Attention Class of 2026! If you are graduating high school or college in the Austin area, it is neither too early nor too late to have your Senior Portraits taken! January and February are actually incredible months to check this important To Do off your list. Why?

1. “Busy season” for most photographers is over, so we can give you our full energy to creating unique senior portraits that capture your authentic personality.
2. It’s before 2nd “busy season” begins (springtime in Austin). This is an especially great time to work in more urban and developed areas in Austin (like our session above on South Congress). You don’t have to wait around for leaves and grass and plants to reappear.
3. With the exception of a few days here and there, the temps are usually pretty mild and humidity is low. You won’t need to worry about insects, sweating, or hair misbehaving.
4. It’s early enough to have your finished images back in time for graduation announcements!

The above senior photo session was so memorable! I LOVED that she wanted to show off all sides of her very dynamic personality. She wasn’t afraid to be bold and colorful…be it in the outfits she put together or in her mid-session makeup change. The entire time we explored South Congress with her and her mom, it felt so energizing and exciting! These are not your run-of-the-mill “Senior Portraits,” which is perfect because she’s not a run-of-the-mill kind of person.

I very much encourage everyone who is having a photo shoot done (for any occasion) to prepare your vision for the session with your photographer ahead of time (just like she did), but then embrace flexibility for new visions and ideas to crop up as we are inspired. That really is the key to any successful photo session: plan and prepare and then prepare for that plan to change and grow during the shoot. Her willingness to collaborate with me and let the session evolve allowed for a palpable creative flow state among all three of us that morning!

If you are ready to start planning your senior portrait session with me, let’s talk soon!

The Pinkle Toes elves are back at it again, busy creating a warm, cozy, inviting set for our “Holiday Chalet.” The 13th Annual Kids-only Holiday Minis and Toy Drive will be held at a gorgeous, cabin-like retreat in Central Austin (make note of the earlier dates this year). As always, the only way to snag this FREE mini session for your child(ren) is by booking a session for 2025. If you’ve never experienced a Pinkle Toes session, this is a perfect way for us to get to know each other while also creating adorable holiday photos of your kid(s). Or, if you haven’t had a Pinkle Toes session in a while, this is a great opportunity to come back and see what’s changed. Everyone who brings an unwrapped toy to their mini for our annual toy drive will receive an additional free file! I say it every year, but these holiday minis are always a hit and a sure way to help everyone get into the holiday spirit! Please drop a line to learn about the 2025 session options and score this coveted mini session for your child(ren). Openings will fill up quickly!

Here are some images from last year’s sessions to give you an idea of the kind of images we get at the minis:

Sometimes, you just get overcome with the need to create and when you are able to connect that need with people who 1000% get your vision for what you want to create, MAGIC happens!!! I left this session physically exhausted but mentally buzzing with joy at what we painted with light and sparkle that day. I was so grateful to these two (and their family) for trusting me to do just do whatever I wanted and being able to instantly set the tone and embody the glam that we were hoping to capture. Definitely one of the most unique (and somehow also very Austin) senior portrait sessions I’ve ever gotten to do!!!

I am quite possibly in denial that Senior Portrait Season is in full swing here…probably because I have a senior myself this year. But I am LOVING meeting and working with all of these amazing young people who have more confidence and talent than I ever had at their age! I still have some openings left for March or April if you’re graduating this spring (Class of 2022) from a school in Austin, Pflugerville, Round Rock, Georgetown, Westlake, Lake Travis or anywhere in the surrounding areas. I am fully booked up for May, though, so don’t wait! Or, if you are in the Class of 2023, reach out and we can talk about having your senior photo session during some down time this summer. My contact form isn’t working right now, so just send an email to info@pinkletoes.com.

I promise this will be the last time I will make this disclaimer, but from here on out, please consider every post of my blog to be jumbled and out of order and reflective of how memories just swirl around in my brain. I’m just going to post sessions as they come to me…as they re-inspire me…as I wish to re-live them. I was drawn to the colors and the repeated symbols of love and connection in this particular session. Plus, I really dig these people and am so grateful to have watched these girls grow up.

I first had the pleasure of working with Georgia when her baby brother was first born and now we are celebrating the start of her Senior year in high school and neither her mom nor I can quite really grasp that just yet. What I *can* grasp is the fact that Georgia has always been a caring, responsible, mature, absolutely stunning young lady and that will serve her well as she begins her adult life very soon. But in the mean time, I truly hope she squeezes out every ounce of joy and fun from her Senior year and takes a little time to reflect and enjoy it. She deserves it!

August 4-6 and 11-13, 2017

at the Pinkle Toes Studio in Manor, TX

SO thrilled to be bringing the Back to School mini portrait sessions after FIVE years!!! And I’m loving this vintage, classic classroom set! We’ll be indoors (yay!) so we’ll be a bit more flexible on the session times. I will contact you after booking to help you finalize your date and time and provide wardrobe advice. You only need to book one session for your child(ren) and you will have the option to purchase additional files if you choose after you see the unedited proofs. Due to the nature of these mini sessions, fees are non-refundable and not transferrable to another session.

These two gorgeous and kind and intelligent young ladies are recent (well…one is soon-to-be recent) high school grads and while they live in two different states, they have actually been incredibly close friends since they were super little. In fact, I think their birthdays are just a few weeks apart? It was really something special to get to photograph them AND their mommies together (who have been best friends all this time as well) as we all explored downtown Austin and strolled along South Congress. One mother/daughter pair had flown in super late the night before and thanks to storms in the forecast, we had to do our session at sunrise the very next morning. Wow, they sure were troopers up for this adventure with only a few hours of sleep the night before! Way impressed!!! Favity fav HERE!

It’s yet another one of those bittersweet moments when I realize I’ve been working with these children since before two of them were even born. Their family photo session this spring was a pretty big milestone as they were marking the time before their firstborn leaves for college and I honestly get choked up just thinking about that…not only for his mom and dad, but for myself as I know I’m going to be facing that in just a few short years. I don’t know why I did this to myself, but I went back and looked through images from some of their earlier sessions and gah! It was heart wrenching to see how quickly the time has passed and how much these kids have grown–in particular the eldest three (as they were the ones I met first all those years back). I think mom and dad should be incredibly proud of the super people that have raised/are raising and their baby birds leaving the nest, one by one, are going to be super grown ups. [Random fav image HERE…she reminds me of Lana Del Rey for some reason].

Side note: if you are going to be visiting Austin and need a place to stay, might I suggest their awesome red barn???

They may not realize it, but I teared up several times during this photoshoot for these two sisters in the stunning Texas bluebonnets. I couldn’t help but to think how lucky these two are to have one another and how lucky I am to have my own sister so close to me. The older sister is getting ready to graduate and go to college and both of their worlds are going to change so much. But at least they’ve had their childhood together and I hope that they will continue to maintain their precious bond well into adulthood and beyond. THIS pic was a special request by their mommy and I knew I was going to love it the second I took it. How did the light know to form that halo around their heads together like that?

And what do you know? Turns out today is National Siblings Day!