Like most people, I enjoy traveling for work. I think that the change in routine, combined with a little stress and some distance from an ongoing “to do” list does wonders for one’s mind, body and soul. The sad reality though, is that I don’t often have a lot of downtime to get out and explore the areas where I travel. So I do what I can, which is usually snap photos from a moving vehicle. Photographing from a moving vehicle is challenging and also, very efficient. You can really see a lot of interesting things in a short amount of time in a vehicle. And if you’re not tasked with driving, you can completely focus on the world moving by your window. The following photos were taken late last year and early this year during work trips to Philadelphia and New York.

Greetings and Happy Holidays from us here at Novo Studio. Now that the holiday season is upon us, we thought it would be a good idea to get around to updating our blog and social media with some recent work. Every year, it seems that the end of summer snowballs into fall. Work picks up, schedules become difficult and our capacity to continually update things stretches thin. But finally, here we are and my oh my, what year it has been.

For many of us, this year was largely defined by the severe weather of Memorial Day Weekend which resulted in multiple tornados and caused area-wide devastation. Many of our friends, clients and neighbors are STILL dealing with the impact from that weather and that is very sad and unfortunate. On a more positive note, we had a lot of fun with our work this year. In spite of some wild work scenarios and crazy deadlines, this year was so much fun and such a good learning experience.

Thank you to everyone for the support, the encouragement, and the opportunity to continue to do what we love.

See you all in the New Year.

Philip & Jared

Last weekend, our beloved Northwest Arkansas area was hit hard by a series of Tornados. Everyone's personal story with this event is different. But the beauty of a disaster situation is that it creates opportunities for help to be given and received, community to be experienced and lives to be changed for the better, even if it seems like it's temporarily for the worse. That's my 2 cents, anyway. The brutal truth though, is that we all got hit REALLY hard and personally, that's something that is dawning on me more and more everyday.

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This week on the blog - The Polaroid: Photography as a hobby.

Back in the good old days, Photography was my hobby. A disgruntled graphic design professor once told me I’d never be a graphic designer because I couldn’t draw. His comment set me on a course to pickup a camera. And although his assessment of my future as a graphic designer was completely wrong and probably born more out of grumpiness or hangryness than lack of ability, I never put the camera down. In my late college years, I began experimenting with Polaroid cameras. And a whole new world of creative possibilities seemed to open up.

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It is now November and the last time we updated the blog was after weeks and weeks of busyness and travel. It’s safe to say that aside from constant travel, things haven’t changed much. And for the most part, we’re not complaining. In fact recently, we had a first for the studio…live music. And that was so fun, we’ll be doing it again. But consistent photoshoots and video shoots followed by editing and managing those aforementioned shoots does create difficulties in keeping up with the normal, everyday tasks of managing and marketing a business. But today, we’re making time and space to share some images from the recent weeks. We sincerely hope that everyone is able to make some space to enjoy the cooler temperatures, the changing leaves, and life in general.

Happy Fall, Y’all.

In almost 20 years of shooting full time Commercial Photography with Novo Studio, I have traveled quite a bit. But for the life of me, I cannot remember a time when I’ve traveled so consecutively for work. For the last 8 weeks, I’ve been gone in some capacity. This does not make me a professional traveler, but I feel compelled to share a bit about my experiences and lessons learned regardless. Since I’m not a professional traveler, I’ll keep my stories, my tips and my tricks short and sweet.

But first, Coffee.

Today on the blog: A (rather large) collection of images from recent travels to New York and Pennsylvania. This was a 2 week work trip, broken up in the middle by a weekend in New York City. And we made the most of it. Along with really good food, really good drinks and miles and miles of walking, I successfully made the pilgrimage to the photo/video Mecca, B&H Photo. And I did not walk out empty handed.

In the midst of a hectic travel schedule, I somehow found the time to slow down and enjoy the journey. Here's a few images from my recent travels. Enjoy.

Last week, I took a few days to detach from work and life. I camped out, slept in the truck, did some fishing (caught nothing), read some books by the river, played my guitar, sat by the fire, explored some scenic roads and made some photographs. By now, you all know that this sort of detachment is a part of my routine so I'll spare you the further dialogue and share some of my images from the week. Enjoy. 

Currently, I am reading too many books at once, working on a couple commercial and personal projects, and enjoying the variety of winter/spring weather patterns that only our little corner of the state can provide. Happy Wednesday.

It's been an incredibly busy season for me and for that, I am both thankful and tired. Most of my posts as of late have been work related and although this one is as well, these images show more of the in-betweens and behind the scenes details from my life as of late. All images shot with an iPhone SE (because my iPhone 6plus met with an untimely death and truth be told, I was tired of the big phone anyway). Happy Monday and enjoy. 

It was a rough week last week as I said goodbye to my beloved Bulldog, Bosco (otherwise known as "THE Bosco"). For the last 6+ years, he's been a staple in the house (and sometimes, the studio). His loyalty, his loving demeanor and his commitment to snoring as loudly as he could has greatly enriched my life. If I've learned anything about him over the years, it's that...

In anticipation of a very busy upcoming season, I'm taking some personal time this week. If anyone needs me, I'll be in my kayak, on my mountain bike, or around the campfire. Cheers. 

It is officially that time of year again. It gets darker earlier, the leaves are changing and falling and as a photographer, the second wave of my busy season is in full swing. Last week, I was on the road for...

"Busy, busy, busy." But VERY "Thankful, thankful, thankful." Here's a few images from our recent shoots. Cheers to the weekend. 

Our vacation was a healthy mix of quality time, rest and making sure the Thomas Twins didn't eat seashells or sand. After a week of restful bliss followed by a week of hard work and catching up, I'm finally getting around to posting some images from our time away. Enjoy! 

For the past 2 weeks, I've been traveling around Arkansas and into Oklahoma for a big commercial photography shoot. I've been shooting a lot and hardly spending any time on the computer whatsoever. So today, I pulled some images from my recent travels to share here on the blog. Happy Weekend!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks here at the studio. And as it relates to blogging frequency, that can mean one of two things. Either we blog a lot or we hardly blog at all. Lately, it's been the latter. We have been out and about a little bit, doing some photography work. But a majority of our time has been spent shooting video, editing video, working on a few graphic design projects and continuing our game of catch up on wedding related stuff. So we decided to share some "behind the scenes" images from the last couple of weeks. Happy Monday! 

As many of you know, we are currently living a life-in-limbo. For the past few weeks, we have called Fort Smith Arkansas and the Mercy Hospital here, home. We've slept on hospital cots, hospital beds, a few different hotel beds and finally, a more permanent (and comfortable) bed at the Candlewood Suites. Our hotel is about a 2 minute drive from the hospital where our kiddos are currently living. We have settled into a bit of a daily routine and today by way of images, we thought it appropriate to walk you through a typical day and also, give you an update. Off we go.