As we look forward with hope for what 2020 will bring, we absolutely look back with gratitude. It’s like a muscle. You have to exercise gratitude, practice acknowledging what is good in the world and speak it out loud. Ryan and I have so much to be grateful for and I’ll start with our Pixels on Paper clients. They come into our lives and let us into theirs. They invite us into their homes, tell us their stories and share their worlds.

And we have such an appreciation for our clients with kids. Parenthood has changed my perpective as a photographer and a human. I want to thank our clients for their patience with us as we navigate parenting. We’re still new at it, but learning daily and relishing the adventures and ways that it’s changing us.

Finley has become a part of our photoshoots and that was something that I worried about in the beginning. He was carried on my back at times or spent time playing with the other kids who come in for family photos, and everyone was cool with it. Schedules aren’t easy and our time is segmented so differently, but we are so blessed that people understand.

I am beyond grateful for Ryan. I’ve lost count of the ways that he’s jumped in where I would have before motherhood or taken on roles so that I can be a mom. One hundred percent of the architectural, graphic design, headshot and commercial photography has fallen to him and he’s not only amazing at it, but he does it as a husband and a father, not just a pro. If he didn’t understand the season we are in as a family – i.e. the raising a son season – I am certain that Pixels wouldn’t exist. I love you, Sweetheart.

I am grateful for prayers. I say mine for our family, our business, our friends, community and our world and I am grateful for all of the prayers that I know you guys say for us. I am a believer in prayer and have seen both its magic and its power. Thanks to all of you who lift us up in prayer. You’ll remain in ours in this new decade.

I’m grateful for flexible and loving clients who pay us to do what we do. The Christmas portrait sessions exceeded our goals and expectations this year and we’re thrilled.

I’m aware that plenty of people decide to “do photography” as a side hustle and over night become our competition. They aren’t insured, aren’t experienced, have no overhead and are cheaper, and so they fly under the radar trying to take business from those of us who’ve built ours over the last couple of decades.

I am so very grateful that our clients understand who we are, not just what we do and they choose us. Professional images are invaluable, and our clients blessedly say the same thing when they show up with their dollars. I cannot begin to express what that means to our family. We’ve worked hard over the years to excel at what we do and when people recognize that by hiring us, it does not go unnoticed.

We hope that every single one of you celebrated the holidays with love, gave up grievances, shook lose old habits and are ready to embrace new opportunities ahead. I can promise that in our house, you are loved and cherished. Here’s to an amazing, thoughtful, loving, peaceful and prosperous new year.

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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.

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