Category: Photo Gear

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 Photo Gear Rambling Self-exploration Travel

New Mexico, Land of Enchantment

Post author By cpatterson
Post date August 3, 2017
No Comments on New Mexico, Land of Enchantment

Okay, so Greg and I traveled to New Mexico last week for a backpacking trip in the mountains…well, and to sample the awesome cuisine! It’s in the name, right? New MEXICO? Who knew driving just one state over could take as long as it would’ve taken to get to Florida if we’d gone in the opposite direction. Or, pretty close.

When going backpacking, one does not just throw stuff into their backpack and go, Greg tells me. It takes an enormous amount of planning (and half of what REI has to offer, apparently.) When packing, a good rule of thumb is to not pack more than what your back can handle! It’s not rocket science, but it does require you to ask such questions as, “Do I really need a coat or can I get by with a fleece jacket?” or “How small amount of food can sustain me each day?” Thankfully, this wasn’t our first rodeo, so we knew that skimping in these areas could make for a tortuous trip!

Greg could’ve easily left his camera and tripod and extra lens at home, but would Dr. Who leave his screwdriver? or Dora leave her backpack? or Ernie his Rubber Duckie? Boy, was I glad we weren’t relying on my rinky-dink camera to give us those awesome shots of our epic vacation. So, below are two sets of pictures from the same trip. I bet you can tell which ones are Greg’s and which are mine.

Being in a place like New Mexico surrounded by the beauty of it’s landscapes, structures and nature, you understand Georgia O’Keeffe when she said, “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way…things I had no words for.”

Besides our backpacking adventure, we visited the towns of Albuquerque, Taos and, lastly, Santa Fe. Did you know Santa Fe has over 250 art galleries as well as a variety of museums and performing arts? By the end, I’d seen so much raw beauty in nature and in the renderings of so many painters, sculptures, photographers and other craftsmen, I felt full. In fact, gluttonous to the point of feeling selfish. I wanted to share something of my own world before I left their world.

Driving home, I thought of my own little “neck of the woods.” And, in my woods the trees are tall and beautiful and stay green all year. And, the ground is lush with grasses and gardens. We should all be inspired wherever we go and by whatever we see. We should want to come back from our travels and, “Bloom where we are planted.” God created me just the way I am to the family and place I was born. Who am I to argue about anything?

So, the food wasn’t Mexican food I’m accustomed to having in East Texas. The most popular restaurants seemed to be the ones that served “New Mexican,” and your waiter asks if you want red or green chile. It did not disappoint!

Tags beautiful, East Texas, G. Patterson, g. patterson studio, Nacogdoches, New Mexico, Photographer, travel

Blog Photo Gear Tips & Tricks

New camera, New Year?

Get out and practice with your new camera.

Did Santa bring you a new camera for the new year? If so, I’ve got a few tips that will help you get started with capturing some great images.

1. I know it sounds lame, but open that little book that came with the camera and read at least the first chapter or so. It should be a pretty easy read and will get you familiar with the basic functions. Read with your new camera in front of you and be sure to make note of how to turn the camera on and off, the location of the shutter release, zoom for lens, button or menu setting for ISO and white balance.

By the way, don’t try to learn all of the menu options. If you had a difficult time programming that old VCR, then trying to figure out all the menu items will easily confuse you early on. If you read something and it doesn’t make sense, simply read on and don’t get bogged down in technical details. Shoot for the basics at this point.

2. With the knowledge of being able to turn on the camera, set the camera to any of its programed shooting modes. Sometimes its a green P, or a symbol of some sort. Refer back to the manual if you can’t find it. Once found, I suggest going outside and practice. Go out during the day which should yield enough light for quality images and shoot until you get bored.

Practice capturing subjects that won’t run away or move. Your house, car, flowers, etc. all work well. Try to train your fingers to the locations of commonly used buttons. Be sure to to zoom and and out so you may practice with the lens as well.

Shooting in Program mode will force the camera to do all of the work for you with regards to setting the shutter speed and aperture. With time you can learn how to control these but at first its important to simply get started. Shooting in Program lets you enjoy quality results without all of the knowledge.

3. So you read some, practiced some, now its time to evaluate your results. I suggest downloading your images to a computer of choice. I’m a Mac user but any PC would work just as well. Once downloaded, use the OS or a program such as Adobe Bridge or Apple iPhoto to view the images. Look at each image you captured evaluating the technical quality. Look for sharpness and overall exposure. Try to remember what camera setting was used and make a note or mental note of what worked and what didn’t work.

You can put the camera card back into the camera during this process for some additional details sometimes not easily seen when viewing on a computer. With the media card back in the camera, look for things like focus point (where the camera focused), histogram (technical but helps to evaluate exposure) and any other settings used.

4. Once you have a handful of favorites, I suggest you send them off to be printed. Print 4×6″ at a minimum but if you feel you really have a few good shots, consider printing 8×10 inch prints. In Nacogdoches, any of the local drug stores can print.

With print in hand, compare what you were seeing on the computer. Darker, lighter or spot on? Compare to what you were seeing in the camera display.

5. The last tip is to give your favorite image to a friend, co-worker or family member. Have you heard about the Joy of Photography? Give your favorite image away and you will experience it in both you and the person you gave it to.

I would love to hear about your experiences regarding the new camera and new year.

Enjoy!

Greg Patterson, Certified Professional Photographer