After a crazy busy wedding and engagement season last summer, I was excited to be back at the Fayetteville Roots Festival this year. In collaboration with the wonderful guys from Red Barn Studio Live Sessions, I helped to create live session music videos for the likes of John Paul White, John Fulbright, Iron and Wine and Nick Offerman to name a few. Here's a few behind the scenes photos from the weekend. Enjoy. 

I was honored to be a part of Light Chasers Live last night. Thanks to Bryan Fittin and Jason Miller of Red Barn Studio for having me.

This week, I am honored to be featured on the Bear State Bank blog. I've been working with Bear State for years now and they are great clients and good friends of mine.  I've visited most of their branches in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma and I have to say that in all honesty, every one of those branches is operated by friendly, hospitable and knowledgable people. I love being a part of their ever-growing business and laid back, personable culture. Thank you all so much for the feature.

For years, I've had the idea in my head to make a video for Novo Studio. The idea for the video was inspired by a voicemail message I created years ago that, in my mind, accurately describes why I would not be answering my phone. And to have a video that started from the voicemail message and then, journeyed into my life as a photographer and as a person seemed to make sense. Plus, I could put some music to it and avoid the awkward challenge of talking about myself and my business. 

But of course, life happened and with an incredibly busy season and twins, my idea remained an idea until I decided to take a creative sabbatical. When writing out my sabbatical bucket list, the creation of this video went right to the top and with the help of my dear friends and creative colleagues and my wife, I am happy to (FINALLY) share this video with you. Many thanks to Bryan Fittin, Jason Miller, Murray Williams and Kristen Thomas for making this whole thing possible. Enjoy. 

#throwbackthursday to many, many years ago when, during engagement photos, I decided to test the nautical and overland capabilities of the Novomobile. The resulting test ended up as a video which I am sharing today on the blog. Enjoy.  

Part of my sabbatical plan is to update my website. And while working through some of these changes, it has come to my attention that there are some "unpublished drafts" in my blog. Of course the only logical thing to do is publish them. So, here goes. Fayetteville Roots Festival, circa 2015. 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.

After incredibly busy Spring, Summer and Fall seasons of work and life, I am starting 2017 by taking a self-imposed "Creative Sabbatical." This simply means that for the first 2 months of the year, I will be accepting work on a limited basis with the intention of using the rest of my time to decompress, recharge, learn some things and rework some aspects of Novo Studio. I will also be taking more time to focus on creating personal photographs. (Translation... more driving, exploring and trespassing). I will be posting a few updates here on the blog and on social media. As for my personal work, you can feel free to follow along on my website, on my Flickr page and on my Instagram page. Cheers to a New Year, see you soon. 

Philip Thomas // Novo Studio

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...

A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to spend some time photographing life in the office at my favorite local design agency, DOXA. My history with DOXA began in college with a graphic design internship and it has continued over the years with commercial photography. I'm very thankful, not only for the creative inspiration that I've gleaned from working with the people at DOXA, but also for the friendships that I've formed with them. They are truly a good group of people to work with.  

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. 

Today on the blog, I'm excited to share some behind the scenes images from this year. The following are a collection of personal memories and work-related images, most of which were captured with my trusty iPhone. Enjoy!

Say hello to David & Sarah May, also known as The Purple Kite. David is a former touring Nashville session guitarist who is now...

Today, I'm excited to share another feature from Red Barn Studio Live Sessions. We recently filmed a live performance by Trees & Houses. What is especially unique about this live session is that...

Many photographers (myself included) have jumped on the Sam Hurd bandwagon by waving glass prisms in front of their lenses while creating images. And why not? It's unique, unexpected and given the right light, can produce some beautiful results. But on a recent video shoot, I discovered that you could create a similar effect by using a Nalgene Water Bottle.

Here are the details. 

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! 

**PLEASE NOTE** 

Our automatic email responders have been set but we've received a few messages via Facebook and Text message (to which there are no automatic responders) so I wanted to address those here. We are out of town this week for my daughter's surgery and I will be taking a break from responding to most email, voicemail and social media messages and posts. Instead, I will be focusing on attending to my daughter for her surgery and recovery while also taking care of my wife my son.

And to those of you who know about our situation and have responded so warmly, thank you again for all the thoughtful and heartfelt responses of love, prayer, and support. We truly appreciate it. 

I was inspired to make this post after reading a recent issue of Kinfolk Magazine. For those of you who are photography or design (or both) nerds, you've probably already heard of this magazine and if not, you should do yourself a favor and check it out. Kinfolk as a publication is focuses on creating content that encourages its readers to embrace a simplified and slow-paced lifestyle. Their latest issue is titled "The Entrepreneurs Issue" and the following quotes are taken from a recent Saturday morning that I spent reading it. The images that follow the quotes are both my interpretation of the quotes from the article and also, ways in which I myself am attempting to practice a more simplified and slow-paced lifestyle. I hope that these quotes inspire you as they have me. Enjoy. 

3 weeks into the new year, we made a very BOLD STATEMENT. And while we knew we were going to become parents in 2014, it was only the day before we made that bold statement that we found out we were actually going to be the parents of twins. Things got even crazier around Father's Day when while we were out of town shooting weddings, we had to rush to the hospital after Kristen's water broke prematurely. After 10 days in the hospital, The Thomas Twins arrived and since then, our lives have been all kinds of crazy and awesome. For all of you wondering how we are handling life with two kiddos, here's a little update as well as some of our favorite images and videos of The Thomas Twins from the year.