I am beyond thrilled that we were able to work out this maternity photo session for her because LOOK at how gorgeous everything turned out to be! Seriously, her wardrobe choices were on point (Boho chic, defined!) and I’m pretty certain that little baby is going to be here any day now so thankfully, we were able to check this box in time ;-). I cannot wait to see who this new little person is! Love the color version of THIS image, too, BTW.

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 ;-).

The 5th Annual Pinkle Toes Kids-Only Holiday Mini sessions start THIS WEEKEND…I can’t believe it! I’m so excited about this set “Santa’s Workshop” and cannot thank Julie enough for her amazing design work and clever creativity. She blew me away and I so look forward to sharing this imagined world with all of the kiddos. We have a few openings left for this Sunday, I believe, and then a couple more for the first weekend of Dec. Please send in a session inquiry ASAP to find out more details!

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:

Lucky me, this was my second time getting to work with Courtney and her fam this year. We had our session date planned around the blooming of the “Blazing Star” AKA “Purple Gayfeather” out here by the Pinkle Toes Studio and let me tell you, we had it on the books for what seemed like a very, very long time. But of course, wouldn’t you know? This year, we got like 5 branches of these purple flowers and I was so afraid she would be bummed with the turnout.

Okay, maybe it was more than five ;-).

But the girls totally didn’t care. They were waaaaaaay into my chickens.

And making yellow flower bouquets for their mommy.

And just being all-around adorable.

Those three images of the two of them up there? I love, love, love them. Especially when they got photobombed by their girls. Bwa ha ha!

We also got to introduce everyone to the passion vine, which smelled soooooo delightful!

And then, the Texas version of fall (ie. if you don’t have a fall, you make one ;-). My FAV HERE.

I got apples as props for the girls to play with, but I had no idea how much they LOVED apples. They didn’t last very long as they were gobbled up rather quickly.

And, from Courtney:

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… My husband and I have two amazing little girls. Ava, who is 3.5, is our “princess” who loves to play dress up. She Liv just turned 2 and is our little tomboy who is adventurous and loves to climb on anything.
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? We planned this session close to Liv’s 2 year birthday and are already planning to schedule our next session 🙂
3) Where was your session held and why? We decided to do the session at Michele’s house. She has an amazing property with so many areas to shoot at.
4) What did you like about your session location? It was something different than we have done before and we just loved it out there! It was beautiful and rustic.
5) What was your favorite part of your session? I think my favorite part was when the girls were on the wooden swing. They had been excited about that swing from the moment we got there. The sun was setting at just the right moment and we were just having a good time and laughing.
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? Since working with Michele, I have never been nervous 🙂
7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? As soon as we showed up to Michele’s house, Ava “LOVED” everything about it. She literally kept telling not only Michele that she loved her, but she loved her “puter”, her camera, her house, her car, anything she saw. She was in la-la land and I loved that.
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? I think Michele does an awesome job at preparing you for your session. I also always talk a lot about the upcoming session and the fun place we are going to go and we talk about what we want to do or see during our session so that once we are there, they are excited about those things.
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? I absolutely LOVE Michele. As a photographer, I have admired her work and this is now our second time to shoot with her. I always look forward to the session and working with her. My girls are completely at ease and love playing with her. Michele is fun, laid-back and allows my girls to just be themselves and shoots as natural as possible which makes our time together less stressful and fun.
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? I know years down the road we will enjoy these photos as much if not more than we do today. I hope in years to come, we are sitting around our living room looking through them, laughing and telling stories about how much fun we had.

I’ve been lucky enough to hang out with Kelly in several different capacities many times over the past few years and let me tell you, you had better be ready to laugh when she’s around because she is unstoppable and you never know what she’s going to do or say to crack you up. I imagine that’s one of the many qualities that make her such a skilled family photographer herself.  So, the session started off perfectly enough…loving parents doting on their BEAUTIFUL, spunky daughter.

But then hints of their shared sense of humor started emerging: notice Kelly and her daughter are making the same face on the left up there? I did not tell them to do that. They just laid down together and looked at each other like this and I was like yup, the apple did not fall far at all ;-).

The “ice cream” I was talking about in the title of the post? Recognize it? Um. Me neither ;-). But lets just say that #1 there’s just no way to pull off a photo shoot involving ice cream on Labor Day in Texas and #2 this young lady is REALLY convincing with her cone, don’t you think? And yup…there’s more hilarious expressions again.

So Kelly’s dad was kind enough to drive out his GORGEOUS classic car for the final part of our session. I was trying to get serious photographs here, but Kelly just kept me giggling the whole time! The one on the right below? I had to be really fast to catch that one. You never know what Kelly is going to do next ;-).

And then, we just bathed in perfect light for a bit. Favity fav HERE.

SO glad to get the grandparents in here for a couple of pics at the end. SOOOOOOO cute!

In Kelly’s words:

Tell us a little bit about your family…

Jason & I have been married for 13 years and Natalie is our world. Over the last few months we’ve started a lifestyle change by eating healthier and squeezing in some exercise… and we both were excited for this session so it can capture the progress that we’ve made so far.

What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc?

Well… Fall is my FAVORITE time of year… the colors, the smells, the food, and just the big hug feeling you get from it all. Since I too am a photog and it’s our busiest time of year, I opted to aim for a bit of Fall, but before all my craziness sets in.

Where was your session held and why?

Our session was in a field outside of Austin… not really a special place to us, but I’ve always loved how the Texas roughage looks in pics especially at sunset. It always as some gypsy whimsy without distracting for the subject. I was also wanting a bit of old school nostalgia for this session. Since my dad collects and rebuilds old cars, it was only natural to use one for this vibe.

What was your favorite part of your session?

LOL… Me not having to shoot it!!! With being a photog, you’d think I would have TONS of pics with me in them and WITH my family… but I’m usually on the other side of the camera. I too also want the emotion and interaction with my family captured naturally without having to stage it and set a timer… or hope that my mom might actually keep it in focus, LOL.

Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session?

Yea… that the old car wouldn’t make it there!

Any advice to other families before their photo sessions?

YES…. All women should get their hair and make-up done!!! I did, and it was one less thing to stress over and helps you feel more perky pretty for when you’re infront of the camera!

What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography?

Because even though I still crave to have a boring traditional “everyone all looking and smiling at the camera shot”… I only need 1…. and the rest I love to leave it up to Michele in freezing our quirky selves.

What do you hope your family will say years down the road when looking at these images?

Awww… We actually do look good and like humans when we’re not sweating at the softball park!

I first met this mommy and daddy when that little baby up there was still in his mommy’s perfect little round tummy (see below). I knew two things instantly about them: 1) they were very much in love with one another and 2) they were going to be amazing parents. And when I got to hang out with them a few weeks ago to celebrate the arrival of their baby boy, those two things were still very, very evident. These are the kind of newborn sessions that I live for: pure, honest, raw emotion, love beyond words, a little bit of trepidation, but soooooo much wonder and amazement. The whole family is so natural in front of the camera and in their interactions with one another. I kinda wanted to just stay there all day and watch them adore their son. My personal favorite image is HERE.

Candid moment caught looking through his grandfather’s WWII medals and pins.

That eye contact!!! Wow!

Melt our collective hearts, why don’t you?

The focus so did not fall where I had originally intended, but I ended up keeping this version…it communicates to me without being so literal. I kinda dig it.

I was actually in the process of taking some closeups of the baby alone when I noticed the way mom and dad were watching over him and it was absolutely beautiful!

Speaking of beautiful, motherhood looks really good on her, doesn’t it?

The pupster, on the other hand, well, I’m not so sure how he feels about all this ;-).

And, since I hadn’t blogged the images from their maternity photo session a few months ago, please enjoy:

Soooooooooooooo sweet!

I had a visit from a beautiful baby girl and her parents a few weeks ago and thought I’d share because her outfits are true retro outfits worn by her mommy back in the day and I think that is really, really cool. She rocked them for her 4 month milestone session and I’m sure her mommy rocked them in the 70’s (I probably had some of these same outfits when I was growing up ;-). One of my favorite images can be seen HERE.

I honestly wasn’t 100% sure we were going to be able to squeeze in her maternity pics before she had the baby, but somehow, we got a last-minute break in the rains and they ventured out to the Pinkle Toes “studio” and braved mosquitoes and crazy humidity to make it happen. Her eyes are absolutely captivating and she could not have chosen a more perfect dress to show off that perfect baby bump! These two were so much fun together and I truly cannot wait to meet the new little one very, very soon. [Check out the amazing light in this pic HERE].