Posts Tagged: Asheville family photos
woodland fairies portraits – expecting mom and young daughter
Come fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind
and dance upon the mountains like a flame. – W. B. Yeats
This was a special session for us with expectant mom (and dancer) Rachel Minick and her daughter Amelia (learning to dance). And they do not have a dull life, by the way. What growing family is dull? But, we were going for the woodland fairy and bohemian vibe and we got it. Mother and daughter were so mellow and happy walking around and dancing barefooted together through streams, hills and spring grass. The whole session felt serene and incredibly cool.
We’ve been photographing little sprite Amelia since she was teeny and (we’ve said this before, but….) this family feels like family to US. We love them and love being a part of their journey. We started photographing them when Rachel and husband Ryan were engaged. Amelia is going to be an amazing big sister, but on this day in April, she was the only game in town. Just mama and daughter, senior and junior fairies. 
We shot this session with Rachel and Amelia in our favorite apple orchards and the wooded creek in mid-April and my favorite photos are the truly candid ones with them together. Amelia is just beginning the more girlie aspects of her childhood and in other portraits, it’s clear that Rachel is thinking about the next little creature to hit the earth and join their family.
The natural beauty of this day was such an important feature and honestly, most if not all of our sessions with this couple-now-family have taken place outside. It’s a fit. We look forward to seeing the next Minick.
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 babies and kids, 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.
fresh, delicious & Irish family photos ~ soaking up the outdoors and each other
Something very freeing has happened during this past month behind the camera. We’ve always been focused on capturing moments, of course, but for some reason and maybe it’s the winter break, it feels like this is a fresh start. The moments seem more real, vivid and convey such emotion. Is it just me? Anyone else out there feeling a rebirth this spring?
We have loved Meghan and Jeremy Arnold from “Go.” In fact, we’ve featured them on social media quite a bit and if things continue as they have been, you haven’t seen the last of this sweet, loving and exuberant family. It started with one of the best weddings – Charlotte, 2012 and then daughter Berklee came along. They’ve traveled from Virginia to have us shoot photos of them and we’re so flattered and grateful. We wrote in a blog about their growing family that we were in for whatever was next. From her newborn photos laying in tulle with her mom’s celtic wedding headpiece, to her bright-eyed “WHAT’S UP?!” expression at 6 months (seriously, you owe it to yourself to have a look at both sets) Berklee has been a delight to photograph. Her face is so expressive and she is so smiley and wide-eyed and appears so joyous. She’s hard not to grab and nibble on.
We sometimes ask parents of kids this young and this insanely adorable how they haven’t just eaten them and they all look at us with these helpless expressions, as if to say, “it’s touch and go” or “we’re doing ALL we can do.” Meghan and Jeremy are no different.
From the bagpipes that played at their wedding to the Catholic ceremony to the Celtic details and finally to the little ginger Berklee, the Arnolds are Irish all the way. It’s been wonderful seeing them grow and as we consider spring portraits and the weddings to come we hope that this feeling of rebirth continues not just for us but for all those we’re going to photograph. To everyone: Sláinte!
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 babies and kids, 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.
catching dreams with Holden
“I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. If they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.”
– Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
The catcher. The saver. There are heroes in fiction and Holden Caulfield is one of the greatest. Care-taking, tender, filled with contradictions, incredibly quirky and loving while questioning life. The Holden (below) who belongs to Traci and Andy Pierce is surely made of all of those things; they’re just brewing under that sweet exterior. We defy you to look at this face and tell us he’s not conspiring to do something and be someone special – even in his sleep.
The best among us usually sleep soundly and well.
We were asked to create the Pierce’s baby announcement to alert friends and family that this little person was going to join the world. We created a Christmas card to drop the baby bomb and Traci’s sister wrote a poem to accompany it.
Holden’s father Andy is a pilot, so Traci set up Holden’s nursery in the colors, icons and theme that would allow Holden to dream of travels and get a sense of his dad.
We also took Holden’s 6 month photos and loved watching him with Traci, as they snuggled. Traci chose the all white theme and it turned out to be so pure and sweet. The Pierce’s bought our full-year baby plan, and we love being able to watch the growth over these shoots, not just in the babies, but in the families … how they orbit around each other, how they show their love for one other, what makes them light up. Capturing all of that makes our job the absolute best.
And coming full circle, we loved taking the Christmas photo for them following Holden’s birth in our outdoor studio.
Holden Caulfield said, “Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.” We know that Traci and Andy feel this way about their boy.
Stay young, Holden. Take your time. But as you grow…. grow up into a man who makes a difference. In the meantime, messing with your toes is a fine idea. There’s time for that now.
polka dots + bows + 12 Monkeys jumping on a bed = the release of spring
OH, Winter. We do love you. We love it when you land on us and grace every limb, hill and valley. We also love saying “BUH-BYE. We’ve enjoyed our time with you and now need fresh green things and a new day.”
Seriously, aren’t we glad that we’re close to the end of this season with its spring sucker punches of warmth and then more frigid temps?
That said, part of what makes the winter thaw special for us at Pixels is that it releases little sprites from their dormant stage and jettisons them into spring. Amelia (even her name is fairy-like) broke loose from a chrysalis and landed in our studio, glorious in pink and purple with blooms on her shoes, polka dots on her coat, big blue eyes and that grin.
For these Easter portraits, we placed her in a garden of blooms of our making – a backdrop where we could play kiddie tunes and make her come out of her shell. The song “12 Monkeys Jumping on a Bed” turned out to be a fan fave and Ryan jumped around, pretending to bump his head, and crack her up. It worked.
She is the smiliest (is that a word?) child and we’ve had her in our lenses since she was a newborn (see the last couple of photos).
With Easter on the horizon, and winter season packing up for a while, schedule your session with us. Whether you have 1 tot or 10 kiddos, we’d love to photograph them before they are lost to playing in the woods, building forts, finding fireflies and trying to escape capture. The studio backdrop is still available for Easter, spring and special occasions when you just need to be surrounded by flowers.
Amelia at almost two months old
Amelia at six months old.
acre upon acre ~ the mathis farm welcomes a new member
“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.” – Wendell Berry
We don’t know about you, but we look at this picture above and do not think: “Oh, sure! They’re farmers!” This picture says, “welcome to our world, sweet thing.” They might also say, “You’re going to be outside quite a bit as a kiddo, and there will be tons to learn and many places to explore, but we love you and promise to show you the way. You have no idea what grace you’re about to inherit.”
Megan and Luke Mathis however are, wait for it, farmers, and they are the real deal. But what did we expect? That couple from Grant Woods’ famous painting American Gothic?? Remember those two – you know the old, dour pair with the pitchfork and sense of despair and exhaustion? On the contrary, Megan and Luke are the full time farmers that the 21st needs and depends upon and we have no doubt that their little boy Carson will continue to nurture the land, care for what surrounds him, contribute to the family business and bless everyone he meets. We adore these 3 and want to be a part of documenting every single moment they want us to grab.
We were also honored to create a new wall for the Mathis’ of pictures from this shoot. We hope they consider it a tribute to their generation and the next and the next – “acre upon acre,” family after family.
We envy you, Carson. That’s really the bottom line. The adventures you’re going to have on that land are untold, but your story is waiting for you to write; and you will add a line or verse every time your feet go running through the woods. Get your sleep now, boy. It’s all out there.
Following is a video we put together from our shoot with the Mathis family and we love creating these as part of family photography packages or as special requests. We find that people are anxious to share the shoot in one file that can be passed to family and friends.
Have a look at the video and maternity photos of Megan and Luke, pre-Carson, on their gorgeous land.