When the Portraits Come Home
The Session That Started It
Jenna called Burton Photography in the fall of 2020 and brought her three young children to Julian Price Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was peak leaf season, which in the NC High Country means the kind of golden light that turns a grove of trees into something you want to stand inside for as long as possible.
The location is one we call the Magic Trees, a spot inside Price Park that glows in fall in a way that photographs unlike anywhere else on the Parkway. Three young siblings, warm neutrals, autumn color everywhere. That portrait went home with Jenna and went up on the most prominent wall in the house — the first thing you see when you walk in the door.
The house, by the way, was built by Jenna's husband. He is a builder. Which means he built the wall that portrait is hanging on, which we think is exactly as it should be.
Five Years Later
In 2025 Jenna brought the same three children to a Portraits on the Parkway session at the Carriage House on the Moses Cone Estate near Blowing Rock, NC. The Carriage House is one of the original outbuildings built around 1899 to serve Flat Top Manor on Moses H. Cone's 3,500 acre estate along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The stone structure, the historic carriage roads, and the sweeping grounds make it one of the most distinctive portrait locations in the NC High Country.
The children are noticeably taller. The easy confidence between them is exactly the same.
Jenna ordered a wall portrait from this session too. Which meant the 2020 portrait had a decision to make.
The Portrait That Did Not Come Down
This is where the story gets good. When the 2025 portrait went up in the main living area, the 2020 portrait did not come down. It moved to the breakfast nook, where it looks exactly right and where this family sees their three children as they were every morning over coffee. That is what happens when you have more than one portrait worth keeping. They do not compete with each other. They tell the story in chapters, each one in the room where it belongs.
The Installation
Burton Photography includes complimentary delivery and installation with every portrait order. Jonathan brings the hardware, measures carefully, gets the level right, and stays until the portrait is exactly where it belongs. He grew up working for his parents, both contractors, before he started Burton Photography in 1993, so when he shows up to hang your finished portrait he actually knows what he is doing.
One of our favorite builders told us he was genuinely relieved to know that portrait installation was handled. He builds houses for a living. Hanging the family portraits was one job he was happy to hand off.
The Part About Moving
Jenna's family is getting ready to move into a new home — one her husband is building. The portraits are going with them. Of course they are. A builder knows that a house is framing and drywall and finish work. A home is what you put on the walls when the construction is done. The portraits that made the last house a home will make the next one a home too, and there will be walls in that new house that were built specifically to hold them.
Your Portraits Belong on Your Walls
Burton Photography serves families throughout Boone, NC and the NC High Country, and every session ends the same way — with finished portraits delivered and installed in the rooms where your family actually lives. We schedule the delivery appointment, we bring everything needed, and we do not leave until it looks exactly right.
If you are ready to start the conversation, the complimentary planning consultation is where it all begins.
burton@NCphotographer.com · 166 Chapel Hills Rd., Boone, NC 28607 · (828) 773-7873
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