We’ve been doing little mini-blog series lately and it felt like time to focus on our foundations as photographers: weddings. Photographing a wedding is not something that you shake out of your sleeve, but we’ve been doing it for a long time now and still enjoy the occasion, the logistics, getting to know our couples and their families and capturing the day as it unfolds.
I just thought I would share some of our favorite wedding shots today as a reminder of what we do best and what put Pixels on the map.
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.
Summer is a busy season and we aren’t even there yet. When there is so much green out every window of our homes and cars, I think about the brides and grooms (and their parents) who are gearing up for what they plan to be a massive milestone and celebration: a summer wedding. Look at Whitney & Preston – above. They are downright charging toward the future. And for us – the near future is about the outdoors and watching others say, “I do.”
Outdoor summer weddings are a favorite because we live in a gorgeous state and green is indeed everywhere. There are trees, barns, lakes, casual settings, arboretums, and fresh flowers everywhere as backdrops and set dressing and couples always seem to become more fresh and lively themselves.
Each of these couples decided that being outside in warm climates was the right choice for them – even at the risk of weather. And these were some of our best days as wedding photographers. If you are just starting to plan your engagement, we hope that you’ll contact us about engagement photos, wedding plans and any places or themes that excite you. We would love to be a part of your day!
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.
But Pinterest boards are just that: they are inspiration boards. And brides love them because they create a central and shareable place to collect ideas. It’s perfect for pulling together your ideas and favorite thoughts as you plan. With photography on your wedding day, it’s a moveable feast. It’s live and it’s subject to dozens of variables.
When it comes to brides, we love seeing photos from Pinterest boards for this reason and pretty much this reason only: we get to know YOUR sense of your style, where YOUR inspirations are coming from and some of the types of imagery you want us to capture. You’re giving us a sense of who you are, but from someone else’s photos. These are someone else’s moments and that’s the distinction.
Why do you want someone else’s moment? Why not allow us to capture or create photos that are uniquely yours? We don’t mind looking at a pinterest board to get an idea of what you like at all, because we can then use it for inspiration. We want to capture what you want and we are seasoned wedding photographers and great listeners. But to wholesale recreate someone else’s moment is not only difficult and time consuming, that moment may be from a photographer with a different style from ours.
If you’ve fallen in love with a particular style of photography, you’ll need to find that photographer or a photographer who can mimic that style. Ryan and I feel strongly about copying other professional photographers images.
Thinking we can create images from Pinterest that only happen naturally where brides and photographers can find themselves in the weeds. Setting up an image based on a photo takes much longer due to set-up and lighting, posing people, etc. than those glorious shots that simply happen naturally.
A wedding is a moveable feast, as it were.
It’s live. It’s a living, breathing bit of joy, community, fun, calamity at its best and history in the making. Every moment cannot be a photo shoot and why would you want it to be? There are rain delays, wardrobe changes or makeup refreshes, lingering conversations, your cast of characters who may go missing, speeches that are lovely to hear but don’t convey on film. To capture every type of image based on other weddings on other days, in other locations and shot by other photographers is to set yourself up for disappointment. Have faith!
YOU need your own images that happen naturally for YOU on YOUR day. Remember that, as you sort through what you’d like to see on your day and trust that there will be magic moments we’ll capture that no one else on any Pinterest board will have.
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.
We made our start photographing the traditional wedding. The gorgeous bride in a white gown, the handsome groom, the heart-felt vows and whether it was in a church or overlooking a mountain vista, the pictures really were worth a thousand words. What bigger day do you have than your wedding day? And capturing those memories is what we do.
But we have also had the pure, unadulterated joy of capturing weddings with a theme. Some are based on a throwback to another era. Some are based on the bride or groom’s family heritage with ancestral touches. We photographed the engagement, bridal and wedding portraits for a couple who LOVED Dr. Who. It was awesome. THEY were awesome. Others just want to give a nod to something they care about whether it’s a style or a place or a genre. Whatever your tastes, loves, origin story or favorite band, we will help capture it on film to share for lifetimes to come. Check out a few or our faves below! Above: A Pirate Wedding in the forest. What a fun group!
Below: A Rock-a-Billy Wedding done up right with every detail.
Below: A Mexican Fiesta. …. Kidding. Scottish Highlands all the way. It was elegant and even the fog rolled in to go with bagpipes, kilts and heather.
The Scotch-Irish, and British Isles, often make an appearance. We are a country of immigrants afterall and seeing those traditions celebrated is transporting. It’s as if everyone at the wedding has gone back in time. The Fleur de Lis – so French, so New Orleans, so retro and cool. We LOVE those couples who just say, “This is WHO WE ARE. These are the things that we care about or that make us happy or brought us together and we want to celebrate and share it with everyone.”
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.
Some of you engaged ladies out there have begun looking for the gown of your dreams, your bridesmaids’ dresses and so on, and you’ve scoured websites and magazines for inspiration. Without telling you to table your search (because who are we to tell people what to do ….. unless we’re taking photos and even then, we ask nicely), we urge you to come by the Pixels on Paper booth/table at this upcoming event: The Wilkes Wedding Expo. It’s an important event to add to your research.
We’ve been attending this expo for the last several years, and it is easily one of the best ways for vendors from all parts of the wedding service industry to showcase their business to prospects. Ryan and I have met couples we’re still friends with over the years after taking bridal, engagement and ultimately wedding photos of them. (You sort of know immediately when it’s a good fit). Many of these same couples have started families, so we’ve also captured their newborns, 1st birthdays and following photos over the years AND those of their siblings. This expo is where you get great information and where many lasting relationships are born.
This year’s expo, hosted again by Bridal Traditions Wedding & Prom Attire is Sunday, March 11th at the John A. Walker Center at Wilkes Community College from 1 – 4 pm. Don’t miss the opportunity to get some great info and have fun with your support team.
We look forward to meeting you there!