the good, the bad, and the furry

We've had a lot going on at the ol' studio lately! We have been trying to get the studio together so we can finally have that open house we have been teasing everyone with. We've had so much help from our dads, shelf building, hook hanging, lawn mowing etc. It's great to have such handy people around to use as free labor!!

Unfortunately, with every step forward, we seem to take a step or two back. Our beautiful bamboo floor that we proudly laid ourselves is buckling and floating in the hallway. Apparently it is not sticking to the concrete. I finally got fed up with dealing with the "fun house floor" at the entrance that I ripped out a section last night. Once we finalize things with the insurance company I will rip out the rest. Anyone looking to get out some pent-up aggression let me know. It is very therapeutic to rip this stuff out! Hopefully we can get the floor prepped and ready for round two soon!

before the buckling...

our poor floor...

the aftermath...

We had a cute little mascot for a day on Tuesday. This little baby bunny took shelter from the heat on our porch. His name is Squishy I think.

studio update

We've had a lot of things happening at the studio lately. We've installed the floors, the kitchen is almost done, we've finally found and agreed on some furniture! Here are a few photos of our waiting room and viewing room. More photos to come...

The hallway on the left of the image will be our gallery wall.

Viewing Room

we are moving

We will be closed this week (November 3-7) to move into our new studio!! We got the OK on Friday to start moving in! As you can see in the photos below we still have A LOT of work to do but we are so excited to get in and get the place finished! Our construction team, Catalyst, will wrap up their part this week and then we will begin our part, installing the bamboo floor, mirrors, art, furniture, etc! The building turned out so amazing and we can't wait for you all to see it! We are planning on having some kind of an open house in the spring. We'll keep you posted.

This is our waiting room and kitchen. Come on in, grab a cup of coffee, tea, soda, whatever, and relax in the comfy to be determined furniture. The kitchen will be put in after we figure out the bamboo floor.

This is one of our bathrooms.

One of our two changing rooms. There will be a mirror across the back wall and half of the countertop will be set up for changing diapers! No more changing your kids on the couch! There will also be a nursing chair in each of the changing rooms for those who need a quick bite to eat during the shoot.

This is the studio. The light in this room is amazing!

This is our makeup "cube". There will be a mirror between the two lights. All of the countertops that you are seeing were built my uncle and my dad. They turned out better than I could have imagined... one of my favorite parts of the place!

This is our trellis that houses the track lighting that will light our gallery wall. Our gallery wall will run the entire length of the building.

studio update

Here are a few photos of the studio from this morning. They hung all of the drywall in one day! They started laying the brick a few days ago but the rain has slowed down the progress a bit.

Brooke "sitting" and "typing" in her office.

studio update

Here are a few recent shots of the progress on our studio! They were shot a couple of days ago and they are already outdated! Those guys are working like crazy to finish everything. We are still on track for a late October to early November completion date!

They're in the process of laying brick now. It will cover the south wall.

This is the Gallery/Hallway. The left side will be offices.

This is the waiting room. There will be a kitchen, rest room, and a patio. You'll be able to enter the shooting space and viewing room from here.

This is the studio (shooting space).

Another shot of the studio

studio update

Here are a few photos of some of the recent work that has been done at the studio! It's amazing how different it looks every time I go out to the site.

This is our "North Light" wall. Can you guess which way it faces? It will be floor to ceiling glass. North light is a non-directional light that gives a great soft light from sun up to sun down. This is one of my favorite parts of the entire building! We will base most of our future shoots around this area.

This is our north wall. You can see the North Light window, the front opening is a patio that comes off of the waiting room. Eventually there will be a courtyard outside for outdoor options.

This is the front of the building. The wood part of the building houses our offices and changing rooms. It will be brick on the south side and wood on the east (front). The narrow slit in the big concrete wall looks into the Viewing Room. That's where we will have all of our meetings and Viewing Sessions.

This is inside the "office" section of the building. There will be windows in all of the cutouts on the walls.

This photo is looking into the waiting room and studio.

studio update

We have walls! Our crew started putting up the studio walls on Monday! They are 10 foot concrete panels that are maybe 20 feet tall, I can't remember. Anyway, it is an amazing process to watch. Truck after truck pull in with two panels each. The guys connect two chains to the panel and the crane, the crane lifts the panel off of the truck and the guys guide the panel onto the spot. A guy in a lift drills a "dead man" brace to the wall while the guys on the ground secure it to a concrete pad in the ground. Each panel took maybe around 10-15 minutes to set.

It is so amazing to see the building take shape!













To see more photos from Monday click here

building phase 6/20

We have officially begun! Some dirt has been moved! I was driving southbound on I-69 to the downtown studio today and glanced over at our empty lot, as I have everyday since we bought it last July, and saw all kinds of action happening. I didn't have time to stop by then so I had to wait until the end of the day.

Here are a few shots. They may not look like much to you but to us they are the most beautiful images we've ever taken because of what they represent!