Posts Tagged: outdoor events photographers in NC
wedding venue spotlight: leatherwood mountains resort
If you’ve ever had a vision of a mountain location that is textbook beatific – this would absolutely be it. Leatherwood Mountain Resort. It’s a favorite spot of ours for several reasons.
Because we have many favorite venues for photo shoots and events we cover, part of showing some love for them is to share a few with you guys who are looking for spots or know someone who is. We’re happy to help. One would have to be Leatherwood Mountains Resort in Ferguson, NC. Misty’s great-grandfather’s family once owned all the land at Leatherwood and many family members were raised in the small log cabin on the site called, “The Hendrix Homeplace.” The rock chimney cabin stage now serves as a backdrop for various key portraits at wedding ceremonies. The personal connection and that feeling of time-bending continuity happens to us every time we shoot there. 
For those couples who are planning or thinking of getting started, Abbie Hanchey is the wedding coordinator at Leatherwood and she and her team are indispensable when it comes to finding out what you really want, planning with you and then taking care of guests. Leatherwood also:
- offers both indoor and outdoor options, from small elopements to large wedding ceremonies;
- is the only equestrian resort of its kind in the area for horse lovers;
- has onsite cabin rentals that can accommodate the wedding party and all guests;
- is completely remote. There is no cell phone service; and
- offers all-inclusive packages.
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.
merlefest 2016
4 days, 18 bands, 13 stages, 74,500 roaming festival goers and 22 miles of steps for both of us. And all God’s children and Mastercard ad lovers said, “Priceless.”
We were asked to be official photographers again this year for Merlefest 2016 and were there from Wednesday to Sunday, so we’re splitting this blog into 2. We simply saw and photographed too much to try to load it into one. Like last year, it was amazing: the music, the lively vibe, the pace (read: non-stop) and we’d be lying if we didn’t say we were thrilled OUT OF OUR MINDS to have 3 of Misty’s shots picked up by major media outlets: Rolling Stone, Huffington Post and HCPress.
Ranking the bands would take WAAAY to much negotiation, so we’re just gonna show you shots of those we covered and let you investigate those you’ve never heard of and grin at those you know well.
Barefoot Movement – a bluegrass, folk trio out of Nashville.
Becky Buller – bluegrass fiddler, with a classical violin background and Old-Time/Country flair (Minnesota meets East Tennessee)
Becky Buller’s high-spirited accompaniment
Girls, girls and more girls! In order….
Emi Sunshine – a 12-year old dynamo/prodigy whose surname is spot on (from Tennessee)
Jennifer B & the Groove – Americana rock band out with a kick-butt front woman (Austin, Texas)
Sarah Potenza – Raw vocalist who leaves it all on the stage (Nashville, Tennessee)
And, finally April Verch, who Rolling Stone said best embodied the spirit of Doc Watson. She’s a CHARMER!
Jennifer B & the Groove…
Sarah Polenza…
April Verch…
Now for some boys, starting with We Banjo 3 – a brilliant mix of Irish and American strumming, fiddling and flash.
Below those guys are Old Crow Medicine Show out of Nashville. We may have lost count, but there were at least 2 banjos, an upright base, guitars and fiddles.
And finally, the Wood Brothers – an amazing trio out of Nashville.
Old Crow Medicine Show…
The Wood Brothers…
<Happy Sigh> enough for now.
Ok – two more: Sunday Morning Blues and South Carolina Broadcasters.
South Carolina Broadcasters…
More in our next blog about the new-comers, the regulars like Steep Canyon Rangers and the old-timers who’ve made Merlefest every year for 29 years.
We’ll leave you with another media love-up, this one from Huffington Post. We couldn’t be more honored or humbled!
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.
engagement portraits at George Vanderbilt’s mountain estate ~ dog in tow
Timothy Mahon and Katie Speights are not typical and we adore them for it. Their love for each other casts shade over what others would consider “the grand scheme” and it’s hard to be more grand than Asheville’s Biltmore House…. at least in North Carolina. It’s still our country’s largest privately owned home, but more importantly to our story, it’s where both Timothy and Katie met while working at the Inn on the Estate. 
You’ll notice that neither the house itself nor the iconic set pieces that everyone recognizes are in any of these photos. What is? Timothy and Katie… and their sweetheart of a dog, Saluda. If you know where Saluda is (hint: a little spot just outside of Asheville where you can rent a kayak and grab some barbecue), you know this pair loves the mountains.
We cannot begin to explain how much we loved hanging out with these two. We knew immediately they were a perfect fit for our style as were we to theirs. When we met them at the entrance gate and had a quick discussion about their preferred backdrops for the day, Tim began by saying “what do you think of bamboo?” Their photos were less about traditional portraits and more about the entire scene, … nature, textures, and their interactions in all of it.
“We’d been dating for a year and a half and decided we wanted to do something different, something new. Since we had to keep our relationship on the ‘down low’ because we worked together, we both were excited to sell all of our things, pack up the car and dog and drive out west. We didn’t know exactly where we were going, but the fact that we were doing it together made it an adventure. We’ve known since then that we wanted to do things like that for the rest of our lives with each other!”
Their body English demonstrated how extremely cool they are, in love they are and happy to be taking this next step. Ryan and I spent hours with them afterwards, chatting, having brunch and cracking up. We love this pair!
“Our commitment to each other is grounded in living life to the fullest and enjoying every moment of it.”
Their wedding will be brilliant and these two deserve nothing but that fullness and happiness they’re planning.
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.
Merlefest…. we’re going again as official photographers
…. and we. can’t. wait. Wanna go? Get your tickets! April 28 – May 1 of this year. But you can also get a sense of the fun, the musicians, the tunes and the scene from us. Below is a quick look back at the gallery of shots we captured from Merlefest 2015, including the Avett Brothers, Sam Bush, The Honeydew Drops, Front Country, Trampled by Turtles, and the venue.
The line-up for Merlefest this year looks amazing. Join us or maybe we’ll capture you in one of our shots. If you are a music festival host and in need of photographers for the event, contact us.
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 as Official Photographers at Merlefest 2015 ~ because it’s pretty much … whoa.
Sorry. We meant WHOA.
ALL CAPS WHOA.
As in HOLY CRAP…. A DREAM COME TRUE AND WE LOVED IT.
We were chosen to be official photographers for Merlefest 2015 and it held so much more than we anticipated. We’d been to Merlefest before as music lovers and working with vendors, but this was amazing. Amazing personally and certainly professionally.
If you love The Avett Brothers as much as we do, then you’ll know why it was a blast to be taking photos on stage with them and a thrill when one of our shots made the front page.
You know how your senses can go into overload? That’s how we felt. So much to see …. so much new, established and beloved music to tune into plus we were working. So we were doing recon, figuring out the logistics of stages and the schedule, where to upload our shots, and visualizing photos to capture in short windows of time.
One of the first surreal moments happened on Thursday morning (Day 1) when we realized that we had full backstage access. While standing on the main stage behind performers warming up before the gates were opened to the public, we were further bedecked in extra badges, wrist-bands and more credentialling bling (credential-ling? … maybe not a word, but we’re going with it).
Between the two of us, we photographed 26 bands/musicians, plus took shots of the fans, the dancing masses, craftsmen and general atmosphere. And we worked 53 hours over the course of four days. On Saturday, we arrived there at 7am and didn’t see each other until after 7pm.
The turnaround time was such that our images had to be taken correctly and perfect in camera while we photographed them. There was no time for Photoshop work. 5-10 shots after each concert/band and keep moving. The pace was hectic and exhilarating.
When we weren’t uploading photos to share with the world – ours went mostly to our Instagram page with a special hashtag #pixelsonpapermerlefest – we were shooting everything else.
Check out the Honey Dewdrops and the Jason Lee McKinney Band. Both have decided to use our photos for their social media work …. yeah, yeah, yeah!
The Honeydew Drops
Colt Prince, Guitarist with Jason Lee McKinney Band
Chatham County Line shared Pixels’ images on their Instagram and Twitter pages and Front Country has been using our images on Instagram and Facebook. We are gratified and couldn’t be more proud.
Chatham County Line Band
Front Country
Finally, our crowd shot was used by many in the Twitter, Instagram and Facebook worlds, including Merlefest’s Facebook and flickr site and on HCPress.com.
Any downtime we had was with Ryan’s brother Todd in the wee hours of the morning when we could actually do a post-mortem and share photos from the day and say, “Oh, that shot!!! I wondered if I had it or not;” and “that turned out better than I thought – check it out!” We would talk and crack up. There was something about that time that was particularly important because while we were tired, we were this little tribe of 3, telling stories and trying to marshall our energy for the next day.
Don’t get us wrong, there were challenges, but there were also revelations about ourselves, our skills and our business. Challenges included the always-changing light (dark, direct-sun, shadows, spot lights), weather (rain & cold), fast action (drums, fiddle), indoor and outdoor contrasts, stage equipment (microphones, monitors, speakers are always in the way). We are agile and completely willing, but there were jumps from venue to venue, stage to stage.
Triumphs, however were equally deep.
For Ryan it was realizing that we had the right amount of everything and the right equipment to get results. We tend to be of the mind-set, if we don’t need a particular lens or piece of equipment, we don’t buy it. While many of our peers there had some very expensive equipment and more of it, we realized VERY QUICKLY that we had the goods. Literally and figuratively.
For me, it meant finding myself as 1 of 4 women in a field of 28 photographers. Unlike portrait photography, which is dominated by women, event photography is a man’s world. Yet there I was, shoulder to shoulder with the boys grabbing the shots that would be sought out by other media outlets and bands themselves. It was weird and cool and now there is no putting the genie back in the bottle for us.
We cannot wait for Merlefest 2016! C’mon y’all and join us.