The Voorhes: A Few Of Our Favourite Things

We’re Adam and Robin, aka The Voorhes – photographers, directors, prop masters, magic makers, husband and wife, dog parents, and frozen margarita enthusiasts.

For more than 16 years, we’ve been in constant collaboration – with each other and with our clients – chasing those “how the heck did they do that?” moments.

Our process is who we are: two brains testing, tinkering and tackling a problem from the first spark of an idea through every part of production – the lighting, camera movements, sets and props – pairing technical expertise with playful, thoughtful curiosity.

Our 7,000 sq ft Austin studio could be described as a cross between a junior high science lab and a tricked-out maker space (with plenty of toys).

Whatever you call it, it gives us the freedom to take an idea from an initial sketch and build out an entire universe.

The Cutting Board

Margaritas are our thing.

In our studio, the last shot is not a Martini shot, it’s the Margarita shot.

When the last shot starts, one of our amazing crew will head to the kitchen to make wrap Margs for everyone.

Margs are also important when we’re concepting projects and trying to think of new ways to visualise an idea.

Sometimes, we’ll spend hours kicking ideas around, and occasionally, a late-breaking, margarita-fuelled idea is the winner.

Our friend Mike Kimbro got really into woodworking and made us this cutting board.

It’s become a fixture in our kitchen and our go-to lime-slicing surface.

Many a storyboard and/or shot idea has been fuelled by the creations from this well-loved cutting board.

The Pokepet Cards

Our studio is, in fact, a PokéStop (it used to be a church).

For several years, we played Pokémon Go religiously.

Our studio assistant, Dylan, grew up with Pokémon and says it is the narrative of his childhood, so he was pretty excited to find out we were those kinds of nerds.

For his first Christmas with us, he had these Pokepet cards of our pups Lefty & Lucy made as a gift.

Their special attacks are spot on: Chest Bump and Treat Time.

Not only are they proudly displayed, we’ve used them to let dog sitters know who’s who!

Lefty is no longer with us, which makes these cherished gifts even more valuable in our hearts.

The Vintage View-Masters

Adam LOVES View-Masters.

We have quite a collection of them, that spans decades.

These things are scattered around our studio and our home.

They are amazingly simple but allow you to see a still image in 3D.

We have them all loaded up with classic View-Master reels of meticulously detailed, practically built sets shot in 3D.

Subjects like Aesop's fables, Mother Goose nursery rhymes, and Alice in Wonderland are among our favourites.

It’s the sort of thing no one would do practically anymore, but we’d love to.

They’re adorable and inspiring.

The Mugs

Vintage ThermoServe mugs – Robin has an affinity for these things.

When she was a kid, she had one of these exact ThermoServe Schlitz beer mugs that was her favourite vessel to drink chocolate milk from.

Now, they are her go-to glass for keeping ice water icy all day while she fabricates props, builds sets, and styles scenes.

You’re guaranteed to find one on her desk, another on her workbench, and a few more scattered among styling carts, shelving, or any other horizontal surface she might set one down on.

Horror Citrus Juicer

This is a citrus juicer Robin fabricated for a Bacardi Halloween cocktail commercial with the help of our studio manager and art assistant, Nicki.

In the short film, it violently pierced an orange as juice went flying.

While the points are all rusty now, at one time they were insanely sharp after being filed to a point by hand with a jeweller's file.

The project was insanely fun.

We got to make a bunch of horror-inspired cocktail footage, and it was also the catalyst for us meeting Neighborhood Watch, our production partners, whom we’re endlessly grateful for.

There is a lot of nostalgia in this weird little prop.