Posts in Category: Kids
Tinleigh’s One Year Cake Smash
There is cute and there’s cute and then there’s Tinleigh. If you’re having a wretched day, get a load of this little nugget.
While we haven’t had our usual number of summer sessions this year, we have been able to meet the needs of families who want to celebrate milestones, most particularly those of their children. It’s funny, but some of these taken in June of this year feel like my best. I think it’s due in part to a combination of things including having more rest, desperately needing an outlet for my creativity, the children are more attentive in part to not being out socially as often, and all involved being more focused. The latest three sessions have all been photographed in our portrait garden under our favorite chestnut tree. Yet I’ve striven to make each unique and individual.
Mom Lindsey wanted to incorporate strawberries into Tinleigh’s one year cake smash. The only definite plan she had was a dress, and the cake. We attempted to locate a field of strawberries for our location but due to Covid those fields weren’t available.
No problem! I had a miniature produce stand and coordinating props that I used to create our own little strawberry farm stand. I do this stuff for a living, people!! I was ready! All we had to do was insert an adorable girl who was full of toothy grins and the results were one of my favorite one year cake smash sessions.
She’s adorable, and it feels like an age ago since we shot her newborn portraits and 6 month photos. She arrived cute and nothing has changed.
Our family and the York family have become great friends. Our son Finley loves playing with the older two, Turner and Tate. One of the cutest behind-the-scenes moments was when Finley, Turner, Tate and Tinleigh were all digging into her cake with their hands and eating icing together.
Older brother Tate had a little milestone of his own to celebrate: kindergarten graduation! Mom Lindsey was disappointed that she would have no photos when schools were closed in early Spring. We couldn’t dare let this moment go unphotographed.
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 newborns and families, 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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States LicenseAll photos are ©2020 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Outdoor Play in photos
This is officially an invitation to come out and play.
We’re booking socially responsible (read: socially distanced/no contact) summer portraits out of doors. North Carolina is gorgeous this time of year. It’s actually gorgeous all year, but families are getting out to play in local parks, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, at vacation rentals, on the water and in the woods. You should let us photograph some of those memories.
Have a family gathering or family day trip planned that you would like photographed, get in touch with us and let’s get outside!
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 newborns and families, 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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States LicenseAll photos are ©2020 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Summertime Blues?
Do you have them? It may easily be the strangest summer (year?) of any of our lives, but we are going to get through it if we’re reasonable, follow common sense, take care of ourselves, check in on our neighbors and we will see the other side.
But if you’re missing something, I thought some cute images of babies and kiddos outdoors might cheer you up.
Yep. Brothers at an airplane hangar to celebrate the youngest’s first birthday. It was an epic themed shoot.
We are booking summer portraits of kids and families (and friends) this summer and we have a portrait garden set up and will be following all the appropriate social distancing and other protocols. There are plenty of parks, the parkway, private grounds and outdoor event centers perfect for portraits. Don’t miss a year just because we’re in a strange newer normal.
We have the cure for the summertime blues: get outside and make some milestones.
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 newborns and families, 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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States LicenseAll photos are ©2020 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Roman Turns One. Airplanes and Cake Smash
We cannot stop it. Time is going to do what it’s going to do….. keep passing. Suddenly Roman, below, is a year old.
The third child of Andy and Traci Pierce just celebrated his first birthday and this family does not “phone it in.” They come to PLAY with themes and props and outfits and the big dessert – cake.
Father Andy is a commercial pilot and we have used themes before in photo shoots with his two older brothers. Holden was Pierce baby number one and the aviation them was chosen for him. Then Sawyer came along as a little surfer and pharmacist like his Mom. He even had (and still has) the curls of a man who lives by the sea and in hammocks during his downtime. Roman is the last and third child for Andy and Traci, so they decided to go for it one more time. Traci got the idea from Pinterest of shooting on location, and tasked Andy with finding a plane.
He did. From WWII. Decked out in flack jackets and aviator shades, we all met up in Concord on a gorgeous mid-March dad, with perfect blue skies and lots of wind.
The weather always plays a role, if only to bless you or challenge you. Thank goodness that it was merely a challenge instead of a curse. Traci is detail-oriented, admittedly type A – something she and I share, so she wants all of our time and effort to be worth it. With the wind blowing us all around, Roman was freezing, but Holden and Sawyer were loving it! They fit the roles of pilot and copilot already. We had a couple of “is this going to work?” moments, but we couldn’t be happier with the results.
I feel confident that the family will be having caption contests with the image above for many years to come. Holden with his tongue sort of sticking out conspiring the plan, Sawyer with his curls and “about to pounce lets get do it” posture and little Roman looking like “LETS TAKE A MINUTE TO THINK ABOUT THIS BOYS.”
We ended up back inside, playing around the hangar and avoiding the wind and Roman’s mood shifted from “I’m freezing” to “this ROCKS!” Everything turned out beautifully and I loved capturing the colors of the plane, the natural light and the boys. We adored the plane’s owner who was so accommodating and cool too. He helped make the day a success.
The cake smash went off well too. First birthdays have to have cake and like his older brothers, Roman was able to get the anticipated – and much deserved – sugar rush. Cake theme: why yes, planes!
Roman: we’ve said this about your older brothers, but we are serious when we say it to you: we cannot wait to watch you grow up in front of our lenses and in our midst. Congratulations on your first year on earth. Here’s to so very many more.
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 newborns and families, 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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States LicenseAll photos are ©2020 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Valentine’s Day Expressions
This is love.
So is this.
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I thought I would just celebrate what love looks like on people’s faces, in their body English, and in their overall gestures because of their connection to each other. It’s not always easy to spot love, especially when you’re trying to capture a variety of images during a scheduled photo session, but I’ve been training my eye for a while now, and sometimes, it’s right in your face.
Couples who are no longer newlyweds really make me smile. You made a commitment and it held, through good and bad. The familiarity has not, as the saying goes, bred contempt. We married couples know each other well and that love has deepened.
Parents with their babies = undeniable love. It spills out and they cannot help it, even with a photographer circling them, lighting them, and getting multiple shots. And the same is true with siblings who snuggle.
There are those quiet, less obvious moments too. Resting in love is soul-restoring.
And there’s friendship. God gave us so many types of love, but one of the greatest is our love for our neighbors, our weird friends, the people who aren’t bound by blood, but who show up to “do life” with us.
We need love for each other now more than ever. Whatever it takes or looks like, I plan to take a moment this week, whether it’s with the Valentines I share a name with, or just someone who makes my life better, and show them a little love. I hope you will too.
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 weddings, brides, 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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License