Newborn Portraits of Ava
We photographed parents Judy and Travis’ maternity session and loved seeing how excited and hopeful they were.
On November 8th of 2018, sweet Ava was born and she already looks like a painting. With a head full of hair and a heart full of spunk, she has been keeping her Mom and Dad awake ever since.
We photographed her newborn photos at just 8 days old in our studio. Ava’s parents are fun, colorful people and happen to be friends of ours so we knew they would bring color into this newborn shoot. Mom’s favorite color is purple so there was plenty of that included for the session. There’s something about knowing the family that opens the doors to more personal photos. Case in point: we “made” Mom and Dad join their new bundle of joy for some of the photos. It was unplanned (Dad had to borrow a shirt from Ryan) but she will never be 8 days old ever again and we knew they would be glad she would have the option to look back on photos that include her new parents.
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 ©2018 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Martinez family portraits
Have you ever been given a gift that made you dissolve into tears? I’m not talking about the newlywed whose husband gives her a microwave for Christmas. I’m talking about something of true, intrinsic value that makes you so happy that you cry tears of joy. When we take portraits of families and tears of joy appear during the viewing, it is the highest compliment. And that happened recently when we photographed the Martinez family.
Mike and Janet Martinez are current clients on the corporate side (their headshots for 2019) for their real estate business, and they asked us to capture some new family portraits that would include their children and grand children.
We chose the greenway in North Wilkesboro specifically because of its many backdrops and ease of moving from location to location along the greenway itself and the river. As photographers, we also love the bridge and steel textures but also views of leaves and river. Janet wanted to have more relaxed and less traditional “posey shots” and wanted several family groupings too.
As part of the session, Janet wanted to get some individual senior portraits of their son and some fun portraits of their daughter who will be celebrating her quinceanera. She chose to wear a family heirloom dress that has been passed down in the Martinez family for generations, but she traded in the traditional hoop skirt for Chuck Taylor shoes.
After the tears dried, we worked with Janet to create family holiday cards that they sent out this year as well as wall art for their home.
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 ©2018 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
The Arnold family’s fall portraits
This family. What to say about this family. The Arnold’s story feels so close to us, because we’ve been taking their photos – images of the biggest milestones of their lives so far – since the couple became engaged. We photographed them in Chapel Hill and then for their absolutely gorgeous wedding.
Then came child number one – Berklee – who consistently scores a 200 out of 50 on the cute scale. She looks like a little Irish fairy and we just adore photographing her. But then three became four with the birth of new baby, Wyatt. And as far as cuteness goes, he’s going to give his big sister a serious run for her money. Check out the surprise maternity shoot that husband Jeremy coordinated with us on the sly.
Ryan shot these most recent images during the fall of 2018 so that mom Meghan could have the goods for holidays gifts. We know that they anticipate Wyatt being a baseball fan like his dad (can you say RED SOX!?) and we look forward to watching this family in 2019. We love you guys!
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.
realtor business headshots
Realtors Mike & Janet Martinez are a husband and wife team (we love that, of course; we get it!) at North Carolina Mountain Investments LLC in Wilkesboro NC.
Ryan photographed them the last two years and was happy to do it again this year!
Headshots are important for those of you who are business, professional or otherwise. Be in touch is you need formal or even more casual or creative images of yourself to help promote yourself and your business.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License
All photos are ©2018 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
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.
Grace & Love at Christmas
This season, I’ve been thinking about the ways in which I’m lucky, and there are many. Not everyone gets to be married to her best friend, have a one-year-old son who teaches her daily about the blessing of unexpected, unadulterated joy, lives in an old farmhouse she fixed up with her hubs, and has a creative job, supportive family and good health. I love my work, my clients, my family, my dog, my garden, and the views from so many windows. It’s an embarrassment of riches. We may have won the lottery, you guys. I don’t need a number on a bank statement to tell me that.
The sin would be to look in away in ambition for something that is not in God’s plan. The sin would be to take it for granted. I want to sit with my blessings. I want to look to the heavens in gratitude and whisper “thank you.” Yes, I get tired and grumpy and impatient and find aspects of life confusing and disappointing, but right now, I’m feeling the overflow of grace.
There are military service men and women who will not be home for the holidays. There are people around us who’ve lost someone they loved recently and wonder if they will ever be the same. There are others who lost someone years ago during this time of year and are revisiting and re-experiencing that annual pain. Some of our brothers and sisters are not employed and they are scared. Some are trying to remain hopeful during a transition in life that is secretly freaking them out. People are fragile and the holidays are filled with so much joy, that it breaks my heart to think that the overflow doesn’t cover everyone. But we all know that it doesn’t.
It is not my job or in my disposition to give advice, admonish or preach, so let me just say this: We all need more of the daily type of grace. Grace in life, the grace of God, is free. If you have and know it, take a minute – take a day – take a season to practice gratitude to the one who made ya.
But try to remember to show grace to others. Forgive the nonsense that is otherwise infuriating. Take the high road. It’s usually not crowded up there.
My wish for the rest of this season and for all of 2019 – as we set new goals, seek love, and the rewards of our professional labors – is for all of us to acknowledge the small graces given to us by others and to give grace every chance we get. Take a beat – act as though your mama or the child you’re modeling good behavior for – is right there next to you and decide to be the soothing hand. Be the silent force. Grace is not a standing ovation with an arena of applause. It tiptoes in, does the right thing, and then leaves without fanfare.
I want more of that!