Nice to meet you

My name is Nicole Farhat. I am stating up front that I am not a professional photographer. However, I have been taking pictures most of my life.

Here is a bit of my background.

I grew up in two very different worlds. I was born in the United States where everything you needed was at your fingertips. Where clean drinking water and electricity were not something ever I worried about.

My mother and father, along with their siblings, are all from Lebanon, in the Middle East. My parents would take my sister and I back to Lebanon when we were children. However, we were too young to understand the struggles that the country was going through and still goes through today.

Here is a small piece of information to give you an idea of the struggle Lebanon has gone through. The Lebanese civil war started in April of 1975 and ended October of 1990. 15 years! It ended just one month after I was born. My first trip to Lebanon was the fall of 1991, where I celebrated my first birthday and christening.

When I returned to Lebanon at an older age, I saw where we would go to get our fresh drinking water (from a natural water source piped in from the high mountains) and how my father scheduled his day around the power outages. I realized I had it lucky living in the US. But, it also taught me to be mindful of what I have.

While in Lebanon I discovered my love of photography. Specifically landscapes and mountain ranges. My family home is located in the Mount Lebanon region in the village of Jaj. It sits 1,220 meters (4,002 ft) above sea level. And the fact that we drive through the clouds has to be my favorite part.

Well that is enough about me. Enjoy my page.