Forge Mountain Photography
We are Will and Julie Thomas. We photograph surprise proposals, elopements, and weddings across the Blue Ridge Mountains from our home in Mills River, North Carolina, where our back fence meets Pisgah National Forest.
Tending the hives at home in Mills River. When we are not photographing couples, we are usually outside.
How It All Began
Julie and I met in Asheville in 2002. The first night we met, we stayed up all night talking while she made me green tea in her coffee maker. We both loved hiking and being outdoors, and we have been together ever since that night. We married in 2005.
Our cameras have been with us the whole way. On trails, at overlooks, in the rain, and at more than 750 moments when someone dropped to one knee.
Two decades later we still live the way we started: outside, together, paying attention. That is the eye we bring to your proposal, your elopement, or your wedding day. We know what a moment worth keeping looks like because we have been living inside one since 2002.
The Google Chapter
In 2010, Google reached out to see if Will would join what became the Google Street View Trusted photographer program. That call started the commercial side of Forge Mountain Photography. Will moved onto Google's Hotels team shortly after, shooting on the Choice Hotels and Hilton photography crews during the national virtual tour rollout for major hotel brands.
Sixteen years later, that work adds up to more than 2,000 published Google Virtual Tours across six continents, over 600 hotels photographed, and Platinum status in the Trusted Photographer program. The same technical discipline Google demanded on every hotel shoot is in every proposal and wedding we photograph today.
For Couples
Our consumer studio and our heart. Surprise proposals, elopements, and weddings across DuPont State Forest, Pisgah National Forest, the Biltmore Estate, and the Blue Ridge Parkway. We have photographed more than 750 surprise proposals, which makes us the regional specialist for couples who want the moment captured without the moment being staged.
For Businesses
Our commercial studio, serving outdoor hospitality, healthcare, senior living, multi-family residential, and tourism clients across the Southeast and nationally. Commercial photography, video production, FAA Part 107 drone work, and Google Street View Trusted virtual tour production, built on the same standards Google trained into us.
By the Numbers
Meet the Team
Every inquiry, every shoot, and every gallery goes through the two of us. No associates, no rotating second shooters you have never met.
Founder and Lead Photographer
Photographer since 2001. Former Google Creative across the Street View, Hotels, and Trusted Photographer programs. FAA Part 107 certified drone pilot. Field naturalist whose wildlife photographs are used by Wikipedia and major reference platforms internationally.
Client Experience and Day-of Coordination
The voice you hear first at Forge Mountain. Julie runs client communication and day-of coordination for every wedding, elopement, and proposal. She is also an ordained minister, so for intimate elopements she can officiate as well as coordinate.
Beyond Client Work
Our work is used by Wikipedia and major reference platforms internationally, appearing across more than 25 Wikipedia articles in 14 languages. Those images come from our life as field naturalists, not from commercial assignment, and they are the same eyes we bring to every shoot. The full list of placements lives on Will's page.
If you are a cancer survivor, or someone you love is, and professional photography is out of reach right now, please reach out and let us know. We may be able to help.
Let's Talk
Proposals, elopements, weddings, and commercial projects. Based in Mills River, serving Asheville, the Biltmore Estate, Hendersonville, Brevard, and all of Western North Carolina. Available worldwide.