Category: Babies

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The Newest Gift Shop in Nac

House of Photography {Gifts + Photos + Classes}
House of Photography {Gifts + Photos + Classes}
House of Photography {Gifts + Photos + Classes}
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.

House of Photography {Gifts + Photos + Classes}
House of Photography {Gifts + Photos + Classes} Greg & Cindy Patterson with Haley Compton

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.

 

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Babies Blog Children Family Graduating Seniors Pets Portrait Sessions Rambling Self-exploration Weddings

Bah, humbug!

It’s not that I don’t like the Christmas season, I’d rather focus on the Christmas reason, you know, the why we do all of this. I’ve had the Christmases that were perfect, with everyone unwrapping all that they asked for, the cooked-to-perfection meal for twenty, and the decorations that could make the spread in “Home and Gardens.” All of that takes lots of shopping and planning for what to buy, and it’s so stressful! And to be honest, I’m just not a big shopper. I know I stand in stark contrast to the many people who live for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I don’t pore through on-line ads or those in the newspaper. My nickname could be “make do”, because I’m fine with last year’s styles (and in some cases, last decade’s styles), and I love repurposing things. My husband would tell you it takes me longer scraping the last of the contents from this bottle or that than it would to go out and buy a new one.

I’m probably an offense to every red-blooded Amansfield_2893merican girl who shops for the sake of shopping.  Forget window shopping; I’m more like a guy when I shop. As soon as I see what I need, I bag and tag it and move to the next store! I abhor clutter, whether it’s in my home, car or even on my computer. I’ve never collected knickknacks, though I think they’re really pretty in other people’s homes.

One thing I don’t mind having a lot of or spending time shopping for are pictures. Pictures on the wall, in albums, on blankets and pillows, and even on my coffee mugs! Pictures for myself and those I buy for others. I like pictures of all kinds, my kids in school, my family on vacation or enjoying the holidays or ones depicting our everyday lives. Pictures that show us happy, sad or melancholy. They help me remember what we were doing this time last year, five years ago, twenty years ago, or in the case of my parents’ pictures, a lifetime ago. When I look at pictures of me and my loved ones, it helps me to remember who I am and what’s important to me. They preserve our memories and remind us how grateful we are for one another.

I’ll make no excuses for not having the most brightly lit house on the street this year, because I’ll be reminiscing over pictures from Christmases past and remembering what’s really important to me. That brings me back to the real reason why we put so much focus on this day of the year. The day Jesus entered this world, nothing would be the same. It set into motion a plan that from the beginning made a way for us to be saved. Christ alone is the one who saves; this is nothing we can do for ourselves. John 3:16 says, “For God so loves the world, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting lmansfield_2893ife.”

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Babies Blog Children Events Family News Pets Portrait Sessions Rambling

Memories of bunnies

2014 Bunnies at Greg Patterson Studio in Nacogdoches.
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 Greg Patterson Studio in Nacogdoches.
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.
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.
2008 Bunny portraits at G Patterson Studio.
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Babies Blog Children Family Graduating Seniors Pets Rambling Weddings

Making the Memories Count

montage of children, families, seniors, and weddings photos
montage of children, families, seniors, and weddings photos
montage of children, families, seniors, and weddings photos
montage of children, families, seniors, and weddings photos

As we continue to reflect upon and celebrate all that has happened in the past 10 years, we take a look at the numbers of unique moments we’ve captured.

Over 1000 Just4Fun Kid’s sessions with all the goofy grins, silly smiles and unexpected moments one can imagine…
Hundreds of furry friends and their owners, those that behaved and those that made attempts to chase the neighborhood cat…
Over 800 nervous, yet excited graduating seniors, each with their own brand of style and personality…
Nearly 1500 fun-filled, action packed family sessions with crazy kiddos running around being chased by each other while the parents stand back and laugh at the mayhem…
Several dozen voice quivering “I do” moments, decorated Just Married getaway vehicles, and teary dads that are reluctant to give away their baby girls…
You, our clients, have invited us to be a part of creating tens of thousands of special moments.  It continues to be a blessing and honor.

-G. Patterson Studio

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Babies Blog Children Family

Getting it Right Every Time

Three family photos depicting loving relationship.
Three family photos depicting loving relationship.
Three photos depicting a family's loving relationship.
The loving relationship within a family is easy to find, but often challenging to photograph. So when the moment comes, be ready!

When you have been around as long as G. Patterson Studio has, you think you have heard it all when it comes to doubts.  Stressed out mothers will say, “There is just no way to get a good photo of my child.” Sarcastic dads will smirk, “Good luck with this family.” Nervous teenagers will say, “I don’t like pictures.”  And even those parents, at the end of their portrait session, will sometimes ask, “Do you think we got anything at all?”

Yes, this kind of uncertainty and doubt can worry even the most experienced of photographers, but it always seems to turn out the same way (… at least at our studio.) When the client returns to view the images from their session, they are blown away.  Tears immediately well up in the eyes.  And then look out!  Here come the ‘Thanks you’s!’ and ‘These are amazing’s!’  One recent client, who has been coming to us for years, said, “I sincerely wondered if you were able to capture anything with the way my kids ran around.  But I don’t know why I ever doubt.  The photos turned out beautifully, as they always do.  Thank you!”

I can honestly say that the one complaint we get is NOT that the photos are bad, rather that there are too many good ones to choose from.  But that’s what being a professional is all about.  Capturing great tear-jerking moments through photography is not always easy.  In fact, it is often hard.  But it is so worth it when it is done right.  And professionals are there to get it right every time.  A professional understands that there will not be a second chance to capture that ‘I do’ wedding moment. A professional understands that children will not always cooperate, so you must be ready for the fraction of a second that they will.  A professional can speak with a nervous teenager to make her feel at ease and actually laugh so her genuine smile shines through her senior portraits.  A professional photographer should be ready for just about anything.  After all, when working with people, you never know for certain what to expect.

Photography does not promise to get any easier in the future.  Parents will still have their doubts.  Teenagers will act shy.  Children will go bonkers!  But these are not meant to fuel the excuse train.  These are exactly the reasons to seek out a professional who is completely capable of capturing the perfect portrait even when it seems challenging or impossible.  G. Patterson Studio wants to photograph those once-in-a-lifetime moments of your family.  We want to take away the stresses so that you can enjoy the fruits of our labor for many years to come.  Your walls and shelves and coffee tables can be covered with priceless family memories.  G. Patterson Studio is here to make that happen.