It has been a year. A whole, big, replete, exhausting, fun, “where are my keys”, “doesn’t she look amazing?”, “I can’t believe we survived”, “oh holy moly, that was the best!!” year since our 10th anniversary in business as Pixels on Paper.
The calendar tells us that there is a beginning of every new year and it’s January 1. But the thing is…. your birthday, your anniversary is the beginning of YOUR new year and Pixels On Paper was birthed in June of 2005. It’s our birthday. It’s Pixels On Paper’s 11th anniversary. We did it – AGAIN!
During the last 12 months, we’ve photographed siblings holding onto each other. We focused our lenses on businesses we love, vendors we collaborate with and admire, taken post-wedding photos with mountains in the distance….. families gathered and smiling… orchards in bloom, brides lit with joy, new husbands unable to stop grinning, kids racing around and babies, babies, babies. We have loved every single minute.
We also got to send some love to locations where we shoot weddings and events. The Holiday Inn City Center in Charlotte, Leatherwood Resort and Winding Creek Wedding Barn are merely 3.
It was our second year as official photographers for Merlefest. We were completely rested about a month later.
WE LOVE THAT GIG.
And we captured loads of babies…. some were reaching out for “kid-dom” but they’re still babies.
Here’s to the next 12 months, the coming autumn (2 weeks away) and holidays and thanks to you all for an amazing 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.
Matthew Clark Minick is his official name, but he was known as “Bubbles” (by EVERYONE while in utero) and “Matthew Cutie Pants” (since his birth in mid-May) – both monikers given by his older sister, Amelia. At just 9 days old, we photographed Matthew in our Wilkesboro studio. His debut was just what we expected – sweet, loving, cuteness overload.The Minicks are the family that we’ve photographed the most over our 11 years in business and they are now a part of our family. There are those people who show up outside of our family blood line and gene pool and feel like members of our tribe. Well the Minicks are these people for us and have been since we met Ryan and Rachel Minick 6 years ago for their engagement portraits. A quick check of our digital files show numbers of photos in the tens of thousands.
Matthew is the newest member to join their growing family – and ours – and we know he’s going to steal our hearts the way his sister has. The kind of longevity we have with the Minicks is, to us, a sign that we’re doing something right, both as business owners and people. Fostering relationships means more and more to us with each passing year. We love our clients and we love this family more than we can possibly say.
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.
On February 2nd, 1709, British sailor Alexander Selkirk was rescued after being marooned on a desert island for 5 years. His story inspired a book most of us read as kids … or at least we know it: it’s the story of Robinson Crusoe. Real quick – young sailor, impetuous, adventurous, defied his parents and sails to Brazil and Africa and eventually is marooned on an island and completely alone. He survives, becomes skilled, grows closer to God, picks up a slave named Friday and is finally rescued. Good book, you readers out there.
What does this have to do with Flynn Alexander Lundy? Precisely nothing, except that Flynn was born on February 2nd just over 300 years later. And he’s a boy. And with a name like Flynn, he’s got adventure in him – we just feel it. Kathren & Nathan Lundy (Flynn’s mom and dad) are a couple we photographed for their engagement and beautiful wedding portraits. Prior to the session at our Wilkesboro studio, we asked that they send us photos of their home so we could coordinate backdrops for little Flynn. And there was the sea – in foam, in depths of green and blue and a little sailor to place among them. Their home was filled with color and matches their lively and fun personalities. We loved matching our backgrounds to their palette.
We look forward to photographing Flynn and his parents for many years to come. For now, he’s resting up and dreaming of voyages far way.
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.
Teeny weeny little Mickey Mouse (a.k.a Aaron Schlinsog) was only two weeks old when we photographed him in our studio. He’d danced in the parade, waved and thrown candy from a float on Main Street USA, escorted kids to Space Mountain, smooched Minnie and, tuckered out, fell into a docile little bundle in our studio. Amber and Clark are the parents of this perfect creature and clearly they love all things Disney almost as much as they love Aaron. His clothes and accessories from Disney and Winnie the Pooh were all hand made. We had the privilege and fun of photographing their wedding and they took advantage of our offer of free newborn portraits for couples we photograph as bride and groom. We love getting to see a family of 2 become 3, and watching that family grow further. When we heard about Aaron’s birth, we couldn’t wait to see him and take his portraits. He didn’t disappoint in his knitted outfits. This session was incredibly chill – – – so relaxed in fact that Mom Amber took a brief nap while Clark attentively watched and held Aaron.
Sweet Aaron may or may not grow up to work at Disney or like honey or read poetry, but we know how loved he’ll be. Sessions like these are precious because we remember the nervous bride and groom and then get to see what LOVE MAKES. We look forward to his first birthday portraits and watching the Schlinsog family grow.
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.
The cat who ate the canary. Seriously, she just knocked off her 3rd bank. Or more likely, her minions did it and just called to let her know that the funds have been successfully transferred into her account off the Cayman Islands. And there’s a cell phone somewhere buried in all of that cotton. She’s sittin’ on it. And laughing at all of us. LOOK AT THAT FACE!!! Who would convict her? Not me.This perfect little imp, this little stealer of hearts, is Sawyer Jane. Great name, right? We took these photos in our portrait studio in Wilkesboro, North Carolina and the truth about this photo is that I had no hand in getting her to look right at me and grin like that. I just let the lens do it’s thing and knew when to pull the trigger. Her grandmother and mom, Jamie both marveled at that shot above and I just smiled, shook my head and said, “I had nothing to do with it. God is better than I deserve and he equips me with what I need every day.”
So here’s a little thing about taking portraits of newborns: you have to have lots and lots of patience. The photographer has to have it, the parents have to have it. It’s just the way it is. An average newborn session can take 3-4 hours and not all of that time is spent in front of the camera. It’s mostly time spent feeding, changing, burping, soothing, and getting the little one back to sleep.
What always sticks with me and makes me smile and empathize is that every parent thinks their baby performed terribly or won’t show well in the finished photos. They worry that their baby cried too much or didn’t show personality or whatever. And a phrase I’ve heard 1000 times if I’ve heard it once is, “we just hope that you got one or two good ones.” I hear it all the time. The fun part is that they show back up for our PreView saying that very same thing right up until the moment I start the slideshow. They’re overcome with emotion in seeing all the great photos of their sweet baby. Jamie, along with every other mom, has that moment of “awwwwww. Oh my gosh, LOOK!!!” To say it’s rewarding is this week’s understatement.
Jamie and Dad Joe were newlyweds and then – BAM! – this little robber showed up. I love photos of parents cradling their newborns, especially the first born. The whole thing is rife with excitement, awe, natural worry, tenderness and all the fresh outrageousness that teeny humans bring with them to the world. I say this a lot but I mean it every time: we love watching the growth of newlyweds into solid marriages, marriages into families, babies into kids and the multiplication of love in each of those transitions. We’ve added Sawyer Jane, Jamie and Joe to that category.
We’d love to photograph your sweet lamb, whether he or she is on the lamb or not. Call 336-990-0080 or email mail@pixelsonpaper.biz and please view other baby blogs and our website.
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.