Category: Graduating Seniors

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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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Blog Events Graduating Seniors Portrait Sessions self-help Tips & Tricks

8 Steps to Better Prom Pix

It’s that season, and though you might not have a high schooler destined for prom this year, these tips just might help with your next family gathering.

1. CHOOSE A CLEAN BACKGROUND

If possible, choose an outdoor setting with some greenery—trees, bushes, anything with green or flowers. Place the subjects several feet in front of the background.
If indoors, take a couple minutes to select a posing spot and clear any clutter out of the background.
Try to avoid direct sunlight. If you have no choice, place the sun behind your subject and off to one side and force the flash to fire.

2. FALL BACK AND ZOOM

To compose your image, you can either zoom out and get close or zoom in and step back. Try the latter.Jenkins_270 PT By stepping back, you shorten the facial features and create a more flattering image of the subjects’ faces.

3. STABILIZE THE CAMERA

If you have a tripod or monopod, use it. If not, set the camera on a stable object. The Faver_123smworst possible way to shoot is to hold your camera out in front of you with two hands.The camera will move and the image will be blurry.Faver_093sm

4. KNOW WHEN TO USE FLASH.

In general, don’t use on-camera flash indoors; it will create a very cheap look and very hard shadows. Find a room with the best light. If you have an DSLR camera with a separate flash, you can consider bouncing if off of the wall or ceiling. It’s better to use available light and shoot with a stable camera. Outdoors, a bit of fill flash may be good to minimize eye circles.

5. MIND THE WHITE BALANCE.

Most cameras have a white balance selection. Instead of auto, choose the white balance that is appropriate for the predominant light source. Outside in shade, choose Shade. It will have a great impact on your image colors.

6. COMPOSE THE GROUPS.

Take a few shots of each couple. Have one person place their arms around their date’s waist and you can show their flowers, as well. Then get all of the girls together and then all of the guys, and finally, one shot with all of the couples. Pose them with hands at sides, or partially in pockets, or holding flowers or each other. A few candids will mix it up, maybe using a sporty car or the family dog. You can shoot the guys roughhousing or the girls “getting ready” to go to prom. If multiple people are taking pictures, take turns. You want to avoid eyes going in all different directions.

7. MULTIPLE SHOTS FOR MULTIPLE PEOPLE.

The more people in an image, the greater the likelihood that someone will be blinking in any shot. For larger groups, take at least 5 images. One trick is to have everyone close their eyes, and on a count of three, open them and smile.

8. DO SOME QUICK EDITS.

Spend a couple of minutes to rotate the images so they all show up correctly, and consider a few basic edits: contrast, color saturation, exposure levels, cropping. These fundamental editing steps will take a good shot and make it great.

P.S. If any of this sounds like greek to you, consider calling a professional this prom season who takes all the guesswork out of creating beautiful images of an occasion worth remembering.

FIVE MISTAKES TO AVOID IN YOUR SENIOR PHOTOS

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Blog Graduating Seniors News Travel Workshops, Seminars & Talks

Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful

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 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.” Screen Shot 2017-07-03 at 11.24.00 AM

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.
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!

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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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Advertising Blog Events Family Graduating Seniors Links Pets Portrait Sessions

Lacey Stubblefield and Starr

Lacey proudly holding her FFA jacket
Lacey proudly holding her FFA jacket
Lacey proudly holding her FFA jacket

Being in business for the last twenty years has given us contacts we wouldn’t have had otherwise. Amanda and her daughter, Lacey, are some of our clients we’ve really enjoyed getting to know. A few months back, Amanda made an appointment for a senior session for her daughter. Besides being a teacher in Groveton and a Young Living consultant, Amanda spends much of her time traveling with her daughter all across Texas to her FFA events and barrel racing competitions. Lacey’s eighteen years belies all the awards and recognitions she’s received; and because she’s also very articulate, I’m going to let her tell you about Starr.

“My favorite animal is a horse. My favorite horse is Starr Lena. Who am I ?  Who is Starr Lena? Well let me explain, I am Lacey Stubblefield, a senior at Groveton High School, and a eight time National Little Britches Rodeo finals qualifier.  Starr Lena is my diva barrel horse. 

Starr Lena and I have a bond like sisters. Sometimes we push each other’s limits but we always love and respect each other.  Starr is my rodeo athlete.  I’m so thankful every time I get to throw a leg over her and ride . 

Starr and I haven’t always had the perfect journey but it has made us who we are. Starr and I have been through many trials together.  Starr was diagnosed with a disease called EPM that took her out of  competition for over a year.  The disease affected her brain and nervous system.  It took time for her to recuperate and we had to learn to trust each other again. Most horses don’t survive from this disease but,  my tough girl did. 

Starr and I are back on the rodeo trail again. Starr loves to take selfies on my phone. She has lots of personality and she is a little Powerball full of energy, but very down to earth. If you ever meet Starr she will leave an impression on you. “

Lacey is not your typical high school senior, and neither is Starr your typical pet. But, many of us have a bond with our pet that we have a hard time describing with words. And, isn’t that what makes it beautiful? If you’ve not had a professional portrait taken with your pet(s), now’s the perfect time. With our “Paws for Pets” special, we’ll donate half of the session price to our local Humane Society. Visit our website or give us a call to schedule portraits of your pet.

Starr, a well-gromed horse
Starr, a well-gromed horse
A bond like sisters
A bond like sisters
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Blog Graduating Seniors

More Seniors 2014

With homecoming season upon us, we wanted to mention that we take awesome senior portraits! For just thirty minutes of your time, you’re sure to take away something truly magnificent! We’ll incorporate uniforms, instruments, a car or even your favorite pet to help make your portraits incredibly….well, you!NHS Senior Gregory_076 PT Jackson_044 PT Meyers_041 PT

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Blog Graduating Seniors Portrait Sessions Rambling

A First Look

We like to post some of the images we take of a particular subject as often as we can. They ask for it and, well, it’s good publicity for us! Here’s some of my top picks from just a few of the senior “casual” sessions. We call them casual, because they’re not wearing their graduation gown, or their tux or drape if they’re going in the NHS yearbook. But, don’t they look casual? After all, for a senior session, what we hope will come across in their images is their true sel. 700_5986 Baker_011 PT Norbert_052 Payne_063 PT Young_049 PT

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Blog Graduating Seniors

Outtakes

NHS Senior out takes
NHS Senior outtakes
NHS Senior outtakes

Who says you can’t have fun at the photography studio? If you come to us, you leave the worries behind. You bring the smiles, we’ll make the magic!

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Blog Children Graduating Seniors Rambling

School Picture Day

Bicentennial year
5th grade

Traditionally, school pictures were synonymous for “the worst picture I ever took…ever!”  I don’t know if we cringed more at the creepy guy in the leisure suit behind the camera or when we received our school pictures a few weeks later. But, times have changed and so has picture day.  So said a recent high school senior, “That’s the best school picture I ever took. Oh wait, except for my 9th grade picture…but, you took that one, too.” We like school pictures, if only to

Bicentennial year
5th grade
Seniors '15
High School graduate

dispel any misgivings someone might have about having theirs taken. So, in the spirit of having a better attitude about picture day and school in general, let’s see how many school pictures we can post between now and the day school starts!

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Blog Children Family Graduating Seniors Portrait Sessions

To Photoshop or Not to Photoshop?

That is not really the question. In today’s society, we all do a little tweaking with our pictures. With the ability to change and enhance at our fingertips, it’s hard not to. We’ve been engineered to like beauty; our eyes are drawn to it. Companies plan their ad campaigns based on it. Beautiful ads sell!

True beauty is different, though. True beauty is what happens when someone smiles without inhibition. Photoshop can’t create true beauty.

Daniel as a child posing like a "power ranger" showing off his true self.
Daniel as a child posing like a “power ranger” showing off his true self.
Daniel as a high school senior just being himself.
Daniel as a high school senior just being himself.

Fortunately, we see a lot of beautiful people at our studio. My husband is a good photographer, but he’s also good at bringing out a person’s natural beauty. Do we photoshop our images? Yes, absolutely, but it’s a collaborative process between us and the client. Oftentimes, if a client doesn’t like that mole or the gap in their teeth, we encourage them to leave it untouched. Those “flaws” are what make you, well you! Looking back on my own children’s pictures from years ago, I love that my son made his “Power Ranger” pose for every picture. And, I’d never want to change my daughter’s oversized front teeth. (She did finally grow into them.)

So let’s all agree to celebrate the true beauty within.  Even the most reserved of our clients walk away from a portrait session looking and feeling beautiful.  To those who haven’t had that experience yet, we’d love an opportunity to showcase your “true beauty.”