruce, and things were getting serious when they decided to search out their perfect home. They found an amazing property, a two-acre tear down in Escondido, with wonderful possibilities, but a lot of work to make it into the estate it eventually became.

Dawn continued with her wedding photography business, but was able to expand and build her own studio, and Nicoli Productions now had its own home. This allowed Dawn to focus more on her true love, portrait photography. “My husband was a landscape contractor and together we created these little sets around the property. We began adopting all kinds of farm animals to share this new land with us. I started photographing children and engagement couple’s portraits and my family portrait business grew.”

Although Dawn was busy with her business and renovations on their new home, the need to find out about her birth mom was constantly gnawing at her. She knew there would be no calm until she found out the truth. She decided it was time to take the next step, and so she hired a private detective to see if he could track down the woman who gave her life. “Finally, after so many years and so much searching, I found her. I wrote her a letter and waited patiently for a response. I can still remember my hands shaking as I opened her first letter back to me.”

As it turns out Dawn’s mom was from Ireland and although she had been in the states when she had Dawn, she was now back in her native land. “I booked the first flight I could and journeyed on the trip that would put an end to all my unanswered questions. I not only met my mom on this trip, but also my 87-year-old grandmother and all four male cousins who treated me as their sister. I had a great big Irish family that I never knew about.”

Dawn had several more trips to Ireland to get to know her new family, and her Mother came to the states as well. “It was so great looking at my mom and seeing the characteristics that I had inherited. When I first met her, she was even wearing a blouse in my favorite color, which it turns out was her favorite color too. I finally felt like I knew where I was from and learned of so many similarities with my mom. A void had been fulfilled.”

Dawn, who has always loved to write and is an excellent writer, decided, during the shutdown of Covid to finish the book she started twenty years ago. “My book entitled ‘The Search,’ not only tells my story, but examines who we become by comparing both biological characteristics and the effects of the environment in which we are raised.”

This is a book that you will not be able to put down. I had the honor of being given a copy to read, and the story is just so endearing, so compelling, and one of the few books that I have read in a long time that I did not want to put down. Dawn takes you through the parallel lives of three women, and their stories are told in such a sincere and heartwarming way that you don’t want the story to end, because these women become friends and an integral part of your life. Everyone needs to read ‘The Search.’ It will change you.

Over the years Dawn’s property in Escondido has metamorphosed into a magical space with an energy that is felt the moment you set foot on her grounds. Dawn and her

husband parted ways after a twenty-year marriage, but Dawn has continued to add her personal touches to this beautiful and unique property. With the addition of the Airbnb flat, and all the beautiful landscape improvements, her property has become an idyllic wedding venue and more recently has been transformed into a healing retreat. Reiki masters, Pilates instructors, yoga instructors, and massage therapists are available for all guests. This serenity transports you into another world, one of relaxation and renewal.

There are so many nooks and crannies on the two acre grounds, including a hammock garden, infrared sauna and the turtle ponds; you’ll not run out of places to explore. The property has also been used to film movie scenes, produce several commercials, and numerous fashion shoots. “The grounds had an amazing Torrey pine tree which was the heart of this property when we bought it, and so instead of uprooting it we built the deck around it. It has continued to grow and at one point

we talked about taking it down and I couldn’t bear the thought, plus it provided an incredible amount of shade during the hot summer months. There came a point though when it had out grown its space, so much that the branches were over the entire house and they were falling, and the tree’s roots were coming up in the driveway. It was clearly a remarkable tree. It was tough but I had to make the decision to cut it down.

“Not wanting to let the essence of the tree go, I felt there was a way of reinventing it, kind of like I had done with myself. Within a year a treehouse was built, over the top of its trunk and now the familiar owls still come back to nest in it.”

As an added bit of information, Dawn Nicoli has also been our Staff photog-

rapher at San Diego Woman Magazine for over 8 years, and has been the one responsible for the most beautiful covers and interior shots which have graced our publication. We are so thankful to have someone of her talents and grace working with us. There is not one of our women who has not come back to us raving about their experience with Dawn. She has been a Godsend and the consummate professional.

Don’t miss the opportunity to buy her book ‘The Search’ and if you are looking for a fabulous location to host an event or just spend some tranquil time visit https://acountryoasis.com/

To View Dawn’s breathtaking photography, visit her website at https://www. nicoliproductions.com