Archive for 'Announcement'
Aug 06, 2012
Let’s create the most unique school portrait your child may ever have and do something to give back to Austin at the same time!! I’m incredibly excited to be able to offer these sessions both at the Pinkle Toes Studio (outdoor set) and inside Gro Boutique at the Hill Country Galleria (if you haven’t been there to shop…oh, you must!). I’ve been working for MONTHS on the set and props…just wait until you see it all. Please contact me for full details (photogs…please use my photographer form if you are asking questions not related to scheduling a session):
Aug 02, 2012
You should be. But…if you have a child age 3+ in the Austin or surrounding area, you might want to go ahead and block out some time in your calendar August 17-21st. I’ve got something that I think is going to be OH SO FUN in the works and you will probably want to take advantage of it. Details on the blog very, very soon. That is all.
Jul 24, 2012
This has been an incredibly long process and I know I still have some work to do on it, but I’m thrilled to have something fresh for Pinkle Toes Photography! I LOVE change! Thanks for coming by and I hope you like the changes, too!
Speaking of changes, for those dying to see my new pink hair, courtesy of Katie, here ya go:
Didn’t she do a GREAT job? That girl is so talented…not only did she color and cut my hair she styled it, did my makeup, AND took these pics! Yeah. Katie rocks.
P.S. If you’ve been receiving my blog posts via e-mail, you will need to update your subscription to keep getting them: Subscribe to Pinkle Toes Photography by Email HERE
Mar 13, 2012
I started shooting in 2006. That seems like eons ago when I compare my style back then to how I shoot today. I’ve learned SO much since that time, mostly through trial and error. But boy, it sure would have been nice if I had had a little more personal help along the way.
I decided to dig up what used to be one of my most favorite images of my middle bear cub. I loved his look…I loved how grown up he looked…lost in thought, but ohhhhh, if I had a do-over with this shot, I would have done so many things differently. The version on the left shows my editing style back in the old days ;-); the one on the right shows you how I would have edited the image a little differently (wish I still had the RAW file, actually, so I could edit effectively in Lightroom). I do think I chose a great moment to capture and a great focal length, but if I had the time to do so, I should have strolled him to a place where the background wasn’t quite so blown and more even to help him stand out a little better. Also, in the new version, I cropped out the bottom part of the stroller where the sticker was showing ;-).
This is the kind of critique participants in the Chic Critique Celebrity Critique can expect from me. I have another 4-week session coming up next month and we have a few openings left if you want to give it a try. It has been such a privilege to be on the outside, seeing images from a different perspective, and by giving just a few quick pointers, helping to turn images that seemed like coal into diamonds.
By the way, even with his overly-processed, neon blue eyes, I still love this image and always will.
Mar 02, 2012
Last Wednesday, we got a call that Pop (my husband’s father) was taken to the hospital for a suspected septic infection and our whole family rushed down there to be by his side. Please read up as anyone can get sepsis and it is an extremely dangerous condition where early diagnosis and treatment are critical to surviving. Without going into too many details, it was bad. It was really, really bad. Pop is a very loved and vibrant personality in our family and seeing him suffer like that pained and panicked us like nothing before.
By some miracle, he turned the corner a few days ago. Having been one of the few who pulled through this, he still has a very, very long road of recovery ahead of him. This has been an extremely difficult week full of the lowest lows and the strangest highs (hearing him talk again!) and I’ve been out of the loop work-wise. I just returned home last night to be with the kids and to catch up on work, and believe me, I have a lot of catching up to do. Thank you so much to my clients for being so understanding and allowing me to reschedule sessions. Thank you to everyone in advance for their patience as I begin returning phone calls and e-mails. Thank you to those of you who are waiting on proofs from me. Thank you most of all to everyone who prayed for our Pop…I truly believe he would not be alive right now were it not for his own will to live, the love and care of his family and doctors, and all of the positive energy you sent his way.
Feb 01, 2012
Congrats to this cutie pie and her family for a long and well-fought contest and let’s be in touch to schedule your winning session!
And we have two runners up, who will be receiving an additional $100 session credit:
and
Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote (there were more than 2,300 votes in the final round) and congrats one more time to the 12 finalists and the winners. It just gets better and better every year!!!!
Jan 23, 2012
See them all large HERE. In no particular order. Vote below (if poll is not showing properly, you can vote HERE):
Narrowed down from 40 entries, the finalists were selected as follows:
– The top 4 from last week’s poll.
– 4 more chosen by a panel of professional photographers (who, by the way, said they had a *very* hard time making this decision)
– And 4 selected by me (some new favs added in!)
You have until midnight central on Tuesday, January 31st to make your final choice and on Feb 1st, we’ll announce the winner on here! Again, you’ll be able to choose more than one favorite, but you can only vote one time. If you want to “campaign” for your favorite image on Facebook, I’ve created several “buttons” to use as your profile and/or timeline pic to show your support for friends/family in the running.
Thanks again to everyone who helped choose the finalists and congratulations to EVERYONE on a very tough race!
[While “likes” and positive comments on Facebook are welcome, they will not count toward the final vote. ONLY votes on this poll will count. Pinkle Toes Photography reserves the right to modify contest or prizes as necessary. Anyone tampering with the contest or results will be immediately disqualified. No purchase necessary to win.View past winners HERE.]
Jan 10, 2012
If you:
– had a baby or are due to have a baby anytime between TODAY 1/10/12 and 1/31/12 AND
– you live in Austin, TX AND
– you might be willing to let 10 photographers invade your home and practice photographing you and your significant other and your new baby
then PLEASE, fill this out. You MUST meet all of the requirements above, so please do not fill this out if you don’t.
If you look like an ideal candidate, I may contact you to schedule an in-home interview. Your home does not need to be professionally decorated…it just has to be large enough so that we can all walk around in there or squeeze into a room during the session ;-).
Thank you!!!
Jan 01, 2012
I sat down to post the annual Year in Review slideshow, but instead, I’m finding my mind is still swirling from what happened yesterday. I need to explain to you just how grateful my heart is on this first day of 2012. As some of you may have seen on my Facebook page, I spent the very last day of 2011 worried sick over my baby sister in the hospital. She had been complaining of a pain in her leg since her trip to New York earlier in Dec. and she called me early yesterday morning saying she had just blacked out in her hallway. My first thought was a blood clot…and then immediately, the fear of a pulmonary embolism. [I want to pause right here and thank someone very special–she will know who she is–for unknowingly giving me a key bit of knowledge about this very dangerous condition and possibly helping to save my sister’s life. Thank you and my heart was very much with you during this holiday season.]
My first words were, “We’re going to the hospital..NOW!”
As she was going through the barrage of tests with so many unanswered questions and the very real fear that my sister could die, all I could think was how desperately I wanted the gift of another year with my sister. Just the day before, she and I watched this and marveled over his courage and peaceful outlook on life and death. While we were waiting in the hospital, we read this and this, pleased with how many of those we had done and vowing to check off the rest this year.
Turns out, she did indeed have a blood clot in her leg, but thank goodness her lungs were clear!!! She has started treatment, but now we have to figure out why the clot formed so we can keep it from happening again. She is so young and a very healthy, non-smoking young woman…this kind of thing just doesn’t make sense for her. As I’m writing this, I am actually glad to share this story with you in the hopes that should you or someone you know experience symptoms of DVT or a pulmonary embolism, you’ll know to get immediate medical attention.
2011 was one of the busiest years I can recall in a long time and I know that busy=blessed. I had the privilege of meeting and/or working with hundreds families and photographers from all over the world. (It’s funny how small my world has become thanks to Facebook ;-). However, to be honest right now, when I think back over the year as a whole, it’s pretty much a blur to me–the only thing I can really remember is yesterday.
But I feel it’s important to always acknowledge and thank the people who allow me into their lives and trust me photograph their most important family moments. I want to remind them how beautiful they are…how special their connections are…what a gift their families are. So, like I’ve done every year since 2007, I pulled just one image from each session to create the 2011 Year in Review…
(Google Reader users: you’ll need to click THIS LINK to see).
My sister, my mom, and I all had separate plans for New Year’s Eve yesterday, but all of our families ended up at my house last night. I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful evening…cooking up an impromptu batch of homemade chili, all of us watching the 360º of fireworks in the horizon at midnight, listening to “Auld Lang Syne” on the iPod, toasting in paper cups, ringing in 2012 together. Grateful.
[p.s. Clients: I sent out the details on the 2011 Pinkle’s Pic of the Year contest to you all. If you had a session with me in 2011 of any kind and did not get this info, let me know ASAP so I can get you up to speed.]
Dec 21, 2011
I have completely enjoyed my little break so far, hanging out with my kiddos and doing all of these holiday-like things with them each day (in spite of being sick). It has been so nice to get offline and off the computer and out of packing tape to play board games, watch movies, look at Christmas lights, snuggle, laugh, bake sweets, and soak up every thing I missed while I was caught up in the holiday photography whirlwind.
Pinkle Toes Photography will continue to be closed until January 9th (well, still got some sessions and still have workshops coming up), but please be patient as e-mails, facebook messages, and phone calls will likely not be returned until after the 9th.
Clients…I will be sending you the details of the 2011 Pinkle’s Pic of the Year contest. Changing things up this year to make it more exciting and the prize is even bigger! Be on the lookout in your e-mail next week and if you don’t get something by the 1st, let me know!!!!
I will try to catch up on the blog sometime next year (ha!) to share all of the incredible holiday family sessions and beautiful cards from this year. I have so enjoyed getting all of your cards in the mail!!! Gosh, there are a lot of beautiful happy families out there and that make my heart happy. Meanwhile, if you didn’t get a copy yet, here’s a peek at our holiday card this year:
I hope you ALL have a WONDERFUL holiday season and are spending lots and lots of time with the ones you love, enjoying old traditions and creating new memories.
Much love,
Michele