For the past couple of years, this family has graciously traveled to Austin for their family photo session, but this year, seeing as how they welcomed the “caboose” of their family, it was my turn to pay them a visit when I was in Houston last month. It was pretty cool to see that this very colorful mama has an equally colorful home, FILLED with happy pictures of her bubbly family! She is such an inspiration to any photographer who also happens to be a mom because oftentimes, we are so busy taking care of printing everyone else’s photos that we don’t take the time to print our own. I should have taken pictures of her displays because wow! She did an amazing job creating them.

Of course, the real star of the photo session was their brand new baby boy. He. Was. So. Good. I guess he is already pretty used to his brother and sisters bouncing around him and he wasn’t phased one bit by our little photo shoot. He fits in perfectly and it’s quite impressive that his older siblings have welcomed him with such love and affection. By the way, how anyone can look that good after just having had her FOURTH child is beyond me. Like I said, an inspiration!!

While I know this photo session was about baby boy, THIS might have been my favorite little moment.

Most of my days are spent photographing families in Austin, but every now and then, I get the chance to work someplace new. This time, it happened to work out that I would be in downtown Houston just in time for a photo session with these kids and their parents and it.was.awesome! After spending most of their days in suburbia, their family snagged an amazing condo overlooking downtown Houston, with an incredible park as their backyard. Well done! While I was a tad nervous navigating traffic to get there, it was such a privilege to get to follow them around while exploring downtown Houston and I’m so glad we decided to hold their family session there instead of trying to make Austin work.

And how about that view from the kids’ bedroom???? Yeah. When I first arrived I knew that I absolutely wanted to end our photo session there at sunset. Bingo! (Another fav from that last series HERE).

Let me start by saying that Mendocino is no easy drive up from San Francisco. While the Google Maps says it takes 2.5 hrs or so, it’s more along the lines of 4+ hours considering all of those windy mountain roads. Thank goodness our amazing hostess Melody White Studios gave us plenty of warning about that and we were all equipped with sea sick bands and Dramamine ;-).

Every inch of that windy road was totally worth it as my breath was completely taken away when we pulled up to the house that night just in time to catch the most incredible sunset over the Pacific. I mean it was something else and thank goodness we managed to see it that night because the sun pretty much disappeared into a very thick fog for the rest of our stay there (pics below).

It was a small, intimate group for our little workshop, but that ultimately tied right into the cozy little theme we had going on in Mendocino. I mean, how lucky were we to get to do some serious workshop discussions in a hot tub overlooking the ocean??? (And yes, Miss E is probably going to kill me for posting that pic up there, but I can’t help it. It was just so cool!).

As with all of the workshops, the first official photo session was the in-home lifestyle newborn demonstration. Loved meeting this family and check out “Crying is for Babies” below. Classic!!!

That afternoon, we drove out of the fog to get to spend time with a SUPER DYNAMIC family (the sister of our hostess) feeding pics, playing in the sunshine, collecting chicken eggs, dancing to records, and playing music. It was perfection!

Don’t miss their not do American Gothic 😉

The next morning, we explored downtown Mendocino, which quite honestly, looks like something out of a fairytale book. The flowers…oh the flowers!! And the houses and storefronts are like little cottages. I really wish I had the chance to go back and explore and shop more because it was truly a beautiful place. Our maternity models were so stunning, don’t you think? And, they even stayed extra long so we could take them out on that amazing arch (it looks scary, but the walkway is actually quite wide and safe ;-). The fog actually worked in our favor as we were able to shoot much longer than full sunlight would have normally allowed.

And now, back to the lovely home which welcomed us with open arms in Mendocino:

Magical house. Just magical and I am so thankful we got to experience its charms. Like I said HERE, Mendocino is like no other place on earth. And maybe someday, you can stay in this cozy house yourself (HERE).

Thank you, Melody, for a BEAUTIFUL time in Mendocino and to the attendees for making this workshop absolutely amazing! Also, a very special thank you to Aderyn–those little touches you put onto everything you do just have a way of making things seem so magical and heartfelt. For a little eye-candy and continued look at life in Mendocino, you might want to start following her on Instagram ;->

And most importantly, check out Emily from Pure Light Photography and her beautiful images from the Mendocino workshop!

I’m not even sure how to put into words the experience my family and I had this summer on the west coast. I guess I’ll try to break it down by each of the three lifestyle photography workshops I did along the coast and then come back to blog about what we did as a family. So let’s start with Cardiff-by-the-Sea in southern California. This group of ladies was so fun and up for anything. The first night, we got to venture out to the beach so I could take their headshots (all the way at the bottom of this post) and we could dip our toes in the ccccccccold waters of the Pacific Ocean (I had NO idea how chilly the water was compared to the Gulf of Mexico out here, lol).

After staying up all night covering all of the standard workshop stuff about preparing for sessions and equipment, etc. (oh, did I mention we did much of this discussion in the amazing hot tub by a fire at the house?), we got up early the next morning to head out to our first official photo session of the weekend: the in-home lifestyle newborn photography demonstration. We could not have asked for a more laid back, perfectly California cool family with which to work. And I mean, look at little guy’s hair? It just doesn’t get any better than that!

Later that afternoon, I had the long-awaited privilege of photographing my wonderful photographer friend with Caroline Martin Photography in Carlsbad, CA. I’ve “known” Caroline for several years now (she is a Pinkle Toes Photography Workshop graduate) and she also served as our amazing hostess for this workshop in Cardiff. We got to work in Caroline’s home…the place where she brought her boys home from the hospital after they were born…the place that they love and have grown up in. SO many memories there!!! It was rich with love and happiness. I teared up so many times while editing this session because Caroline radiates joy in all things she does…especially when she is around her family. She is a talented, vibrant, determined, energetic person and I feel very lucky to know her:

The next morning, we had to get up at sunrise (which is BRUTAL on the west coast) to practice all of the techniques and skills we covered on this gorgeous couple, who at the time, were expecting their third baby:

Workshops are always equally exhausting, inspiring, and cathartic…this one was no exception and the attendees who choose to attend a Pinkle Toes Workshop truly give it its own personality. Here are some of those personalities:

As always, I’m excited to follow along in this workshop blog circle to get all of their perspectives and see the images the attendees took for the very first time. Follow along with me! Next up is Brittany Lynn Portraits all the way from Milwaukee, WI!

Almost a year ago exactly, I met this mommy when she attended my lifestyle photography workshop in Toronto, Canada. She didn’t even live in Canada…she was from Minnesota. But just a short time after that workshop, she learned she would be moving to Seattle, WA. We decided to get together when I was there to do another workshop this summer. It was so surreal because as I was messaging her regarding our photo session location in Seattle, I noticed the last texts we had were from a year ago talking about our visit to Niagara Falls! I mean, how crazy is that???

What a JOY to experience this incredible beach in Seattle with their family! The views at Discovery Park are simply incredible and if the traffic/parking wasn’t such a beast, I would probably go there every night to watch the sunset behind the lighthouse. And these little doll babies! They have such a wonderful sense of adventure and explored every nook and cranny we could find at the beach that night. Don’t miss this image not pictured.

You might notice a pretty gnarly strawberry on baby girl up there. Man…she took quite the tumble and I was worried that was going to be the end of our session right then and there. But she sucked it up (for a little bit) and let us finish the night out working in some of the most romantic, perfect, lovely dresses EVER! And then, Jennifer happened to notice me looking longingly at the sunset, that dress, and my little girl and SO graciously told me I could borrow the dress for a couple of shots with Amry (here’s one with my iphone). It might seem like such a simple thing, but I think only a fellow photographer like her would truly understand that kind of longing and read my mind before I even knew to ask. Thank you for that, my friend. That will go down as one of my favorite memories from the trip.

And so now, back in Austin, I gotta say I quite enjoyed proofing this photo session because not only did I get to revisit this family, but I also got to relive one of the many awe-inspiring sunsets we experienced this summer on the west coast.

Austin kids photography

It’s going to take some getting used to, this thing called “back to school” and living on a schedule here in Austin. It’s going to take some getting used to blogging again as well. It was certainly the most magnificent, incredible, exhausting summer of my entire life and I think we are all still recovering from being on the road so long. I know I will be equally excited and saddened to start this process of blogging about everything we did and everywhere we went this summer. Going through our pictures will mean it’s truly over and I’m not ready to face that just yet.

For now, I’m going to blow the dust off the blog and work backwards for a little bit. I know I’ve missed blogging several families that I worked with this summer and I *will* get them up here eventually. But today, let’s start with my photographer friend Angela with PB Kisses Photography in sunny California. Angela was a past lifestyle photography workshop attendee not to long ago and I was so amazed we were actually able to work out a maternity session while I was in southern California this summer to document this pregnancy for her caboose joining the family soon ;-).

Things you should know about this session:

1. Big bro and big sis up there? They are going to be AMAZING to their new baby. No. Doubt.
2. Angela is funny. Like really funny. I like that. She’s also really talented. And I like that as well.
3. There were like a bazillion people on this beach and in the water and I don’t get that. Coming from the WARM waters of the Gulf Coast, the “warm” Pacific is not so warm along the California coast. Or maybe I’m just a wimp?
4. I did this session within just a few hours of first setting foot in the great state of California. Way to dive in head first, huh?

Angela, you can be sure I’m going to look you up if I’m ever in your neck of the woods again and I want to get to hang with you in a non-business environment. Well, maybe after I snuggle on that new little one first?

In just a few days, we are kicking off the Pinkle Toes 2014 summer workshop tour in Ridgewood, NJ! And from there, it’s going to be a whirlwind for the rest of the summer: back to Austin, Texas and then hitting southern California, northern California, and Olympia, Washington over the course of a few weeks. Ridgewood and the 2nd Austin workshop are sold out, but we have some openings for the other dates if you want to check that out here.

Meanwhile, my blog and my e-mail are going to be quiet for a bit as I focus (pun intended) on providing amazing workshop experiences for the attendees. You will be able to follow our adventures on Facebook and Instagram, so stay in the loop ;-).

See ya this fall!

~Michele

If you had told me 8 years ago that I would be in New York City photographing an amazing family, I would have told you no way possible. But a few weeks ago, I had just that experience and the whole time, I felt like someone needed to pinch me to wake me from this dream come true. Now, it wasn’t easy working in such a bustling place, but I am so grateful to one of my best friends Lena with Live, Love, Laugh Photos in Ridgewood, NJ for pushing me to stretch my creative limits and most importantly, for rekindling a love for a city I thought I had lost years ago.

I was planning to be in the area for the 2nd Annual Pinkle Toes Photography Workshop Reunion in the great city of New York (post on that AMAZING time coming soon), and Lena and I had this photo session planned for quite sometime. But of course, the day we were supposed to shoot, it poured…and I mean POURED down rain causing flooding in many areas. So, we nervously pushed the photo session toward the end of my stay in NYC and anxiously eyed the weather for the 4 days leading up to the shoot.

We juggled our schedules as much as we could to dodge the storms, but that caused a bit of a problem because we had to shoot on the Brooklyn Bridge (which was incredible) in FULL sun at one of the busiest times you could imagine. I think we were pretty lucky to get shots without too many “extras” in the scene and I feel fortunate to have survived taking my life into my own hands shooting while standing in the bike lane on the bridge. For those of you who aren’t familiar with traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, just be warned that you *will* get run over if you stand in the bike lane ;-).

We were armed with plenty of umbrellas and rain boots in case of run, but wouldn’t you know it, when a random storm did blow in during the session, our little umbrellas could do nothing to save us from the crazy winds that came along with it. It was quite comical trying to manage the kids and the umbrellas and my not-waterproof camera equipment.

But in spite of all of the factors working against us that day, there’s one thing that people and traffic and wind gusts couldn’t take away: my friend Lena’s ear-to-ear grin. Let me tell you, she looked so happy. She was completely ecstatic to get to have her family photos taken in places where years and years ago, she and her then fiancée would dream of one day having a family. Their relationship is pure, unabandoned romance that time has only enriched with each year and each adventure they take on together and their twin daughters are incredibly blessed to have such fine examples of what moms and dads can be.

And those girls…oh those little giggle boxes! They embrace their lives with the same joy as their parents and they are so well traveled and well-adjusted to both the suburban and metropolitan lifestyles.

The icing on this cake is that in just a couple of weeks, I get to hang with them AGAIN as Lena is hosting the next Pinkle Toes Photography workshop in her town of Ridgewood, NJ! We actually have one opening that has cropped up recently, so if you want more info on the workshop, send me a note via THIS PAGE. Lena…I feel so fortunate that I get to hang with you and your family again, my dear, and thank you for this unfathomable opportunity to work with you in New York City!