I, of course, love a ginormous canvas as much as the next photographer but sometimes the perfect touch just isn’t life sized. Here are some fantastic ideas for styling and decorating with antique and small prints. I want to use all of these ideas in my own home, office and studio… I absolutely love {all of} them. But this first one make me particularly happy!

Here is a random fact for you, I love genealogy! I have spent countless hours and nights studying out the stories and the names of my ancestors. It may sound really dorky – maybe it is – but I feel like I’m this awesome detective solving these incredible mysteries when I find the stories of past! As I learn my heritage, my heart grows for people who worked, sacrificed and defied everything… These are people who I’ve never met but am eternally connected to. For example my name, Leah Remillet (it’s my first and middle name) — I was named after two great aunts. My great aunt Leah was wealthy, she had a home with 23 bedroom and 17 fireplaces. In searching out her story I sent a letter to an address on a Christmas Card sent to my Grandpa that had been dated some 25 years earlier. Incredibly, I got a letter back from Marian, Marian is Leah’s daughter, she was 93 when we “met”. I adore her – she has sent me newspaper clippings and told me stories and introduced me to a wonderful legacy that I could have never known and have become so proud of.

Remillet is after my great aunt on my mom’s side. She was the president of the women’s society by night and during the day dressed as a man so that she could own and operate a construction company. I love thinking about Remillet, she believed in her feminine roll as a women while also being a fearless entrepreneur. Through my research and thanks to my family, I now have a wonderful collection of beautiful antique photographs. It was actually in my late night research for my ancestors that I fell deeply in love with photography. The idea that I could connect with people who I’d never met, that I could see them through a photograph left me in awe. I was able to better imagine their lives and personalities through old faded paper and I realized that for me (for the people who love the faces in the paper) what I held in my hand was positively PRICELESS. I longed for more… More details more that shared who they truly were and it was during all of that that I was introduced to  and fell in love with lifestyle photography, it had the power to share that “more” that I so longed for for future generations not yet come.

1. Antique Bottles 2. Floor Stand Photo Carousel 3. Photos on Branches 4. Birdcage