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. 

Say hello (and goodbye) to this awesome pair of Merrell boots. This Throwback Thursday post is a tribute to the years and the miles that they faithfully served me.

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

Lately, I've been dreaming of a photography road trip to some abandoned destinations. My recent schedule has afforded me many bike rides but no real time to travel and shoot. And while I plan to remedy that in the next few weeks, nothing I find will probably compare to the town of Picher Oklahoma. I shared some of my images here on the blog a few years back but this week, I happened to be revisiting them and I decided to make a quick little slideshow with some of my favorite images. Enjoy. 

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!

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. 

There's a lot I could say in a Thanksgiving Day blog post. But I know there's food to eat, football to watch and hopefully, good weather to enjoy wherever you are so I'll keep this short...

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!