Posts in Category: Christmas

Andrews family in-home christmas

Documentary style, in-home portraits are a trend we’ve been working in and loving for a few years now and Christmas 2018 gave us the opportunity to be at it again. The Andrews are a crew we love and for 2018, they wanted their holiday portraits to be chill, and most especially, in their new home in Purlear, North Carolina.

We’ve had the pleasure of taking portraits for these guys several times before. The arrival of their second child, Jaxon, gave us the chance to spend time with them, get to know older brother Luke and capture several baby milestones with them – including his 6 month and first birthday.

Ryan told me that during this shoot, it felt like Christmas morning a bit. The boys were in their pjs, they baked cookies with mom, read new Christmas books with dad and dragged Ryan from room to room, showing them their new home. And of course, they talked dinosaurs – as one does on such occasions.

I find it impossible to believe that there were any cookies left when Santa made it to their address. We have some photos to prove that their were a couple of cute taste-testers.

We love these sessions for their intimacy, informality and our ability to capture the real moments of life, when posed shots just won’t do. If you’re interesting in a documentary style photo shoot (it doesn’t have to be Christmastime), contact us and we’ll work on a plan.


We love family portraits whether they are set in the studio, the great outdoors, a specific location like the mountains or high country, or on our property in our outdoor portrait garden. Pixels on Paper photographs, engagements and weddingsbrides, and special events and portraits  of all kinds in our Wilkesboro, NC studio. We would be honored to meet with you, learn about you and your family and be a part of taking special portraits that will become, we hope, family heirlooms.

88x31 lucy & glens valle crucis wedding photography | pixels on paper boone wedding photographers

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License

All photos are ©2018 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.

Spillman Family at-home christmas

While Christmas is in the rear-view mirror at this point, we’ve been busy and wanted to make sure that we shared a couple of our in-home Christmas portrait sessions from this last year.

Pixels On Paper Photography Spillman Family Christmas In Home Portrait Photos

People contact us for all sorts of reasons around the holidays; they want to have portraits made to give as gifts; they need images for their Christmas cards; they want to mark a milestone. A couple of years back, we began offering in-home Christmas portrait sessions and these more documentary in style for some, more intimate and in some cases, more casual. These have become incredibly popular. They’ve become Day in the Life sessions for the holidays.

The Spillman family (Elisabeth, Isaac, Barrett) live just outside of Winston-Salem and Ryan headed there for this session toward the end of last year.

I mentioned milestones and this particular in-home session marked son Barrett’s first Christmas and his Mom and Dad very much wanted it documented. They’re keen to capture all the firsts as a family and the traditions around their holidays.

I love the “coziness-factor” that’s shown in these images. Looking at the photos I can almost hear them cooing and soothing Barrett and feel all the comfort and love that surrounds him as they change his diaper, feed him and provide little cuddles and chin-tweaks. It’s real life and captures a still-life of life as we really know it.


We’re finding more and more that these types of honest, intimate, documentary sessions are the perfect mix of casual and professional. People want to use their phones to capture the everyday in life, but someone is usually missing from the photo and almost always some THING is missing: experience and skill. Ryan and I love to take the style of photos that don’t feel formal, like the ones that people hope to get with their phones, but we provide an understanding of lighting, composition, scene setting and comfort for our subjects that cannot be accomplished by most amateurs. And believe me when I say it’s our great pleasure.

We love family portraits whether they are set in the studio, the great outdoors, a specific location like the mountains or high country, or on our property in our outdoor portrait garden. Pixels on Paper photographs, engagements and weddingsbrides, and special events and portraits  of all kinds in our Wilkesboro, NC studio. We would be honored to meet with you, learn about you and your family and be a part of taking special portraits that will become, we hope, family heirlooms.

88x31 lucy & glens valle crucis wedding photography | pixels on paper boone wedding photographers

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License

All photos are ©2018 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.

Portraits make PERFECT Christmas Gifts

While a picture may or may not be worth a thousand words, it IS most decidedly worth a thousand hugs of gratitude, a thousand THANK YOUS and a thousand days of the recipient feeling loved by you. The gift giving season is upon us and one of the best gifts (it makes the list every year) is a photograph.
Weddings, births, graduations, family reunions, bridals, engagements, baby’s first birthday……. you get the idea. If Pixels has photographed you, now would be a great time to make one of those portraits into a gift for someone. Electronics are great. Clothes are great. Cookware, robes, ties, subscriptions… all of that stuff is great. Who doesn’t love a new leaf-blower? Well, not me, but I get it. But stuff breaks down, gets upgraded, lost, used up or simply outlasts your care for it. Photos of people you love do not. Trust me.
Birthdays, anniversaries, and certainly Christmas – portraits of milestones and important memories make the best gifts. Give it some thought and get in touch!


We love family portraits whether they are set in the studio, the great outdoors, a specific location like the mountains or high country, or on our property in our outdoor portrait garden. Pixels on Paper photographs, engagements and weddingsbrides, and special events and portraits  of all kinds in our Wilkesboro, NC studio. We would be honored to meet with you, learn about you and your family and be a part of taking special portraits that will become, we hope, family heirlooms.

88x31 lucy & glens valle crucis wedding photography | pixels on paper boone wedding photographers

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License

All photos are ©2018 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.

Christmas is Coming – Time to Schedule Your In-Home Portraits

So much to do, so much to plan, so much to organize… and folks, I am right there with you. The mind reels during the holiday season. No sooner have you taken the surplus Halloween candy to work, than you’re gearing up for Thanksgiving. But we hope that you find time for making memories and capturing them for posterity. We managed to get out with our little pumpkin – Finley –  to enjoy some warm temps.

But here is one task you can check off your list in 5 minutes: scheduling your Christmas portrait session. While you may not know exactly what you want your holiday portraits or cards to look like, or what you want your family to be wearing, or if you want to include pets, it’s time to call and schedule your in-home portraits session.
Pajamas and tree decorating. Check.
Wrapping presents around a fire. No problem.
Playing touch football in the yard. Sure.
Decorating cookies and destroying the kitchen. Why not?
Playing board games or lying in a pile watching the Grinch or reading The Night Before Christmas. Absolutely.

… whatever the tableau, we’re in to brainstorm, laugh with you, help with the idea and document it. At home sessions are WAY MORE FUN than you know, unless you’ve booked us for a one in the past. Families have told us how thrilled they are to have these specific memories forever.


We love family portraits whether they are set in the studio, the great outdoors, a specific location like the mountains or high country, or on our property in our outdoor portrait garden. Pixels on Paper photographs, engagements and weddingsbrides, and special events and portraits  of all kinds in our Wilkesboro, NC studio. We would be honored to meet with you, learn about you and your family and be a part of taking special portraits that will become, we hope, family heirlooms.

88x31 lucy & glens valle crucis wedding photography | pixels on paper boone wedding photographers

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License

All photos are ©2018 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.

Time to Schedule you Christmas & Holiday In-Home Portraits

As you print out the Butterball turkey hotline number to put on the frig, iron bedding for out-of-town guests (I have a friend who ACTUALLY does this, but she told me she’d kill me if I shared her number), stock the pantry, sharpen your knives, throw out the old bathroom soap, and get everything else pulled together for Thanksgiving, I want to give you a loving tap on the shoulder and remind you that it’s time to be thinking about your holiday portrait session. This year, we’re doing in-home sessions only, because not only do we love doing them, more importantly, YOU GUYS told us you love them too.
We made this decision also because we remember the best things about Christmas happen at home. Here’s a little excerpt I wrote about our reasoning from 2016:

For us, this year has been hectic, challenging and rewarding all at the same time. Through it all I’ve been very reflective and God has been incredibly forthcoming in showing me direction and insight all along the way both in my personal journey and the path of our business. I want all the work we do to be done with intention and relevance.

Nothing is more important during the holidays (or anytime for that matter) than family. When trying to create the concept for this year’s Christmas theme “family” and “home” continued to resonate in my mind. I wanted a way to create a personal experience for each of our clients, so my resolution is to offer in-home Christmas sessions.

I want to capture families gathered around trees with handmade ornaments, trees where all the fragile ornaments are at a height away from little fingers, stockings are personalized and tree toppers are those that have been passed through generations. I’d love to capture children in their Christmas PJs while they show me an ornament they made at school. Children years from now will recognize their surroundings in a photograph. What it looks like is different for every single one of our clients.

The same is true two years later. We want to be in your world during one of the most important holidays and seasons each year.
In-home sessions allow you to be more relaxed while we document the season, your family, playing games, eating and “doing life.” Some families want to dress up and make it more festive, others hang in their pjs. It’s ALL good.
Our prices have not changed since 2016! Give us a call or send us an email and let’s get you and your in-home photo session on the calendar.


We love family portraits whether they are set in the studio, the great outdoors, a specific location like the mountains or high country, or on our property in our outdoor portrait garden. Pixels on Paper photographs, engagements and weddingsbrides, and special events and portraits  of all kinds in our Wilkesboro, NC studio. We would be honored to meet with you, learn about you and your family and be a part of taking special portraits that will become, we hope, family heirlooms.

88x31 lucy & glens valle crucis wedding photography | pixels on paper boone wedding photographers

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License

All photos are ©2018 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.