Posts in Category: Personal
Easter 2021 – “Step Outside”
“March is such a fickle month. It is the seam between winter and spring — though seam suggests an even hem, and March is more like a rough line of stiches sewn by an unsteady hand, swinging wildly between January gusts and June greens. You don’t know what you’ll find until you step outside.” – V. E. Schwab
This is a season of hope, even with its unevenness, even with that “rough line” Schwab evokes. Easter 2020 was not only uneven, it was fraught with questions and fear, confusion and pauses. This year, I am ready to push forward toward the light. Anyone else? Show of hands, please? I did not just want to push beyond the pandemic (which we’re clearly not quite done with), but I wanted to focus on the spring light and, as a believer, the light of the Resurrection.
Finley is old enough to dye eggs now. Ask him and he’d tell you that he’s ready to drive a truck at age 3, but that’s another story. With the encouragement of my dear sweet mother-in-law and mom, this year, we decided to go for it. Yes, it was going to be all crafty. Yes, I was going to be inviting “A Mess” to come inside my home, but you gotta let light in, right, even in the form of a toddler/boy covered in art supply residue. For me, it was simply time to create Easter traditions and hold our heads up toward the sun, in hope. And that’s what we did.
If you think that these images are the result of careful planning, great spirits, can-do attitudes and perfect behavior, you’re only partially correct. We did plan and we were hoping for perfect results, but that can only take you so far. We had some hiccups – the subject is my child afterall – but I’m so happy we took the time to be creative, to allow him to play a bit and for us to all be outdoors together. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect, folks. The eggs turned out to be lovely (and FUN! and MESSY!) and Finley now has a bar by which to set his expectations. We have begun our Easter story as a family. It may change in the years to come, but Finley has the beginnings of another annual tradition and for that I am grateful.
And I am oh-so grateful for what nature gives. As we prepare for worship on Sunday, I do feel lighter. The yard is in bloom and we are able to see God’s handiwork, to smell the smells of spring, to cut blooms to bring indoors and enjoy, and to add our own decorations to what nature has presented.
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 License All photos are ©2021 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Hands in the cookie jar – photos at home
Let’s get real. I mean it – REAL, as in real life.
As a working mom, I am always weighing things: time against my task list, investment vs. return, risk vs. reward. You with me? There are a finite number of minutes in a day and days in a year. What about moments in a lifetime? We’re always weighing. Now add a career as a pro photographer and a three year old to your calculations…
How do I protect my need for clarity and cleanliness over chaos while still living a big life? And – for those of you who know me – how do I advocate publicly for capturing memories as your photographer and friend if I, Misty Case, am not willing to get a little dirty myself in my own space with my own kid?
Recently, I weighed the memories I could make with my Finley over the inevitable mess that my tired OCD self was going to have to clean up later. [NOTE: if you don’t think you’ll find sprinkles in the most outlandish places, you haven’t baked with a toddler lately.]
But then I weigh The Great Sprinkle Search against that face above.
Day in the Life (DITL) photo shoots are fun. They allow us to capture a slice of a moment, a micro-shot of an activity, in what I hope is a long life with this little human. Finley will never again be this age, with that hair and with those dirty hands and so many questions spilling out of him ever again. Worth it?
I decided that it absolutely was. Just like the Christmas advent calendar, the gingerbread houses, the glitter and craft times and the mud that comes in after he’s been “adventuring” in our yard, wrecking the most popular room in the house was worth it. Finley gets 18-ish years to be a kid. That’s it. After that he can chat with me about the mortgage rate he got, the job opportunity, the big and small life events, etc. He has the rest of his life to be a grown up. This is it. That’s what I say to myself. Right now: it’s about sugar cookies.
The downside for me on this day was that you couldn’t see me “in there” with Finley as I usually am, but I was in my element behind the lens. I was a relaxed documentarian, if not a fudge-covered co-conspirator.
When we shoot DITL (Day In The Life) images for families, we allow you to just create an event out of something you enjoy doing and you can be fully present while we handle the lighting, the angles and grabbing those moments before they are gone.
Picture perfect? Yes.
Mom approved, in that “I am IN CONTROL of the sugar intake?” No. Not even close.
And Finley was a bit hyper afterward, icing was in places icing shouldn’t go, but that part passed. Remember that, Fellow Mamas: a good sponge, a deep breath, the right playlist playing while you gather debris, and you’ll be glad you made the time.
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.
Taking Things to Heart
“We are saved only by love — love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share: being a parent; being a writer; being a painter; being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.” – Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams….. sigh. He nailed it – and by “it” I mean life – in so many of his plays. And he certainly captured the feelings and perceptions of love, something we need more of.
A blog that focuses on love as Valentine’s Day approaches – when it is truly already the foundation of every photo shoot we do – seems like overkill. If you’ve been following us for the last 15 years, you know that we start with curiosity, work with clients to create and achieve a vision and then apply our skills and experience. But ultimately, it’s always about love.
We love what we do. We love capturing people’s love for each other. I would urge you, if you haven’t recently, to check out our blog categories, most particularly Families, Babies, Engagement and Maternity. You’ll see love baked right in.
During a year when we cannot hug everyone we love, and during Valentine’s Day, I hope you’ll call your mom, hug your nearest and dearest and take to heart what you are most grateful for.
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.
Pixels on Paper – An Intro
“Please allow me to introduce myself.” A great Rolling Stones song begins that way and I’m running with it. The doldrums of January and February need tweaking into shape.
The more I watch the world shift and watch social media bind us together (and tear us apart ….), I see how some of us are working to find each other – maybe even find each other again – through simple introductions. Introductions are a beautiful thing. So consider this a brief online How Do You Do.
For those of you who may not know, there we are – on our wedding day in fact, August 2, 2003. Ryan Case is my husband, my best friend, my houseman, my baby-daddy, my darling, my co-conspirator and the man I run this business with. Pixels was born of shared interests and talents and a desire to work for myself. Want to know a little more about what fuels us? Here you go!
Ryan is a fabulous and skilled photographer, graphic designer and work horse. Great with tools, remodeling our century old house, and not at all shabby in the kitchen, he’s a keeper. I am a photographer, book lover, soft touch, explorer of moods and lighting, gardener, and always down for a newborn baby portrait session, and a nap (in no particular order). I believe in prayer and outdoor concerts.
Together, we are Pixels on Paper Photography and Graphic Design and have been since 2005. We love to work and play, travel and camp. We celebrate creativity, sound and music (c’mon MERLEFEST!!), families and their specific milestones and we are dedicated to being a part of our community.
In 2015, we threw a big 10th Anniversary Party with friends and family, something that we were unable to do in 2020 for our 15th. But we’ve been so pleased that over the last 15 years, our business has grown and changed.
Newborns and One Year Packages
For parents-to-be, the one year package allows us to capture images during the first two weeks, at 6 months and the first birthday portraits. These have become our favorites and families love them too. That first year flies by.
a milk bath at 6 months 
a cake smash at one year
Families
From Day in the Life sessions to family reunions to gatherings to mark special occasions, we embrace family photography. I would encourage you to search our blog under family to see the breadth of our work over the years.
Commercial Work
We cover the commercial side of photography as well as the more personal and Ryan handles graphic design too. We love supporting small businesses and local ventures.
photography for a favorite brewery 
Local business photos and head shots
Personal Growth
The addition of our son Finley changed so much for us and if you need a fix of cute pics of a pretty adorable ginger, follow us on social media. This little boy manages to keep us young.
More than anything, our goal is to capture forever those moments in our own lives, the moments in the life of a business, a community, and those fleeting moments in a family. As our business has changed (we only do very special requested weddings these days), these values continue to be a guiding light. If you have a milestone or just a notion for a photo shoot and would like to discuss it, we would be honored. We’re always for a bigger party, a full table and lots of connections.
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 newborn and baby portraits, engagements 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
All photos are ©2021 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Family Photo Albums
Dear Kids: Many years ago, people would gather at the houses of relatives and occasionally flip through books of images. Members would point to pictures and tell stories about individual moments, people or places. Other times, whole pages could tell a story all by themselves. We called these books albums.
Ok, all light generational teasing aside, I am grateful for our technology that allows us to share with a click, I’m grateful for digital picture frames, and for the Cloud. We use these in our lives and for our business too. But there is just something about an album that encapsulates a time period, something you can hold in your hand and put on your shelf that is priceless.
Every year of our son’s life, we’ve created visual retrospectives of the year – in photos of course – to give as gifts to our family. We create one large album for ourselves and smaller replica albums for the Grandparents. These contain images of the big times, milestones and trips, but more importantly these pages showcase little moments that might have been missed as well as the “regular, day-to-day” that some family members were absent for.
This year, I want to encourage clients to consider having us create an album for them from previous photo shoots with Pixels. More than a few of you (most in fact) have hired us for a variety of shoots over the years. A one year or multi-year album that tells the story of that time in your life, the birth of your kids and the addition of siblings, maybe high school portraits through college graduation images, a series of family reunions or yearly fall portrait sessions would make a perfect album to keep or give. Every time we’ve created one of these for a family, we’re called later to receive an extra thank you. Talk about priceless!
Contact me if you have been a client of ours and let’s discuss the possibilities. ALL PIXELS CLIENTS: if you would like for me to reload an expired gallery for you to review, just contact me. You can revisit those special images and consider adding to your collection of memories at home or plan gifts for the future. We would love to take this time to design albums for you.
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 All photos are ©2021 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.