Peach Orchard Photo Season
March is here and that means that soon the orchards near us will be in full bloom from the middle of this month for a few weeks after. I will be watching the weather and scheduling photo shoots beginning today, so this is your Heads UP to be in touch.
Need inspiration to grab your calendar? No problem.
Babies, growing families, maternity announcements and even marriage proposals, all of these have taken place in these lovely orchards. Frankly, it is a singular spot and heavenly when in bloom. I don’t think we’ve ever had a bad day there.
If you’re itching to get outside where it’s safe to shoot photos, or just because it’s time to celebrate spring with new portraits of your family, contact us and we’ll get you on our list.
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.
David’s High School Senior Portrait Photos
David Eldridge (and his lifelong friend and sidekick Bryson) let Ryan hang out with them AND grab David’s senior portraits. David is one of five boys in a family that is generous, rugged, and anchored by their superhero mom – Stacy. In the land of men, she is not just the elder, but the Queen and I’ve admired her for years.
Back to David!! He and Bryson are all man, all about the outdoors and all about farm life and being real. Having Bryson around loosened David up, made him less self-conscious and the pair cracked each other up and were able to relax. (Ryan too had a ball.) In fact, Ryan and I commented that in some of these photos the pair reminded him of a country music duo shooting an album cover… think Tyler Childers or Chris Stapleton. There’s no cynicism with these two, just friendship and a sense that simplicity in all things is best.
There was no second choice for this location of this session – it was going to be outside and on the family farm. Senior portraits are an important milestone and we’ve captured older brother Gage’s portraits a couple of years ago.
We’ve shot images of this family for a decade. The most recent took place with members of both the Eldridge and Wood families, but we started years ago, when the boys really were just that – boys.
Congratulations, David and the class of 2021! We are so proud of 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 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.
MBI Builders – Lake Norman State Park Architectural Photos
There are seasonal campers, hard core orienteering types who are climbing rocks and frozen waterfalls, glampers who want to get out while being conveniently IN, and those who wouldn’t be caught dead in the woods. Most of us just want to get away and, with the spring and summer coming, there are places to retreat that look quite appealing no matter your stripes.
Introducing the upgraded amenities at Lake Norman State Park! Ryan was recently asked to shoot pro images for MBI Builders of this project of theirs. As usual, MBI delivered beautiful work for their clients with solid wood beam construction, and an eye to the end users.
Some details about the project, include:
- These are new cabins in the Family Camp Circle section of the park.
- MBI built around half a dozen 2-room cabins around the site. Each have heat and A/C as well as power and water hookups for RVs.
- These also feature a pad for parking, a picnic table and fire ring.
- MBI also built a large bath house that is a shared facility for all campers, as well as both men’s and women’s sides with restrooms and showers. All are handicap accessible. There is also a family restroom facility with the same amenities.
- There are additional tent sites or car camp sites around for those who prefer to be closer to Mother Earth.
We love commercial projects and have worked with MBI Builders for years. If you would like to know more about Lake Norman State Park’s new upgrades, check out this link.
We love graphic design, architectural photography and commercial photography whether logo design, brochure design, head shot photos, architectural photography or product shots. At Pixels On Paper we pride ourselves in listening to a broad range of clients and customizing our photography and graphic design services to meet each individual request. Our skills, styles, and visions come together to be a permanent record that either reflects an identity or delivers a message that speaks to thousands. We would be honored to meet with you, learn about you and your business needs. Email us at mail@pixelsonpaper.net or call 336.990.0080 to learn more, receive a quote or to let us know how we can put our skills to work for you.
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.