Atlas… our photography studio is complete! Huge thanks to all of the people that helped us over the past couple months as we renovated one of our downstairs offices here at 501 studios in East Austin. We couldn’t have done it without you! Several friends and family members came along side Rachael, Daniel, and I in the middle of a crazy wedding season and sacrificed late nights and weekends to make this happen so quickly! And to put the icing on the cake, we mounted 7 of our favorite images printed by Millers Lab.
It’s funny how all of this came to be. A few months ago, I was approached by Luis Sanches, owner of The Chocolate Cup, and he informed me that this space would be up for grabs and asked if I was interested in moving in? Initially, I thought there was NO WAY that I’d be able to afford this office, as I had plans to remain in the loft of our collective suite next to Daniel, where we had been since March. Not to mention, I was basically flying solo at the time, and we were in the middle of finalizing the details that allowed Daniel and I to work together in the Austin wedding market. It was around that same time that Rachael and I began discussing the possibility of her quitting her part time job with EveryChild and coming on full time with us! And just like that: The Geoff Duncan Weddings Team was formed!
The next obstacle for us was finding the motivation that it would take to tackle on this office renovation! I wish I had thought to take ‘before’ and ‘after’ images to show you what we started with. The walls were painted mustard yellow, and the carpet made me want to work from home! So we decided to start with a couple cans of white paint, and one can of red. Not much of a plan, but we knew that something had to change before we would agree to move in. Next thing you know, Daniel and his dad tore up the floors and installed hard wood floors, and Rachael’s dad spent the weekend helping us install track lights, shutters, and door locks. The next thing you know, we were at IKEA purchasing corner desks and storage furniture! Oh, and the renovations didn’t stop with the office, but we also redid the kitchen area and made several other upgrades to the suite as well!
I made a separate trip to Hobby Lobby one day and brought back the necessary materials to carve out our personal TIE-CONS from wood using an exacto-knife. Lost the feeling in the tips of my fingers after applying too much pressure, but the tie-cons turned out to be my favorite part about the new studio!
By the time we got this far, we nearly called it a day before ordering prints for the walls. Little did we know that this would be the hardest task of all, as Daniel and I spent an entire week sorting through our entire portfolio to settle on seven images. SEVEN?! Can you imagine how difficult that was for us? We knew we wanted to keep the subject matter diverse, as our passion for photography extends beyond the wedding market! Once we settled on the final images to display, we submitted our order through Millers. 72 hours later, we received 4 Fine Art Acrylic prints, 1 Fine Art Metal Print, 1 Gallery Wrap and 1 Metallic Standout. And they turned out even better than expected! I wish we had more wall space so we could order more! One day…
We worked hard, and are proud of the finished space, as we are all excited to share some photos with you our new photography studio! If you are ever in the area, be sure to drop in and check it out! 906 E. 5th St. #106 Austin, TX —- Below are images that I grabbed on Friday just before we hit the road for a Dallas wedding over the weekend. -G
Here are a few random videos and pictures that we have during this process. Ryan’s song and dance might top the TIE-CONS in the favorite category! Just too good to leave out!
All images and elbow grease by Austin Wedding Photographers Geoff Duncan & Daniel Davis.
