Posts Tagged: personal portraits
Merry Christmas, thanks & love from us
Christmas for us came when I learned I was pregnant. You take a breath, you say a prayer of thanks, you look at your body now as a vessel versus just your operating system. As a couple, you think, “Jesus, take the wheel.” We did all of those things. Being pregnant was exhausting at times, exhilarating when my energy returned, hilarious when I was photographing clients crawling on the ground with a belly and ultimately, it was the most profound transition in the world when Finley James arrived not long before Thanksgiving.
Photo ©Joy Davis Photography
As we said in other blogs and social media posts – and elsewhere – nothing turns your life upside down like adding another human to your day to day. We’re in love with him. He makes us guffaw in wonder, laugh out loud, say prayers of joy, thanks and prayers for help, and little Finley has reminded us how deeply important it is to say “Thank You” and “I’m Sorry” and “I appreciate you” and “Here’s what you mean to me.” Humbling is a word that comes to mind a lot lately, as does transformed.
For you – our sweet clients, collaborators, peers, family and friends – there aren’t enough words of love to convey the ways you’ve touched our lives, not just in 2017, but since we started this venture.
So as not to appear lazy and ungrateful – two things we are decidedly NOT, here is an attempt at naming a few:
Thank you for loving us unconditionally.
Thank you helping us through my pregnancy, for giving advice and for jumping in when he arrived.
Thanks for keeping us grounded when small to medium thoughts, issues and stressors ran the risk of becoming bigger worries than they really were.
Thanks for seeing us across deep waters when there WERE large issues.
Thanks for allowing us to indulge in the joy of YOUR families, milestones, and lives.
Thanks for letting us turn our lens on you to see the beauty of other journeys in our midst.
Thanks for doing life with us. We love your presence in the world and it magnifies our sense of scope at what really constitutes a full life.
Thanks for taking this journey with us. We learn from watching you, laughing with you, wringing our hands around you, breathing the same air as you and from the ways our lives overlap. Truly, these intersections are a God Thing and we absolutely thank Him too.
Merry Christmas to each of you!
With love,
Misty & Ryan
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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License
All photos are ©2017 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Truly Giving Thanks
This time last year feels like an entire lifetime ago. I said in our blog about our new son Finley that I’ve been amazed at how much someone can do on so little sleep. Well, I’m also blown away by how much we packed into this last year. We’ve been blessed with an embarrassment of riches in the supportive friends department. Thank you all for showing us so much love and grace around having our first child. Before, during and these first few weeks after Finley was born have been easier thanks to you. The outstanding friends awards go especially to the Minicks, the Pierce and Meade families. You guys have not only been our clients but have gone above and beyond being our “village” with Finley. From gifts of maternity clothes and hand-me-downs for him, to meals, practical and light-hearted advice for Ryan and me, to wanting to hold Finley, giving lessons in baby-wearing, helping with pediatrician appointments … it is a MASSIVE list and you all have been wonderful.
The Minick family
The Pierce Family
The Meade Family
You guys know how much we love to travel, but outside of Merlefest and shoots in our gorgeous mountains (which feels like an escape, but is really our regional backyard), we stayed close to home. While we didn’t take any trips this year, we did make it to our local getaway spot – our campsite and cabin by the river in Sparta, NC. It’s the most peaceful place for us and we even managed to get there the weekend before Finley was born. I was trying to keep from going into labor. Ryan’s 40th Birthday was celebrated there with a camping weekend including six other families. It’s a pretty special memory.
We’re also grateful for new insights into what we do for a living. I attended a retreat this year that focused on photography and lighting techniques, and loved it. It too became a place where I found support, new friendships and a cohort of like-minded women.
Exposed Photography Workshop
And I’m thankful for my husband. Ryan took on a role of doing most everything single-handedly toward the end of my pregnancy and after Finley’s birth. As we kept serving photography clients, he was there in situations that normally are my domain alone. I’ve got a terrific partner in marriage, in business, in parenting and in life.
Finally, this Thanksgiving takes the headcount up by one…. one perfect little head. He won’t be making multiple trips to the buffet for stuffing or raiding the fridge for the midnight turkey sandwich, but we’ve grown as a family and we’re so grateful that this child is ours.
With my girl and one of my boys…
I would love to know what that new brain is cooking up and will keep wanting to know for the rest of my life, but this picture below makes me think of how we feel when we consider the gifts of this year: our family, our tireless friends, our clients, new experiences, new pals and a new little boy. You all make us smile.
Happy Thanksgiving and we’re sending you nothing but joy, health, contentment and your own sense of gratitude for the good stuff.
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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License
All photos are ©2017 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
quinton’s outdoor portrait photography photos
I find myself reminding friends, family and clients not to drop off into no man’s land with professional portraits when their kiddos head off to elementary or middle school only to resume them when they graduate from high school. Snapshots are awesome and we know you parents out there are handling those with your 35mm cameras and smart phones. But professional portraits allow us not only to control lighting and help with posing, location and mood, but we’re capturing memories and creating family heirlooms. All the change you see when you look back at picture albums or the walls of your home can be chronicled in portrait sessions. They are also of a quality that can be placed on canvases, hung on walls and passed down for generations.
This handsome young man is Quinton Roberts and he’s the proof in the pudding that taking portraits over a period of time is valuable. We have been photographing his family and their family business, Brushy Mountain Dental, since 2010. He’s the eldest sibling in the family and graduated in May from Wilkes Community College. His mom wanted portraits of him upon his graduation, and while most guys at Quinton’s age are less than thrilled to have their photo taken, fortunately for us, he wanted to make his mom happy.
Quinton photographed in 2010, 2013 and 2017
See what I mean about the importance of getting photos along the way? Look how much Quinton changed in just 7 short years! This latest shoot was really easy, because we’ve built a great relationship with him over the last 7 years. He was comfortable with us and we with him. He really is a great guy and from a wonderful family.
Mom Timberli has a specific idea in mind for large wall portraits in her home of all three kids during their graduation milestones and we’ve had fun making that vision come to life. We recently photographed Quinton’s sister Paiton for her senior high school photos. This fall, the youngest sister Madi will be a senior in high school and we’re already planning her portrait photography session.
If your kids are in that age of constant growth, be it early, middle or later teen years and you want portraits of them, please contact us. We would love to be the ones to photograph those milestones for your family.