Category: News

BLOG Rebuild

House of Photography, Nacogdoches.. providing professional photography in studio, outdoors and on location.

BLOG REBOOT

After several years of being without a BLOG for House of Photography, I decided it was time to get this up and running. As a local business in Nacogdoches, TX and a sole proprietor, time is always a factor. With Covid still having its effects, even though its August, I’ve set aside some time to write, share and blog.

The state of our business is positive for anyone interested. After being in business for over 25 years, I’ve learned to save for the lean times. Covid, 911, economic slump of 2017, etc. One thing for sure is that hard times will come and as much as possible to be prepared. With that said, we are positive with our attitudes and looking for ways to drum up business.

Being a photographer in Nacogdoches, first as campus photographer for Stephen F. Austin State University, later teaching photography to over 1000+ students, all while running a full-time retail photography studio has taken much work. Cindy and I both know how to work and genuinely would rather be busy.

Currently we are focusing on a few personal projects. Our photography studio being in the downtown district of Nacogdoches is always in need of updating and repair being that it was built in 1898! Just before Covid hit, we had the roof redone and my what a project. Thankful to have real professionals climb this steep pitched roof, repairing old lath boards and bring this structure more protection from the East Texas weather.

Another project that we are beyond excited about is what we have named, the “Greatest Generation” project. Be on the lookout with our next blog post and I’ll share GLENN HARVIN, his story and some of the photos captured on a recent visit.

Support LOCAL business

If you live and work in Nacogdoches, please consider shopping local as much as possible. We are here for this town and would love to provide professional photography for years to come. But we need your help! Would you consider allowing us to photograph your family, upcoming son or daughter that is entering their senior year, capture a milestone birthday portrait of one of your kids or grandkids?

As a full-time retail photography studio, you are correct in that our prices are a little more than some, but what we offer in return more than makes up for that little extra cost. For example, our studio sits on a full acre of property designed with photography in mind, a dressing room and plenty of room for the entire family, indoor photography options and backdrops, an outdoor portrait garden and park with 100’s of photo options. Beyond these, we can professionally print ANY SIZE and create wall decor you will cherish for a lifetime! On top of all this, we guarantee our work! If you would like to see our work, head on over to houseofphotography.biz and click on the PHOTOS tab.

There you have it… a recap of where we stand, update on a few projects and a plea for your business.

We would love to hear your feedback!

Tags COVID, Greatest Generation

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The Newest Gift Shop in Nac

Post author By cpatterson
Post date November 2, 2018
No Comments on The Newest Gift Shop in Nac

House of Photography {Gifts + Photos + Classes}

A Year of Change
We get a lot of questions these days about the changes we’ve made at the studio. One is, “Why would you want to change the name of your business from G Patterson Photography Studio to House of Photography?” and “What is this I hear about you selling gifts?” or “You can teach me photography?”

This year certainly has been a year of change with our small town business. For the past 25 years, we have been photographers. Pretty simple! Photography has changed dramatically the past 10 years. The idea of who and what a photographer has changed as well. But to answer the questions in very broad terms, the reason for this change is that we see Nacogdoches undergoing many positive changes and we wanted to be part of that effort, making this town we call home the best it can be. Utilizing our talents as photographers, experience in graphic design plus the love and ability to create unique products has allowed us to “think outside the box!”

25 Years of Professional Photography
There’s many things we do right at House of Photography like capturing professional photographs, providing beautiful surroundings and backdrops for those photos, great customer service, and the ability to finish the art with professionally printed portraits worthy to hang on your wall. This is our passion and will continue to be our focus! We LOVE creating photos that make you love the way you look.

Learning Photography from a Pro
We’ve even put our expert knowledge of photography to work by teaching people of all ages the basics of photography in both our kids photography camps and adult photography classes. Just this year we have taught almost 100 people through our photography classes. Adult classes run throughout the year with new classes pretty much every month. If you want to know how to use your camera or how to see like a photographer, these classes were designed to get you started. They are FUN, FUN, FUN! You can see our current class offerings by visiting https://houseofphotography.as.me/learnphotography.

We ❤️ Nacogdoches and SFA! Introducing the Newest Gift Store in Nacogdoches
With our love for this town we proudly call home along with our favorite university-SFA, we embarked on a venture, an idea really to help promote what makes this place so unique. We want to highlight the history of Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas! We also want to shine a light on some of our local talent, artists, and makers. All of this wrapped up together led us to rename, rebrand, and build something totally unique.

With twenty-five years of experience in photography, you wouldn’t be surprised to find an overarching theme to just that. Some of the photography related gifts include camera stickers, camera patches, camera straps, camera bags, etc. We have scenic Nacogdoches photographs for purchase by local photographer Wendy Floyd; also, some great photography including Big Bend and our local Goodman Bridge prior to being moved to Pecan Park.

Nacogdoches Gifts, SFA Gifts, Gifts for Men, Photography Gifts, etc…
Because our town boasts such diverse talent, we also have bath products, wood carvings, coffee mugs, drink coasters and jewelry made right here, all of which make great gifts! You’ll find whimsical products like camera purses, camera bubble blowers, t-shirts, hats and unique and award winning greeting cards, Nacogdoches post cards, SFA post cards, as well as other products devoted to SFA. All these together with a handful of supplies for the amateur photographer combine to create a collection of unique and fun gifts.

When you leave House of Photography, we hope you’ll tell others of the unique experience you had here; but, also, a sense of deja vu as we’ve chosen black and white prints from the past 100 years to decorate our walls and help bring a little recognition and prestige to SFA and the beautiful town it which it calls home.

The quaintness and attention to personal detail you receive in shops like the ones in downtown Nacogdoches is a real appeal. So, we hope you’ll drop in and experience all the changes we’ve made. You can even leave with a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee while the weather’s cold.

New Hours
One last note, from now until Christmas, we will be open Monday 11 am to 4 pm, Tuesday-Friday 10 am to 5:30 pm and Saturday 11 am to 4 pm.

Tags antiques, Bruce Cunningham, coffee, gift shop, gifts, House of Photography, Mason Jar Shirts, merchandise, Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches CVB, products, SFA

Blog Graduating Seniors News Travel Workshops, Seminars & Talks

Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful

Post author By cpatterson
Post date July 3, 2017
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G Patterson Studio owners and volunteers pose with Katie Blevins in recognition of the Nacogdocehes Landscape Leadership Award. (Photo courtesy Nacogdoches Chamber of Commerce)

It’s been three years since we visited Park Cities, Utah. In my mind, it’s a city that will always be synonymous with beautiful. Besides its terraced landscape and grandiose vistas, it was clean. I don’t just mean absent of trash on the roadways, but attention-to-detail clean. We’re talking yards mowed, hedges clipped and roads swept. There were no garish signs on poles; in fact, there were few poles of any kind at all. Maybe it was the way the sun set in the sky or, simply, because I was on vacation, but I was happy. It felt like I’d just stepped into the Technicolor “Wizard of Oz.”

Until I visited this town, I wouldn’t have imagined how the aesthetics of a city could truly make or break a tourist’s experience. Nacogdoches is home to many tourists each year. Many of them come because of our designation as the Garden Capital of Texas. Our city’s university, businesses, civic groups and many individuals have worked well together to help create that designation. We should be proud of these efforts and for the difference it’s made in our parks, paths, and gardens.

Luke Stanley surrounded by his Eagle Scout project in the SFA garden. The labyrinth was finished spring 2017. (Photo by Greg Patterson, G Patterson Studio & Gallery)

G Patterson Studio owners and volunteers pose with Katie Blevins in recognition of the Nacogdocehes Landscape Leadership Award. (Photo courtesy Nacogdoches Chamber of Commerce) — G Patterson Studio owners and volunteers pose with Katie Blevins in recognition of the 2017 Nacogdocehes Landscape Leadership Award. (Photo courtesy Nacogdoches Chamber of Commerce)

When I see the improvements to our parks or the flower boxes downtown or the new labyrinth at SFA’s trail system at University Dr. and Starr, I’m inspired to play a part. We recently received the Landscape Leadership award by Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful for the initiative we took in establishing our portrait garden in downtown Nacogdoches. It was bestowed on us due to the efforts made by my parents and other volunteers; it’s because of their concerted efforts, I realize that “many hands make light work.”

If you want to be part of the change but don’t know what to do or where to go, Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful is a great place to begin. KNB implements programs to clean up litter, reduce and recycle waste, encourage individual responsibility and beautify and enhance the local community. KNB’s volunteers have done this so well they were named a Gold Star Affiliate by Keep Texas Beautiful, a designation conferred on just 66 of KTB’s more than 395 affiliates in 2017. At www.keepnacbeautiful.org, you’ll see exactly what they do and many different ways you, or you and your family, or you and your co-workers can get involved.

There’ve been many positive changes made to our city, but noo one will tell you it’s easy. Wouldn’t it be worth it, though, to be able to say, “We’re proud of Nacogdoches and how beautiful it is?” To be the town that everyone else blogs about? I can’t think of a better way to spend a weekend but alongside friends helping clean and beautify Nacogdoches. It all starts with you!

Babies Blog Children Events Family News Pets Portrait Sessions Rambling

Memories of bunnies

2014 Bunnies at Greg Patterson Studio in Nacogdoches.

A Magical Combination…

Since we opened our doors twenty years ago, we’ve had a lot of good ideas come and go. Though our focus has always been to provide lifestyle portraiture that makes you “feel” something, we’ve always tried to keep things fresh and in keeping with today’s trends. Making elaborate sets for one person for one hour was never our style, but could we decorate a set for many clients over a short number of days? We’ve always had great success photographing children, so we began using the holidays as an excuse to do something a little more fun! We began with the Easter holiday and bunnies, because…well, do I really need to explain it? Children with bunnies is a magical combination.

2011 Bunnies at G. Patterson Studio.

There’s a huge element of unpredictability when photographing animals, but that’s what makes for a great photo session! Just when you have all your subjects, both kids and bunnies, looking in the general vicinity of your camera, the bunny hops off. Or, it could be the child scooting out of the scene, because come to find out, they’re afraid of rabbits! Photographing with rabbits, means you’re constantly picking up little pellets that look like their food, but they’re not. And, once, we had a rabbit bite a child, but that was just once. And than, of course, you may have two rabbits acting amorous all of a sudden, and you have to explain that’s just their way of playing, because that’s a conversation better left for the parents to have with them.

They’ve come with many names attached to them, but “Payday” has stuck with me, because of the number of years we used him. He was a beautiful big flop-eared rabbit that was so gentle and not easily spooked. Children would remember him from one Easter to the next, and were always happy to see him. Tracy Steinhauser and her two, Kasy and Keelan, were instrumental in keeping us in stock every Easter. We knew if our rabbits came from them, they’d be groomed and well cared for. Each of our three children were photographed with the bunnies. Our daughter, now 28 years, loved the bunny sessions so much, she even posed as a teen with her best friend and the bunnies. Our sons were a little less enthused. We even acquired a couple rabbits of our own at one point and would allow them to play in the backyard with the cats.

Since that Time…

2013 Bunnies at G Patterson Studio.

Since that time, we’ve had many more of these types of sessions designed around a theme or holiday. We’ve had Santa for Christmas, pumpkins at Halloween, watermelons for Independence Day. For these children’s session we’ve used titles like “Gone Fishin’,” ”Puppy Love,” ”In the Attic,” ”Tea Party,” ”Little Guys in Ties,” and ”Mom & Me,” to name a few.

All of these “mini” sessions over the years serve to create fond memories for us at the studio. Our favorite remembrances, though, come from the sessions with the bunnies. They take a little more time and effort, but they’re always worth it!

Just4Fun is the title we give these specially designed sessions. They’re just for kids and just fifteen minutes long. We provide viewing at the time of your session, and our packages are offered at a discount. If you’re interested in our “Easter Bunnies” Just4Fun session, visit

2008 Bunny portraits at G Patterson Studio.

Blog Events Family News Portrait Sessions

About being engaged

Moon_236a — Kyle and Haley engaged and loving it!

“Engage in the little moments, you never know which of those will actually be the big moments,”

There is no possible way to convey to you the magic that was August 15, 2015. Engage your attention with me for a moment. I thought, lying there looking up at the stars, I was simply opening my graduation present from my Kyle. Little did I know that at the bottom of that much desired, fox cookie jar, there would be an art deco engagement ring picked out specifically for….me!? I was only expecting cookies! Sneaky boy.

There are very few days that are more important to me than August 15. I woke up, I walked the stage, and I celebrated with family and friends. My folks spoiled me like they do, my brother and sister-in-law came to cheer me on, and my best friends even surprised me by driving all the way from Ft. Worth to celebrate! It was unlike any other day, and that was only the beginning. Moving to Nacogdoches from Houston almost four years ago, I never imagined I’d be marrying a BIN(born-in-Nac, if you will) or building a house on 11 acres of fresh air! I suppose it is still too soon to say, but come April 9, I will be a Compton. I will be a wife!?

This engagement has taught me

This engagement has taught me to “engage.” August 15 Kyle proposed and we found ourselves…engaged in a planning process like no other. Engaged to one another, planning to commit the rest of our forever to being together. It has been an absolute blast. We have engaged in planning our big day, we have engaged in Bible study together, we have engaged in planning not simply a wedding, but a life that will build each of us up and result in two better people. Engagement is much more than a ring and a wedding. Though that may seem obvious, it is easy to make the wedding the big event, and not the life you live after that day.They say the stresses come and go. And sure they have come, but when you have someone so supportive, so silly, and so solid to stand by you, it is a real adventure. To find someone who finds the best in you and cherishes every ounce of your flawed self is something irreplaceable. I never expected to find someone who I adore so much, yet slum around with like a best friend. He is like the 3-in-1 shampoo-conditioner-soap… but obviously better. He makes up the best songs, tells the craziest stories, prays with me and for me, and encourages me on the daily. I am richly blessed.

This season of engagement has taught us a lot about each other, ourselves, and has helped us realize how incredibly blessed we are by a wonderful family, church family and so many supportive friends. The people I have met here have become so special to me and I cannot picture a better group of encouragers to be surrounded by. Engaging in this Nac life has been a small slice of heaven!

…not to mention our incredible photographers! Greg and Cindy hired me almost two years ago. Engaging in their business, their work at SFA, and raising three awesome kids seems to come naturally to them. I know it doesn’t. They work hard and they are two prime examples I have been blessed to know. Our parents have put up with Kyle and myself for, well, our entire lives.. now that is perseverance! If only I can invest myself and engage my best in all I do… I’ll know where and who these great qualities come from!

Moon_200b — Kyle and Haley engaged with having fun!

Tags anniversary, azalea garden, blooms, engagement, G. Patterson, g. patterson studio, Nacogdoches, Photographer, Portrait, Portraits, professional, studio, wedding

Blog Events News Rambling

It’s always sunny in Nacogdoches

Post author By cpatterson
Post date August 21, 2014
No Comments on It’s always sunny in Nacogdoches

Daryl working with one of our many HS Seniors

We have to say goodbye to a longtime friend and co-worker Daryl Sparks today.

We hired Daryl within a year of moving into the renovated frat house, and he’s become just as valuable to us as our moving into a new location was ten years ago. You might say that he’s become synonymous with G Patterson Studio & Gallery, and that’s what makes this day a hard one. If not for the fact that he’s leaving us in order to become a speech pathologist (something for which he’s suited if you have to talk a lot), I just might call this a dark day!

He’s helped us with so many promotions and so many jobs, with the Photobooth and the Haunted House, whether it was photographing at a school or sporting event, he was always there with a smile. That’s not easy to find in an employee. He could be fun or serious, quirky or intent all in the same day exactly when you needed him to be.

So, without becoming verbose, I’ll suffice it to say, “Goodbye, and God bless.”

Events News

Celebrating July 4th

Let us raise our flags together in unity. — Greg Patterson raising the American flag outside of G Patterson Studio in Nacogdoches, Texas.

I am thankful and proud I live in a country where our founding fathers fought for freedom that we may all enjoy Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness! Take a moment today away from your busy life and reflect upon your blessings and be thankful for our amazing heritage.

Let us raise our flag together in unity for that which brought our country together.

Blog Events News

TBT {throwback Thursday!}

Post author By cpatterson
Post date April 3, 2014
No Comments on TBT {throwback Thursday!}

2004 Easter Bunnies. Looking back 10 years ago.

Bunny sessions from the year we began at our new studio. We look forward to these sessions , and we still do!

We would love to hear your thoughts and especially if you remember YOUR bunnies’ names!

Greg & Cindy

2004 Easter Bunnies. Looking back 10 years ago.

Tags Bunnies, East Texas, greg patterson, Nacogdoches, Photographer, Portraits, studio

Blog Events News Rambling

Celebrating 10 Years

Original and signed version of our ribbon cutting picture from Chamber of Commerce. Shown now, ten years later on the front porch of our Victorian Studio located at 122 N Mound in Nacogdoches, Texas.

TODAY we are celebrating our 10th year anniversary in our current location and roughly 20 years in business. With God’s blessings we are proud to have served Nacogdoches and surrounding East Texas area for the past 20 years!

Over the next month we will be sharing some before and after photos while reliving the past 10 years in this historic Victorian location. We hope you join us by following along and sharing your thoughts along the way.

With deepest gratitude,
Greg & Cindy Patterson

Original and signed version of our ribbon cutting picture from Chamber of Commerce. Shown now, ten years later on the front porch of our Victorian Studio located at 122 N Mound in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Tags anniversary, g. patterson studio, Google, greg patterson, Historic Downtown Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches, Photographer, Texas

Blog News

“Brightening” the Nacogdoches CVB

Post author By Greg Patterson
Post date March 20, 2014
No Comments on “Brightening” the Nacogdoches CVB

Greg Patterson holding a portrait of Charles Bright in the building that now bears his name.

As most of you know, the Nacogdoches Convention and Visitors Bureau last year was renamed the Charles Bright Visitor Center in honor of Mr. Bright and his efforts to maintain and improve the downtown corridor. Mr. Bright accomplished so much in his 86 years and has a special place in the hearts of the people of Nacogdoches. A quick overview of his life gives everyone of us a great deal to aspire to.

Mr. Bright, with his wife Carolyn, visited our studio a few years ago seeking professional portraits that would capture his personality and character. It was an absolute delight to work with him and see that personality shine through. Thanks to that happy occasion, last month we were asked to produce a portrait of Mr. Bright that would be displayed in the newly renamed visitor center. Now, his image will help “brighten” the walls for our downtown visitors to enjoy. Our hope is that all who see Mr. Bright will remember his efforts and significant contributions to our community.

Tags center, Charles Bright, cvb, greg patterson, Nacogdoches, Portrait, visitor