Senior Year Portraits – Autumn

Autumn is the perfect time to take portraits of your senior year students in high school. While prom season and the late spring are also popular for these portraits, the cool weather and new warm back to school clothes entice families to book sessions that can happen outdoors. It’s the final year and great expectations lie ahead, so why not a fall session?

We can shoot senior year portraits any time you like, but have scheduled shoots for spring and fall more often than other times of year. The photos above are of 3 siblings during their senior years. Their mom made it a priority and has thanked us many times for capturing photos of her “babies” – now grown!

Setting the stage is fun and – no surprise – seniors have personalities and opinions, so whether it’s on the Blue Ridge Parkway, in the woods, on the ball field where they played their favorite sport, in someone’s backyard, at our studio or another special spot – we can accommodate the vision. And clearly, dress code should be what expresses who they are as they venture forth after graduation.


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.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States LicenseAll photos are ©2019 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.

Fall Portrait Sessions

Martinez family outdoor portrait photos Pixels On Paper North Wilkesboro NC photographers

While we’re all still trying to decide between a tank top and shorts or to pull out the sweaters we know we’ll need, it’s time to think – if only late at night when you have a few minutes of peace – about setting up fall portraits. Families gather for camping retreats around crackling fires, hikes and reunions. Kids play in the leaves. Friends want to dress up before going out for parties and get more than selfies, but mostly fall is the perfect time to get photos to use for Christmas and holiday cards, to give as gifts, and to celebrate another new season together.

This little vagrant above was trespassing (unnoticed at first), but once spotted we picked him up, reported him to authorities and then took him to wait at our place when, oh wait……….. that’s my son.

Engagement Photos
Hatfield Photography, Family portrait photography by Wilkesboro NC Photographers Pixels On Paper photo
Family Portraits with a View
Sisters on a Walk
Celebrating a 6 month milestone
Senior Year Portraits
pixels-on-paper-child-family-fall-portrait-photographer-photo
Fall Family

Senior year portraits that aren’t strictly cap and gown, family time and events, even personal milestones, all of these are perfect opportunities for a photo shoot. The temperatures are also premium in North Carolina as are venues.

If you’re even just thinking about an autumn portrait session in the NC mountains or at a private and favorite spot, contact us to start planning. We look forward to capturing a moment in time with people you love!


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 LicenseAll photos are ©2019 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.

Graphic Design Project for Peak Performance

Pixels recently created a logo for Peak Performance Heating & Air and we must say, the clients love it and we do too. My partner in life, business, child-rearing, house maintenance, travel, gardening and love, Ryan, is pretty good at this whole branding, logo and graphic design thing.

Our pal Trista, who we know from the wedding industry in Wilkes, contacted us about doing a logo for her aunt and uncle’s business, Peak Performance. It was time for an update to their existing business and they were looking for something new to put on business cards and employee uniforms. As they work on their website, these would be a part of things to come, and we were happy to help. 

Ryan:“Trista acted as the go-between for them and sent us a few ideas she had gathered. With the directions, we set off into design land looking at ideas from each of the inspiration pieces sent. The owners love to hike, so mountains were essential to the logo and were, of course, a nod to the name.”

The first round yeilded exactly the kind of feedback we want to hear: 
OMG!!!! These are amazing.” But we also love the iterative revision process and collaboration that gets us over the finish line to happy campers. There were tweaks, we played with fonts, more of a neon color palette and options for the mountains. The owners mentioned wanting to possibly order brighter neon orange shirts for the techs, so Ryan adapted designs and provided options. 

The magic came with that second round and then Ryan created a style guide, delivered the logos for use across their promotional needs and then to their web designer. 

A few weeks after the final files were delivered, Trista sent us a message with the photos of how the logo was being used on the company trucks, and we cannot express how cool it is to see the finished product in use like that. 

If you’re thinking about a rebrand, need a logo, just want to understand what goes into working with us on projects like this, we hope you’ll be in touch. A business card to car wraps, it’s all about being cohesive and disciplined and Pixels can help your brand achieve this!


We love graphic design 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.

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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.

Family summer wrap up

Labor Day is just days away and that truly signals the end of summer. Back to school, last family trips and cookouts and time to hunker down. For photographers, August is a slow time for the obvious reason: it’s too hot to stand around having your photos taken. I have a pal whose Uncle Max likes to quip: “you know why Southerners talk so slowly? Because it’s too hot to do anything quickly.” You take my point.

For Ryan and me it was a busy month at home and really all about family, Finley, and food from our garden. This month has been a blessing, even with a tree landing on our house, and I’ll get to that in a minute.

One summer highlight was a camping trip to Sparta – an annual summer thing and really an any season thing for us when our schedules allow. These trips have grown and that is an understatement. For this last one, there were 25 of us and the ratio of kid to adult was 50/50. I never would have dreamed several years ago that the profile of those trips would have changed so much and so much for the better. We love this group of crazies so much. Lots of wandering, swimming, chatting, snacking and soaking each other up.

We also took short trips, went to some outdoor shows and I was able to get down to the Atlanta Market for World of Prom with Kelly Shumate – the owner of Bridal Traditions and dear friend. It was a working trip and I loved it!

We also kept busy with our garden and boy, was the harvest worth the upkeep. Finley and our pup, Chelsea enjoyed eating items right out of the garden and I cooked, canned, shared and am now wondering about expanding it.

Our one Debbie Downer moment was a storm that came crashing through while I was in Atlanta and it caused a tree to position itself, uninvited I might add, in our kitchen. Ryan and I are DIY’ers to the core, but this is something that is being handled by others and I will be glad when it’s over. Too much life happens in our yard, porch and certainly the kitchen. I need it fully functional!

As we wrap up the summer like everyone else, we’re looking ahead to more commercial work, fall family portraits and we will begin thinking about (not nagging! so don’t panic), but thinking about the holidays and all that comes with that. The sooner that you start planning, the happier you’ll be. For now though, watching Finley play with his new flashlight while grilling fruits and veggies will do for me, thank you very much.


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 ©2019 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.

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Tinleigh York newborn

Baby Tinleigh York was born a mere few weeks after we shot Mom Lindsey’s maternity session. In fact, they hadn’t even seen the images when Tinleigh made her debut. She was early, but she arrived just in time, as far as father Mitch is concerned. If you read our blog about her maternity shoot, you’ll learn that this is family largely comprised of boys. There are practically no daughters on either side of the family, so there was an almost disbelief that this child was actually going to be a little girl.

York family Wilkesboro NC newborn photographers portrait photo

The Yorks came back to our studio and we took their first official portrait as a family of five in our portrait garden and then moved inside to capture Tate and Turner with their new girl in pink.

Couple of fun items to mention: Dad Mitch shared that he honestly didn’t think that the baby was a girl until he saw her. That’s how accustomed this family is to giving birth to and raising boys! When you think your doctor might be wrong! Now, we love watching him with Tinleigh. He adores his boys, but he is a goner when it comes to his baby girl.

And Disney played a role in this shoot. According to Lindsey and Mitch (and the calendar), Miss Tinleigh was conceived during a trip to Disney World. Thanks, Uncle Walt, for the pixie dust! So of course, we incorporated Mickey and Minnie Mouse into the photos.

Lindsey is thrilled to be able to branch out with her color palette after focusing so much on Turner and Tate who are, by anyone’s measuring stick, ALL BOY. Pink, rose and cream are a part of her room, so I made sure to choose complimentary props from Lindsey’s new stash and our own Pixels store room.

Sweet girl: you were wished for, wanted and are now loved beyond words. We’re going to love celebrating you every step of the way. Here’s to many more sessions with you and your adoring family and to a childhood filled with laughter, love and all things girlie!


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 ©2019 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.