This Photographer&#39;s Life

To become a fan of this blog on Facebook, click here.

My Photographs Published in Historical Concept's New Book, Coming Home

Blayne Beacham March 5, 2012

This is a dream of mine that's been in the making for years. In this 2010 post I wrote about how I wanted to photograph an architect's work for their book. A few months later Historical Concepts contacted me about shooting one of their homes in Pine Mountain, GA. I love Historical Concepts. They do an amazing job on each of their homes, and I was thrilled to work with them. Early one Saturday morning in 2010 I took off for the shoot. Here are the photos that I took:

Home

Front Door

Front Porch

Front Door2

Fireplace

Fireplace Detail

Dining room

Dining to Living room

Porch to Pond

Kitchen w fixed clock

Doors to porch

Porch

Porch to Bedroom

Porch Swing

Red Room out to porch

Bed Detail

Master Bath

House through lavender

To garden house

Pool House

I delivered the photos to Historical Concepts and really did not think too much more about it.

In September of 2011 I got some mail from them.

Screen Shot 2012-03-05 at 3.15.33 PM

I jumped up and down and ran around and waved the paper in Jimmy's face. Finally! A dream realized.

Then I waited... and last week I got something in the mail.

P1000433

P1000432

It said it was from Historical Concepts. What ever could it be?

P1000434

Isn't that packaging beautiful?

P1000435

No no no... Thank you for LETTING me be part of Coming Home!

There it was!

P1000437

Signed and everything!

P1000438

Finally I found my house.

P1000439

P1000440

P1000441

Thank you so much for making one of my dreams come true! Coming Home is a beautiful book and could be on every coffee table around Atlanta/THE WORLD!! Maybe I can convince them to let me give one away here! You can order yours on their website ...but the book hits shelves TOMORROW!!!!

THANK YOU AGAIN!!! Thank you!

To become a fan of this blog on Facebook, click here.

My Personal Home: Beginning and End

Blayne Beacham February 24, 2012

The big reveal... Screen Shot 2012-02-24 at 9.22.44 AM

When I bought this house in 2006, I didn't have anything except a bed and some old furniture. I worked with Anne Williams to pick out some new pieces and recover some sofas and chairs (originally plaid and jean).

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 11.08.57 AM You can see some of the new fabric above.... plus you can look at that cute Sister, so you're welcome. She did a great job setting up my house so I could live in it. It was sleek and minimalist... like a New York loft. (I am KICKING myself for not having pictures of it when she finished. It looked amazing.)

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 11.08.38 AM Unfortunately I like buying things. Over the next five years I bought art and tables and accessories. Having absolutely ZERO interior design talent, my house ended up looking like this.

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 11.09.04 AM

There were great things there, but it just didn't feel finished. Also, I started craving color. Don't get me wrong, I love neutrals, but I was ready for a change. It was about that time when my good friend Cristi Holcomb of Charm Home suggested to Simply Buckhead that they feature my house. There it was. The push I needed to finish the house.

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 10.50.44 AM

Having no idea how to start, I ~~begged~~ enlisted the help of my friend, the very talented designer Laura Green of L. Green Studios. She said the house was in desperate need of paint, refreshing and framed art. Just as she ~~gave in~~ agreed to help me, the snowpocolypse of 2011 hit. For the next week and a half, my friends and family worked tirelessly (read the blog post about it here)...

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 10.59.10 AM There is my sweet mom painting book shelves.

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 10.59.20 AM

My things all over...

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 10.59.45 AM

Guest room with its bold new paint color...

At the end of the week and a half we were exhausted but ready for the Simply Buckhead photographers.

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 10.50.08 AM

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 10.50.23 AM

And then it was over. I was happy to have the house finished and everything... but as you know I am a photographer... a house photographer to be exact. I needed to capture the project myself.

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 10.51.50 AM

Enter Brian Patrick Flynn. Among his NUMEROUS talents, he produces stories and photo shoots for his acclaimed blog Decor Demon. He asked if we could shoot my house. DUH. I got coffee and sandwiches and waited for his crew to arrive.

Screen Shot 2012-02-23 at 10.52.24 AM

We worked together for the next 7 or 8 hours, moving things around, creating vignettes, discovering Brian's vision for my home.

Screen Shot 2012-02-24 at 10.00.54 AM He directed, I photographed.

And finally we are ready to reveal my house. Brian wrote the coolest story about it. I am so flattered... and I can't believe I actually LIVE here. How lucky am I?

This is my favorite photo we took! To see the final pictures of my house, please visit Brian's blog, Decor Demon.

Have a great weekend everybody!

-Blayne

To become a fan of this blog on Facebook, click here.

Serenbe is Cool, So is Valentine's Day

Blayne Beacham February 15, 2012

I can hear it now... "oh, your Valentine's Day was just so great because it was your first one. Wait until you get older, Valentine's Day is the worst." Well... whatever.

It was my first Valentine's Day with Jimmy, and it was perfect. Couldn't have been better... so sorry to all you guys who hate Valentines Day. You can stop reading now.

If you Love Love (Ginny Branch), you can read on...

We started our weekend by going to see Trey Anastasio (lead singer of Jimmy's number one love, PHISH) perform with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. It was a great show. Trey preformed many classic Phish tunes such as YEM and Divided Sky. He also preformed some songs by the Trey Anastasio Band. It was interesting hearing all the songs changed form their traditional arrangements into orchestral pieces. I liked Water in the Sky best. It was such a beautiful song.

P1000160

Another highlight of the evening was this violinist's sweet Prada shoes. I was captivated...

A couple in the back got engaged dring the show, which was such a special moment. Trey congratulated them and dedicated YEM to them, where he teased "Here Comes the Bride." I am into romantic stuff, so I thought was was really special.

Speaking of romantic things, Friday Jimmy sent me these beautiful flowers...

Didn't he do a great job? Along with the flowers came tickets to Willie Nelson. NO WAY!!!???!!!

P1000168

Seeing Willie Nelson was on my bucket list. Did you know he is 79 years old? Can you believe it? I had never seen him live and was dying to see him when he was at the Tabernacle. Jimmy surprised me with tickets, and we went Sunday night.

P1000178

Since seeing Willie Nelson was such a huge deal for me, I was fairly panicked about what I could do for Jimmy that could even come close to matching that. Luckily I had the stroke of genius to call Nan Haverty, one of our agents here at Beacham & Company. Nan and I do a lot of work together with me photographing her listings. Her husband helped develop Serenbe, which is a sustainable community in Palmetto, GA. There is a great town square with wonderful food and shops. There is also a wide spectrum of real estate and a horse barn with ample acreage. I asked her a for a HUGE FAVOR. I asked if it would be ok for Jimmy and me to stay in her house at Serenbe for Valentines Day.

9015 Selborne Lane is currently for sale and is absolutely breathtaking. I was so thankful when she said Jimmy and I could stay there!

That just left one more thing I needed to figure out, a Valentine's present for Jimmy. I thought and thought about it, and solicited help from all of his friends (sorry-- I am very annoying).

I was so excited about Jimmy's present I almost couldn't stand the ride to Serenbe... As soon as we walked in, I put in on the breakfast table and made him open it.

A record player? WHAT?!? I know!!! Isn't that an awesome present? I know what you're thinking, "How could someone who loves music that much not own a record player?" I was confused myself. After exhaustive research I settled on this Hype record player from Urban Outfitters. Pros: it's portable, it has built in speakers, it has an AUX out so it can be plugged into surround sound, it looks cool. Cons: It's fairly cheap and can break easily. It was the best choice for me at the time, and Jimmy thinks it was the right one, SO YEA BLAYNE. In addition to this record player I gave him my entire collection of records, which has taken a lifetime to build. It includes classic albums by artists such as: The Beatles, Grateful Dead, Pure Prairie Legue, The Marshall Tucker Band, and Jimmy Buffett. Yea, I know, I am an amazing girlfriend.

It seems Jimmy thinks so as well...

See how happy he is? I know. It's pretty cute.

After present opening time we went to The Hil Restaurant, which was amazing.

Yea for Valentine's dinner!

These were homemade potato chips with Vidalia onion dip! yum.

After dinner we went back to Nan's house where I got excited about how beautiful it looked at night, so I took a few pictures. You can see Jimmy walking on the porch in that picture if you look closely.

Isn't that breathtaking?

This is a view of the pool house from the house at night.

Out back of house

This was the view this morning outside my room to the pool house. Doesn't that look peaceful?

While Jimmy packed the car, I walked around to the front of the house and took this picture.

And then walked up to the front porch to see this view. I could have stayed forever, but alas, we both had to get back to work.

pond

I made Jimmy stop the car to get this shot. Photographers say that the best time to take pictures are at dawn and dusk. Since I make it a rule to only be awake for one of those times, I was taking full advantage of the light this morning...

Horses

We waved good bye to these guys as we pulled away...

morning horizon

and caught our last glimpse of the country as we made our way back to the highway.

Cheers to an amazing first Valentines Day Jimmy. I'm so in love with you.

-Blayne

P.S. Nan, thank you so much for making this little trip possible. Your home is so beautiful, and we were so lucky to get to stay there! You're the best!

To become a fan of this blog on Facebook, click here.

Farms are cool. So is Widespread Panic.

Blayne Beacham February 1, 2012

I've always fancied myself a little farm-ie... Screen Shot 2012-02-01 at 3.29.52 PM

Here I am in college with my rabbit, Napoleon. I bought this little guy without telling my mom... not smart. Then he grew to be like 8 lbs and would chew up all the wires/hardwoods in my apartment. I really loved him and was able to tolerate it, but as soon as I moved back in with my mom on Habersham we had to find Napoleon a new home. Bummer.

Screen Shot 2012-02-01 at 3.30.04 PM

Here I am holding a goat. Classic. If I had a back yard big enough you better believe I would have my own goat. How cute is he??

And who could forget the great chicken experiment of 2010?

I got 8 of these little fellows... and 5 of them were... well, fellows. That left me with three of the meanest hens you've ever met.

Screen Shot 2012-02-01 at 5.27.22 PM

See, she's plotting to peck my eyes out. Kidding... kind of. It turns out chickens don't really love being raised in the city on a concerte slab. They would much rather be out in the country... like me.

If I had my own farm I could own all the crazy animals I wanted, thus I was THRILLED when Nan Haverty asked me to go shoot her new farm near Serenbe. (Hey, you never know when the opportunity might present itself and you just NEED to buy a farm.)

8275 Chochan Mill was exactly what I was looking for in a farm property. I love that wide front porch!

Here is the barn, which is located just steps from the main house.

Of course I had to get a peak inside. Don't hate me, but I am not a huge fan of horses. I had a scary experience riding one once when I was little and have never really had any desire to climb aboard... that being said I do think they are beautiful and love watching them... from afar. BTW, there is an artist studio in the attic space of this barn, so go ahead and sign me up for spending time in there!

There are acres and acres of horse paddocks behind the house. We walked back so you could see the home, barn and garage/guest house. The homeowner told me that every night she pours herself a glass of wine and walks around the property checking the fences. I'm sorry, but how pleasant does that sound?

I was really impressed by the inside of the house. It was so bright and comfortable!

Isn't that great?

Digging this fireplace in the master!

This is the perfect place to cook meals for your family while they are out tending the pigs!

My favorite part of the house is the huge back poch overlooking the fields. I would love to sit out here at night with a glass of wine. Apparently when I move to the country I am also going to start drinking a lot of wine. :)

I asked Jim-Bo if he could ever see himself moving to the country. He didn't answer... but he did buy me a nice little ticket to Widespread Panic at the Tabernacle last weekend (wood tour, for those of you in the know).

Screen Shot 2012-02-01 at 5.39.48 PM

City Mouse + Country Mouse = Two very in love little mice.