Posts in Category: Personal
Giving Trees
I suspect when Shel Silverstein wrote The Giving Tree, he felt about trees the way I do, the way I always have. His was a story of a little boy so loved by a tree that it provided for him from childhood through old age. I am a 40-something little girl who is living her version of this story. For me, trees are friends. I’ve been mesmerized by them my whole life, love how their stories are told along side ours. I love to plant them, climb them, smell them and rest underneath them. When Ryan and I bought this house 13 years ago, the trees were as big a selling point as the house for me. I could see stories in and around all of them. They have become like family and over the last few years, we’ve lost some members.
This property was blessed with ash trees, not a tree usually found in this area. We knew many of them were old and some were dying, but as we worked on the house, even before moving in, we had favorites. We also had limbs falling around us. I can still hear that cracking sound and mobilize like a ninja to get out of the way. So after damage to our roof, our kitchen and because of general safety, we brought in an arborist to help us make decisions.
In January of 2020, we had three trees removed and I cried. I did. I knew they wouldn’t live forever, but having them go on my tenure in this house was upsetting. We’d made memories with them and they were markers of both difficult and beautiful times in our family’s life. In January of 2021, we had two more cut down. This time, we lined up someone to salvage the lumber to be milled for us. Six ginormous logs were taken to the sawmill, while we made a list of wants from the reclaimed wood.
Both of our families have history with lumber. Ryan’s grandfather bought lumber for furniture makers. Like him, Ryan has become skilled not just with carpentry, but design as well. My dad and granddad worked in logging and my great-grandfather established one of the first hydraulic sawmill businesses in the area. My first job was working in the equipment office as a teen. I’m so accustomed to the sound of planers and saws and the smell of wood. My favorite type of lumber (for those of you who want to buy me a birthday present) is walnut and I am always looking for character grade walnut for projects. When it was time to redo the hardwoods upstairs in our house (the previous update was during the 1920s), instead of oak like the downstairs, we chose walnut that was filled with character.
Our giving trees have truly given. From the salvaged wood, we’re making live edge tables from the 9′ slabs and several round live edge tables and mantles for Finley that he can one day place in a house of his own. Ryan hopes to create a desk and bedroom furniture for Finley as well, so he can remember that the trees he played on, in and around are now in his room. Heirlooms.
Finley was involved in the whole process and I explained my sadness and tears as trees fell and were hauled off. But he also got to go to the sawmill to see the next steps and he’s in on our plans for the wood, now resting and air drying for the next year. Their story is not yet over and that makes me so happy. New trees are already being planted with Finley and his shovel digging the holes by our sides. Maple, red buds, cherry, river birch, and sassafras trees all have a new home on our property. Fellow tree-huggers: enjoy this season. Hike among them, sit under them, climb them, eat their fruit and if you are able to use the wood once the tree has fallen, I hope you will.
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.
What we’re doing – lifestyle photography
We love Day in the Life portrait sessions and when we are asked to do them, we cannot wait to show the clients what we captured. The natural light, the “true” facial expressions that family members make vs. posed and calcified smiles, and the sense of relaxation, all of these shine through. Throughout the year, we take pictures of our own lives so that we can create memories and gifts. Our own families are given a book for Christmas every year. A few weekends ago I decided to do a little day in the life for us as we handled yard work and play. I thought black and white was ideal for these and am so happy that I suspended what I was doing to capture these moments.
Finley has become deft in the yard, as many of you have noted. He has his own smaller versions of his dad’s tools and loves to help. Ryan will explain the project and goal and this kid digs in! He’s also pretty handy in the kitchen, asking to help us or hanging out and coloring, reading, drawing and making up stories.
With the house and exterior taken care of and some new seeds planted, he was free to race around trying to outrun his shadow. He never succeeded. I love being behind the camera capturing moments instead of providing direction, as I might at a client session.
Interested in a documentary lifestyle photography session this spring or summer? Maybe your family is going to tackle a project outside, play in a local park, or meet other family members outside for a picnic, we’d love to be the documentarians.
Happy Spring, everyone!
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 ©2021 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Easter 2021 – “Step Outside”
“March is such a fickle month. It is the seam between winter and spring — though seam suggests an even hem, and March is more like a rough line of stiches sewn by an unsteady hand, swinging wildly between January gusts and June greens. You don’t know what you’ll find until you step outside.” – V. E. Schwab
This is a season of hope, even with its unevenness, even with that “rough line” Schwab evokes. Easter 2020 was not only uneven, it was fraught with questions and fear, confusion and pauses. This year, I am ready to push forward toward the light. Anyone else? Show of hands, please? I did not just want to push beyond the pandemic (which we’re clearly not quite done with), but I wanted to focus on the spring light and, as a believer, the light of the Resurrection.
Finley is old enough to dye eggs now. Ask him and he’d tell you that he’s ready to drive a truck at age 3, but that’s another story. With the encouragement of my dear sweet mother-in-law and mom, this year, we decided to go for it. Yes, it was going to be all crafty. Yes, I was going to be inviting “A Mess” to come inside my home, but you gotta let light in, right, even in the form of a toddler/boy covered in art supply residue. For me, it was simply time to create Easter traditions and hold our heads up toward the sun, in hope. And that’s what we did.
If you think that these images are the result of careful planning, great spirits, can-do attitudes and perfect behavior, you’re only partially correct. We did plan and we were hoping for perfect results, but that can only take you so far. We had some hiccups – the subject is my child afterall – but I’m so happy we took the time to be creative, to allow him to play a bit and for us to all be outdoors together. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect, folks. The eggs turned out to be lovely (and FUN! and MESSY!) and Finley now has a bar by which to set his expectations. We have begun our Easter story as a family. It may change in the years to come, but Finley has the beginnings of another annual tradition and for that I am grateful.
And I am oh-so grateful for what nature gives. As we prepare for worship on Sunday, I do feel lighter. The yard is in bloom and we are able to see God’s handiwork, to smell the smells of spring, to cut blooms to bring indoors and enjoy, and to add our own decorations to what nature has presented.
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.
Hands in the cookie jar – photos at home
Let’s get real. I mean it – REAL, as in real life.
As a working mom, I am always weighing things: time against my task list, investment vs. return, risk vs. reward. You with me? There are a finite number of minutes in a day and days in a year. What about moments in a lifetime? We’re always weighing. Now add a career as a pro photographer and a three year old to your calculations…
How do I protect my need for clarity and cleanliness over chaos while still living a big life? And – for those of you who know me – how do I advocate publicly for capturing memories as your photographer and friend if I, Misty Case, am not willing to get a little dirty myself in my own space with my own kid?
Recently, I weighed the memories I could make with my Finley over the inevitable mess that my tired OCD self was going to have to clean up later. [NOTE: if you don’t think you’ll find sprinkles in the most outlandish places, you haven’t baked with a toddler lately.]
But then I weigh The Great Sprinkle Search against that face above.
Day in the Life (DITL) photo shoots are fun. They allow us to capture a slice of a moment, a micro-shot of an activity, in what I hope is a long life with this little human. Finley will never again be this age, with that hair and with those dirty hands and so many questions spilling out of him ever again. Worth it?
I decided that it absolutely was. Just like the Christmas advent calendar, the gingerbread houses, the glitter and craft times and the mud that comes in after he’s been “adventuring” in our yard, wrecking the most popular room in the house was worth it. Finley gets 18-ish years to be a kid. That’s it. After that he can chat with me about the mortgage rate he got, the job opportunity, the big and small life events, etc. He has the rest of his life to be a grown up. This is it. That’s what I say to myself. Right now: it’s about sugar cookies.
The downside for me on this day was that you couldn’t see me “in there” with Finley as I usually am, but I was in my element behind the lens. I was a relaxed documentarian, if not a fudge-covered co-conspirator.
When we shoot DITL (Day In The Life) images for families, we allow you to just create an event out of something you enjoy doing and you can be fully present while we handle the lighting, the angles and grabbing those moments before they are gone.
Picture perfect? Yes.
Mom approved, in that “I am IN CONTROL of the sugar intake?” No. Not even close.
And Finley was a bit hyper afterward, icing was in places icing shouldn’t go, but that part passed. Remember that, Fellow Mamas: a good sponge, a deep breath, the right playlist playing while you gather debris, and you’ll be glad you made the time.
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.
Taking Things to Heart
“We are saved only by love — love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share: being a parent; being a writer; being a painter; being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.” – Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams….. sigh. He nailed it – and by “it” I mean life – in so many of his plays. And he certainly captured the feelings and perceptions of love, something we need more of.
A blog that focuses on love as Valentine’s Day approaches – when it is truly already the foundation of every photo shoot we do – seems like overkill. If you’ve been following us for the last 15 years, you know that we start with curiosity, work with clients to create and achieve a vision and then apply our skills and experience. But ultimately, it’s always about love.
We love what we do. We love capturing people’s love for each other. I would urge you, if you haven’t recently, to check out our blog categories, most particularly Families, Babies, Engagement and Maternity. You’ll see love baked right in.
During a year when we cannot hug everyone we love, and during Valentine’s Day, I hope you’ll call your mom, hug your nearest and dearest and take to heart what you are most grateful for.
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.