Posts Tagged: documentary style photography sessions
What we’re doing – lifestyle photography
We love Day in the Life portrait sessions and when we are asked to do them, we cannot wait to show the clients what we captured. The natural light, the “true” facial expressions that family members make vs. posed and calcified smiles, and the sense of relaxation, all of these shine through. Throughout the year, we take pictures of our own lives so that we can create memories and gifts. Our own families are given a book for Christmas every year. A few weekends ago I decided to do a little day in the life for us as we handled yard work and play. I thought black and white was ideal for these and am so happy that I suspended what I was doing to capture these moments.
Finley has become deft in the yard, as many of you have noted. He has his own smaller versions of his dad’s tools and loves to help. Ryan will explain the project and goal and this kid digs in! He’s also pretty handy in the kitchen, asking to help us or hanging out and coloring, reading, drawing and making up stories.
With the house and exterior taken care of and some new seeds planted, he was free to race around trying to outrun his shadow. He never succeeded. I love being behind the camera capturing moments instead of providing direction, as I might at a client session.
Interested in a documentary lifestyle photography session this spring or summer? Maybe your family is going to tackle a project outside, play in a local park, or meet other family members outside for a picnic, we’d love to be the documentarians.
Happy Spring, 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 ©2021 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Family Time
As I continue to ponder the priorities that Ryan and I have for 2020 and beyond, family keeps coming up.
As a family, we are focusing more on time together and making memories, especially with our extended family who all want time with Finley.
Why a Family Documentary Session?
Because you won’t regret it.
When we have a milestone, we hire our peers to photograph us with Finley, family and friends and we are also encouraging our client families to do the same. Let us capture your casual down time together. These are not stressful photo shoots. NONE of our photo shoots with families are unless there are last minute changes and even then, we know how to laugh and hug and say, “you’ll be telling this story decades from now.”
Some families plan a day in a special place like an orchard, a greenway, a park, beach or mountain retreat. For these, we get posed images for the archives, frames and scrapbooks, of course, but we also get the more casual shots of them just hugging, chatting and being together.
I know I sound like I’m giving a sermon, but family is important and some of the best pictures we take, those that the family members love the most, are caught off guard or of people just relaxing.
Things to Consider When Planning a Day in the Life or Family Photo Shoot:
+ How often do you ALL get together? Identify the time and start contacting your relatives and friends;
+ Is there a special place that your tribe loves? Can you visit, book it or plan to meet up there?
+ Do you all like to do something together? Do you ride bicycles or hike or ski or go bowling? Do you have a workshop where 3 generations can build something together? Do you love to cook or paint? You do not have to have an activity, but if your family is drawn to the water or to the garden, to your alma mater or family business, let’s include that.
If your priority this year is a photo session that is easy and casual and personal, think about a Day in the Life session. We can help with the details and planning and we’re ready! Contact us to discuss further.
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
Finley turned two
And just like that, ….. he was headed for college.
Good Lord, can you imagine? Me sitting here typing through tears!! Wash that image away. Finley is two and THAT went by in a flash of sorts. More hair – red and curly and wild like the little scamp who sports it. More activities and racing around and more kiddie power tools. This boy is full on living his best life. Happy Birthday, Sweet Finley.
We’ve had a ritual these last couple of years that we loved continuing: we bring treats to the staff at North Wilkesboro Wake Forest Medical Center where Finley was born. They were indispensable to say the least in bringing him into this world, and we love hugging their necks and letting them see how big our boy has grown.
Finley has received an assortment of tools and he is keen to use them every chance he gets. For his birthday, he made use of his chainsaw in between helping with the baking. We spent the days around his birthday making memories, spending time with him and our families and letting him celebrate as only a two year old can.
And of course, Ryan’s parents and mine joined us for group portraits in our studio. Parents of young kids: we don’t just preach it, we live it. Get professional portraits of your clan every year. Not only is it a way to make and capture memories, but you can celebrate those relationships in more casual settings. Our Day in the Life style sessions are popular for this reason and will be a big focus for us in 2020. I promise you will not regret making annual photo sessions a tradition.
2019 
2018 
2017
Finley with Nanny & Pop 
Finley with KeKe and KawKaw
I cannot thank Joy Davis enough for capturing even more photos for us so that we could not only be in them and fully present, but enjoy Finley on his birthday. All of the images that follow are copyright Joy Davis Photography.
We love this boy and are already throwing ourselves into 2020 and his next trip around the sun – OUR trip around the sun as a family. So let’s do this!! Do you have a milestone or celebration to capture? Is there a season you love as a family or a special place you go as a couple or a family where a documentary style photo session would be perfect? Contact us and let’s discuss making it happen this year!
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.
Day in the Life Photography
The longer that I’m in this business of being a photographer, the more I’m interested in the non-posed sides of life. In fact, while I still love portraiture that is structured and more formal, documentary style photography that allows the mundane, the small moments and the realities of life to shine through has captured me.
If you follow Pixels on Instagram, you’ll know that I share our work and our lives in a kind of story mesh that feels authentic to me, and that is by choice. It’s silly, it’s real and it’s who we are as we do what we do as professionals. And, of course, it celebrates our clients and friends and our adventures too. Posting allows for more sharing of our lives and values.
A summer family picnic or images of Finley playing or asleep or dressing up are current faves. We’re just doing our thing and other families deserve this to, but with an eye to quality. So for today’s blog, I thought I’d share a few of the images I’ve taken that are favorites in this area of people just “doing life.”
Nothing would make me happier as a photographer and as a human than to be asked to do more day in the life images. I’m not talking about the stuff you get with a cell phone, or even the stuff you get with an expensive camera and an untrained eye. A professional photographer brings more to the table than her tools. I bring the experience of all my work, my trained eye and a quality that snapshot photographers cannot.
Day in life portraits have another equally important advantage: they let you be present. We’re busy and over-scheduled so being present for our kids and partners is a tall enough order. And people may sometimes resent being asked to be the designated photographer during a day out, a family reunion or holiday season. It falls to someone and that someone is missing from nearly EVERY photo. Having a photographer document the day allows you to focus on what’s happening instead of on composing images, trying to get people’s “good side” or chasing the day light.
I hope more families will consider day in the life photo shoots. You should enjoy the moment and let us capture the memories.
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.
Time to Schedule you Christmas & Holiday In-Home Portraits
As you print out the Butterball turkey hotline number to put on the frig, iron bedding for out-of-town guests (I have a friend who ACTUALLY does this, but she told me she’d kill me if I shared her number), stock the pantry, sharpen your knives, throw out the old bathroom soap, and get everything else pulled together for Thanksgiving, I want to give you a loving tap on the shoulder and remind you that it’s time to be thinking about your holiday portrait session. This year, we’re doing in-home sessions only, because not only do we love doing them, more importantly, YOU GUYS told us you love them too.
We made this decision also because we remember the best things about Christmas happen at home. Here’s a little excerpt I wrote about our reasoning from 2016:
For us, this year has been hectic, challenging and rewarding all at the same time. Through it all I’ve been very reflective and God has been incredibly forthcoming in showing me direction and insight all along the way both in my personal journey and the path of our business. I want all the work we do to be done with intention and relevance.
Nothing is more important during the holidays (or anytime for that matter) than family. When trying to create the concept for this year’s Christmas theme “family” and “home” continued to resonate in my mind. I wanted a way to create a personal experience for each of our clients, so my resolution is to offer in-home Christmas sessions.
I want to capture families gathered around trees with handmade ornaments, trees where all the fragile ornaments are at a height away from little fingers, stockings are personalized and tree toppers are those that have been passed through generations. I’d love to capture children in their Christmas PJs while they show me an ornament they made at school. Children years from now will recognize their surroundings in a photograph. What it looks like is different for every single one of our clients.
The same is true two years later. We want to be in your world during one of the most important holidays and seasons each year.
In-home sessions allow you to be more relaxed while we document the season, your family, playing games, eating and “doing life.” Some families want to dress up and make it more festive, others hang in their pjs. It’s ALL good.
Our prices have not changed since 2016! Give us a call or send us an email and let’s get you and your in-home photo session on the calendar.
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.