I’ve been lucky enough to work with this family for several years now, and walking through their halls is very much a walk down memory lane of my time with them. One of the best things about getting to see a family year after year is keeping up to date with the kiddos’ latest and greatest obsessions. This year, it was a sword and “Slithers.” Slithers is her pet rubber snake and the way she cares for her is absolutely priceless. She has built an entire palace for Slithers, complete with a wardrobe of evening gowns, a full kitchen, a car, and a bathroom…with a toilet. Slithers is the most spoiled rubber snake I have ever met. 😉

I love, love, loved all of the beautiful colors…the bold, bright blues and reds and sunshine and blue skies. And I love, love, loved that we got to fly a kite…a lot…and it actually worked! But my favorite image from this session can only be found here ;-).

Twice…TWICE we are all geared up to head into downtown Austin for their photo session and we got rained out :-(. But finally, a week later, the clouds parted and we were able to make it happen. I did find it a little bit humorous, though, that we avoided the rain just so we could get soaking wet at the end of the session! But I guess it’s nice to have a little bit of control over the water levels all while letting the kids have the time of their lives!

I am blessed beyond words to have 10…yes, TEN, best photographer friends and if you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I recently had the good fortune to go on a girls’ trip to Cape Cod last month. (By the by, my dear, talented, over-achiever friend 🙂 Lena beat us all to the punch and has already blogged her amazing pictures from the trip HERE). Cape Cod. Sigh. Honestly, friends, not a day goes by now where I don’t wish that I could be back there in that beautiful, splendid place. Or at least own a house there I could visit once a year.

Long story long, upon planning for this trip, my other dear, talented friend Sarah asked if I would photograph her family on the very beach there where she and her husband were engaged. Sarah…I don’t think you realize this, but I was extremely nervous about this shoot…for a number of reasons. The greatest of which being a fear that I wouldn’t be able to do your family justice the way you are able to do each time they are in front of your lens.

Well, the day of the big event, our gang arrived on the Cape that afternoon later than anticipated (silly, silly airlines and their plane doors that don’t open), and we had to hoof it out to the beach to make it before sunset. Aaaaaaaaand, unfortunately, I got a little carsick along the way :-(.

When we pulled up to First Encounter Beach, I was completely overwhelmed…with beauty, with possibility, with amazement, and with fear watching the clouds roll in and our beautiful sunlight disappear. Aughhhhhh! I was panicking. There were SO many wonderful spots to use on the beach and not much time at all. This was compounded by the fact that Sarah’s family is kinda gorgeous and we were stopped several times by beach goers who needed to ohhhhh and ahhh over her adorable children and that AWESOME starfish headband mama had made for baby girl.

All this to say that we found our rhythm and we just let the kids lead the way. We couldn’t keep them out of the water very long (duh!), so we dove in…quite literally. By the end of the session, I was COVERED in salt and sand. I felt very exfoliated. But more than anything, I was elated. A photography high is like no other. When all the pieces fall into place and you somehow get lucky enough to experience the perfect combination of love, light, laughs, and little moments…well, let’s just say I do not take those kinds of experiences for granted.

Sarah, our time on the Cape was perfect in every way. And I am very, very honored and thankful that we were also able to share this special time on your special beach with your special loves. It will absolutely be one of those sessions that I will never forget and I hope beyond all hope that I did you proud that evening.

XOXO,

Michele

OH! Almost forgot…as much as it pained me NOT to post it in the blog, my ALL time favorite couple’s image is now up HERE. (And in case you missed it, another sneak can be found HERE)

Their timing couldn’t have been more perfect because we literally had just finished with the greenhouse construction (in preparation for the .emme. boudoir mini sessions coming up in September!) as they were pulling into my studio drive! We had a beautiful, golden sun setting behind us, and there was not a cloud in the sky. Great for pretty sunflare lighting, not-so-great for a greenhouse, we learned. While we didn’t get to spend quite as much time in the greenhouse as we had hoped, we did have plenty of opportunities to explore and bathe in this beautiful sunshine! Thank you Lauren for making the drive to Austin with your family to do your annual photo session and I hope you enjoy your pretty pictures of your pretty family!

Other favs can be seen HERE and HERE!

My boys used to go to preschool with these girls, so yes, we’ve known these guys for quite some while. After preschool ended, it became more and more difficult for us to get everyone together…sad how life and different schools and activities can pull you away from people you enjoy being around. None-the-less, we were able to get it together in downtown Austin for this very urban family photo session held in a building their daddy actually helped design and build. He’s pretty much an Austin architectural icon at this point ;-). And these girls have such PERSONALITY! What a blast we had that morning! (Loved this one of mom and dad alone for a couple of seconds, LOL).

It’s funny to me how when I phase into a new color obsession, my work starts to reflect that without me even realizing it. Lately, inspired by peacocks (?), I notice that I’m drawn to blues and greens and upon reviewing these proofs when they were finished, it hit me…blue and green. This family was so beautiful and connected and we had a really lovely time exploring a different (to me) part of Austin.

We had the most GLORIOUS sunrise session in downtown! I’m telling you, in the summer months, you just cannot beat beating the sunrise in Austin, Texas and I always encourage my clients to choose to brave getting up early, early, EARLY in the morning instead of waiting until the hottest part of the day (the evening) for an outdoor photo shoot. These little girlie Q’s were so much fun and I’m so glad we waited just a little bit longer for the fountains to start running so we could cool off properly when we were done. [And oh yes…still my fav from the session].

I’m sure you noticed the beautiful yoga form mommy + daughter struck up there. Lindsey is the owner of Yogapeutics and let me tell you, I was in for quite the treat when I visited her at her studio a few weeks ago…

Amazing, isn’t she???? And then there’s this one, too. Yes…I think I need to sign up for her class. Wow!

I think everyone should remember Aqua Girl, but if not, you should meet her. I have been chomping at the bit to finally sit down and go through these images. While I’ve played around with underwater photography here and there, this was the first time that a majority of the session was focused on it and we LOVED every second of it. This girl has SUCH personality…I was telling her mom that some kids just have “it” and she definitely has “it.” I wish I had taken a video of her rendition of CeeLo’s “Forget You.” She had hand motions and perfect expressions…I was in fits of giggles watching her. But you know what? She can actually sing very well, too. I’m telling you, she’s got “it.”

Anyway, I’m very thankful to this family for letting me play with a somewhat new medium for me. I’m glad they risked it for the chance of some rather unique family portraits. That last image is definitely my personal fav, but I’m SO torn. Color or Black and White?

With a family filled with such personality, there are SO many options, so, we just did them all, LOL. Gang, we tried so hard to get a shot of everyone blowing a giant bubble, but I think we had the wrong kind of bubble gum and it just wasn’t happening. I was cracking up watching everyone try desperately to chew the gum and make a bubble. We’d get one, then two, then three, and by the time we’d get four, the first ones would start popping. I can’t even tell you how many shots we took, but finally, we happily opted for a composite…I think everyone’s jaws were getting sore…both from chewing and from laughing so hard! [Be sure to see another one of my fav’s not shown HERE.]