Posts Tagged: blowing rock engagement portraits
engagement portraits are heirlooms
credit: bowlersandhighcollars.com
My guess is that almost everyone reading this has seen photos like these framed or in shadow boxes at your parents or grandparents homes. Maybe your clan is ultra modern, but many of us have seen our progenitors in some sort of tintype or daguerreotype from over a century (or two) ago and wondered about their story, how they found each other, what they loved about each other, IF they loved each other and what kind of lives they lived. It feels like a leap to go from the couple above to Timothy Mahon and Katie Speights at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville in 2016, where we shot their engagement portraits, but their great-great grandchildren won’t find it weird at all.
The two above decorated pumpkins on the groom’s family farm, marking how they found each other, living as neighbors who never met for a decade. The two below LOVE Dr. Who and that character made appearances in their engagement photo gear and later at their wedding. Those are the kind of details we’re interested in when we photograph engaged couples: “What make you YOU?!” “What would you want those family members you’ll perhaps never meet to know about your love story?”
Charleston SC engagement portraits that showcase the place AND the couple
Reading their vows in the silence of the forest ~ Blowing Rock
playing her a proposal song….
While these photos are not sepia or tintype and the couples are wearing 21st century clothes, each photo tells a story and the people who know them, love them and have yet to meet them generations to come, will cherish these. Don’t think, dear reader, that shots from your smart phone will do – or even last – the way that portraits taken to mark your engagement will. These are the heirlooms that hold families together for decades and for centuries.
Contact us about scheduling your session, to ask questions, to share your vision and we’ll start planning.
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 ©2017 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
poetry and portraits | outside in blowing rock with haley & cody
“I dream of you walking at night along the streams
of the country of my birth, warm blooms and the nightsongs
of birds opening around you as you walk.
You are holding in your body the dark seed of my sleep.
This comes after silence. Was it something I said
that bound me to you, some mere promise
or, worse, the fear of loneliness and death?
A man lost in the woods in the dark, I stood
still and said nothing. And then there rose in me,
like the earth’s empowering brew rising
in root and branch, the words of a dream of you
I did not know I had dreamed. I was a wanderer
who feels the solace of his native land
under his feet again and moving in his blood.
I went on, blind and faithful. Where I stepped
my track was there to steady me. It was no abyss
that lay before me, but only the level ground.
Sometimes our life reminds me
of a forest in which there is a graceful clearing
and in that opening a house,
an orchard and garden,
comfortable shades, and flowers
red and yellow in the sun, a pattern
made in the light for the light to return to.
The forest is mostly dark, its ways
to be made anew day after day, the dark
richer than the light and more blessed,
provided we stay brave
enough to keep on going in.
Though we drink till we burst
we cannot have it all, or want it all.
In its abundance it survives our thirst.
In the evening we come down to the shore
to drink our fill, and sleep, while it
flows through the regions of the dark.
It does not hold us, except we keep returning
to its rich waters thirsty. We enter,
willing to die, into the commonwealth of its joy.
I give you the life I have let live for the love of you:
a clump of orange-blooming weeds beside the road,
the young orchard waiting in the snow, our own life
that we have planted in the ground, as I
have planted mine in you. I give you my love for all
beautiful and honest women that you gather to yourself
again and again, and satisfy–and this poem,
no more mine than any man’s who has loved a woman.”
– Wendell Berry, The Country of Marriage
Haley and Cody chose Blowing Rock (Moses Cone and Bass Lake) for their engagement portraits and it was then that we learned that neither of them was white hot with excitement about being in front of the camera. But their session was lovely because it’s hard to see a couple wander in nature and not think about Berry’s rustic and romantic poem “The Country of Marriage.” It’s hard not to think about all the unspoken things that make them them. Ryan and I contain a universe as a couple and so do these two.
Bass Lake was the first stop so we could get better sunset views for the second portion of the shoot at the fields around Moses Cone Manor. The location at sunset did not disappoint with the last shots coming as the sun went behind the mountains. There were lots of moments of laughter and picking on Ryan, which always makes a session fun (in my opinion).
Haley and Cody will be married in September 2016 at River Run Farm in Valle Crucis. Stay tuned to see the amazing farm with big open fields, barns and river-front wedding sites and these two, building a new country between them.
engagement portraits in Charleston, SC
Bonnie Hostetler and Amanda Walling met at their local neighborhood hangout one “beautiful fall day” and before long were in love.
Ain’t it the way?
One minute you’re hanging out with friends and the next you’re planning to spend the rest of your life – build a life, in fact – with someone who’s upended the cart you were peddling and made you crazy happy. They told us that they knew they were going to be an us “over Dim Sum brunch and mimosas.”
Bonnie & Amanda are one of those couples we want to hang out with on a regular basis. In fact Ryan and I have tried and we’re still trying. They love rambling around in the mountains and great outdoors in the camper they’ve nick-named the “Wallabago.” They’re adventuresome, athletic and they’re foodies. We met them to discuss their wedding and knew immediately that we’d all be friends and that we definitely wanted to shoot their wedding this fall.
The pair told us that not only are they excited about seeing all of their friends and family in one place for the weekend but jazzed about the celebration itself. While they aren’t writing their own vows, they’ve found a saying that fits their relationship perfectly and close friends are transporting an arbor that they built and used for their own wedding and are loaning to Amanda and Bonnie for their day. The details are coming together.
Theirs is a relationship completely grounded in trust and we find it more than a little sweet that the song they said would describe them is “You’re the reason I come home” by Ron Pope. Their favorite place to be together is their “Wallabago” – a home on wheels.
During a recent trip to Charleston to celebrate Misty’s birthday, we caught up with Amanda & Bonnie and photographed these engagement portraits on their own turf. The only requirement they had was for us to capture a picture of them with Amanda’s “mountain,” the Cooper River Bridge, in the background. The entire session was filled with fun and laughter which continued long after the sun set and our cameras were put away. We spent several more hours all together on a roof top bar eating Ritz crackers (another story for another time). 
In October, they will be married at On the Windfall in Lansing, NC among friends and family. On the Windfall has cabins where everyone can hang out and enjoy the scenery and the occasion for the weekend and then return for anniversaries and parties for many years to come.
From the shores of SC to the mountains of NC……… bring it, ladies. We can’t wait.
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.
a blowing rock engagement portrait session ……. with Dr. Who
“There’s a lot of things you need to get across this universe.
Warp drive… wormhole refractors…
You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold.”
— The Doctor, Season 6, Episode 6 of Dr. Who
These two are die hard fans of Dr. Who. “Who? Precisely.” No kidding, their wedding color is Dr. Who blue.
Meet Kyle and Elizabeth. They are gamers and voracious readers. They love Disney and are easily one of the most interesting couples we’ve ever photographed. And interesting isn’t a euphemism for “we don’t understand them.” We do understand them. They are singular and share the same interests, goals and loves and they are…..in love. What’s fun, as an “old married couple” who still adore each other, is knowing that what’s ahead for them is going to be the ride of their lives, starting with their March 2016 wedding and WE. CANNOT. WAIT.
“You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world!” — The Doctor, Season 2, Episode 2
But let’s set the stage. They met while both were employed at Gamestop in Boone, NC and after realizing how much fun they had working together, they also realized how much they had in common….. which led to wanting to be together all the time …. which led to the biggest epiphany: “We are an US.” It was only a matter of time. They both love games, as I mentioned, they have favorite books and authors they’re devoted to. [To wit: Elizabeth has multiple copies of Black Beauty and couldn’t decide which edition to use for our photo session.] In fact, while shooting the photos of them with their favorite books, we feel confident that they weren’t posing for us – they were actually reading. Each wedding party member was asked to name their favorite book of all time and pages of those books will create the bouquets and boutonnieres for the wedding day. How incredibly cool is that? We got a sneak peek of a bouquet during Elizabeth’s bridal portrait session and let’s just say, it’s amazing!
“I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.” — The Doctor, Season 6, Episode 6
The details for their March wedding don’t just encompass the things they share as a couple with their friends, but also include family heirlooms and traditions. Elizabeth will be carrying a small silver purse and locket when she walks down the aisle and will wear pearls just as her mother did at her wedding. Kyle’s family has a tradition of dancing as married couples from oldest to youngest and then sharing wisdom during the reception. It’s a nice mix of old and new that is going to make this wedding – and marriage – work.
“Some people live more in 20 years than others do in 80. It’s not the time that matters, it’s the person.” — The Doctor, Season 3, Episode 6
Harry Potter and Dr. Who scarves made an appearance in photos and these two were naturally candid in front of the camera and totally into one another. Kyle loves photography and not until the end of the day did we know that he came to the session with lots of photo-related concerns and thoughts in mind. At the end of our session he told us that we had taken care of everything and fulfilled all his ideas even better than he had envisioned. It’s a great feeling to know that we’re intuiting before we set up the first shot and it’s why we spend so much time getting to know our clients. We always ask tons of non-photography related questions for this very reason, and the answers allow us to create images that are personal and truly reflect our subjects.
“We’re all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?” — The Doctor, Season 5, Episode 13
Like the good Doctor, we too are hopers of far-flung hopes, but before we get too far down the road, let’s celebrate the now. We’re excited about the wedding and reception of Elizabeth and Kyle, with the bouquets of sonnets, board and electronic games at the reception, emblems of their beloved interests and family mementos – it should be a wild and beautiful ride.
“When you’re a kid, they tell you it’s all… Grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that’s it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It’s so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better.”
— Elton Pope, Dr. Who, Season 2, Episode 10.