Thirty Years, One Constant

Welcome to the results of tenacity.

Thirty years ago, I hung a sign that said Prints Charming Photography & Framing. I was young enough to think a clever name was half the battle, and green enough not to know how many times I'd have to reinvent what came after it.

The first time I received an RFP from a large company for corporate headshots, I remember thinking Prints Charming was fun and creative — but had become just a tad "too cute" for credibility.

So around 2015 I added the brand Photo Media, separating personal from B2B services. Prints Charming stayed home to seniors, families, weddings and kids. Photo Media was all about marketing — including video — for some fun local businesses: four-time Cupcake Wars winner Kyra's Bake Shop, and the Tigard Farmers Market.

Both stills and video were growing too fast — which meant expand or trim. I chose to trim, since my real joy was in the stills.

Then came a debilitating concussion in 2015, and with it an unexpected lesson: embrace less. Two websites, two Facebooks, two Instagrams — two too many of everything. It was time to reinvent yet again, and merge the two.

Studio B Photography became the perfect name to hold all the services I chose to carry forward.

Three names. Not because I was restless — because each one marked a moment where I had to decide, again, whether to adapt or fold. I adapted. My ever-reliable mantra, "There's always a way," helped me land on the name that finally just felt right.

The parts I don't usually say out loud.

Awards, famous faces, the milestones — if you've been reading my posts long enough, you know I've stayed lean on the name-dropping.

We wrapped few presents, instead investing in experiences. Mexican Cruise, Christmas in Vegas, Thanksgiving Dinner aboard a ferry to Victoria BC. We shared our travel bug.

The truth is this business was never bankrolled. It was pieced together over time — through 2008–2010, through a pandemic that emptied every calendar I had, and through domestic shifts that tested me in ways a camera never could.

Sacrificing twenty years of weekends to weddings, seniors and events — to feed my family — carried its own ironic twist: "never being there" for kids too young to understand why.

I'm not telling you that to sound heroic. I'm sharing because if you're in a hard chapter of your own right now, I want you to know that the person behind these portraits has been there too. Survival isn't a straight line. It's a lot of small, stubborn there's-always-a-way decisions strung together until, one day, you look up and it's been thirty years.

From a storefront to a gallery.

The newest chapter is one I'm proud of: adding the gallery to Studio B — a space where my fine art photography hangs alongside the paintings of my friend, author-turned-painter Graham Salisbury.

What began as a place to make your images became, over time, a place to feed the soul too. Portraits that build confidence; a gallery that feeds the soul. Both under one roof, finally. (It's what I moved here to do back in 1986 — which adds yet another decade to this already-delayed celebration.)

The thread through all of it.

Look back across these posts and you'll see the whole arc — the team headshots, the dating profiles, the modeling submissions, the "undo the blue" rescues. Different subjects, different decades — same guy behind the lens, trying to extract the truest version of whoever's in front of him.

Thirty years in, that hasn't changed. I still think the best image is the honest one. I still do the retouching by human hand, not algorithm. And I'm still — genuinely — having too much fun to call it work.

To the ones who got me here.

First trip back to New Zealand after the pandemic.

Studio B was built on the loving support of countless loyal clients who believed in a vision before it had a name that stuck — none more than my Kiwi, Cathy, who's weathered nearly twenty of those thirty years beside me.

Thank you. All of you. For the trust, the referrals, the return visits, the grace during the lean years.

You didn't just hire a photographer. You kept a dream alive.

Here's to the next chapter — and to always finding a way.

Oh shoot - forgot to mention… THE BEST IS YET TO COME! Check out my newest service called Shades of Elegance! Launches 8/1/2026 as a nod to the classic portraiture that I was trained to create by my menor, Louis M. Ver Baere. God speed, Lou - you were right!.. I now believe I was made for this - just took me a few decades to believe your insight.

— Brian

PS. Hand to God - As soon as I hit “SAVE” on this post, Michael Buble’s version of “The Best is Yet to Come” came on! I’m feeling it!..

Sir Brian Edward Geraths - Guardian of the Electron Rose. Honorary Knighthood being bestowed upon me by my then-studio manager, Rose Festival Queen Emma Waibel. 2015

Oh the stories that came from this one… From recluse behind the camera, to international traveler and speaker - teaching tech and photography.

That time it looked like I hired a PR agency. Both mags I was shooting for had asked to do a feature on the guy behind their covers.

I obviously didn’t have too many pics of myself - used the same one on both covers. HA