We DID IT!!!

[ChristopherCoy]

BIG NEWS! big Big BIG news!!

My SIL Brittany (MemoryMakers) and I, finally took the jump and obtained our own studio space. Its a 95 year old house thats been converted into office/retail space, and its on main street. We rented half the place, and the other half (think duplex) is rented by an architect who designs swimming pools.

While its not a gigantic space, its got enough room to set up a nice size shooting area with backgrounds and multiple lights, a nice client seating area, 13 foot ceilings, and natural light abound from the old glass pane windows! And the best part about it is that it is on main street, and directly across from one of the busiest restaurants in the city!

We've got to get in there this week and paint the floors, which are wooden and currently painted ROYAL BLUE, as well as remove some shelves etc. that were left in there. And then get everything set up so that we can start bringing in our stuff.

This is SO exciting though! No more garage, or kids playroom, or editing from the coffee table!

Remember how you felt the first time you got keys to your own first studio?

[Redneck]

Congrats and good luck!

[Debbi]

Congrats!

[debbry531]

That's very exciting - congrats! I didn't realize you were thinking studio shoots - or are you going to do both?

BTW, off topic: I meant to respond to your comment. That creek is in Garland - I never would have known about it.... my client takes Deigo there often. It's not quite as picturesque as it looks in that photo, but it is pretty nice.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by debbry531

That's very exciting - congrats! I didn't realize you were thinking studio shoots - or are you going to do both?

I'm trying to start doing more studio stuff with the pet thing, but I'll still do both. Brittany has done weddings/engaments and family portraits for many years though, so it will be nice for those as well.

[Some Idiot]

Awesome !!!!!!!!

[Noe]

Congratulations!

[texxter]

Congratulations, good for you! Post pics when the space is ready to go!

[ChristopherCoy]

I/We will Paco. Right now the hardwood floors are painted blue (used to be a pool supply store), so we have to paint those a neatural color (thinking white or gray), and take down some shelves that the previous tenants had put up for product. And we also have to paint over a 'mural' that is all around the top of the walls.

I plan on taking some before/during/after pics and documenting this as best I can. Its happening now, but no one can predict how long it will be around, or if we'll ever be able to do this again in the future. As they say, "enjoy it while you can!"

[TheFantasticG]

Congrats and all that funky jazz!

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Chris since your painting all the floor why not have sections with different colors? One white, one black, one grey and maybe even one tan (you can get floor paint in those colors and others at any good paint store). That way you have a choice when you start shooting as to the floor.

As to the walls you can do something similar but remember that you can buy some thin plywood nail it on a frame put it on rollers (for ease of movement) and paint it so that you can change your backgrounds around over whichever floor that you want to shoot with.

I would assume that the wood is fairly wide pine? You may think of stripping some to see what shape it is in (maybe if you can get there) crawl under the house and see what the wood looks like-if it has a lot of character or not. A section of floor that is about 10x10 ft that is a nice rich wood-you can stain and seal it to get some nice gloss to it makes a great base to shoot from.
If you saw this floor in a hallway of a 100+ year old building in Dallas you would have thought that there was no way that you would shoot on it but by placing a light shooting across it (which kind of blew out the colors on the girls in front since I had the light a little too high) it brought out the deep rich colors in it-you can see that it is quite dusty along the walls and without that light on it it looked really sad.

[ChristopherCoy]

I dont know what we are going to do Paul. That was a question I was going to post in a few days when we get ready to start painting.

The floor is actually those old 4 inch wide strips. Its not the real wide ones like those in your picture. Its currently royal blue, as the place used to be a pool supply store. I thought we'd paint it white, so that it would be a natural reflector, but someone said it might be to harsh and suggested gray. Either way we want to go with something neutral. Stripping/sanding/refinishing probably isn't going to be something that we can spend the money on right now, but we might revisit the idea in the future after we are there for a while.

[ngc_bob]

Congratulations Chris!! Very cool.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

I am just saying before you paint buy a can of stripper, less than $20 and strip down a section of about 3x3 ft and see what the wood is like under that- if it is 4 inches wide that is really wide and you may be really suprised by what is under that paint. (those are at most 6 inches because it was a factory and the rooms were added many years later so what is a hallway now was just part of the factory floor). Then if the floor looks bad just paint over it. I'm not talking about where you buy a big floor sander and do a huge refinish job on them just one where you lay down some stripper come back in about an hour or so (follow instructions and be sure to get the right type-a good paint shop will lead you the right way) and scrape off the old paint and then see what you have.

[d2creative]

Congrats chris!
I just picked up the keys to my new space yesterday as well.
Nothing as nice as yours but it's still studio space... and it's cheap.