Posts Tagged: birthday cake smash
Tinleigh’s One Year Cake Smash
There is cute and there’s cute and then there’s Tinleigh. If you’re having a wretched day, get a load of this little nugget.
While we haven’t had our usual number of summer sessions this year, we have been able to meet the needs of families who want to celebrate milestones, most particularly those of their children. It’s funny, but some of these taken in June of this year feel like my best. I think it’s due in part to a combination of things including having more rest, desperately needing an outlet for my creativity, the children are more attentive in part to not being out socially as often, and all involved being more focused. The latest three sessions have all been photographed in our portrait garden under our favorite chestnut tree. Yet I’ve striven to make each unique and individual.
Mom Lindsey wanted to incorporate strawberries into Tinleigh’s one year cake smash. The only definite plan she had was a dress, and the cake. We attempted to locate a field of strawberries for our location but due to Covid those fields weren’t available.
No problem! I had a miniature produce stand and coordinating props that I used to create our own little strawberry farm stand. I do this stuff for a living, people!! I was ready! All we had to do was insert an adorable girl who was full of toothy grins and the results were one of my favorite one year cake smash sessions.
She’s adorable, and it feels like an age ago since we shot her newborn portraits and 6 month photos. She arrived cute and nothing has changed.
Our family and the York family have become great friends. Our son Finley loves playing with the older two, Turner and Tate. One of the cutest behind-the-scenes moments was when Finley, Turner, Tate and Tinleigh were all digging into her cake with their hands and eating icing together.
Older brother Tate had a little milestone of his own to celebrate: kindergarten graduation! Mom Lindsey was disappointed that she would have no photos when schools were closed in early Spring. We couldn’t dare let this moment go unphotographed.
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.
Roman Turns One. Airplanes and Cake Smash
We cannot stop it. Time is going to do what it’s going to do….. keep passing. Suddenly Roman, below, is a year old.
The third child of Andy and Traci Pierce just celebrated his first birthday and this family does not “phone it in.” They come to PLAY with themes and props and outfits and the big dessert – cake.
Father Andy is a commercial pilot and we have used themes before in photo shoots with his two older brothers. Holden was Pierce baby number one and the aviation them was chosen for him. Then Sawyer came along as a little surfer and pharmacist like his Mom. He even had (and still has) the curls of a man who lives by the sea and in hammocks during his downtime. Roman is the last and third child for Andy and Traci, so they decided to go for it one more time. Traci got the idea from Pinterest of shooting on location, and tasked Andy with finding a plane.
He did. From WWII. Decked out in flack jackets and aviator shades, we all met up in Concord on a gorgeous mid-March dad, with perfect blue skies and lots of wind.
The weather always plays a role, if only to bless you or challenge you. Thank goodness that it was merely a challenge instead of a curse. Traci is detail-oriented, admittedly type A – something she and I share, so she wants all of our time and effort to be worth it. With the wind blowing us all around, Roman was freezing, but Holden and Sawyer were loving it! They fit the roles of pilot and copilot already. We had a couple of “is this going to work?” moments, but we couldn’t be happier with the results.
I feel confident that the family will be having caption contests with the image above for many years to come. Holden with his tongue sort of sticking out conspiring the plan, Sawyer with his curls and “about to pounce lets get do it” posture and little Roman looking like “LETS TAKE A MINUTE TO THINK ABOUT THIS BOYS.”
We ended up back inside, playing around the hangar and avoiding the wind and Roman’s mood shifted from “I’m freezing” to “this ROCKS!” Everything turned out beautifully and I loved capturing the colors of the plane, the natural light and the boys. We adored the plane’s owner who was so accommodating and cool too. He helped make the day a success.
The cake smash went off well too. First birthdays have to have cake and like his older brothers, Roman was able to get the anticipated – and much deserved – sugar rush. Cake theme: why yes, planes!
Roman: we’ve said this about your older brothers, but we are serious when we say it to you: we cannot wait to watch you grow up in front of our lenses and in our midst. Congratulations on your first year on earth. Here’s to so very many more.
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.
Our Finley Turns One with a Cake smash
America’s beloved Walt Disney said, “I think of a child’s mind as a blank book. During the first years of his life, much will be written on the pages. The quality of that writing will affect his life profoundly.”
I don’t know what was more profound this last year of our lives and the first of Finley’s. Everything he poured out, we soaked up… some of it we consumed lovingly with no sense of what the heck was going on, but more of it with the greediness of parents who understand that time is flying. I hope we filled the pages of his blank little being with the imprints of love, care, tickles, laughter, confidence and some unspoken knowledge that we have his back till our last breaths.
That’s heavy. I know, but I’m his Mama and I get a pass. Want the sweet stuff? See below. We celebrated his first birthday with the traditional cake smash and he did not disappoint.
I’m amazed at the amount of growth and change I saw in Finley in just 12 months. We opted to photograph his cake smash portraits during his birthday celebration while he was surrounded by family. A few days prior, Ryan and I sat in the middle of the floor creating his one year backdrop while he played around us in the balloons. I made his birthday cake, following a tradition where my Mom always made my birthday cakes while growing up. When he is able, he will be able to request what kind of cake he wants just like I did. Traditions run thick in our blood! It’s what memories are made of.
Happy Birthday, Sweet Finley. What you’ve given us far outweighs any birthday or other gifts we’ve given you. We love you, Son.
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
All photos are ©2018 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.