Okay, okay. Technically, I am “closed” (see last post about that), buuuuuuut, I feel very compelled to pop on here quickly to say THANK YOU to Lena, Annette, and ALL of New Jersey and north east coast attendees for an incredible workshop! In spite of our challenges–well, really, the only challenge and that was the RAIN (ugh)–everyone was patient and funny and eager to learn and gave 110% to their workshop experience. And our models were pretty phenomenal, too.

From one of the attendees:

DO IT!!!! Seriously. If you are considering any workshop — Pinkle Toes is not only extraordinarily informative, but it gave me a new found belief in my ability to run a strong photography business. You will have so much inspiration and instantly feel connected with a new group of amazing photographers!

Yup. She about summed it up regarding the group of amazing photographers. Wow! I cannot wait until I get a chance to collect all of their shots and show off their work in a real blog post soon. I promise, when I get some more time, there are many, many, many more images and thoughts on this workshop to come.

Meanwhile, I am putting the pedal back to the medal to get ready for the upcoming lifestyle photography workshops being held at my house in Austin, TX in early July. After that, we hit the road for southern California (Cardiff-by-the-sea), then northern California (Mendocino), and finally Washington State (Olympia). We have just a couple of spaces open for each of those workshops and after that, there are no more workshops for 2014. Very much looking forward to what these next few months hold in store and meeting all of these new photographers all over the country!

I did have a bit of deja vu coming back to do baby brother’s newborn photo session. Even though we were in a different house, the resemblance to his older brother as a newborn baby was just uncanny! The timing was pretty cool as I happened to show up during a visit from out of town grandparents. Love those side-by-side shots of dad+baby and grandad+baby. Again…those resemblances are uncanny! Baby brother was pretty much unfazed by anything we did that afternoon, lol. Love this shot of his little folded/tucked hand, too. I hope his mommy had a wonderful Mother’s Day snuggling with her two adorable sons!

When my sister had to check into the hospital due to PPROM–quite literally the day after her baby shower and and just one day shy of 25 weeks–the time was so tenuous. Pretty much all of her pregnancy has been tenuous and full of worry and fear. Not knowing how much longer she would be able to carry the babies, we did a few quick pictures of her beautiful belly as best we could in her hospital room. Love how Uncle Chad expertly covered the IV’s and hospital bracelets ;-).

My sister has been in/out of hospitals since January and spent every.single.day cooped up in a hospital here in Austin for the last FORTY days and counting. Really. Incredible. And things are still going well, girls are still getting stronger. These chickadees have made it PAST 28 weeks (a magical milestone) and PAST 30 weeks! They are so amazing! And lest we forget to thank Uncle Chad, who has taken diligent care of his wife while working full time and trying to maintain the house. Yup. This family is full of fighters…in a good way.

Oh, I can’t wait to meet these girls and let them know how proud we are of them. And of their parents. Not much longer, my friends. We could welcome them safely any day now and that is in an amazing place of happiness to be in right now. Sigh…

All this to say, I have joined in our family’s team for March of Dimes in Austin this May. While Jen’s babies are doing well and we don’t know when they’ll be born yet, we are much too aware of how many babies are born prematurely and the immeasurable challenges they face because of it. If you have just a few minutes and few dollars to spare, I would be so grateful if you would consider sponsoring me in the walk.

xoxo,

Me

I already knew these guys were awesome parents when I first worked with their family back when their eldest was a few months old. And now they are awesome parents to two sweet, beautiful little boys. I totally dig their style and laid-back nature. We had such a fun time at baby N’s newborn session…he made the cutest little faces! I love that we wore big bro out, too  ;-). Check out my FAV photo HERE and then my close 2nd HERE!

Side note: Clients and future clients – may I highly recommend getting a professional to do your hair/makeup for your photo session like this mommy did? Katie at Modern Muse Beauty does a fantastic job and honestly, it takes SO much pressure off of you before your session. Especially if you have small children…especially for a newborn session when you are trying so hard to get ready AND get a little one ready AND you are running on zero sleep. You can book her HERE – just select Pinkle Toes Session as the service needed and Katie will get in touch with you.

I love it when I get the chance to work with families year after year and follow how they and their children grow and change. Since before even big sister was born, I’ve photographed this beautiful family, and now they’ve added a sweet little red-headed angel to their nest. Congratulations, you guys! She’s so perfect! [See one of these images with a change in focus HERE.]

It has been such a pleasure to follow their family through expecting #2 and now all the way through the arrival of #3. They are so blessed with three adorable children and take everything in stride. I know life isn’t always easy with three littles, but they sure do an excellent job of parenting with grace and love. A big congrats to you two on your beautiful family of FIVE! (You can see their most recent pregnancy portraits HERE). Another version of the bassinet image HERE.

I am pretty certain you will recognize this gang from my blog over the years. Funny enough, a few days after we finished up THIS session, I got the cutest text from Tracy:

So, I guess that was a maternity session you just did.

Aughhhhhhhhhh! How incredibly exciting that they were going to add another to their photogenic and loving little brood. They are such amazing parents and it was so touching to see how little man’s big brother and sisters doted on him non-stop. LOVED this family pic HERE and this ONE is probably my fav from the session.

Thank you again, Tracy, for this wonderful honor. I could not be happier for you guys!

It’s good to pass the time in the hospital right now with putting together blog posts featuring adorable little babies. Like this lil’ nugget for example. He was such an angel the whole session and I adored his great array of fun expressions. He might not be good at poker, but he could very well become an actor! Still lovin’ this one  of him and his mommy, too.

Note: If you haven’t been following, I am currently with family in Houston to help provide support to my sister and her babies. Please understand if I am not able to return e-mails or phone calls quickly. Right now, time is pretty limited and I squeeze in a few things here and there. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and very happy, happy thoughts. I think they must be doing something 🙂

I worked with her brother when he was just a wee babe 6 years ago and it was such a blessing to get to work with her now! Is there anything better than seeing the bond between a big bro and his baby sister? Reminded me so much of how my oldest was when his baby sister was born. Another fav of mom and daughter HERE.

In spite of what my daughter might have everyone at her preschool believing, it was NOT to photograph Michelle Obama ;-). But it was close ;-). A looooong time ago, I had a session scheduled here in TX for none other than Rachel Brenke–author and The Law Tog. Right before we were scheduled to do her session, she found out she was expecting, so we decided to wait a little bit and make it a maternity session. Fast forward a few months after that and it turns out, she had to move to NoVa! Amazingly, we were able to work it out so that I could come up there (during busy season, even) and I’m sooooooo glad we worked it out.

She coordinated her session so beautifully…not surprising since she’s a photographer. And I can’t even believe we were able to get all four of her children in the same frame! This precious baby boy is fitting in quite nicely with his family and he is obviously very loved. It was amazing how he was equally alert and sleepy. He made me look like I had planned it that way ;-).

Now, I hesitate to post the next series of images because Rachel *might* kill me, but I’m just gonna go with it. I present to you, the many faces of Rachel Brenke:

Hmmmmm. Even when she’s making a silly face, she’s still adorable. Now how does she manage that????

And on that note, I leave you all to have a Happy Happy Happy Thanksgiving! I’m not going to dwell on all of the things that have gone wrong this year and instead, I will be more thankful than I’ve ever been in my life for my family, my friends, my health and their health.

XOXO,
Michele