Posts in Category: Families

Portraits: Plan your year!

Yep. You nailed it. I miss you. All of you. I miss the giggling and group hugs that come with family portrait sessions. I miss the waving as we all arrive on site – at the overlook, the property, the park, the orchard, campus or cabin retreat. I miss changing my lenses amid the casual chaos of family dynamics.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been plenty busy, but with the holidays over, and the temps around freezing most of the time, this girl just wants to hibernate. The wilderness bear in me takes over and I am inclined to cook, bake, read, create art projects, and sleep exclusively. As long as I can keep these boys I love nourished and healthy……… that’s winter for me.

At some point though, I peep over flannel sheets and think: I MISS EVERYBODY! So let’s talk about planning your photo sessions for this year and find each other again!

  • Are there members of your clan who are graduating from high school or college this year?
  • Is someone expecting a baby and perhaps would benefit from our one year baby packages or a maternity shoot – or both?
  • Are you blessed enough to have multiple generations in your family and want to capture everyone before the young scatter and the older folks find it harder to get around?
  • Is there a milestone birthday, anniversary or celebration planned for 2022 that you want to commemorate with a fun photo shoot. Believe me, we get it. There are daily distractions, but these moments matter. Consider planning a portrait session. 

Kids! If you haven’t had portraits of your children with their siblings in a while, consider doing it this year. Any season, indoors or out, with or without bows and costume changes, we can make it happen.

Think about the year ahead and contact us to schedule or with your ideas. Let’s do this in 2022!


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 newborns and families, 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.

Walker’s Six Months portrait photos

Walker Tibbett has stolen my heart. There — I’ve said it on the record. And let members of the unofficial jury know that I make ZERO APOLOGIES. He’s delicious. Prior to his portrait session, I worked with his parents, Brooke and Joey, on the set in our studio, discussing color palette and textures for his 6 month portrait session. I want to say that we nailed it with some beautifully grained wood backdrops, some cute suspenders, a couple of hats and that FACE!

This kid……… his laugh, his smile, …….honestly, I would still be photographing him at this moment were it not for the fact that he had to go home with his parents, and I have my own son and husband to care for. But gracious, he is cute.

Before there was a delightful little Walker (with a whole 180 days +/- under his belt), we photographed his equally wonderful parents – pre child. Their engagement portraits shot in Blowing Rock, with their sweet dog Cisco, are some of my favorites. Pixels also shot their wedding at the Gambill Estate, and of course, once pregnant with Walker, we were on a roll: maternity portraits with Brooke in the orchards, and newborn portraits (I could already tell, this kid is a heart thief!!). We LOVE watching families grow and discover the next chapter on this crazy journey.

How do you make Christmas magic? Add a Santa hat. Seriously. Everything should be so easy.

Merry Christmas, Tibbetts! We adore you guys and cannot wait to see you again soon.


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 newborns and families, 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.

Minick Family Christmas Photos 2021

Another opportunity to run around downtown North Wilkesboro, play among the lights, and do it with family: YES PLEASE!

If you’ve followed this blog for more than a year, then you know that we are not only familial with the Minicks, but we’ve shot more portrait sessions with them than there is time to count. Engagement, wedding, maternity, newborn, 6-month, birthdays, family portraits outside and in our studio, we have images of Ryan and Rachel and kids Amelia and Matt that number in the thousands. This Christmas, we added more and this time, the children were the stars.

Amelia and Matt Matt hammed it up around the lights and holiday features, jumped, danced, played and chased each other. I love these joyful and more dynamic shoots during the holidays with kids. Everyone’s ready to celebrate and that’s difficult while sitting still, if you ask me.

Wishing the Minicks – and you all – THE MERRIEST OF CHRISTMASES and the most joyful holiday season.


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 newborns and families, 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.

York Family Christmas Photos 2021

Our holiday portrait sessions took us mostly outside this season, which gave everyone an excuse to wear their seasonal sweaters. The Yorks, whom we’ve known for a good while and photographed many times, were another family that put on their holiday duds and invited Ryan to photograph them at their home.

Mom Lindsay, Dad Mitch, sons Tate and Turner and sweet daughter Tinleigh got to show off the kids’ new tree house – BUILT BY MITCH! – and run around with the newest member of the family, weimaraner pup Allie. It made for an active and fun shoot for everyone.

And these children…. as I write I’m remembering the times before they had Tinleigh and how all three of these kids has grown so quickly. These images are going to be heirlooms we hope, because they capture such a fleeting time. Plus, I love seeing the tartan plaid, the suspenders and bow tie, the snowflakes and missing teeth. It’s all precious to a mama.

The treehouse itself is crazy-impressive, and we can imagine many fun afternoons with those kids exploring and having adventures in it. What was also memorable: the Weimaraner pup. The children are, of course, in the love with her and she let them tickle and snuggle her between and during shots. They are the cutest!!

Other photo and portrait sessions with the Yorks:
Spring in the Orchard
Christmas at Home
Tinleigh’s Newborn Portraits
Outdoor Maternity Portraits
Summer Outdoor Family Portraits

and there are many more of Tinleigh’s first year and large family gatherings. We adore this growing family and appreciate that they call on us to document their lives through the seasons and the milestones.
Merry Christmas, Yorks! Cheers to 2022!


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 newborns and families, 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.

Andrews Family Christmas 2021 Portrait Photos

Our Christmas portrait sessions this season have been wonderful. Ryan had the pleasure of photographing the Andrews family this year. We love the Wilkesboro’s Christmas decorations and visit them as a family many times during the season. They are a perfect place to get photos.

Mom Kristen, Dad Matthew, and sons Luke and Jackson met up with Ryan and they wandered around capturing some great shots. Kids love playing in and around the lights – we know our son does, and the Andrews boys do too. It was a perfect location for their photos.

We’ve photographed this lovely family more than a few times. We photographed Jaxon’s newborn session, his six-month portraits, and one year portraits, as well as an At Home Christmas session. Watching their boys grow up is a reminder to enjoy every moment with our family. Tis the season, afterall.