October is one of the more beautiful months for weddings in our area. It’s a month of seasonal transition which means you take a chance with weather – as with April and May. We cannot recall an October wedding that wasn’t amazing. Sometimes, the weather drives us indoors, but when the temperature and setting are on your side, it can be golden, … pardon the pun.
Here’s a toast to all of our October Anniversaries. And to many more! We love you all!
Kristin & Jason – 5 years on October 1st
“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of all three.”
– Stanley Horowitz
Donna & Andrew – 4 years on October 4th
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”
– George Eliot
Mickey & Ben – 3 years on October 4th
“It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.” – B. C. Forbes
LeighAnn & Jason – 2 years on October 4th
“Autumn’s the mellow time.” – William Allingham
Amanda & Rich – 7 years on October 10th
Melissa & Bob – 6 years on October 10th
Katie & Josh 1 year October 10th
“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”
― Rainbow Rowell
Mary & Gilbert – 8 years on October 11
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” – Lauren DeStefano
Megan & Jeff – 3 years on October 12th
“In autumn, don’t go to jewelers to seek old, go to parks.” – Mehmet Maret Ildan
Lucy & Glen – 4 years on October 13th
“I know the lands are lit, with all the autumn blaze of Goldenrod.” – Helen Hunt Jackson
Addie & Matt – 6 years 0n October 16th
“How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.” – John Burroughs
Amy & Bobby – 7 years on October 17th
“Autumn came, with wind and gold.” – Unknown
Jamie & Daniel – 1 year on October 17th
“But these are days that we dream about when the sunlight paints us gold.” – Martha Schuster
Annette & Omudhome – 8 years on October 18th
“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.” – Emily Bronte
Laura & Chumah – 5 years on October 22nd
“Autumn. The year’s last, loveliest smile.” – William Cullen Bryan
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.
There were years (in the many hundreds) when people married young. Maybe your parents, grandparents or great-grandparents did. No one thought anything about it and I’m not prepared to give a history lesson about why it worked or didn’t. Young brides and grooms, older brides and grooms…. we ALWAYS cheer for a strong marriage that lasts until Al Roker is talking about it on the Today Show.
These 2 below, Violet and Floyd, were married for 67 years. They were married young, were 21 and 22 in this photo, and in 2015, they passed away holding hands with their hospice beds pushed together. 67 years and together right until the last moment.
Who knows why some young marriages work and last, producing thriving families, smartypants kids, and reels and reels of memories? But they do. When we hear, “but they’re SO YOUNG,” as we have in our tenure as wedding photographers, we think, “but what if what they have is the big “IT?” We believe Ashley & Oscar have it. They are young, yes, but they have the depth, gravitas, self-awareness and sense of longevity – and they displayed it during our photo session.
They have “it” and IT is a shared belief in Christ and each other.
Ashley and Oscar met when her church took a trip to Mexico. When Oscar returned to school in the states, they started spending more time together and realized their similar dreams and feelings. Ryan and I have known them for a while. Oscar and Ashley’s brother Daniel were models for us during a prom shoot a few years ago. The Caudill’s have supported Pixels On Paper Photography and we’ve always appreciated their love and care for us. Now we get to return the favor as documentarians and friends.
I’ve never been around a couple, even twice their age, who were more grounded in faith, family and tradition. Ashley will finish the last of both her high school and college courses in December and then they will be married in NC. A honeymoon in Mexico is planned and Ashley will finally be able to meet all of Oscar’s family. We’re excited about the stories to come of how these families will blend into one and write their own new story with Him at the center. We couldn’t be more hopeful or proud or happy for them.
We love family portraits whether they are set in the studio, the great outdoors, a specific location like the mountains or NC 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 as well as the surrounding areas. 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. Contact us to schedule your portrait or wedding photography.
We had a conversation recently about motivations, inspirations, choices we make each day, what makes us happy and other little idiosyncratic things that make us tick as individuals and as a couple of creatives. We could write a book about our adventures and what fuels us, but here is a first pass, from Ryan.
Hi Gang!! I’m jumping in here and hitting the things from my perspective. Hope you enjoy.
Activities that turn us on: Hiking! These do not have to be strenuous by any means, just nice strolls through new places. We are always on the look out for new shoot locations and often find ourselves looking at every aspect of a place. “If we were going to do a shoot here, how /where would we pose people?”
A second thing I love (and this came to mind more than once) is cooking. It’s similar to how we approach photography, taking concepts that we have seen or read about for various recipes and adding a bit of ourselves and our “twist” to make them different is always fun. And we love to go to Boondocks, which is basically our local hangout even if it is 45 minutes away. I love craft beers, so count me in for anything that’s as black as motor oil and aged in bourbon barrels, and typically 10%ABV and up. [In my best Homer Simpson voice: “BEEEEEEEEEEER. Sweet sustainer of life….”]
BOONDOCKS! We love this restaurant and brewery in West Jefferson and the folks who operate it. Family!
What bands/music? Well, you know we cover Merlefest as official photographers, so these answers won’t surprise you…. Avett Brothers, Dave Matthews Band, Pokey Lafarge. But also Dean Martin, Trampled By Turtles, anything solid bluegrass, electronic dance music (EDM), anything with a good bass/drum combo that I can “turn up to 11.”
What faces fuel me? Misty’s for sure. I can tell a lot of what’s going on by reading her expressions. Also the look on a client’s face when we sneak a peek at the back of camera and see the awesomeness we are capturing. That’s the best!
What types of media do you consume out of complete love? Books: Game of Thrones series – before they became a TV show and became even cool-er. I tend to love more of the Lord of the Rings fantasy types of series that require an active imagination with good descriptions so I can “see” the story in my head. Movies: action thrillers like the Bourne series and James Bond, animated Pixar anything. And with TV, I am obsessed with “This Old House,” am a DIY/HGTV junkie as well as stuff on Food Network/Cooking Channel.
What part of a photo session turns you on the most? Trying to get to a location and then figuring out how to shoot it from a perspective that may not be what everyone else would see. Safe shots are still OK to do, but the fun comes in trying something that you think may not work, but if it does, its going to be epic.
Orozco engagement portrait photography by Wilkesboro NC Photographers Pixels On Paper
What’s your favorite time of day? Sunset, it’s a time for magic with lighting, but it goes super fast as the light changes by the second, so knowing how to adapt and adjust quickly is a necessity.
What scriptures do you recite and rely on most? Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
What places or aspects of travel provide a personal or creative “reboot?” For the vacation spots, there are different ways of looking at it: All inclusive for the times where you just want to fully relax and not worry about what to do other than figure out what drink to order next or what pool to go to. I love Charleston. It’s always going to be a favorite spot from a food/site-seeing perspective. Even in the mundane travels, I like taking any combination of backroads when going somewhere leads to a fun antique store or mom-and-pop restaurant. I love finding places that we’d miss if we stuck to the main roads all the time.
What’s your favorite room in your house? The kitchen, not only because we built it basically from the studs out when we moved in, but it’s another place for creativity, to try new recipes and have fun enjoying the hard work after.
Well, that seems like enough, so let’s call that a wrap for me. Have a great weekend, everybody.
Misty? You’re up, honey!
We’re now booking our fall outdoor portrait sessions beginning in late September and running through October. Our clients are brides, engaged couples, couples with their pets, siblings, and families of all sizes. Because of our heavenly locale, clients tend to prefer the Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, Boone, and West Jefferson for their photo session, but the Pixels portrait garden in Wilkesboro is also ideal. If you have a special location, please get in touch with us and we’ll work out details and any special requests.Fall photos are often framed or turned into holiday cards or both. Bring props or we’ll bring them, but let’s create some memories. Contact us today to book your date! We cannot wait to see you.
Some of our favorites!
The Allen Family
The Hatfields
The Picards
The Vanmeters
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.
It has been a year. A whole, big, replete, exhausting, fun, “where are my keys”, “doesn’t she look amazing?”, “I can’t believe we survived”, “oh holy moly, that was the best!!” year since our 10th anniversary in business as Pixels on Paper.
The calendar tells us that there is a beginning of every new year and it’s January 1. But the thing is…. your birthday, your anniversary is the beginning of YOUR new year and Pixels On Paper was birthed in June of 2005. It’s our birthday. It’s Pixels On Paper’s 11th anniversary. We did it – AGAIN!
Minick Outdoor Maternity Portrait Photography
During the last 12 months, we’ve photographed siblings holding onto each other. We focused our lenses on businesses we love, vendors we collaborate with and admire, taken post-wedding photos with mountains in the distance….. families gathered and smiling… orchards in bloom, brides lit with joy, new husbands unable to stop grinning, kids racing around and babies, babies, babies. We have loved every single minute.
Prom girl in bloom thanks to Bridal Traditions and beYOUtiful Proms
Boondocks Brewery – the installation of new tanks for yummy brews
Bridal bouquet by Edenhouse Floral
Private home ready for sale (and it sold… quickly)
Hoben family reunion on family property (and that’s just 16 of them)
Quinceanera photos for a gorgeous young woman
a Southern Belle to end all Southern Belles
Charleston SC engagement portraits
We also got to send some love to locations where we shoot weddings and events. The Holiday Inn City Center in Charlotte, Leatherwood Resort and Winding Creek Wedding Barn are merely 3.
the rooftop at the Holiday Inn City Center Charlotte
Leatherwood Mountain Resort is scenic, elegant and rustic
from a photoshoot at Winding Creek Wedding Barn
It was our second year as official photographers for Merlefest. We were completely rested about a month later.
WE LOVE THAT GIG.
And we captured loads of babies…. some were reaching out for “kid-dom” but they’re still babies.
Here’s to the next 12 months, the coming autumn (2 weeks away) and holidays and thanks to you all for an amazing year.
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.