These brothers stole my heart when I first met them at my holiday mini sessions last year and I was VERY happy to get to see them again when the wildflowers were in full bloom. They had me cracking up pretty much the entire time. Their smiles are infectious and it’s just not difficult to draw out their personalities on camera at all. I love their energy and their enthusiasm and most of all, their LOVE for one another. It makes my heart happy. THIS image also makes my heart happy.

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… We are a family of 3 + 3 pups. Our dogs are part of our family! Dad works in Healthcare Sales. Mom worked in Finance until recently and is now at home. Little is in 1st grade and enjoys all sorts of extracurricular activities, including Girl Scouts, gymnastics, horseback riding, soccer and kickball.

2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? It’s been about 2 years since our last session. We missed a year because we were moving and renovating a house. So it was time…I hate that we missed a year because we treasure these professional photos so much!

3) Where was your session held and why? In the wildflowers. Because, WILDFLOWERS! We had never had professional photos done in the bluebonnets before and they were fantastic this year, so it worked out perfectly.

4) What did you like about your session location? Flowers!

5) What was your favorite part of your session? It was an adventure! We had to hike through some pretty big grass to get to the one patch of yellow flowers. Something none of us will soon forget! I love that Michele is willing to take the risk to get the perfect shot! [Um, I was shaking I was so skeered. The grass was much taller than what I originally thought. I was very impressed that they were game for the adventure!]

6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? Well I always worry about whether my daughter will cooperate. But I’m unsure why at this point as Michele always makes it work no matter the mood. My daughter LOVES her, as do we!

7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? Yes, aforementioned hiking through tall dense grasses. Ha!

8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Try and relax leading up to it(advice to myself included). Michele will take care of everything and your photos will be spectacular! [Thank you, dear!]

9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? The first time because I was impressed by what I saw on the website. And we keep going back because her work is amazing!

10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? That we had fun taking them and they are glad we have them to look at and remember our life along the way.

Pinkle’s FAV from this session HERE!

It’s been a while since we’ve had a good batch of bluebonnets *right* in front of the Pinkle Toes Studio, so it was amazing to get to take advantage of this! And, for the first time ever, I found an amazing field of Indian Paintbrush nearby, too! I can’t believe we were able to catch these flowers because shortly after their session, we got that downpour and they all faded away. One of my favs of big sis is HERE. Girl can pull this look off, am I right?

From Mom:

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… I’ve been married for 9 years and we just moved back to Texas from Minnesota last June. Our daughter is 5 years old and our son is 2 years old.
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? It’s been a year since the kids pictures have been taken and we have always had the cold or snowy pictures; so we really wanted the Spring sunshine and flowers!
3) Where was your session held and why? Outside in the middle of the wildflowers!!!
4) What did you like about your session location? It was beautiful and gave us a bit of the country vibe we were looking for!
5) What was your favorite part of your session? Watching my kids run wild and explore!
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? I was a little worried my son would want me to hold him the entire time…but Michelle worked her magic and he warmed up right away!
7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? We started out using a wagon for my son to sit in (which he was really excited about), while his big sister pulled him for a ride. Almost immediately the wagon tipped over and the right side of his face was all scratched up! We had avoided having any bumps the entire day and now we had a very obvious one for the entire session! He handled it like a champ though!
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Make sure you feed the kids first and tell them something that will make it fun. Instead of saying we are having pictures made tell them they will be going on an adventure!
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? I heard very positive things from people and really loved the website!
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? Look at those magical times you all shared!

I have visited this family out at their ranch several times over the last few years and each photo session is gorgeous and so much fun. This year was no exception. Really loved how we started this one off!

That dress, Mama. Yeowza!

The sweetest sisters! SOOOOOO lucky to have each other! 

My fav from the hammock HERE.

But then feeding Nilly was definitely the highlight of the evening!

From Mom:

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… A tight knit family where little house on the prairie still lives!
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? Knew the grass would be nice and water would be pretty.
3) Where was your session held and why? Family ranch
4) What did you like about your session location? Familiar and meaningful
5) What was your favorite part of your session? Feeding Nilly!
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? No
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Be comfortable!!!! Not hungry or tired! Let Michele lead littles!!!! 🙂
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? 4th year. Easy and painless for kids, and husbands! :))).
Michele is a total pro!
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? Favorite times of our lives!

[I am crushed right now as I had a very detailed and lengthy and heart-felt post all written out here but when I went to publish it, all of my text was lost. I am going to go ahead and post this without my beautiful, long passage to accompany the images right now because mom has waited so patiently to see her sneak peeks, but know that I am sulking over here and thinking very bad thoughts about the internet in general. While I pout like a 2-year-old, I hope you will at least enjoy these images of a family that is dear to my heart and maybe you can make up your own stories behind them. Favorite session image HERE ;-)]

[This was the only text that was saved, so I’ll keep it in:]

Now, I have to tell you the story behind these jars. This was a gift she put together for her husband one Christmas and the amount of thought and planning that went into this idea just blew me away. Each child has two jars…the pennies in the left-hand jar represent the number of weeks they have before they graduate high school and essentially, leave the nest. Each week, she takes one penny from the child’s jar on the left and places it in the right. Our three children are almost the exact same age breakdown and let me tell you, it crushed my little mommy soul to realize that there are not really that many pennies remaining in that left-hand jar for either one of our oldest boys.

I was lucky enough to get to visit another friend when we were in Charleston, SC: Jody! I first met Jody years ago in North Carolina for one of my workshops and we’ve been able to get together a couple of times since, including the Pinkle Toes Workshop reunion in Charleston last year. Anyway, Jody really wanted to have a lifestyle family photo session in their home as a way to preserve this time their lives as a family. As a photographer herself, she totally gets the need and desire to have images like this of her own family, but it’s definitely not something you can do by yourself with a tripod. She said over and over to me that their home wasn’t perfect (whose is???), but it was full of life and love and that’s what she wanted to make sure they documented. Perfect. Love it.

Well, a few days before I was supposed to head out to the coast, Jody said they had come down with the flu, and I mean, a knock you on your bum for days at a time flu. We pretty much gave up on making this shoot happen and we were both incredibly disappointed. However, by some miracle, they rallied! Quite literally the day before I was supposed to leave, everyone managed to put on a few smiles for a couple of hours so mama could have her lifestyle photo session in the home she loves with the people she loves. Every single person in this family deserves a huge gold star for their efforts to do this session…every one! I cannot believe they did it and even looked healthy and adorable in the process. I’m not one for pushing a family through a photo session after being so sick, but in this case, I think it worked out okay ;-).

The first image above is from the “getting ready” process (Jody talks more about that below) and I’m really quite glad to have been there for those moments. I also rather enjoyed playing auntie to Jody’s eldest daughter and fixing her gorgeous, gorgeous long hair for the shoot.

Now onto the baby girl of the family, who is like a little doll baby and obviously quite adored:

Okay, this is their middle daughter in the heels up there. And she has such incredible personality! And she spent pretty much the entire session wearing her mom’s heels and it could not have been more perfect.

Ohhhh…I believe I spy some gorgeous Danielle originals up there!! ;0) Danielle happens to be a friend of ours also (as well as a sorority sister of mine ;-)…small world!

Speaking of small world…in chatting with Jody’s hubby, I learned that he lived in the same small Texas town as my husband AND his sister and I went to the same college at the same time. What???? By the way, this poor man was sick as a dog here as well, but man, he put on a good show. He was just amazing to do this for Jody and his girls!

The three moments above = swoon.

Ooops…swoon again over the couch snuggles.

Are they not a perfect and beautiful and loving and fun-loving couple????

Okay, I’m pretty sure we can all agree that Play-doh is the bane of any mother’s existence. But Jody is not just any mother and she actually lets her girls play with Play-doh AND joins in. Wow! I think I just lost first place in the Mom of the Year contest. Who am I kidding? I was never in first place 😉

I LOVE that Jody has filled her walls with pics, by the way. The beautiful images on the stairwell are by Alice Keeney.

We ended the session like THIS and by far, it was one of the most memorable session story times I’ve ever photographed. So Jody started reading Someday and I was happily snapping away, minding my own business, enjoying life and all the things that come along with it, when out of the blue, that sweet little children’s book just grabbed me by the heart and squeezed the breath out of me so hard, tears started streaming down my face and I could not control it. Jody gave me no warning that this book was going to send me into this emotional tailspin and I’m not sure if I can forgive her for that (okay, maybe I can). Oh. My. Word. If you are a mommy and you haven’t gotten Someday for your child(ren), you need to do so stat. Just make sure you have some tissues nearby. (I may or may not have bought several copies before I even left the driveway after her session).

And now, Jody’s take on the photo session:

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… We are a family of 5. Mom, Dad and three (yes.. THREE) girls, ages 8, 6 and 2. Lots of estrogen!
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? I’ve been a Pinkle Toes blogstalker for a while and attended Michele’s workshop in Charlotte in 2013 (which, FYI, was a game-changer for me and my business)! As soon as I heard that Michele was visiting Charleston, I knew I wanted to have our family captured by her.
3) Where was your session held and why? At home. We moved in to our house 3 days before our youngest was born and have existed in a constant state of blissful chaos ever since. I have never had an in-home lifestyle session and wanted to document this time in our family history (with my most favorite lifestyle photographer), when our girls are still little and there is just a tiny bit of baby left in each of them.
4) What did you like about your session location? Home is where we spend most of our time together, so I love the authenticity of having us photographed in our own space.
5) What was your favorite part of your session? It is hard to pick, but probably getting to play with Playdoh, or reading a book or snuggling with my girls!
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? If the kids would behave (the PCS is strong in this family)! [PCS = Photographer Child Syndrome and it is a very real thing.]
7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? A memorable morning indeed! Michele asked me to photograph her on the beach at sunrise in honor of the lifestyle and fitness changes she has made over the past year [I’m excited about this project!] . Since she was on such a tight travel schedule, and since I live near the beach, we decided the best time for the family session would be that same morning. So, Michele offered to help entertain the kids while I got ready and even helped style their hair. She is so sweet and generous with her time! I can’t thank her enough for the entire experience!
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Relax and have fun with it! Michele is MAGIC with her camera.
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? Where do I begin? There is something about the way Michele is able to make beauty out of the most ordinary things and the way she is able to capture the connections between people that I find amazing.
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images?

“Mom and Dad really do love us/me”
“I remember that house”
“I remember that book”
“Look how little we were”
“Look how young Mom & Dad are”
“I look so much like Dad/Mom”
“This is your great-great grandmother when she was little” – [There go my tears again! Thanks a lot, Jody 😉 This is so beyond perfect and the whole reason we do what we do, my friend.]

It was last year (and it feels like forever ago), when this Mama contacted me to see if by some chance, I would ever be interested in heading to Savannah, GA to photograph her and her sweet daughter. Once the idea was planted in my mind, I thought, “Why not?” and we started making plans for myself + my whole crew to head to Georgia over Spring Break. It turned out to be a magnificent trip all-around, but I have to say I quite enjoyed our afternoon together here. I ADORE Brandi’s decorating style and getting to witness these sweet little moments between mother and daughter was delicious!

Looking for their other kitty. There we go!

This one in the basket was cracking me up!

My personal fav from inside their home HERE.

Ohhhh…and then we got to go to the BEACH!!! Yaaaaassssssss!

How lucky is she to have a mama so willing to let her play and hang out on the beach and get dirty and sandy and splashy and run and do all the things that little girls should do as little girls?

From Brandi:

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… Amelie and I recently moved to Savannah and share a home with our two fur babies, Macy and Lacy. We enjoy all things silly and we are always on the move (mostly because at this age, she can’t sit still).
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? After a long and hard divorce, Amelie and I now reside by ourselves, without her father. We have taken professional family photos annually since her birth but for the last two years we haven’t. I wanted to make sure that these years were still documented, even if it was just she and I. I want her to know that she is and always will be loved even though her parents live in different homes.
3) Where was your session held and why? I was born and raised on the coast. Now that we are living near the ocean again, Amelie will be too. There is something so peaceful and calming about the beach and I want her to always remember where she is from no matter where life may take her as an adult.
4) What did you like about your session location? It was super laid back and casual, just like our household.
5) What was your favorite part of your session? That Amelie was able to express herself and be the crazy ball of wild energy that she is. I hope she never loses her adventurous and carefree spirit.
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? Not really…
7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? Can’t recall anything right off but we had a lovely time!
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Just go with it…if your kid is being wild and letting their personality show, let them. My child is a total ham and I found myself wanting her to calm down and be more relaxed during the session. Looking back, I realize I was trying to get her to behave more like an adult, but she’s still a kid. Let the kids be kids…soon enough they will outgrow it. Let Michelle document their youth as it is.
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? I’ve always wanted our lives documented in the way only Michelle can capture. I’ve admired your work for years!
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? “I remember that day, Mom! It was so much fun!”

As I’m gearing up for the FINAL Pinkle Toes Photography Workshop of 2016 [by the way, there is ONE opening left and the workshop is THIS weekend], I wanted to take some time to reflect on how much we accomplished during the February workshop. Day one was spent getting to know one another, talking all things pricing and marketing and branding and then playing around taking headshots in a lovely winter sunset. We tried to go to bed early because day two is always super busy, starting with hanging out with this adorable little guy and his amazing parents for the in-home newborn lifestyle photo session demonstration:

He was such a sweetie and gave us plenty of chances for all of the attendees to step in and take their own versions of the shots we set up during the session:

And I loved that his family wanted to take a group photo with all of us at the end of our fabulous morning. Sigh…

After re-fueling on some food and re-grouping, we went out that evening for an urban-ish, outdoor lifestyle family photo shoot. I’ve known this mama for several years so it was a wonderful experience to get to see her with her family. What a dynamic group full of personality and love! We hunkered down inside the parking garage for a little bit and then braved the wind to get more images closer to sunset. It provided us with perfect opportunities to practice in all kinds of lighting situations.

How to use shadows and light to your benefit. And then, below, embracing full sun and making it work for you.

I’m pretty sure I teared up when this image came across the screen as we culled them following the session.

That sunflare…YESSSSS! And they were just so cute together!

Finally, on the last day, we were up much, much too early to catch an incredible (albeit, chilly) sunrise for our maternity model photo session. So fantastic walking around and observing the attendees who were able to take chances and discover new skills, practicing with different lenses and techniques. I was very impressed with the images they created for our models!

Here they are…the Pinkle Toes Workshop Class of Feb 2016:

Good looking group, no? And great personalities and energy to match. They made it a fantastic weekend for us all!

And now, please if you will, go on over to Missy Mayo – Dallas Family Portraits and check out her take on the workshop (that’s Missy up on the left, by the way 😉 Loved what she told me the other day about the Pinkle Toes Workshop:

I was warned that this workshop would ruin me for all other future workshops. It is true. Every aspect of being a photographer is covered – even the parts you don’t consider. I came home with a revived passion for my art and business and pages of ideas to try.

Every year, she steals my heart a little bit more. And she wins (again) on wardrobe ;-). Oh, and for my sweet Christmas present ;-).

I may have 2-3 openings left for the Kids-Only Holiday Mini sessions tomorrow. After that, it’s all over for 2015. The session + one digital file of your choice is FREE to all clients who book a full session for 2016. Please message us for more details and do so quickly before all the spaces are gone!

I know some little girls (and their “puppy”) who were rather excited we had a little “Snow Day” here in Austin a few weeks ago ;-).