Posts Tagged: NC
Fall Portrait Sessions | Time to Schedule
How’s everybody doing today?!?!? Science Girl here, with a quickie lesson about the seasons.
They change. Or more precisely… they are “caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis and the planet’s orbit around the sun. When the axis points toward the sun, that hemisphere experiences summer. The hemisphere tilted away from the sun experiences winter.” Get it? So quarter turns toward and away from the sun give us the “mid-extremes”of spring and autumn. In the mountains of North Carolina, however, autumn is called fall. And it’s AWESOME. The leaves change and languidly amble to the ground, we harvest the last of our gardens’ output, put away light clothes, haul out blankets, chop wood and take outdoor portraits.
We’re now booking our fall outdoor portrait sessions beginning in late September and running through October. Our clients are brides, engaged couples, couples with their pets, siblings, and families of all sizes. Because of our heavenly locale, they also tend to prefer the Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, Boone, and West Jefferson for their photo session or the Pixels portrait garden in Wilkesboro. If you have a special location, please get in touch with us and we’ll work out details and special requests.
Some of our favorite family photos are fall portraits because the air is crisp and everyone is in that sort of scarves, boots, tramp around or “hunker down” mode. And these photos often turn out to be framed or turned into holiday cards or both. Bring props or we’ll bring them, but let’s create some memories. Contact us today to book your date! We cannot wait to see you.
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.
poetry and portraits | outside in blowing rock with haley & cody
“I dream of you walking at night along the streams
of the country of my birth, warm blooms and the nightsongs
of birds opening around you as you walk.
You are holding in your body the dark seed of my sleep.
This comes after silence. Was it something I said
that bound me to you, some mere promise
or, worse, the fear of loneliness and death?
A man lost in the woods in the dark, I stood
still and said nothing. And then there rose in me,
like the earth’s empowering brew rising
in root and branch, the words of a dream of you
I did not know I had dreamed. I was a wanderer
who feels the solace of his native land
under his feet again and moving in his blood.
I went on, blind and faithful. Where I stepped
my track was there to steady me. It was no abyss
that lay before me, but only the level ground.
Sometimes our life reminds me
of a forest in which there is a graceful clearing
and in that opening a house,
an orchard and garden,
comfortable shades, and flowers
red and yellow in the sun, a pattern
made in the light for the light to return to.
The forest is mostly dark, its ways
to be made anew day after day, the dark
richer than the light and more blessed,
provided we stay brave
enough to keep on going in.
Though we drink till we burst
we cannot have it all, or want it all.
In its abundance it survives our thirst.
In the evening we come down to the shore
to drink our fill, and sleep, while it
flows through the regions of the dark.
It does not hold us, except we keep returning
to its rich waters thirsty. We enter,
willing to die, into the commonwealth of its joy.
I give you the life I have let live for the love of you:
a clump of orange-blooming weeds beside the road,
the young orchard waiting in the snow, our own life
that we have planted in the ground, as I
have planted mine in you. I give you my love for all
beautiful and honest women that you gather to yourself
again and again, and satisfy–and this poem,
no more mine than any man’s who has loved a woman.”
– Wendell Berry, The Country of Marriage
Haley and Cody chose Blowing Rock (Moses Cone and Bass Lake) for their engagement portraits and it was then that we learned that neither of them was white hot with excitement about being in front of the camera. But their session was lovely because it’s hard to see a couple wander in nature and not think about Berry’s rustic and romantic poem “The Country of Marriage.” It’s hard not to think about all the unspoken things that make them them. Ryan and I contain a universe as a couple and so do these two.
Bass Lake was the first stop so we could get better sunset views for the second portion of the shoot at the fields around Moses Cone Manor. The location at sunset did not disappoint with the last shots coming as the sun went behind the mountains. There were lots of moments of laughter and picking on Ryan, which always makes a session fun (in my opinion).
Haley and Cody will be married in September 2016 at River Run Farm in Valle Crucis. Stay tuned to see the amazing farm with big open fields, barns and river-front wedding sites and these two, building a new country between them.
Boondocks Brewery | some commercial photography with a beer chaser
American forefather Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” This isn’t actually true. What he wrote was, “Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine, a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.”
What is true is that both rain and beer can put a smile on our faces, and one place that handles the beer part is Boondocks Brewing Taproom and Restaurant. These guys have been open since August 1, 2012, which makes today their 4th anniversary! Well done, team.
It’s a 40 minute drive for us, but it’s our neighborhood spot because we love them, they love us, the food is fab and the craft beer is exceptional. And while “boondocks” means out-of-the-way, backwood, or rural, the set up the Boondocks Brew Haus, just down from the restaurant on South Jefferson Avenue, is all modern. They just updated the brew system a week ago to a larger one and it is sleek, sophisticated and state of the art. Equally cool is that everything about the brew system was customized, from the piping, the control panel, motor/pump mounting all the way down to the Boondocks logo on the lids for the tanks.
Because we consider owner Gary Brown, head chef/general manager Jared Yelton and the staff family, we offered to help with the installation of the new equipment. When we arrived however, all the heavy lifting of getting the 3 new large tanks in place had already happened. Gary was still doing some fitting work so we stayed a little while to take some photos to help document the history of the installation, even getting a couple “proud poppa” photos with Gary at the tanks.
The brew haus is responsible for creating the amazing craft beer for the restaurant, but the space is also open for events like monthly beer and wine dinners, private functions, rehearsal dinners and family reunions. The gang at Boondocks is very active in the Ashe County community, as well, supporting local farms and hosting events. They were just awarded the Ashe County Small Business of the Year award for 2016. Finally, manager and chef Jared came to the Pixels anniversary party in 2015 and provided appetizers and cooked other items on site. We just love these guys and are raising a glass to them. Here’s to many more years of making people happy. CHEERS!
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.
Family reunion outdoor portraits in Roaring Gap, NC
What is a LARGE family?
What’s the threshold between, “is this IT?” and “if I don’t get 30 minutes alone, I’m going to ugly cry?”
Muse amongst yourselves, but while at it, meet the Hobens. Every year, they vacation in Roaring Gap, NC at a home that has been in one of the son-in-law’s families for many generations. 2 parents + their 3 children + their spouses and then their children. 16 total traveled from Atlanta GA, Charlotte NC, and Winchester, VA for the July 4th holiday weekend. And we were invited! Spoiler alert: there were no tears. Loads of laughs, but no crying.
This group is, as Goldilocks would say, Just Right in number and sense of fun. They were all a bit nervous and excited to have us since their last family portrait was taken nearly 8 years ago when the youngest grandchild was still an infant. Fortunately, this is not our first rodeo and we blended in and put them at ease, having fun, making jokes and of course picking on the teenagers. 
Before long everyone was laughing, relaxed and picking out more ideal backdrops around the home-place for the many group photos. Out and about the day after we photographed this family we ran into them again and they complimented us on how comfortable they were and how much fun was had. The husbands in particular noted how they despise having their photo taken but were relaxed with us and looking forward to seeing the pictures. That’s a great feeling and one of the best compliments!
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.
pixels takes a [quick] break from humans…… for a little architecture & real estate photography
… and the house sold almost as soon as it listed.
We had the privilege and fun of shooting photos for a couple who were planning to put their gorgeous home on the market. Talk about forethought. This amazing mid-century modern house deserved to be treated with the right lighting, time of year and staging. We mean no offense to real estate agents who take photos of the homes they’ve been asked to sell, but this couple wanted to capture their home at its best and contacted us to make it happen.
The shoots took place on two occasions. We photographed the exterior in April when the grounds were a knockout and everything was in bloom. We then returned in June to take the interior photos. Between the landscaping, the furnishings, the staging and the times of year, we and they were so pleased with the results.
This home in Wilkesboro is unique in that it is a true sprawling, original mid-century modern home with spectacular landscape design and a guest cottage. 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 3 dens and an indoor pool, totaling over 4000 sq ft. The clients forwarded our photos to their agent and the house was sold very quickly and the now former owners credit the photography for helping expedite the offer and sell.
Incorporating nature, architectural structures and details into our photographs is not something new for us. We’re looking forward to many more of this type of photo shoot for families who want to sell their homes or celebrate a completed renovation or remodel. You’ll never be sorry if you hire a professional.
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.