Pinkle Toes Photography will be closed Dec 20-Jan 12 so that I can step away and spend some long overdue time with the fam. I will not be checking/answering e-mails or phone calls or other messages during that time and I apologize for any inconvenience. But if I’ve learned anything during this tumultuous year, it’s that time with family and friends is fleeting and not guaranteed, so I’m going to make the most of it. On that note, I wanted to leave you all with a little treat to wrap up the year…a compilation of photos from ALL of the families and babies and children and seniors that I’ve had the extreme honor of working with this year.  Thank you all for being a hundred points of light during even the darkest of times for us. You have each touched my heart and I’m so lucky to know you.

XOXO and Happy Holidays,

Me

I love, love, love working on SOCO (South Congress) in downtown Austin. I love, love, love when I get to do so with a VERY fun family that loves to laugh and explore and is up for pretty much anything. Makes me really appreciate the city in which I live and the awesome people that dwell here with me! (Another fav HERE).

My favorite kinds of people are those who are beautiful…inside and out, and don’t quite realize it. M – having met you, I know you have the confidence to follow your passions and I think it’s pretty cool that you’ve know what those are for a very long time. Congrats!!

Yes, I will admit that this photo session might “look” like it was all about that ADORABLE little puppy dog, Joy, here in these pictures. I promise it wasn’t. I promise we spent lots of time photographing the whole beautiful family. But tonight, Joy steals the show for us. I think you’ll be okay with that. [My FAV]

I will always vividly remember this evening. It was super, duper warm and it also happened to be Food Trailer Tuesday in downtown at the park and so there were people *everywhere*. But that didn’t stop us. Not one bit. We laughed a lot, which is a wonderful thing because look at their smiles! These sisters are twins, yes, but their personalities are very, very distinct. And I loved that they got to share their senior portrait session experience together, but had plenty of one-on-one time as well. Beautiful girls with tons of much-deserved confidence and I hope their senior year is MAGIC!!! A neato little pic not pictured is shared HERE and another fav of them together HERE.

Not gonna lie. I do get a little bit excited when I get the opportunity to do some senior portraits. I mean, it is kinda nice to have a subject that will stay in one spot for more than 5 seconds, but even more so, I love it when we get to collaborate creatively together to come up with something new and fresh and personal and a brand new take on traditional high school senior photos. She was magnificent! I loved her willingness to try anything and my goodness, does she not have the perfect look and profile for one of those mod/hippy 60’s super models? You won’t want to miss my absolute favorite and most unusual senior picture HERE. I’m so very, very glad we got to work together. It was a fabulous afternoon!

If you are a graduating senior (class of 2014) in the Austin or surrounding areas (Westlake, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Lake Travis, Buda, Georgetown, etc.), NOW is the time to schedule your senior portraits! While I’m already booked up for the fall, we can absolutely create amazing senior pictures for you at a session in January or February of next year. Contact me ASAP to get full session details!

Was this really back in January? It truly doesn’t even seem like it was that long ago. What a FANTASTIC workshop group we had here and if it looks like we were having a blast in these pictures, it’s true…we did! Our in home newborn session demonstration was a dream and can you even believe the smile on that precious baby girl? (see it bigger). And, of course, there’s one pic not shown here. If you want to see that one, you’ll have to go HERE.

We had an equally amazing photo session with our family in downtown Austin later that evening:

Quick story: a workshop attendee asked me to demonstrate some poses with people lying down, so we had mom + daughter lay down on the ground for us. I asked them to get a little closer and they ended up with the worst forehead bump:

OMG! I felt soooooooo bad, but at least we all had a good laugh (cry?) over it.

And, some more fun random pics from the workshop:

Goodness me! What a talented and fun and smart and witty group of ladies! Each time I would open up a folder of pics sent my them, my jaw would just hit the floor. Man they rocked it! Check out their sites here:

• Kami Friday Photography – NH and Northern New Englandwww.kamifridayphotography.com
• The Life in Your Years Photography – NYC, Westchester County and Southern Connecticut http://www.thelifeinyouryearsphotography.com
• Little Branch Photo – Houston, TX – www.littlebranchphoto.com
• Paula Scherr Photography – Edmonton, Alberta Canadawww.paulascherrphoto.com
• Caroline Martin Photography – San Diego, CAwww.CarolineMartinPhotography.com
• Photo Jolie – Dallas, Texas www.photojolie.com/
• Laurie Herrera Photography – Dallas, Texas www.laurieherreraphoto.com

The ONLY workshop I have coming up with openings is in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in August. That is it. I know many folks have requested to be on wait lists for St. Louis and Charlotte, but that list is really long :-(. Oh, did I mention that we are planning a MAJOR Pinkle Toes Photography Workshop reunion in New York City in Spring of 2014? Very excited about that…loads of fun activities are in the works as well as a charity project. (Check out my post from Chicago’s reunion last summer…that should give you an idea of the whirlwind to expect ;-). 

Finally on the blog!!! Yay!!!! This workshop was the perfect way to kick of 2013! On day one, we all got to finally meet and chit chat and had fun playing with sunflare and headshots. After a laaaaaaaate night 😉 it was early to rise for an amazing in-home lifestyle newborn session demonstration:

Later that afternoon, we headed into downtown Austin to experiment photographing a family in an urban setting:

It was so crazy…it was sunny, sunny, sunny all day long and then wooosh! All of a sudden, in true Austin fashion, the wind picked up and the sun disappeared and we were out in the elements like Nat Geo photogs ;-). By the by, you should know that I don’t believe I’ve ever worked with siblings who were as connected and fun-loving as those two cuties were. They made me look really good that day. A little too good 😉

I present to you the Pinkle Toes Graduating Class of January 2013! Sharp looking group, huh? When you get some time, I highly recommend you check these ladies out:

• Sabrina K Photography Pearland and Houston, TX: http://sabrinakphotography.com/blog
• Captured by Chrissy in McKinney, TX: http://capturedbychrissy.com/blog
• Beth Fenwick in San Francisco Bay Area, Redwood City, CA: http://bethfenwick.com
• Claire Hill Photography in  Houston and The Woodlands, TX:  http://www.clairehillphotography.com/blog
• Leslie Clawson Photography in Frisco TX: http://www.leslieclawsonphotography.com
• CK Design & Photography in MA http://ckdesignphoto.blog.com/
• Dear Ellison Photography in San Antonio, TX and surrounding areas: https://www.facebook.com/dearellisonphotography

Sadly, I don’t have any more workshops coming up in Austin (no room in my schedule ;-(). If we missed you, you can always chat with me about the Toronto, Canada workshop this August (very much looking forward to that one…my very first visit to Canada!) or if that’s too far for you, maybe we can talk about online mentoring.

See? Told ya. Here’s another one that made me say, “Awwww.” Our photo session had to be rescheduled and rescheduled and rescheduled (once because of a football injury resulting in the scar above his eye 😉 and as fate would have it, I’m SO glad we had to wait because otherwise, I would never have gotten the chance to photograph these two together. It wasn’t that long ago when I had the privilege of taking his sister’s senior pictures and now here we were, a few years later, back on South Congress to capture another monumental milestone for him (and his mom ;-). Senior portraits are always a little bittersweet to me: I LOVE working with subjects who actually stay where you tell them to stay (LOL) and it’s always a fun shoot, but I always picture myself in this very position in just a few years…watching my own children having their senior portraits taken and I can’t help but get a bit choked up at that thought. Thank you, Marianne, for (unknowingly) paving the way for me and for letting me see just how amazing parents can nurture and help develop AMAZING young adults.

Ah, yes! I forgot I wanted to show you these fun behind-the-scenes images his mom took during the session. You can check those out HERE. Did I mention that I LOVE pull backs?! Love it!

I have been so sick and tired of never being able to easily open/close the curtains that go across our rather large windows because the rings get  hung up on those telescoping rod humps. I searched all over Pinterest and the web to find a solution. I found two: 1) I could make my hubby cut out all new custom length rods (not going to happen) or 2) try this special teflon tape. While the tape has gotten pretty good reviews and would probably be a better option for wooden rods, I just couldn’t wait any longer so I thought I’d give regular ol’ tape a try on our metal rods:

1. Clean curtain rod so it’s free of dirt/dust (that took the longest part for me, ha!)
2. Get out some good sticking clear packing tape.
3. Wrap it securely but *lightly* around the section with the hump – meaning, you want the tape to stay, but you don’t want to press it into the hump…use it to make a “ramp” over the hump.
4. Open and close your curtains ’til your heart’s content.

I don’t know how long this will last, but for now, I am one happy camper being able to use my curtains they way they were intended!!! You’re welcome 😉