Posts Tagged: indoor bridal portraits
5 Years of the Pixels Studio | A Tale of 3 Places (and dozens of stories)
From the day we found the property in 2011 to the day we celebrated our closing and received the keys on June 11, 2012.
This is where it all began. Not our business certainly, but the journey of the Pixels studio and the place we lay our heads each night. This place has three stories, if you will. One of them is ours. This home is our shelter and houses our personal lives and our day-to-day, holds many memories, celebrations and even more sweet, albeit mundane moments. Ryan, our sweet Chelsea and I love living here. You’ll see her in several of these images, by the way.
The second story is that of a living library. It contains the stories and moments of every newborn, every first birthday portrait, lots of teens dressed for prom or graduation, children and their parents, pet and holiday portraits and a hundred other stories that happen in a photography studio and outdoor portrait garden. This space houses our clients and friends. It houses all of you – in part. You show up at our studio to have a moment in time captured forever and you leave a little bit our yourselves behind for us to remember. It’s pretty awesome when you think about it.
After landscaping
The third story this place tells is that of an active, creative working business. It’s our portrait studio inside and portrait garden space outside and we worked hard to make this place inspiring for our clients while you’re here and inspiring for us when we’re setting up and after when we’re editing. “Place-making” is something that architects talk about a lot and we believe in many of those concepts. It’s important to us as creatives seeking inspiration and critical for our clients because we want comfort and ease for you. There was a lot of work, but it has really paid off.
Entrance foyer before and after.
Portrait studio lobby before and after.
The lobby walls and throughout the studio display wall art collections, canvas wraps and our full selection of frames.
With a house that is over 100 years old, there were plenty of renovations and we had a vision for our home spaces and certainly for the Pixels spaces. Rooms were remodeled, re-envisioned and repurposed and our equipment was housed and our work – and the possibilities for clients – were showcased. Looking back, it was a lot of labor done with a lot of love. We created an elegant space for client consultations and photo previews, a dressing room & bathroom (wardrobe changes happen, people) with a baby-changing station, and we transformed a large room into our portrait studio itself.
Client bathroom, changing room, and baby changing area.
The indoor portrait studio and shooting space underwent a major transformation.
The indoor portrait photography studio contains 3-4 hand-crafted photo backdrops that rotate seasonally.
Before and after transformation of our client preview and consultation room.
Our clients can see their images projected during their PreView sessions along with useful size aids to help during their ordering process.
The Pixels On Paper office work stations before and after.
And that is just some of how we transformed the inside of Pixels. We also have amazing outdoor spaces and getting them synced up with our vision took some doing. Seriously. Cutting, pruning, planting, mowing, sewing seeds: you name it, it happened. The best part is that we have captured some of the most memorable moments of families, babies and kids in these spots. And we celebrated our 10 Year Anniversary out here too.
Landscape cleanup was a huge effort in order to create the outdoor portrait garden
Summer sunflower portrait garden from start to finish
Our colorful outdoor portrait wall changes with every season
Unique outdoor garden spaces are ever-changing and being created for new photography backdrops.
At the risk of bragging, Ryan and I have created an amazing business space separate from but housed within this glorious old manse. It’s like no other portrait studio we’ve ever seen. It’s where modern work and technology meets a century of memories lodged in every board and room… with some updates.
NOTHING happens overnight and we were never on our own during this transformation journey. I could never name everyone in and outside of our families who’s worked tirelessly with us these last 5 years. There’s just no way. The boards inside and the dirt surrounding our home have been touched and trod on by so many. We’ve been blessed beyond expression and we love that we get to live in this place and that we are able to share it with all of you – even for a few hours during a session. It’s a magic spot where love and creativity lives, where laughter is encouraged, and where everyone is welcome.
bridal portraits embracing romance, imagination, and books
Do you ever look at a photo and think about the zillion captions that could be written? There are contests out there and most are about funny photos or cartoons, but this shot below evokes so many thoughts.
What would her groom write? “Hurry to me!!”
Or her father? “There goes my girl….”
What would her big sister say? “Wait up!” or “I miss her already.”
Or her great-great grandmother if she could see this photo? “How romantic.”But she’s off and this image of Elizabeth (Eli) Rickard walking down the steps has become one of my favorite bridal portraits to date. It’s another image that I conceived once I saw this stairway in the Green Park Inn. I described my thoughts to Ryan and along with Eli’s sister Kari, we made my vision come true. I like it because it’s different from many other bridal portraits we’ve taken. For me it portrays movement, anticipation, and represents the marriage journey that Eli was embarking on. It’s always deeply rewarding to try something creative when you have a bride so deeply ensconced and in love with her favorite things – in this case, books, fantasy, romance and Kyle.
Elizabeth is a classic romantic, a dreamer, a lover of fantasy, has a super hero spirit and a smile that’s as big as her heart. She just married her beloved Kyle Bishop on March 5th (portraits and blog to come), but these bridals were taken indoors due to rainy and cold January weather. Elizabeth loves to read (this will be this week’s understatement), so the historic Green Park Inn’s library made a perfect setting. To note: Eli’s favorite book is Black Beauty and the horse portrait fit brilliantly. Her sister Kari used pages from Black Beauty to create Elizabeth’s bouquet.
Books were incorporated throughout the wedding details (and we STRONGLY encourage you to check out their engagement photos to fill in more of the story).
I always encourage brides to include friends and family in the portrait session and day. It’s fun to witness the relationships, and time with each other on these days is often the most time they’ll get since the wedding day itself can be whirlwind. For Eli, this session included her mother, sister and niece, all of whom came in from out of town. It was a girl’s day to play dress up and they were, to the person, emotional and giddy throughout the portrait session.
Our caption for this photo above would be “She’s ready.” We promise when the wedding photos have been processed and we can share bouquets of books and the stories that made their day the fairytale that it was – you’ll be the second to see them.
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.