With His Drone, Nadim Zoghbi Found Happiness, Community, and Humpback Whales

Nadim Zoghbi was on the fast track to corporate success. Born and raised in Lebanon, he moved to the US when he was 13, excelled in school, went to a top university in Florida, and got a prominent job in sales for a large software company in Washington DC. He was “living well” for a guy in his 20’s but wasn’t really happy. He was spending 70-80 hours a week doing something he didn’t enjoy, and knew he needed a change.

After deciding to spend a few weeks in California to visit friends up and down the coast, Zoghbi fell in love with SoCal’s weather and coastal landscape… specifically the laid back culture and vibe of Laguna Beach. It was then that he made the difficult decision to put his happiness before his career and requested relocation from his company, leaving his family and everything he’d based his comfortable life on in the East Coast.

While living in Laguna, two to three months after lockdown, he found himself with a lot of extra time on his hands. After he’d finish his corporate duties working from home, he’d venture outside for the best part of his day: to capture Laguna’s beautiful sunsets, posting them daily on his Instagram. Before long the algorithm gods took notice and his feed was flooded with scenic shots from some of Instagram’s most talented photographers. 

As he browsed through aerial shots of marine life and the Orange County coast, he was inspired. 

He could do that. 

A few months later he committed and went all in, buying a drone and resigning from his corporate job.

Today, not even a year into his new career, he’s received numerous awards for his work, is constantly featured in top drone accounts on IG, and is making a name for himself in and around Orange County for his lively, vibrant aerial photography that captures a unique viewpoint of Southern California — whether it’s photographing a humpback whale along the Laguna coast, shooting brand campaigns for his girlfriend (professional open water swimmer, Lexie Kelly), or capturing underwater footage with his GoPro. 

We recently caught up with the 29-year-old photographer to get a glimpse into his new life as one of Orange County’s most sought after drone photographers — a new life where he’s found his sense of happiness and purpose high above SoCal’s famous palms.

You dove in to photography during the pandemic, how hard was it to pivot careers?

The pandemic was a blessing to me. I’m empathetic towards all the people and families who have struggled during this pandemic, especially those who’ve lost their loved ones. I’m not in any way dismissing the hardships that have been experienced all over the globe. But the reason it was a blessing to me is because it was my wake up call. I had spent almost 30 years of my life living under this pretext of what it meant to be successful. 

The pandemic forced me to reflect on where I was and reprioritize my life. 

I knew I had to give up a lot of luxuries in order to quit my job and make the transition to photography to avoid financial stress — so I canceled all my memberships and online subscriptions, replaced my SUV with a scooter, and cut out all unnecessary spending from my day to day. 

My girlfriend was also a big influence and inspiration in making this decision. She was the one who opened my eyes to the potential of pursuing photography as a career. I was helping her get content for various swimming brands she had partnered with. I had an amateur Sony camera at the time but it seemed to get the job done; everyone loved the photos we were taking so we kept going during our free time, and here we are now... 

What kind of equipment do you use? 

Sony a7iii Full Frame Camera 

DJI Mavic Air 2s Drone

DJI Ronin S Gimbal

GoPro Hero 9

I’ve heard the drone community is very tight knit… how have you found it? Is it more supportive than competitive?

I think the drone community is a perfect balance of both to be honest. The connections and relationships I’ve gained through this transition have been priceless. I love the drone community because people are so supportive and encouraging, but we’re constantly in a friendly competition. Not against each other necessarily, but we each have individual goals we want to achieve so that keeps everyone hungry and always striving to get better. But at the end of the day, we’re all grateful that we get to do something we love and enjoy sharing the beautiful moments and images we capture in the process. I’ve noticed that we all celebrate each other’s wins and successes at all times and it’s a real feeling. 

I feel genuinely happy when someone I know reaches a certain milestone or gets some kind of award for their hard work. It inspires me to keep pushing every day.

What are your goals for the future of your photography?

Ultimately, I would like to focus all my photography and videography efforts in the fitness industry. I want to work with fitness companies and/or personalities on creating unique and exciting content for their brands and helping them grow through that. I’m also working towards opening my own fitness photography studio here in OC. 

In a few years, I want to be a leading photographer in the fitness world and strive to one day be shooting at special events like the Olympics. 

Outside of fitness, I will be pursuing landscape and street photography on the side and plan to launch a print store in the next few months so I can share the moments I capture with the rest of the world.  

Where has been your favorite place to shoot thus far? Have you come across any interesting facts that you wouldn’t have known about topography while shooting in Orange County?

I do almost all of my shooting on the coast, mainly capturing coastal landscapes, aerial shots of the ocean, and sunsets. My favorite spots to shoot in Laguna are Treasure Island and Shaw’s Cove or Crescent Bay. I love the abundance of palm trees in those spots. 

I didn’t know Laguna had so many tide pools and definitely didn’t realize there were so many dolphins so close to our shores until I got into droning! I find dolphin pods ranging from five to thousands of fins almost every day!

You’ve droned in quite a few places — from SoCal to Hawaii to Lebanon — what have been some of your favorite experiences that droning has given you? 

My marine life encounters are definitely at the top of my list. 

I found a humpback whale no more than a quarter mile off the coast in Laguna and spent a solid 20 minutes hovering over it. 

It was just rolling around in kelp and flapping its tail and fins. I was speechless that day and feel so grateful that I had the chance to witness that moment. I would’ve missed it if I didn’t have my drone. 

Other than that, I love having my drone for any trip/outing that my girlfriend and I go on. We always try to take unique photos/videos to share our adventures from a different perspective.

You’ve been featured in quite a few media outlets, tell me some of your biggest accomplishments thus far?

I’ve had a couple of prints entered into fundraising auctions around Orange County, which was pretty neat. Most recently, I entered one of my photos in the OC Fair Visual Arts contest and it was accepted to be featured at the Gallery for the landscape division. I also just found out it got the “Staff Pick” Award within the landscape category, which was pretty cool. 

Ultimately though, my biggest accomplishment was making the transition to photography and giving myself a chance to pursue something I love every day.

Features and awards are great but there’s something much deeper that fuels what I do and I’m so grateful for it.