Nikolas Kiriakou, photographer

The Photographer

Nikolas
Kiriakou.

From Greece to Houston, camera in hand.

Photography found me at age 11, when my uncle placed a camera in my hands and showed me what it meant to see. My father bought me my first camera, and I spent years honing my eye by photographing family. That discipline became a career, and that career became a calling.

I immigrated from Greece to America with one goal: to make a living doing what I love most. Today, I photograph weddings, families, corporate teams, baptisms, culinary scenes, and everything in between, all across Houston and beyond.

Nikolas

Work With Me

Where it
began.

My story with photography started young. My uncle was a photographer and videographer, and watching him work showed me that a camera could do more than take pictures. It could preserve something real. That idea never left me.

My dad bought me my first camera, and from that point on I was hooked. I photographed everything I could: family gatherings, moments around the house, people just being themselves. That was where I built my eye, learning to read light, to anticipate expressions, to recognize the frame before it happened.

Photography taught me to slow down and actually look at what was in front of me. That skill has served me every day since.

What started as a passion became an obsession, and that obsession became a profession. The path from that first camera to running a full-time studio was not a straight line, but it was always pointed in the same direction.

Leaving Greece for America was not a small decision. I had a life there, a family, roots. But I also had a dream that felt bigger than where I was, and I believed Houston could give me the space to pursue it.

To fund the business in those early days, I worked as an EMS driver. The job was demanding — long hours, high stakes, no margin for error. But it taught me discipline and it paid for the gear I needed to go professional. Each piece of equipment I bought was a step closer to where I wanted to be.

I started with the basics and worked my way up, learning each piece of equipment thoroughly before moving on to the next. That deliberate approach shaped how I work today. I do not rush. I prepare. I show up ready.

The
move.

Fourth
Floor.
The name.

The name comes from my very first studio, which was on the fourth floor of a building. That space was where my journey as a professional photographer truly began. The walls held the early work, the uncertainty, the learning curve, and the first real signs that this was going to work.

I wanted the name to keep me grounded. Every time I hear "Fourth Floor Photography," it pulls me back to where I started. That kind of anchor matters as a business grows. It is easy to lose the thread of why you began. The name keeps me from forgetting.

It stands for growth, perseverance, and the importance of remembering your beginnings. Those values show up in how I treat every client and every session, regardless of size.

How I
work.

One of the things I hear most from clients is that they are not comfortable in front of a camera. I take that seriously. A tense subject produces a tense photograph. My job before I ever lift the camera is to make the session feel easy.

I create a relaxed environment. I move slowly. I talk through what we are doing. I make sure people know there is no pressure and no wrong answer. When that tension drops, something real appears in the frame. That is the photograph I am after.

What I am most proud of, more than any specific image, is the relationships I have built with clients over the years. People who trusted me with their wedding at the beginning of my career still call me for family portraits a decade later. That kind of trust is not given lightly, and it is not something I take for granted.

When you book a session, you get a photographer who treats your story with the same care he would his own. That is the standard. It has not changed since the fourth floor.

"Let's make something worth keeping."

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