Posts Tagged: fall photos in the mountains

Roark, Lovell and Triplett Families combined

We gathered with four generations of a family for a fall portrait session and these always remind me of the connectedness we have, but so rarely feel until there is a holiday or a special occasion. In this particular instance, it was Tabitha Lovell’s desire to capture her family together after a few members passed away recently. That sense of unexpected loss propelled her and we’re so happy to have been able to take these outdoor portraits for her and for all members of these families.

We’d recently photographed the newborn portraits of Miss Gracelynn, daughter of Matthew and Caitlin. On this day, the trio were joined by Caitlyn’s mom Tabitha, dad Roger and brother Zach, as well as Tabitha’s parents Mr & Mrs. Roark.

The property where we met is a campground long-maintained by Roger and his family and is a special place for everyone. There were so many beautiful spots to choose from for groupings and individual portraits. The day had a reunion feeling, because – as I’ve covered before – it’s hard enough to find a date, time and place for everyone to meet up, but during a pandemic it’s a real hat trick.

I love the images of the new parents with Gracelynn, and with new grandparents Tabitha and Roger (below) and Gracelynn being held by her Uncle Zach (above). That baby was the shining star and everyone wanted to hold her.

We began designing a wall of images for Tabitha’s home even before Gracelynn’s newborn session, and new Gramma was keen to get everyone together for more portraits to complete her vision. Now that we have all of these, we’ve finished our plan and she has a beautiful home gallery filled with family.

If you are separated by Covid, distance or any other reason and would like to gather everyone together for a session, we would be honored to photograph your family for posterity.


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 LicenseAll photos are ©2020 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.

The Arnold Family

Timing. It’s in the stars, I think sometimes. Once again, we made plans for a photo shoot with LONG TIME clients and pals Meghan and Jeremy Arnold and ended up changing them due to access and Covid-19. But who can complain when the results are so beautiful? We found ourselves perfectly happy on the campus of Lenoir-Rhyne.

Big baseball fan and player Jeremy grew up in Hickory and has great memories of playing games on their campus. What a gorgeous day we had and with their two children, and our Finley in tow, it could not have been a better spot.

We’ve photographed this family since the very beginning before Meghan and Jeremy were married. From their engagement, wedding, the birth of daughter Berklee and then son Wyatt, we’ve watched them all grow as a family.

At nearly every shoot, we grab an image of Jeremy tossing daughter Berklee in the air, and I’m so pleased that this tradition has held.

Ryan took these images, while I assisted with lens, styling, finding the next spot and wrangling the little ones.

I love both the dynamic images and the posed as well. With families who have young ones, it is less important to pose than it is to get a sense of their connection as a family and their individual personalities.

When I think back to the engagement portraits for Jeremy and Meghan, I cannot believe the passage of time. But I see them all together, looking every bit like they waltzed out of a J. Crew catalog, and think: they are exactly where and who they should be.


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 LicenseAll photos are ©2020 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.

The Graybeal Family’s Fall Photos

Let’s be nimble.

Small businesses have been saying this for ages and when circumstances beyond your control (a global epidemic and crazy weather, for instance) shift your working life and schedule, you do a few backbends. The Graybeal family and Pixels had to do a few contortions recently, but the results were worth it. Fall family portraits with a view of Stone Mountain Park? Yes, please!

The last time we shot portraits of this family was the winter of 2017, but we’ve been photographing them for years.

Crystal, Adam and their boys – Colton and Landon – met up with us at Stone Mountain Park for their fall family portrait session. We were camping nearby and thought it would be a great place for the shoot. But despite our planning and pre-planning, we got there to find that the park was full to capacity.

NO problem (although, I’m a girl who loves a plan). We ended up driving to an overlook which turned out to be positively stunning. We let the kids play in the woods and ended up walking to where the overlook was actually a fabulous view of Stone Mountain Park itself.

Of course, it was wonderful seeing our friends, but I’m also happy about how these images turned out. I love the colors and textures of these photos, their clothing, the trees, the tall grass and the sunlight. God is good and we are so happy that we found the right day and the right time to reunite with this wonderful family.


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 LicenseAll photos are ©2020 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.

Holland Family Fall Photos

This beautiful family just takes my breath away. I know I say this a lot, but it is a point of pride: so many of our ongoing clients have become true friends. The Holland family falls squarely into that category and even a pandemic and wacky schedules didn’t keep us from seeing them for portraits this year.

Mom Tram, Dad Kevin, son Colten, and daughters Ava and Sophia are a blended family so on top of the pandemic and teens and other sets of parents, their schedule is formidable.

For outdoor fall portraits this year, we had 24 hours notice to pull together the portrait session. Sophia, the eldest, was in Raleigh for part of quarantine, so once we had a plan, we went to their gorgeous property where they have built a cabin to shoot images in the stunning fall surroundings.

This place has loads of acreage, tractors (Finley loved being able to run around with Colten and making the girls giggle) and at 8:30 am, we had The. Best. Light. Morning light is a photographer’s dream, so it all came together.

Tram (rhymes with “mom” which makes perfect sense if you know her) has become a friend of mine and we share the same love of gardening (often trading from our personal bounties), share the same love of the outdoors, and she is fun and affectionate with kids, so having Finley present and ready to roam and run around was only a “plus” in her eyes.

There was a lot of laughing, with their dog Pearl stealing the show, and plenty of playing and giggling with Finley so the smiles in these shots aren’t faked.

We’ve photographed this crew at Christmas and each time (2016 and 2019), it has been at their home and is themed of course. Families who hire us for Christmas portraits don’t normally order prints for hanging since they are seasonal, but Tram ordered all of these photos and they are going to hang them in the cabin.

We love, LOVE the Hollands and cannot wait to return to this enchanted spot with them again soon.

FUN ASIDE: All photos below are Finley’s “behind the scenes” shots taken with his Sony Cybershot camera while with us on location at the Holland’s. He came to play and work… Love my boy.


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 LicenseAll photos are ©2020 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.

Fall Portrait Sessions

We are in the midst of booking fall portrait sessions and with the mild weather and coolish temperatures, these sessions are some of our favorites. I thought for today, I would share a handful of our blogs that feature fall portraits and encourage you to book yours asap!

Find more of the Martinez family portrait blog here.

See more of the Anderson family fall portrait session.

See more of some of our favorite locations for fall portrait sessions.

Before the weather turns against us, let’s schedule your outdoor autumn portrait session. Contact us and we can make it happen!


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 LicenseAll photos are ©2020 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.