I feel like this family is my family. We’ve been working together since before big sis was even born. I remember each session vividly. Baby sister’s newborn session, however, has been my fav so far. It was so relaxed. Mom and dad have settled into parenthood so gracefully…with so much love. It just radiates in this family. It’s obvious that mom and dad have been wonderful role models because big sis completely adores her little sister. (My personal fav from this newborn session is HERE).

Very soon after our photo session, big sis got very, very sick.  It broke my heart to read about her hospital stay…thinking about how her mommy must have felt caring for a newborn and worrying so much for her eldest daughter…thinking about how her daddy had to stay by her side in the hospital and keep everything together for his family. She is fully recovered now and they are finally all back together under one roof. I hope I know they are all very much cherishing their time together right now.

I never got a chance to blog their maternity session…a time before they even knew they were having another little girl (I envy families that can keep it a surprise until birth). Oh, this morning was soooooooo hot and muggy, but I’ll take that beautiful light any day…

(My personal fav from their maternity session is HERE.)

The Back-to-School mini sessions were nothing short of incredible! Even after shooting *all* day, I left Gro yesterday with a spring in my step, a huge smile on my face, and my heart full of joy–joy for the fact that everyone donated SOOO many school supplies to our school supply drive (this image doesn’t even come close to showing everything that was donated); joy because I was lucky enough to reconnect with an old college roommate whom I hadn’t seen for well over a decade; joy because I just spent the last several days working side-by-side w/ my mom; joy because I got to meet so many new clients; and joy because I got to see so many of my past clients. Thank you isn’t enough, really. I’m so looking forward to turning this into an annual tradition and making it bigger and better every year. Mark your calendars, everyone. August is going to be Back-to-School month for Pinkle Toes from now on!

But for now, I have a TON of e-mail and proofing and laundry and snuggles to catch up on, so thank you so much in advance for your patience as I start to return back to the real Pinkle Toes world ;-).

So I asked him if he wanted to take a look at this book. He said yes. And then, he very deliberately put on his reading glasses…all on his own…while his mommy and I tried to stifle our giggles. Seriously? Um yes.

We were *very* lucky to get a nice little break in the rain–just long enough to let us get through the past three days of Back-to-School Mini Sessions. And I have to admit, I pretty proud of our technology setup out here in the middle of the Texas wilderness while doing these shoots. I kinda feel like we’ve got our own Apple store going here (as in computers, but pun somewhat intended). However, all the technology in the world couldn’t save us from two big downfalls of the downpours:

1. Mud. And lots of it. So much so, my van got stuck and had to be towed yesterday. Lovely.
2. Bugs. And lots of them. So much so, my legs look like one great big giant welt. Lovely.

But when you have light like this? Well, there’s nothing a tow truck and some calamine can’t fix 😉

I probably get more nervous when I photograph a repeat family…repeatedly (I can’t find the links to all of the sessions right now, but I think this makes 5). I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to come up with something new and innovative and exciting and different. What I tend to forget is that families are constantly changing and therefore, any session with them is going to be new and exciting and different by the very nature of it. This is one of those sessions that will go down in my memory as perfect.

The children were perfect, mom and dad were perfectly happy, the weather was amazing, and everyone seemed to fall into the good light without even trying. My favorite part of this session, though, was not captured “on film.” It was the 30 min. or so I stayed after we had finished taking pictures to listen to the oh-so-amusing story of how these two met and fell in love. I think I could have stayed all morning just listening to the two of them reminisce and watching their eyes sparkle as they told their stories. Thank you for that moment, guys. It was a wonderful memory for me.

P.S. Those little toes you see peeking out from behind mom/dad’s arms w/ the peach stripe shirt on my home page slideshow? Those are his. 😉

P.P.S. My personal fav HERE.

When it comes to a cake smash to celebrate a baby’s very first birthday, it’s always fifty/fifty. Some babies dig into the cake, some babies won’t have anything to do with it. This baby, however, loved.every.second.of.it.

And it just so happened to work out perfectly that we were able to do a little “pool” session outside to help clean her up after all of the cake hoopla! {Be sure to check out my FAV image…loved the look on her face when she tasted the cake for the first time.}

So when his mommy told me that he was on the move and full of energy, I thought, “That’s cool. I can handle that.” But see that little sweaty-boy-head? Trust me, Nina and I probably had it 10x worse trying to keep up with him, LOL! I like a challenge, though, and I like having to think on my feet and move quickly to capture what I’m seeing and anticipate what I’m about to see, so thanks, little man, for making sure we were on our toes!

This was session #2 of my one-on-one photography coaching session w/ Nina from Singapore. So funny how Austin was in this long, horrible dry spell until all of a sudden, I need to be shooting outdoors and then it decides to POUR! Lucky us, we had a small break in the storms this evening. Lucky us, the rain cooled things off a bit and provided a bit of a reward for us all at the end of our session.

Behind-the-scenes:

And one more here.

After our busy day of shooting and talking and all things photography, Nina and I treated ourselves to a fab dinner at Chuy’s (she had never had Tex-Mex before!). As we were pulling into the restaurant, the sun came out and we had the most wonderful light. Couldn’t resist:

Isn’t she purdy?