Someone once said that “the days are long, but the years are short” and it’s true. It’s usually repeated by those of us over 40 who still feel 24, but I won’t go there. This blog is about babies. Big, round, gushy, adorable, cooing, cuddly, pooping, burbling bundles of life and hope. Some parents want to document way more than babies first newborn portrait and we love that we offer a way to do this.
But first… here’s Holden. Soak up that deliciousness. I mean seriously – WHAT ON EARTH is he dreaming about to be making a face that awesome?
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Little Holden is no longer the teeny-weenie newborn or the 6 month old above, and we know because we photographed him several times as part of the Brand New Baby Collection, a package we offer to families who want to capture the first year of their child’s life and then some. We feel like we not only get to know the family even better, but are able to see and record even minuscule changes in each baby’s growth.
Below are a couple of goodies from Holden’s 1st birthday portraits and cake smash photo session.
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The Brand New Baby Collection is something we love to do for parents, because it allows us to start with maternity (if Mama wants those shots) and takes us through the first year of the child’s life: newborn portraits (within the first 10 days of your babies life), 6 months, 1 year/birthday photos and with discounts on cards and a variety of package options including digital files, prints, image selections, etc.
Little Miss Harper Huffman… “I’m ready for my close up Mr. DeMille!”
Harper Huffman, 6 months
Harper, Carson and Ivy are 3 more kiddies whose parents chose from this package and watching them transform was so much fun.
Carson Mathis, One Year and rocking the bow tie.
Carson’s Cake Smash
Harper Huffman’s baby announcement
Harper Huffman and her proud parents
Harper Huffman, 6 months
Ivy Myers, Newborn
Ivy at 6 months
Ivy Myers, 1 year
Contact us with questions about Brand New Baby packages or consider giving this package as a gift to expecting mothers and fathers. We photograph at our studio in Wilkesboro, where we have an outdoor portrait garden and lots of props and set ups or at a location that’s meaningful to 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.
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Jaxon, you were born on July 21st and 6 days later, your sweet parents carried you into our studios where you were an absolute dream to photograph. You slept like a champ, took only a few little snack breaks and were as sweet as humanly possible. Your name, Jaxon, means “God has been gracious,” and He has been.
I would give my kingdom to know what you’re thinking about in this pic below. It’s the smile of a man who already knows something big is waiting just down the road.![]()
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There’s a great story about 2 brothers talking, both grown men, and one is getting ready for an important event in his life … a big, BIG day. His brother asks, “so are you ready?” And he responds, “Yep. It’s either going to be a HUGE success or a COMPLETE disaster,” and his brother smiles and says, “good!”
When the time comes, and you and Luke (and any other siblings who may come along in your tribe) are cheering each other on, remember that. Support the BIG gesture. I’m personally sick of the phrase “go big or go home,” but the sentiment is right on.
Dream big, succeed big, play big, reach out in big ways and if you’re going to fail, then fail trying to accomplish something that matters to you. Don’t just get by. Don’t phone it in. Look at that picture of you smirking knowingly and swing for the fences.
And good luck, dude. We’ll be watching with interest.
“I meant to behave, but there were too many other options.” – Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
And it looks like he explored every single one of them before crashing.
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The Pierce’s have a knack for naming baby boys, especially if you’re a book lover. Their first son, Holden, brought to mind J.D. Salinger’s hero from The Catcher in the Rye. And now they welcome little brother, Sawyer. Above is the Pierce’s Christmas card, where Holden announced that he was moving from solo to big bro in a mere 6 months. For Holden’s first session, he was dressed in a pilot theme as a nod to his father Andy. For Sawyer, the themes were both fun and summery, as he’s a June baby and we gave a little wink to his mom, Traci’s career as a pharmacist – with the wooden box we “cozed” him up in.
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While Sawyer is snoozing in most of these shots, he ratified our experience that photographers do not control the schedule at newborn baby portrait sessions. This little lamb wanted to be fed every 20 minutes and was extremely happy and very alert during our time with him and his mom.
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“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” (Mark Twain).
One down, one to go, little man.
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.
Matthew Clark Minick is his official name, but he was known as “Bubbles” (by EVERYONE while in utero) and “Matthew Cutie Pants” (since his birth in mid-May) – both monikers given by his older sister, Amelia. At just 9 days old, we photographed Matthew in our Wilkesboro studio. His debut was just what we expected – sweet, loving, cuteness overload.![]()
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The Minicks are the family that we’ve photographed the most over our 11 years in business and they are now a part of our family. There are those people who show up outside of our family blood line and gene pool and feel like members of our tribe. Well the Minicks are these people for us and have been since we met Ryan and Rachel Minick 6 years ago for their engagement portraits. A quick check of our digital files show numbers of photos in the tens of thousands.
Matthew is the newest member to join their growing family – and ours – and we know he’s going to steal our hearts the way his sister has. The kind of longevity we have with the Minicks is, to us, a sign that we’re doing something right, both as business owners and people. Fostering relationships means more and more to us with each passing year. We love our clients and we love this family more than we can possibly say.
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.
Something very freeing has happened during this past month behind the camera. We’ve always been focused on capturing moments, of course, but for some reason and maybe it’s the winter break, it feels like this is a fresh start. The moments seem more real, vivid and convey such emotion. Is it just me? Anyone else out there feeling a rebirth this spring?
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We have loved Meghan and Jeremy Arnold from “Go.” In fact, we’ve featured them on social media quite a bit and if things continue as they have been, you haven’t seen the last of this sweet, loving and exuberant family. It started with one of the best weddings – Charlotte, 2012 and then daughter Berklee came along. They’ve traveled from Virginia to have us shoot photos of them and we’re so flattered and grateful. We wrote in a blog about their growing family that we were in for whatever was next. From her newborn photos laying in tulle with her mom’s celtic wedding headpiece, to her bright-eyed “WHAT’S UP?!” expression at 6 months (seriously, you owe it to yourself to have a look at both sets) Berklee has been a delight to photograph. Her face is so expressive and she is so smiley and wide-eyed and appears so joyous. She’s hard not to grab and nibble on.
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We sometimes ask parents of kids this young and this insanely adorable how they haven’t just eaten them and they all look at us with these helpless expressions, as if to say, “it’s touch and go” or “we’re doing ALL we can do.” Meghan and Jeremy are no different.
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From the bagpipes that played at their wedding to the Catholic ceremony to the Celtic details and finally to the little ginger Berklee, the Arnolds are Irish all the way. It’s been wonderful seeing them grow and as we consider spring portraits and the weddings to come we hope that this feeling of rebirth continues not just for us but for all those we’re going to photograph. To everyone: Sláinte!
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.