I never know what to expect when I’m working with a newborn baby + a sibling, but I must say that BOTH of these girls far exceeded our expectations for them at the photo session! I know mommy thinks that her eldest was running around like a crazy person the whole time (and yeah, that may have been true for a few minutes), but honestly, she was a joy and I really loved watching her dote on her baby sister. They are very lucky to have one another.

See another version of this POV of big sis peeking up HERE. Also love this adorable behind-the-scenes shot by mom HERE.

It was pretty funny because as usual, the minute we tried to work with the baby by herself, big sis wanted to be part of the action. And we let her. And it was precious!

I really loved this moment. My daughter sucked her thumb, so I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for thumb-sucking. But I think it’s the contrast between her being the big sister and comforting her baby sister while comforting herself that really drew me to this image above.

Look at baby sister’s eye contact!!! Priceless!

From Mom:

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… We’re a family of four now (I can hardly believe that!) with two little girls and our two crazy rescue pups. We live a pretty simple life here in Austin and spend our days cleaning up messes, tripping over toys, laughing, and wishing for more sleep, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? The arrival of our second daughter, Emily!
3) Where was your session held and why? Our home, because that’s where we spend most of our time and it’s where we’re most comfortable.
4) What did you like about your session location? We didn’t have to load everyone up and go somewhere and we could just be ourselves.
5) What was your favorite part of your session? Watching our oldest daughter, Elisabeth, love on her sister and laugh at Michele talking in a crazy voice behind the camera.
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? I wondered what kind of mood our daughter would be in that day and what on earth I was going to wear, since I’d just given birth a week before.
7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? Our daughter was running around like a crazy person in the background for half the session.
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Don’t worry about a thing. Just let Michele take the reigns and work her magic!
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? Michele is simply the best at what she does. She photographed the birth of our first daughter a few years earlier and those pictures absolutely mean the world to us.
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? I hope they will be grateful that we had the pictures taken and I hope they will see how much our girls mean to us.

If you’ve ever attended one of my lifestyle photography workshops  or if you’ve ever been a new parent talking to me about when might be the best time for your baby’s newborn session, you may have heard me go on and on about how much I LOVE working with older newborns. And this beauty featured here is a perfect example of the kind of images you can get when baby is around 7-9 weeks old. I love that she was so alert most of the session and was actually making eye contact with her family AND with the camera. And those smiles!!! It’s really fun to get that kind of feedback from a little baby. I was also really struck by how much she looks like her big sister. I just kept seeing her as a newborn over and over again. It was crazy!

She was really, really, really awesome with her baby sister. I think we were all amazed!

See what I mean about the eye-contact and beautiful smiles?

We snuck away to spend some time with big sis in her big girl room and it was precious to watch her play with her toys. They were having full on conversations. We don’t know what about, but it was pretty deep.

(Love. That. Book. It’s a classic in our house).

Ohhhh. those lashes. Those cheeks. Those lips. Sigh. THIS one might be my fav from the bunch.

I spy Pinkle toes 😉

At the very end of the session, as I was ready to leave, mama asked for a pic of her and the hubs together. After we shot the serious image, they surprised me with the high-five, celebrating a hugely successful photo session. Right on! They do make a wonderful team!

From mama:

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… We are a family of four! Scott and I have been married for 7 years and we have Blake Lynn, who will be three in August and we recently welcomed Blair Marie.
We love the current stage our little family is in and spend as much time as possible together.
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? We were celebrating Blair Marie joining our family 🙂
3) Where was your session held and why? Our home- so much easier with a newborn
4) What did you like about your session location? It’s our favorite place to be
5) What was your favorite part of your session? How cooperative Blake was, she was so happy to show off her baby sister
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? Tantrums! The last session we had was full of tears [but it still turned out pretty nicely ;-)]
7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? Blake loved the puppet that Michele brought along!
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Michele is the best, so you are in good hands and no matter what your toddler is like, she will capture absolutely precious memories
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? Michele is the best!
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? Look how little we/they were

I can’t quite put into words how I feel when I’m working with certain families. It’s just that sometimes (or luckily in my case, many times) you meet people and while you’re “working” you feel like family. You share in their joys and celebrate when wonderful things happen. And that’s just how it has been watching this family grow and I couldn’t be happier to meet their new beautiful baby girl!

Two things I want to mention about this lifestyle newborn photo shoot:

1. Yes, any time you are dealing with a young older sibling, you never know what’s going to happen. We must be very patient and very willing to go with the flow and by we, I mean myself + the parents. I really want to give credit to mom and dad on this one for being SO incredibly laid back and allowing their eldest daughter to just be herself, even down to the band-aid she insisted on wearing the entire time. I asked mom if she wanted me to take it out or leave it in when I was editing and I grinned ear-to-ear when she said to leave it in. YASSSSSS! She gets it! How wonderful to acknowledge this phase in her daughter’s life and having the foresight to commemorate it forever in photos. Excellent decision!

2. Along those lines, notice the gloves in the series of the sisters together? Well, we decided to give big sis a little break and focused on baby sis for a little while. I was concentrating so hard on photographing the baby that I freaked out a little bit when all of a sudden, these gloved hands appeared in my frame:

But once again, we decided to roll with it. If big sis wanted to be in the photos with her baby sister, I wasn’t going to stop her and nor were we going to try to take away the gloves ;-). Turns out, I believe she was merely copying me because I often wear gloves when working with newborns so my touch won’t startle them. I started laughing so hard when I got to these images in my camera roll during editing! I’m so glad we have them!

And now, from mom (by the way, my fav image from the session happens to be with her and her new baby girl, shot through the prisms of her chandelier which she worked so hard to put together for their new house):

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… We are a family of 5 counting our dog Lola. My lucky husband is surrounded by 4 girls; Myself, Lauren: 2.5 yrs, Marilyn: 5 weeks old and Lola: 6 yrs. We are a very active, loving, fun, silly, caring, kind and Christian family. We love to be outdoors and going all the time. We rarely stay home and we love spending time with our extended families.
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? Newborn photo session! Introducing Marilyn Rose Kalb, born March 13th.
3) Where was your session held and why? Our house; for convenience. 😉
4) What did you like about your session location? Convenient and comfortable
5) What was your favorite part of your session? Pictures of Marilyn Rose and Lauren
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? My 2.5 year olds compliance and getting her to focus. 🙂
7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? My daughter totally ruined her dress from the photo session right afterwards. Like hugged a pole with black tar on it and ruined the entire $75 dress. Stinks!
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Relax and enjoy cause you’re not in control of your kids’ photogenic outcome.
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? Michele’s amazing work
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? Sweet, silly and loving family.

…after having a son, it is such a beautiful blessing. I was so thrilled when I got the message that she had her baby and she was a SHE! I was so excited for her to experience the joys of having a daughter and to see what big brother would make of this new, sweet baby. She “performed” for her very first photo session (out of the womb 😉 flawlessly and I can tell how much she is loved and adored.

She actually smiled on her own a little bit when we first wrapped her up and we worked so hard to get her to smile again. Turns out, my favorite image from the session was not the cute smile above, but instead, the moment just before it happened HERE.

Double exposure experiment HERE.

And what could be more adorable than daddy + daughter adoring one another here?

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.

I had this post drafted and ready to go before this weekend and I was so wrapped up in our recent lifestyle photography workshop here in Austin (by the way, we only have two openings left for our last workshop!), I had to delay finishing the post until today :-(. You see, a few weeks ago, I got to spend the most beautiful morning with the most beautiful family celebrating a beautiful set of twin newborns! These babies were perfect angels throughout their entire session, causing fits of giggles over their expressions and perhaps a few tears when they would do something so precious. The interactions among all of the members of this family were priceless. There was an abundance of love visible throughout this photo session and I thought it was fitting to commemorate that with this little image HERE.

From the beautiful new mommy:

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… We are the Wallings- Keri, Greg, Graham and Whitney. Greg is an Austin native, we’re both loyal Longhorn fans (and proud UT alumni), and we’re so grateful for our bundles of joy, Graham and Whitney. G+W were born December 29, and have been making us smile ever since. Our first “baby” is Birdie, our cocker spaniel rescue.
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? This was our newborn session to capture our precious premies at this special stage. Our session was a gift from fellow Pinkletoes client Maya Pomroy and her family. Maya and Keri have been best friends for 10+ years, sharing many of life’s milestones together.
3) Where was your session held and why? In the comfort of our home, inside our newly-designed nursery.
4) What did you like about your session location? Being that we were at home, our session was casual, cozy and authentic. Loved it.
5) What was your favorite part of your session? Michele is awesome with babies. She makes even the tiniest people feel comfy in front of the camera. I choked back tears a few different times when I stepped back and watched the beauty of my twins interact. Michele caught all this precious moments on camera. Priceless.
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? Yes! With 4-week old babies, I was prepared for an all-out meltdown or spit-up!!! Ha! Everything unfolded beautifully. Michele was prepared and asked us to keep a pacifier handy, along with a blow drier (the magic bullet for white noise PLUS comfortable heat that makes the babies drowsy).
7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? full disclosure: as a new mom, I can’t remember for the life of me! Which is why I’m so excited to see these photos. They will help me jog my memory.
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Talk with Michele. She’s the pro. Trust her advice. She knows all the tips and tricks. Include your spouse. Greg had to work that day, but I asked him to join us that first hour, just for a few shots. I’m so glad he did. We got some beautiful family photos, and I cried watching him alone with the babies.
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? As I mentioned before, we received the generous gift of our newborn photos from my best friend. Pinkle Toes has been doing her family photos for years.
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? Oh, it’ll be so special, especially as twins. We’ll be able to look back and see that these little people loved each other and were each other’s best friends–even as infants.

I was lucky enough to kick off the Pinkle Toes Photography 2016 photo season with this BEAUTIFUL baby girl a couple of weeks ago! She was so perfect for her debut session, giving us the perfect blend of quiet alert (showing off her sparkly blue eyes), and then wrapping up with dozing off comfortably while her parents (and fur brother) snuggled up with her.

She does this again later on in our session. Sigh….adorable.

Puppy dog just couldn’t NOT be in the photos. Love that he sneaked in here for this shot ;-).

Check out that eye contact…and the hint of a smile, like, “Oh, dad…”

And is that  perfect little infant smile I see up there? Yes, yes it is!

See? Back to covering her face, lol.

Love, love, loved all of the great pops of color throughout the house!

A sweet necklace from her dad. Mommy has a matching one.

I told you she was perfect! And then my favorite shot from the day is HERE.

———

Note: as we gear up for the Pinkle Toes Lifestyle Photography workshops coming up the first weekends of Feb and Mar, it will probably get a little quiet on here. Busy, busy, busy making plans and tidying up loose ends. We have just a couple of openings left for each workshop, but if you’re considering Feb (which is more full), I would jump on that workshop as soon as possible because there is some pre-workshop homework that you’ll want to allow time for completion.

Of course, all that depends on IF I survive a rather big event for me this weekend ;-).

He enjoys spending time with is loving parents and hanging out with his furry older brother. He’s good a hockey and making adorable faces for the camera. He hopes one day to parlay that into a modeling career for little league hockey (okay, that’s probably not a thing) or baby diapers.

Seriously, is this little boy handsome or what? And he was totally charming throughout his entire session, giving us the perfect mix of adorable, snuggly, sleepy pics and then some incredible eye contact with the camera, polished off with a great series of funny and adorable expressions.

I have many favorites from this session, so it was hard to choose. I decided to highlight my favorite moment instead…there was a time when I was watching mom and dad work so well together as a team changing him on the floor of his nursery. He was quite patient through the whole process and I remembered the early days after having my first baby and how incredibly nervous and slow and clumsy I was changing my son. It’s such a unique little window you get into this world, watching parents figure out how to be parents. I do not take that for granted.

I will never forget getting a phone call from him excitedly telling me that he was planning to propose to his girlfriend and wanted to surprise her with an engagement photo session with me. I was amazed that he would even think to do something like that ;-). And I will never forget hearing that they eloped in Norway…how wonderful it was to have celebrated their love like that…and to do something so exciting and beautiful. And, I will never forget that email from Alissa telling me that she was expecting!!! I shrieked out loud several times before I was able to write her back. I will never forget how beautiful she looked when they came out to the studio for some maternity photos. I will never forget hearing that he was finally here and how quickly and how early he decided to join his family the day after Thanksgiving!

And, I will never forget the way they all looked together as a family on this day I got to visit them.

It has been quite a journey over these two years and it has been a privilege to watch it through my lens. These two are wonderful parents (no surprises there) and their little guy is just the happiest, most content, most peaceful little baby. I am so very glad he came early enough to spend the holidays with his mommy and daddy.  It is so, so magical to relish this time of year with a newborn baby. The best gift anyone could possibly imagine!  {My favorite image HERE}.

Congrats again, you three. You are absolutely beautiful together!

He cooperated so perfectly for his newborn photo session! I was so surprised at how quickly it went and kept thinking surely we forgot something, but nope. He was just completely content…slept peacefully for the first half and then woke up to show off his adorable smile and DIMPLES in the second half. Interesting story: his mommy started having contractions the morning the moving trucks showed up at their old house to move them into the new house. All day long, they moved as her labor kept progressing. Last box unloaded, off to the hospital they went and he was born that evening! Isn’t that crazy?!? To represent that big day, we took THIS ;-).

And also, here’s a short trip down memory lane to the maternity photo session we did out here at the studio not too long ago: