Posts Tagged: community photographers
Event Photography
If you are new to our blog, welcome! Look around and make yourself at home. One thing you’ll notice fairly quickly if you visit the commercial page of our blog, is that we have been Official Photographers at Merlefest every year since 2015. And we love it. We love ALL OF IT.
We love the dynamism, the energy, the chaos, the crowds and fans, and BOY do we love the music. As photographers, we are all over the place during that weekend of bands, vendors and community celebrations. Our task is to capture all of it – not just the various stages where some of the best performances you’ll ever see are taking place. We roam on a schedule and freely and it’s all amazing.
Event photography in the form of weddings is a completely different animal and when we were grabbed hold of by music event photography, it grabbed us hard!
Not all events we shoot are days long and with multiple performers. Grievous Angels is a North Carolina band that Ryan and I love and we’re pals with the members. When they asked for photos of them playing, it was a no brainer. Like Merlefest, we were able to capture the energy and the musicians while enjoying the music. They play at smaller venues like coffee houses and they play to tried and true fans as well as newcomers who find themselves drawn in.
Pixels also covers non-musical events be they community or family. Last year in June, Ryan and I took Finley to Touch-a-Track, an event and fundraiser where we volunteered and captured photos.
If you have an event, musical or otherwise of the non-wedding variety, please contact us. We would love to hear more about it and help you capture and promote it with professional images and good vibes.
We love graphic design and commercial photography whether logo design, brochure design, head shot photos, architectural photography or product shots. At Pixels On Paper we pride ourselves in listening to a broad range of clients and customizing our photography and graphic design services to meet each individual request. Our skills, styles, and visions come together to be a permanent record that either reflects an identity or delivers a message that speaks to thousands. We would be honored to meet with you, learn about you and your business needs. Email us at mail@pixelsonpaper.net or call 336.990.0080 to learn more, receive a quote or to let us know how we can put our skills to work for you.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License
All photos are ©2019 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Our Country – a Photographer’s Viewpoint
I’m about as interested in getting political in this blog as I am interested in unpacking every embarrassing moment I had in my 20s and walking you through each one. Not gonna happen.
But the 4th of July is tomorrow and when we aren’t perched over our grills, or swimming pools or fishing rods, or mayonnaise-based salads, or shooing children away from live fireworks, we may swap words like freedom, independence, liberty and patriotism with those close enough to listen.
In this moment of my life, I think about the word country and about all of the countries of my life that aren’t necessarily found on a map. Poet Wendell Berry wrote “The Country of Marriage” and I appreciate his metaphor. A marriage isn’t just about vows, it’s about the creation of a shared culture of how we live with our mates. Beyond the customary meaning of the word country, there are worlds I love and traffic daily and I find myself falling in love with the countries of my life: the country of motherhood, of family, of community, and the country of place – my home.
As mother to Finley, I’d have to say that parenthood is one of my favorite “places.” It’s where I wake up in the morning and lay my head at night and most of every day is spent managing our little country of Mom, Dad and Toddler. It’s governed by love, and with willpower and a lot of faith. Sometimes I’m the Mayor, but just as often, I’m whispering “Jesus take the wheel.” The land of motherhood is more than I could have ever hoped for. Reading chunky baby books, impromptu laughter, potty-training, watching Finley discover new tastes and smells and chasing his narrow rear-end all over the place. It’s grounding. It’s exhausting. Sometimes, it takes me to the ragged edge of my sanity, but truly – it’s magic.
The country of marriage has shaped me beyond words. Ryan and I are each others rock, sounding board, confessional booth, and shoulder. It’s where we test our metal as humans and where we rest when it feels like it is us against the world. That is home. Before there was Finley – there was the country of us. I’m so grateful for him and I know he is for me.
Community is absolutely a place and we know this first hand. We all thread and weave ourselves together in a community of neighbors, peers and friends and it’s alchemical. Something of substance occurs that holds us all together.
The country of work could easily be about the gear and the terrain. And I love both.
The country of work that is the best though is how intimate it can be. In those hours with clients, we form a little tribe all working toward the same goals: get the best images of the newborn, the wedding gown, the 4 generations of family, the first kiss after the I Dos. That world pops like a bath bubble when it’s over, but the memories and shared experiences last. I love that about our job as photographers.
Finally, there is what author Pearl Buck called “this good earth.” It’s not a zip code necessarily, but it’s the expanse of our home, where we point our cars when we want adventure and where we live.
I love my family. I love Ryan and our growing son, Finley. I love my parents, grandparents, cousins and in-laws and I love the people I get to work with, see out in my community and those who make my life richer and fuller. If I were to give any advice between bites of hot dog and ice cream sandwiches: celebrate what you love about our country and especially what you love about the micro-countries that fill your tank daily. Find those in your life who fit this description and thank them for being a part of your country.
Happy 4th of July.
With Love, Misty
“I give you a new command: Love one
another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By
this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one
another.”
John 13:31-35 (CSB)
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 LicenseAll photos are ©2019 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
happy 4th of july from your photographers and fellow americans
Today is Independence Day in the U.S. and it’s no newsflash that we Americans feel, at times, like we don’t recognize our country… or each other, or what we grew up with. Some days, it feels like we’re truly coming apart at the seams. If you watch the news – any American news, really – this is the topic: We’re divided. Social media hasn’t helped us find our better angels, either. And the result is that we’re world-weary, anxious, suspect of others, and sad. Did I say, “weary?” Well, I’ll repeat it.
But as I sit here thinking about all of this angst and noise, and then think about what today means, I don’t have to grasp for gratitude. I still feel it because I’m surrounded by things that make me feel it.
I was “brought up,” as we say in the South, with love. Then I found a partner in life who loves me and I him. We understand that crazy balance of partnership love and personal independence and we try to keep the two in harmony. We also have our core values: Be kind, be open-hearted, be respectful, give grace when you want to judge, show integrity, do your best and assume the best in others – live the golden rule, etc. Ryan and I try to live out these values daily.
I’m grateful for that.
We started our life and our business and there have been ups and downs, and there will be more, but we’ve made a point to reach out, because two people are just two people. It’s not enough.
You need more. You need community. You need others of all stripes. We found that community and we keep finding it. We found all of you!
We discovered tribesmen and women in our home community of Wilkesboro, and in Charlotte, Asheville, Charleston and many points beyond. These cohorts are made up of locals and transplants, fellow travelers, passers-through, memorable acquaintances, artists, business professionals, beer lovers, kid lovers, photogs, music junkies, rabid gardeners, home renovators and creatives. Our freedom grew by letting others in. It all – YOU ALL – make our life better. We’re grateful for that.
Then God sent us this Nut. I say it with Christian love, but he’s a nut.
Finley James joined us just over 8 months ago and our home life and community – and what that even meant up til then – expanded yet again. Our son is a gift, but he’s also our teacher and in-house comedian who cracks us up, makes us scratch our heads, and finally flop into bed exhausted. But I tell, with gratitude, that we’ve never felt more happiness in our growing sense of life, community and love. This little disruptor is a gratitude machine.
We know, sweet community, that you’re celebrating the 4th of July and that’s as it should be. Showing gratitude makes your life expand in ways you might never expect. We are celebrating too. My hope, and Ryan’s as well, is that during this major U.S. holiday that you’ll find a minute in the chaos to really identify the things that you’re grateful for and sit with them – mentally or physically if you can.
We as parents and friends and community members are all still intact, despite the stuff that worries us in the daily news. We still have work to do to be better and more inclusive, more civil and more tethered to each other in the right ways….. but community, expansive hearts, curiosity, care and feeding, forgiveness, affection, tolerance and resilience are as much a part of the American core value system as liberty — in fact, those things undergird liberty.
Happy Independence Day.
Go Celebrate! We love you,
Misty & Ryan
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.