New Blog Location

We have moved our blog over to our website in order to keep everything more fluid and organized :)
Head over to Our Blog to see our new content!!

Succulents & Air Plants.

About a year ago I took over the responsibility of the house gardener. Sarah and our plants really weren't getting along and the relationship was a strain on everyone (especially the plants.) I began watering the plants weekly and rotating them around the house to make sure they got enough light. 

I stumbled across a blog where I learned how to grow my own succulents, all I needed to do was pluck off a leaf or cut off a branch and the both parts would keep on growing! Imagine Sarah’s face when she saw me plucking off leaves and cutting off branches! To her (and my) surprise, in a week or so, my new little plants started growing leaves and roots of their own!

I loved the ease of caring for succulents and I bought some more species online from Florida, California, and Hawaii. There are so many colors and shapes of succulents and they are so easy to care for. I water them once a week and I will spray them with fertilizer about once a month. I keep the ones I am growing in a shelf I built in our laundry room window and I rotate some around our house. I occasionally will cut off a branch or pluck a leaf and I will simply leave the new plant laying on the shelf until it begins to grow roots and then I will place it in a pot.

I also grow air plants, which are very different but equally easy to care for. Air plants are unique because they do not need dirt to flourish. Natural growing air plants attach themselves to an object and get their nutrients from the air and rain water. They may grow roots but the roots only secure them in place and do not gather water like a traditional plant. 

 Also, you cannot cut apart air plants, they actually sprout a new plant and then you can pluck off the new plant and grow it separately. 
I occasionally put some of my plants in Pastiche at Main to sell and I also will custom make you a plant/box if you are interested :)

Wedding Exits. What's right for your wedding!?

Now that the holidays are here you may have some time off work or will be spending a lot of time in the car traveling to one place or another you may be able to settle down and start making decisions for your big day! Whether small or big there are a lot of things to think about when it comes to planning a wedding.  One of those things is your exit. In my opinion the exit can be some of the most fun pictures of the entire day! When choosing an exit consider what time of day your exit will take place. If you are doing your exit before dark you more than likely want to choose something besides sparklers since they won’t be as noticeable in pictures before dark.

With that being said there are plenty of different types of exits you can choose from. Below are a few examples to get some ideas flowing for you! 

Sprinkles!? As a cupcake/cake lover I was pretty excited about this one! {Just don't get hit in the eye ;)}

Balloons are a perfect choice for a mid-day exit! 

Birdseed is classic and timeless. 

LOVE the flower petal exit! This may be one of my favorites from 2014! 

I will never tire of a good sparkler exit. The trick is to make sure you purchase the 3ft. sparklers. If not they burn out too quickly and don't make as great of an impact in photos {the small ones are often very smoky too}. And if you give us an extra 5 minutes we can get some super magical shots like the one above! Doesn't that remind you of Cinderella!? 

Adam Mullins Photography and Pastiche at Main

Sarah and I started our business taking professional pictures of people when we got married in 2009; but my photography journey started way before that with a Nikon Coolpix. I have always taken pictures of nature and have enjoyed getting out in God's creation and just marveling at His work.  At least half of all Saturdays in a year Sarah and I are off shooting a wedding and a couple days a week we take pictures of families or high-school seniors. Our work is comprised of people, which I love, but there has always been something special to me about sitting silently with my camera and just waiting for God to show me something.

A year ago this Saturday, some of my best friends opened an incredibly unique shop here in Lynchburg and they allowed me to put some of my work on their walls. Before then, my "hobby" work had only been hung on my walls and seen by my own family. I was nervous because it was my private work, my hobby, my creative outlet, now being displayed for all to judge and look at. 

To my surprise, people bought my images, people hung my work on their walls. They saw in my images what I saw the moment I originally captured it. My images are very special to me and so are the frames I make to go with them.  I will often make a frame with a specific picture in mind. I handmake all of the frames out of repurposed wood found here in Lynchburg. Most all of my images are taken here locally as well.

Over the past year, I have sold many of my images and frames at Pastiche at Main. I have learned a lot since the grand opening of Pastiche. For one, I learned how to properly make a picture frame. My first frame was made entirely with a circular saw and an antique drill in my basement. Now my frames are handmade in a shed dedicated just to building them. I now use about 10 tools to make every frame and they are much more precise and sturdy. 

I am forever grateful for Haley and Adam Pavao and the leap of faith they took opening a small business and allowing me to play a small part in it. If it were not for Pastiche at Main, my images would still be hiding in a folder on my hard-drive. Selling frames and images has allowed me to meet and collaborate with dozens of other local creatives and it has become much more than just a hobby. 

This Saturday, Aug 6th, I encourage you to go to Pastiche at Main and see not just my work, but the work of several other local creatives who have similar stories to mine. 

Too see some of my work that will be for sale at Pastiche at their One Year Celebration, click this link. 

Jax's Room

So I feel a little funny posting this. Like "hey look at my house!" but I love Jax's room so much that I thought it would be OK to share with you all! 
It's no secret that Adam and I love to shop small and support small businesses, especially local ones, so we really tried to do that with his room. I'm hoping to do the same thing with Aubri and Deitrich's room. 

I have waited a long time to have this room. Before we moved we just had two bedrooms so Jax bunked with us. I knew I wanted it clean and simple and I didn't want it to look like a typical nursery. Peter Pan has always been one of my favorite stories so I knew I wanted touches of that in his room. 

Let's play, can you find the baby!?

This is one of my favorite things about his room 

Peter Pan, Wendy, John and Michael Darling

I know these aren't Peter Pan but I couldn't resist these "Where the Wild Things Are" Pegs!

Vendors: 

Wall Decals - Urban Wall Decals

Teepee and Neverland Sign - Made by my hubby 

Pallet Piece - Made by Adam and painted by Cultivate Design 

Pillows - Bear pillow by Gingiber  and imagination pillow by Chic Renovations 

Lavender Filled Bunny - Lisa Mary Jonas 

Shelf - made by Adam 

Peter Pan Silhouettes - made by Adam {he's super talented! ;) } 

White "J" on Wooden piece - Regeneration 

Where the Wild Things Are pegs - Pegged By Grace

Moccasins - Lisa Mary Jonas  

A lot of the vendors can be found at Pastiche at Main and also at Vintage Lynchburg coming up in a few weeks!! 

Back to Analog

Since I am now working full time with Sarah, I have had time to do things that I forgot I loved. Yesterday I spent about 3 hours in our basement in the dark, however creepy that may sound, it was nice to get back to pure analog, no batteries, no computers, just film, paper, and developer.

I had rolls of film that were over one year old that I hadn't developed yet, or even remembered how to. After gathering all my chemicals (and stealing tupperware from the kitchen) I looked up my development times and locked myself downstairs.

I carefully measured my developer and fixer, memorized the times, and then proceeded to sit in the bathtub for the next hour... After nervously turning on the lights, I saw my success, my film developed correctly. I hung it up to dry and went to bed.

Yesterday I spent my work day attempting to get a usable image out of my now dry film. After blowing a fuse and having to rewire my antique enlarger with a lamp wiring kit, I was ready to attempt developing and enlarging my film (something I hadn't done in 10 years) I quickly remembered that the difference in 3 seconds and 7 seconds is enormous in photography talk. After 3 failed attempts at getting the proper exposure, I settled on 4 seconds for the exposure time, 1.25 minutes for the developing time, and I fixed it for about 5 minutes and rinsed.

This has to be the most rewarding part of this whole process. Going from a strictly mechanical camera built of metal, springs, and gears - developing the film - now finally enlarging it and getting a usable image. While it is much cheaper and easier to shoot digital, this whole process really makes me stop and take my time, rather than just firing off 7 frames a second and instantly seeing my results. This is much more rewarding.

I am so thankful that God has allowed me to stay home and work with my wife and little man every day. I hope that through my photography I can show just a tiny piece of how beautiful God's creation and his people really are.

Big News... Round Two!

            

It’s been one week since we launched our new brand and we have been overwhelmed with the response! We are almost to 5000 likes on our Facebook page and the hundreds of shares, comments, retweets, reposts,  etc… have been unlike anything we have seen! We can do nothing but thank you all for your support of us and our growing business! While our business is booming, we have some other really exciting news.

As many of you know, Adam has been working at The Masters Inn summer camp since 2007. The Masters Inn is where many of our shoots have taken place and it has played a huge role in our business and our personal lives. We met there, got engaged there, and lived there. Through The Masters Inn, we have seen hundreds of lives changed and we have seen God move in big ways. We are nothing but thankful for how camp has influenced our lives. In 2013, with a new family of five and a growing business;  our house quickly became small, our free time quickly diminished, and we realized we had to make a change. After many months of prayers and thoughts, we have decided that Adam is going to leave The Masters Inn and devote more time to our business and our family. This week we moved into our new four bedroom house and we plan on finishing our basement with a family room and an office in the next year :)

2013 was a year of rapid growth and nonstop going. This year we are going to focus more on simplifying our lives and spending time enjoying life. With Adam no longer at The Masters Inn, our turn-around time for photos is going to be quicker, the dates we have available will increase, our social media and blogs will be updated more frequently, Adam will be teaching photography classes through Pastiche at Main, we will design and sell more albums , Adam will build more picture frames and sell more prints online and at Pastiche. Hopefully the many changes will benefit you all and our business will be able to grow even more! There is much to look forward to in 2014 and we cant wait to share it with you all!