Is everyone enjoying the start of Fall?!  I know that I am, but we technically aren’t done with Summer yet…”Once Upon A Summer,” that is.  ;)

This was a tough one for me.  For obvious reasons, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella were easier stories to tell.  Laura knew exactly what she wanted to do for makeup, but I had no idea how to visually tell this story.

Using Grimms’ Fairy Tales version of Rumpelstiltskin for my inspiration, our third character was brought to life – The Miller’s Daughter.

and because you cannot photograph a story about spinning straw into gold without a little (A LOT) of gold glitter!!!!!!    

Have you all been enjoying “Once Upon A Summer?”  I hope so!!  We aren’t done yet though, so don’t forget to come back for the second half of Cinderella!  See you then!

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

Makeup – Laura Briscoe Makeup Artistry

Hair – Staci Gibbs Freelance Makeup Artist

Tomorrow, I get to show Greater Atlanta Christian’s Natalie deLatour her Senior Portraits and I cannot wait!  :D

This could be one of my favorite sessions to date and yes, I realize I say that a lot, but I can’t help myself!!  I love all my seniors!

Come back soon for more from this gorgeous session, but here’s a little peek for now…

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

“Senior year was soon rolling around and I had yet to take my pictures.  I was fortunate for a girl to reach out to me and mention Tricia Toker as an option for my senior pictures.

I looked on her website and instantly fell in love.  Her pictures looked like they belonged in a magazine.  

I then reached out to her to let her know I was interested and I also applied to be a spokesmodel.  Meeting with Tricia was such a pleasure.  We talked about everything.  Life, fashion, and even our dogs.  I felt so comfortable and I was beyond excited to start my shoot with her that very second.

Throughout the weeks leading up to my shoot Tricia kept in contact with me, by helping me pick locations, outfits, poses, and even make-up suggestions I’d like.  She helped so much by posting on Pinterest.  She had so many ideas and it made me so excited.

The day of the shoot was such an exciting experience.  I loved taking pictures in general, but Tricia and Laura (Tricia’s make-up artist) make you feel so beautiful.  They were so funny and sweet.  I felt so comfortable at the shoot.

For any upcoming senior girl looking for beautiful and different pictures, I’d highly recommend Tricia for your senior pictures.  Such a talented women behind the camera as well as in person.”

-Sydni

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

If I had to pick a favorite from “Once Upon A Summer,” that would be difficult, almost like asking me to pick a favorite shoe or something!  I have to say though, it just might be this one.   I’m not sure what it is about Devan’s version of Cinderella that I love so much.  I love everything about it, everything.  I thought this part of the shoot was going to be very tough in comparison to the second half.  It was perfect though and the imagery is just beautiful to me.  Honestly, since the police showed up, it probably should bring back not so great memories, but really it doesn’t.  ;)  By the way, if you’re getting worried about the police incident, it really was nothing.  And the police ended up being super nice and laughing with us about it, but still.  I never get in trouble, so just the idea of them even being there freaked me out.  Seriously, I could fill a book with the amount of crazy stories I have from photo shoots, but those are stories for another day.  ;)   

I’m rambling again, so I’ll stop and get back to our story -

Again, I chose Grimm’s Cinderella for my inspiration.  I envisioned a moodier storytelling, so I told Devan to look very sad and sorrowful.  Devan nailed it, as she always does.  

This is Devan as Cinderella…

Be sure to come back for Part 2 of Cinderella and don’t forget the Miller’s daughter from Rumpelstiltskin!

oh yeah, Devan, thanks for introducing me to M.I.A. and “Bad Girls.”  I will always think of this shoot when I hear it.  :D

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

Makeup – Laura Briscoe Makeup Artistry

Hair – Staci Gibbs Freelance Makeup Artist

I cannot wait to show Stingray Allstars’ Sydni and her mom her Senior Portraits this weekend!  

Sydni is graduating from Duluth High School next year and I’ll share more about her soon, so you absolutely have to come back to hear all about her!  And of course to see all of her gorgeous images and I do mean gorgeous!!

Thanks again to Laura Briscoe for all the Behind the Scenes action (except for the first few – courtesy of my phone)!

And then – Sydni busted out this!  ummm…WOW!!

and if she didn’t kill it enough at Location #1, she totally did at Location #2.  BUT I might be a little bit of a Meany.  

You are sooo going to have to wait for all of that Fabulousness!

I suppose that you have to come back for the full Blog Post to see.  :D

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

Makeup:  Laura Briscoe Makeup Artistry

So I bet you are thinking…”why wait to squeeze in the “Once Upon a Summer” blog post right before Fall!”  ;)  I know, I know!  You all may have been waiting since May or June, but trust me when I tell you, this shoot has literally been in the works since last year, probably around this time last year in fact!

What started out like any other shoot, became a massive project.  And like any other massive project, we hit lots of bumps in the road.  So many that some days, we didn’t think the shoot would ever happen or even if it should.  I can’t even tell you how many times Laura and I met to plan or look at locations.  Or how many hours we spent shopping for props.  Or how long Laura’s husband spent building a spinning wheel.   Or how Laura’s Aunt spent hours making tulle skirts for us.  Or how the weather made us postpone, I think four times…see, I can’t even remember anymore.  HA!  :)  I think you probably get the point though now.

So, as you can imagine, when the day finally arrived to do the first part of the shoot, we weren’t sure if we should be excited or worried that lightning would strike us!  ;)  Well, since I am here to write this, you’ll be happy to hear, no lightning strikes occurred and in fact, we couldn’t have had a more perfect shoot!   Wait – now that I think about it, the police showing up on day two, probably wasn’t a perfect scenario, but at least we have a funny story to tell now.  :D

Ok, ok, enough of that!  I won’t keep you waiting any longer.

Let me introduce you to Kathryn Dickerson, or as we like to call her – Little Red Riding Hood.

Let’s join her as she makes her way to Grandmother’s house…

If you recall Grimm’s Fairy Tales, you may remember that Little Red was taking cake (we improvised with cupcakes) and wine to her grandmother.  After she met the Wolf, he attempted to distract her by telling her to look at all the pretty flowers along the path.

and our Little Red is so tired from her journey that she decides to lay down for a nap.

What?  Wouldn’t you do the same?  ;)  I mean, come on, it’s got to be tiring looking this cute while hiking through the woods and avoiding a Big Bad Wolf, right?!

and someone please tell me you noticed the “Big Bad Wolf” in these shots?!  

That’s all of our story of Little Red Riding Hood – be sure to come back for Cinderella and the Miller’s daughter from Rumpelstiltskin!

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

Makeup – Laura Briscoe Makeup Artistry

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

Parkview High School has been so good to me!  I’ve been so incredibly fortunate to have most of my seniors from Parkview and wow, aren’t they all just fabulous?!  ;)  I might be biased, but really I think it’s totally true!!

I met Class of 2014′s Casey DeArmon a while back.  We needed another model for our Once Upon a Summer styled shoot and I reached out to Devan, one of the other models, and said “Hey!  Do you have any friends who can help us out for this shoot?”  Casey was the perfect addition to our styled shoot and lucky for me, also became my very first Class of 2014 Senior!!

Meeting with Casey and her mom Becky was like meeting and hanging out with friends that you have known forever!  And it’s pretty much been like that ever since.   During that first meeting, like all my meetings with my seniors, I asked Casey “what can’t you leave the house without?”  Her answer, “My journal.”  Seriously?  I absolutely love that!  She also spends a lot of her spare time volunteering and helping others.  Casey just has the biggest heart and her kindness and generosity is so inspiring.  She is truly unique and, as you’ll see from her Senior Portraits, is just as beautiful on the outside as she is on the inside.

P.S.  Doesn’t she totally look like Nina Dobrev from CW’s “The Vampire Diaries?”   Umm…Casey, they film in Atlanta – just sayin’ Nina may need a body double sometime and you better take me to set with you if that day ever happens!  ;)

Makeup:  Laura Briscoe Makeup Artistry

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

“I just want to start off and say I had an absolute blast meeting Tricia, planning my outfits and where we would go to shoot, and I especially had a blast the whole day I shot with her!  Tricia is so easy to talk to and she is 100% trying to photograph YOUR personality.

I picked out a variety of outfits and she also gave her opinion on the outfits and where each one would fit best with the venue.  She also has an amazing selection of accessories that would make any girl happy.

The day of the shoot was so much fun!  I loved getting my makeup done and feeling fabulous.  While shooting with Tricia it was so much fun and she knows how to make you laugh and feel as comfortable as possible!  I made so many memories in just that one day.  Throughout the shoot she would ask me how I was doing and she would constantly show me pictures that she loved and wanted to make sure that I loved them too.  The answer was always yes of course.

I wish I could re-do this day over and over again!  She definitely made me feel beautiful through the pictures!”

- Casey

“We were so lucky to have a close family friend use Tricia Toker for her Senior pictures and did not have to go looking for a photographer.  When my daughter Casey saw Devan’s photos, she knew right away this was the photographer for her, I agreed also!

We just had Casey’s photo shoot 2 days ago and it was absolutely the best time ever with a photographer and make-up artist!  Tricia and Laura Briscoe have a way of capturing just who you truly are!  They both are all about making your Senior pictures the best they can be.

Tricia has such a passion for her work and it shows in every shot she takes.  I can not wait to see all the photos from Casey’s shoot, I know I will love every one of them!  I will definitely recommend Tricia Toker Photography to anyone looking for a Senior portrait photographer!  She is an amazing person and photographer!”

- Becky (Casey’s Mom)

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

So I mentioned to you in Alex’s Preview that this was her “2nd Senior Portraits.”  I like how her mom described it best, the first ones were the beginning of Senior Year and these were for the end of Senior Year.   I love that!

This is a big year for all Seniors and the best thing you can do is document every bit of it!  Whether you just graduated, like Alex, or are just about to enter your Senior Year, soak in every last minute of this year.  Heck, we really should do that with all of life’s moments, but you know, and I know, we all get caught up in life and forget to enjoy the moments.  Seniors – slow down and take it all in and enjoy it!  Woopsie, I got a little off topic, didn’t I?!  Could be the coffee talking.  ;)

Back to Alex, shall we?  I love Alex’s style.  I have been a fan of her for a while now.  Her clothes and her accessories, ohhh the accessories and the shoes!!  HA!  I suppose that I don’t need to tell you how much I love accessories and shoes, do I??  :)   Also, I really love the talks I have had with her mom Marsha and her sister Shon.  The three of them together made both of Alex’s Senior sessions memorable for me and I hope that I did the same for them too!

Alex is in Colorado right now, so she probably won’t get to see these for a bit, but I’m happy to share them with you all in the meantime.  :)

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

Hair and Makeup by Shannon

Parkview High School’s Liz Shah and I have been talking since last year.  She first contacted me late last year, but the weather is what really kept us waiting.  During all those months, we talked about her pictures, her plans for the future, but most of all, we just got to know each other.  By the time we finally met, it was like we had known each other for so much longer than we actually had!

Liz is also my very last Class of 2013 senior.  I absolutely adore her and her mother too!  I can’t thank them enough for their hospitality and kindness.

I know, without a doubt though, Liz will be successful when she leaves for college next month and I cannot wait to see her on TV one day reporting about medicine.  She’s going to Wow us all!

And oh yeah, speaking of Wow’ing us – can she smize like you wouldn’t believe?!?!  If I had to rate all of my “smizers,” Liz is in the lead!  LOL!     Don’t believe me – check this out!  

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

Makeup – Laura Briscoe Makeup Artistry

Casey is my very first Class of 2014 Senior and will be heading back to Parkview High School in just a few short weeks!  I can’t believe it’s almost time for school to start back already, but who wants to dwell on that!?!  Not us, that’s for sure!  ;)

Let’s see a preview of Casey’s images instead, shall we!?!  :D

I’m so excited!!  Today, I finally get to show Casey and her family her Senior Portraits!

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

I wasn’t sure that this shoot would ever happen.  We’d been planning since last year…literally.  We had husbands building spinning wheels and aunts making custom tulle skirts and tutus.  We had model recasts and location changes.  We had to postpone three different times due to weather and oh yeah…the police showed up on the day of the shoot!

So you can see, it’s like the little engine that could – except it’s “Once Upon a Summer” and here is your sneak peek…

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

Makeup – Laura Briscoe Makeup Artistry
Hair – Staci Gibbs- Freelance Makeup Artist
Models – Kathryn Dickerson, Devan Heyburn, Casey DeArmon
“Helper Extraordinaire” – Parker Thompson

“As I was looking for senior photographers, I stumbled upon Tricia’s site.  To my surprise, I found that a few friends of mine had worked with her.  I instantly fell in love with her work, and I applied to be a senior spokesmodel right away.

I talked with Tricia for several months after she contacted me back.  Because I was waiting for better weather and to get my braces off, we had quite a lot of time to plan.  Tricia was really helpful in scouting locations, helping me pick outfits that would make me look my best, and sorting through makeup looks.  She even had me set up new Pinterest boards so she could see exactly what I liked.  She was also really good at keeping in contact with me throughout the time I was waiting to be able to shoot with her.  Leading up to the day of the shoot, I felt completely at ease already.  Tricia is so sweet, and she was the reason I was so ecstatic about the pictures.

On the actual day of the shoot, Tricia and Laura, her makeup artist, made me feel like I had known them both forever.  They were funny, kind, and helpful.  Tricia made it easy for me to be myself and let loose in front of the camera.  She also was willing to climb into weird places just to catch me at the perfect angle!  To girls looking to shoot with Tricia, I highly recommend it.  She really made me feel beautiful and fierce.  Plus, she is extremely talented!”

- Liz

“My daughter Liz has always been really into research.  She always looks really far into anything she’s interested in, but as soon as she found Tricia Toker, she stopped looking for senior photographers.  Tricia brought her friend Laura to our house to do Liz’s makeup, and the two of them did a stunning job.  They talked with us comfortably the entire day of the shoot.  During the actual pictures, Liz had a hard time doing her “serious” face sometimes because she could not stop smiling.  I enjoyed talking to Laura, who chatted with me and kept me company.

I know Liz had a lot of fun with Tricia because she could not stop talking about the shoot all day.  It was nice to see how comfortable my daughter was in front of the camera because of Tricia’s kindness and friendliness.  Tricia helped guide Liz through the shoot, and I believe she captured Liz’s personality in the pictures so well.

Choosing Tricia as your senior photographer will ensure you both an experience and pictures your daughter will fall in love with.”

- Rubina  (Liz’s Mom)

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

Shame on me!  I meant to set this to auto-post earlier today and totally forgot!

I just had Liz’s Premier Order Session a few hours ago, so instead of a preview for her and her mother, this will have to be a preview for all of you instead!  ;)  Happy Preview everyone!

Seriously though, can she kill a “smize” or what?!  ;)

Love ya, Liz and Rubina – see you in a few weeks!

thank you Laura Briscoe for the “Behind the Scenes” action!  ;)

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

Happy Friday everyone!!

This Sunday, Parkview High’s Class of 2013 Graduate, Alex Osborn leaves for Colorado and the United States Air Force Academy!!

Soooo, what does one do when leaving home??  Why take more senior portraits of course…duh!  ;)

ok, ok, I kid, but only sort of, because that’s exactly what we did last weekend!

Here’s a little peek, because I can’t wait to show Alex and her mom the rest tomorrow.

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions and behind the scenes, click HERE and “LIKE” and also HERE to follow on Instagram!

If you’ve been following the blog at all lately, you may already know how much I adore Greater Atlanta Christian’s Kayla Puzas and her recent senior session!   It’s probably no surprise then that I would select one of her images as my submission for Issue 6 of the Chic Critique Forum‘s Chic Magazine Cover Contest.  :)

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions, click HERE and “LIKE.”

If you want to stay up to date with all the most recent sessions, click HERE and “LIKE.”