We’ve got one, teeny-tiny little opening left in the morning for our Xpressions sessions, Sunday, February 21st. We are going to be touring some of my favorite spots in trendy East Austin. Think hip, colorful, urban, funky, and fun! If you’ve been thinking about grabbing one of these photo sessions, just do it.

• Maybe you need engagement pictures or haven’t had your picture taken with your significant other in a looooooooong time?
• Some hip bridal portraits would be amazing at this location!
• Maybe you’re expecting a baby and haven’t had maternity pictures done yet?
• Maybe your baby has just figured out how to sit up on his own?
• Perhaps your older "baby" is about to lose her first tooth and you need some pictures before it’s too late?
• Or maybe you’re a graduating senior in Austin need to have your senior portraits made?

Let me know and let’s see if we can get together this Sunday.

[As with all Xpressions sessions, these images have only received basic edits...no retouching or additional enhancements.]

At long last, we are ready to start booking for our 2010 Xpressions Sessions! To see the dates and all the info, visit THIS PAGE (we’re doing some new things this year, including special discounts AND themes!).  These openings are very limited and will fill up quickly. Graduating high school students in Austin…now is the time to book your Xpressions session for senior portraits! Also, clients who have already booked a 2010 Premium Session or who had a Premium Session in Nov. or Dec. of last year qualify for special discounts and get first priority on our openings. 

I’ve been meaning to blog more images from our last round in Fall 2009, so I figured now would be a good time. So many incredible families and oh, we had the most perfect weather and light! I can’t wait until we start doing this again this year…especially with the fun new themes and seeing new places all over Austin. (As with all of our Xpressions sessions, these images have not been retouched.)

We held our last round of the Austin 2009 Xpressions Sessions today and all I can say is, "Wow!" I cannot even begin to tell you how beautiful all of these families were, how wonderfully charming the kiddos were, how kind and patient the parents were, and how absolutely outstanding my baby sis/assistant was. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who made these Xpressions sessions FANTASTIC!  As always, the images shown have only received basic edits to enhance contrast/color, but no full retouching.  I’ll show you an example of the difference at the end of the post.  Also, before I forget, if you’re pregnant in the Austin area and want maternity portraits and are due in February, March, or April of 2010, you can get a FREE mini maternity session (kind of like these Xpressions Sessions) in January. And, I *still* have a few spaces open for the Xpressions photo sessions in Washington, DC and Richmond, VA in December.  Meanwhile, to continue these awesome sneaks:

And to illustrate the difference between the digital negatives (the files that are sent on CD with the Xpressions sessions) vs. the files that are fully retouched (prints ordered through me or those that are available as part of a Premium Session):

Oh, I cannot wait to go through all of these images! Today was a great day all around. Thank you all again!  I’m so honored to get to do this for you.

1. Isn’t she stunning? Just naturally beautiful.

2. I’ve never done a session in the rain before, let alone the pouring rain, but somehow, it just worked.  Well, $70 worth of umbrellas, shooting under the H-E-B awning, and stumbling upon a rockin’ old barn helped us out a little.

3. Also from our Xpressions sessions (but again, these images here have been retouched).

By far, my absolute fav session with one of my absolute fav families!

And now, a bunch of sneaky peeks for all of those beautiful families that braved the intense fog and even RAIN today for our Xpressions sessions (as always, the images below from the Xpressions sessions have not been retouched):

(I’d especially like to thank Miss J with the umbrella above…she did an INCREDIBLE job fighting the elements today!)

There is still ONE opening left for the November 22nd, round of Xpressions (again, this is the LAST round I’ll be doing in Austin for 2009).  Contact me if you want to snag it!

ETA: I don’t want to give photographers out there the wrong impression.  My Xpressions images are not SOOC…they have received edits in ACR to enhance contrast/exposure.  What I’m referring to is the fact that they have not been retouched in Photoshop to address things like blemishes, eye brightening, dodging/burning, color saturation, sharpness, cross-processing, etc. You can read more about the difference between these digital negatives (shown above) and fully retouched images here.

I sat down to edit this morning’s amazing session and found that I couldn’t stop. It’s finished. It was wonderful. Wish I could blog more, but I owe my kids a date.

All in all, I’d say the first-ever round of Pinkle Toes Xpressions sessions rocked my world. Such BEAUTIFUL families and such patience—you wouldn’t believe the kind of heat and Texas-sized mosquitoes we were dealing with here. So sorry we didn’t get to do the morning sessions this weekend (thanks to the threat of storms and a bad radar map), BUT that works in your favor because…

I’m adding a NEW Xpressions date! If you’d like me to notify you of the new date and times available, please fill out the form here.  Also, we’re going to make another exception this round…I will accept families up to 5 members (extra fee over 3 subjects), but babies still must be at least 3 months old.

To these beautiful families that had their Xpressions sessions this weekend…I’ve already got your disks burned (everyone ended up with around 70+ images!) and prints on order! It won’t be but a few more days and you’ll have everything in hand!  How about that??? And by the way, these previews have only received the basic edits for contrast/color…no additional retouching, etc., so this is exactly the kind of stuff you’ll see on your disk.

I’ve been itching for a while now to try something a bit more edgy, different, more hip for babies and kids. Tonight I had a willing model ;-) and we gave it a go. LOTS of possibilities here for a *very* different and unique kind of children’s portraiture.

Limited engagements in Austin, TX, Washington D.C. and Richmond, VA. Learn more!

(Photogs…even if you’re not interested in a session, do check it out if you want to get together for a "meet & greet" lunch December 20th in Richmond).