We love taking photos of kids, babies and especially newborns, but due to the pandemic, we’ve been making adjustments. One of them is NOT to stop taking photos of kids. We’re keen to mark the big milestones of childhood, including newborns, 1st birthday cake smashes, and new siblings added to existing kiddos.
The difference is that for now – with great weather and restrictions that make us concerned and more responsible than ever – we’re taking advantage of our outdoor portrait garden. If you are interested in family portraits, whether they are of children or of your entire clan, we have the spot and we can meet you at a park, on the parkway or another outdoor venue. Below are some favorites.
Do you have an idea for an outdoor portrait session with your children or a milestone to celebrate? Contact us.
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.
This teeny creature – Aryan – is new to Planet Earth and I was honored to take her very first portraits. While we need to keep the details about her private, she’s just such a knockout and I loved being able to have her visit our outdoor portrait garden where she was dolled up and ready for her close-ups.
I think you guys know that I love props when they are appropriate and fun, and with newborn and baby portrait sessions, props are particularly on time. I incorporated soft fabrics and soft colors for Aryan which contrasted with the green grass near our garden. The weather was perfect when she came to visit us, too and that gave us room to set up, work and capture this little gem.
Ribbons in spring colors, soft blankets, flower headbands and baskets made perfect places for Little Miss to rest. She slept and was so easy to handle, I loved every moment with her.
I love creating outdoor portraits of newborns. It seems counter-intuitive to take someone so tiny outside, but they are not only resilient little angels, they are so pure, so natural and tender – if Mother Nature does her part then the images can be magic.
We are following all Phase II Covid-19 protocols, but this does not mean that we aren’t able to capture important milestones outside, especially while the weather has been so amazing. Prepare to see even more outdoor portraiture from us in the weeks to come. If you have questions or ideas for an outdoor portrait session, please contact us.
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.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed all of us, and certainly it has shifted how we are living and working. As a photographer, I have experienced scheduling delays and a few setbacks, but all out of an abundance of caution. For us, it’s more important that we all get through this as safely as possible. So when a long-time planned newborn session presented itself, I wanted to oblige, but with those rules in place. And with some careful planning, I pulled off a very special collaboration.
Meet Liam Tevepaugh – a member of my family and a brand new baby.
Because parents Cody and Courtney are family, I didn’t want them to miss having newborn portraits taken of Liam, especially when his grandparents and other relatives haven’t been able to hold him in the hospital or when he was brought home. None of us however were comfortable with me handling him in our portrait studio or even gathering in the same space. So we concocted a unique plan wherein I cleaned and packed up one of my cameras and the lens I knew would be best and left it on their doorstep. I shared tutorials, specific camera settings and images that I had taken of other newborns to give them ideas and direction.
With some props, ideas and trial and error, they did a great job. After my camera was wiped down and returned, MY part of the collaboration was to download the images, retouch them, handle color corrections, and make all the editing adjustments.
They took my notes and suggestions about lighting, creating a cushion, where to shoot and how to pose little Liam and ran with it and I’m so happy that we could make this work. I cannot stress enough that this was an extremely unique set of circumstances and for a family that was planning to use one of our gift certificates for the baby’s first year package they were gifted.
While I have NO plans to do this again, with North Carolina slowly reopening, I do hope to begin shooting newborn sessions again soon, but outdoors. I’ve done this many times before and with the weather warming up for summer, it is entirely possible to be safe, clean, socially distanced and successful. If you’re interested in discussing an outdoor newborn, family or child photography session in the months to come, please contact us.
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.
During the first couple of months of 2020, I’ve been sharing the types of images, events, projects and portrait sessions that Ryan and I will be focusing on in the coming year and years to come. We are moving away from being working wedding photographers, something that we’ve done for nearly 2 decades and the part of our business that put us on the map. It was and wasn’t an easy decision, but I thought I would speak from the heart about it briefly – because that is how “I do.”
A mere two years ago, we had a child added to our lives and he deserves not only our attention, but our guidance. We are not bubble baby people. Finley is out in the community with us, he meets many of our clients, he is sweet to his young peers having their photos taken in our studio and we haul him to Merlefest. This kid GETS DIRTY with his grandparents and helping around our property.
That is OUR responsibility as his mom and dad and it means making time that would have otherwise been spent photographing, organizing and editing weddings.
When we began to focus more on Day in the Life and personal documentary style photography, families and babies it was ON. I enjoy it more than I can describe. I couldn’t be more proud of our 15 years as successful wedding photographers and remember many times having to double book weekends and turn potential clients away. Wedding portraiture and wedding day photography require not only extensive amounts of time, creative skills, lighting expertise and flexibility, these types of projects require an enormous amount of technical know-how and our work speaks for itself.
But personal documentary portraits are calling to me and the more we take – during all seasons and with all types of families – the more I know that it’s where I want to really “play at work” as a pro.
Andy Warhol……. how did you know? In 1968, he said, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”
You all don’t need me to tell you that there has been a democratization of creativity over the last decade. If you have a smart phone, you can be writer, photographer, philosopher, curator, documentary film-maker and archivist, regardless of your age, socio-economics, gender or race. Capture every aspect of your life, publish it to social media and in your circle you’re seen and known. I’m not even remotely “mad at this.” Expression is one of life’s most important and even most healing joys.
What I have found, however, is a disintegration in our concepts of and respect for experience, skill and professionalism. Companies like Voice Bunny, Fivver and even Craig’s List allow pretty much anyone – untested – to have a hand in what used to be professional work that people trained and worked to be good at. Again, if it’s lightening in a bottle, fabulous!
But when I saw a poorly dressed person (ripped jeans and tee shirt) show up as the hired photographer for a wedding, I began to wonder. She was not a close family friend. She was hired to capture what most of us agree is one of life’s biggest days. Her backup equipment was a single smart phone.
We knew how to adjust the light at the right time to get the shot that a bride dreamt of all her life. We knew timing, gentle coaxing, coordination of personalities and spatial relations. We never photographed a wedding hoping to “get lucky” with lighting, weather, relatives, or venue. We were always ready. Always.
Now if you know me, you know that I’m not an elitist, but I do believe in expecting that people will pay for experience, decorum, knowledge, cultivated creativity and true expertise. If the marketplace no longer values these things, that’s sad, but I’m cool with it. It’s time to take a break and reevaluate.
While Ryan and I are focusing professionally on photographing more community events, more babies, more family portraiture, more Day in the Life and commercial photography, we are saying “We Will” to some weddings, but are no longer promoting ourselves as working wedding photographers. At least for the foreseeable future. If you are what we define as a “legacy client” (ie: we’ve photographed you, your immediate family, best friend, or you have a strong recommendation from a client) we will consider photographing your wedding. If you want to reach out about your wedding, we can chat, but we aren’t actively seeking that business.
Thanks for listening and understanding. This blog may not have been the hike you were looking for – the quickie 1.5 mile loop – and you ended up on Mount Pisgah. My apologies. I simply love you all and wanted to be as transparent about the future as I am thoroughly excited about it.
Love,
Misty
Or I could call this blog, “merely a glance” at my inspirations. They are varied and plentiful. That’s rights, kids – I’m doing another little blog flashback today.
My brain’s slideshow of memories, my new normal (think: I gotta 2 year old in the house!!), my priorities and goals have me feeling contemplative. And the good news is that I’ve been renewed by this thinking about what inspires me and what I love about my crazy life. That’s not a bad place to be. I’d rather feel hopeful, even when I’m exhausted, than joyless. “Did I get it all done today?” NOPE. But, but did my husband and son feel loved? Yes. Did I share a giggle with my mom over the phone? I did. Was I available to give a pep talk to my girlfriend in Asheville? Yup! Days like that when I am productive AND RELATIONAL get marked with an “A” grade and I call it good.
As I’ve mentioned in recent blogs, Ryan and I will be focusing more on relationships and the kind of photography that allows those to thrive: day in the life, family, children, community, and those milestones that may not be first on the list in people’s minds. We’ll be tapering off certain types of photography to make room for the abundance of other work that brings us joy and keeps us sane.
I’ll be sharing more in the weeks ahead, but for now, I want to take a look back at a blog I wrote a while back titled Things I Love to Think About. It still makes me smile.
I hope you all will do the same today. What inspires you? What do you love to think about? Spend a minute in that place in your mind once you’ve identified it…. even a minute. You’ll feel better.
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