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Caitlin McNeil Photography, St. Louis, MO (2026)

11/16/2021

Hi friends + followers! 💛✨ Long time no talk. I took an unintentional pause from posting and sharing on here in the beginning of September and somehow it’s now almost Thanksgiving! Goodness! Time is such a thief. Buckle up, this is a long one.

I honestly stepped away not because I have nothing to share or post or for lack of creative work + art to display of your beautiful families and businesses and brands (I actually have a lot to say, none of it relating to photography. Shocker I’m sure ☺️😉🤪.) I stepped away because if you recall I named 2021 my year for healing and I have gained such an awareness of what I need to be my best and highest self. (SO much to share on this journey but wow does it feel good to step in my power. I am so proud of this version of Caitlin and it has been such a gift to consciously work through so many emotional pains and traumas and triggers. If you have any questions about this I could write a novel (and hopefully will one day) and would be honored to hold space for you and answer any questions!) Anywho, when my plate is full, something has to go. My family and myself will always be my unapologetic priority. I also need to gain clarity on my “why” for IG. One of my favorite lyrics in one of my favorite songs by Tracy Chapman (Fast Car) says, “me, myself, I got nothing to prove.” And I believe that with my whole heart and entire being. You, me, none of us have anything to prove. In our work. In our homes. In how we dress or where we live. I have nothing to prove in my work as a photographer. Am I posting for hearts and comments? Am I posting to share my heart? Am I posting for connection? Approval? Or because I’m going into people pleasing mode and think you want me to share what I have captured of you? Once I know my Why, I have a feeling I’ll be back more regularly and we’ll pick up where we left off.

Since my last post I turned 36 (and was serenaded by a singing gorilla), my little sister got married (it was the most lovely, special day and she was a beautiful princess Bohemian bride), my husband and I went into our kids school for the first time a couple weeks ago and loved every single (continued in comments)⬇️

09/09/2021

This was a special one ✨ These dear friends are expecting a baby boy and we couldn’t be more thrilled for their growing family! Pure joy capturing their excitement and announcement 💙

09/03/2021

It’s Friday! 🥂 Cheers to that! We made it through another week while the world is seemingly on fire. 🔥 But here we are - holding space as humans best we can, for all of it. The easy, the hard. The beautiful. The messy. The flowers and sunshine. The storms and the hurricanes. The war. The peace. The darkness. The light.

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On a personal note, I’ve been managing the most terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad, “severe,” almost went to the ER diagnosis of poison ivy. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy 😫 One of the most uncomfortable and scary things I’ve ever had. I’ve got all the meds and topicals to last me for the next two weeks and I hope they do their thing, because this is NOT fun. 🤪

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But such is the rollercoaster of life, my sister’s Bachelorette party is this weekend and I am so excited to celebrate her 💕 (albeit mostly in a horizontal position due to 🌿)! The countdown is on until she becomes a Mrs. and these next few days will be a fun, relaxed, intentional time to love on my sis😘

This is such an analogy for life. Hurting + pain. Mixed with joy + celebration. Rare and special is the week we carry only one. Unique is the day we truly feel only the things that put a smile on our face and peace in our soul.

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If you received my email newsletter this week, you read my heart and passion and lens for photography, as well as some updates and session offerings. If I’ve learned anything in the last 18 months, it’s that life is far too short to be and do anything that isn’t true to you - authentic to you and your highest self. Thank you to everyone who has booked a session! Forever grateful for your love and support! If you’d like to read my newsletter, send me your email, or click on the link in my bio to book a session for the remainder of the year✨📷

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I think that’s it for this random post of updates. Wishing you a restful, slow, simple, joy-filled Labor Day Weekend!😘

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Event Designer: +
Event : .millsap engagement party to her fiancé-at-the-time/now husband, who is a Doctor. Hence the creative use of M&M filled Rx bottles💊
Photographer:

08/25/2021

I can’t let another day go by without sharing some of my favorite shots of my favorite boy 🥳 This is S-I-X!!!

To know Tripp is to know passion and a zest for life unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. We say he lives full-throttle and that is him to a T. Pardon the pun 💙 He gives his all in everything he does. His heart fills up his entire body. His unique perspective and outlook on life inspire us on the daily. From the moment he was born and he entered the world unexpectedly three weeks early, I knew he was special. He builds his own path. Writes his own story. And will never fit into the box the world may create for him and I am here for him and the journey every step of the way. He literally dances (and cartwheels) through life and leaves his mark on everything he does. His thoughtfulness and intentional perspective encourage me in big and small ways. He loves his family something fierce and being outside in nature is his happiest place. 💛💛💛

To the one who made me a mama - never stop shining your beautiful, unique, and bright light! ✨ Cheers to six years! 🎉

08/20/2021

"The days are long, they say, as though it is a bad thing. A struggle to overcome. A hardship to bear.⁠⁠
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But they must be long to hold all the bread that must be baked. The books that must be read. The walks that need taken. The songs danced to. ⁠⁠
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They need to stretch to hold a little boredom and some gentleness."⁠⁠ - the one and only .larsen.weaver. ✨💫⭐️

(Have you ever never met someone but feel super duper connected to them and every word they write? That’s Rachel for me ❤️)

Keeping with the quotes because my brain is tired and full and my own words are falling short once again. Back to school and a birthday close together are a doozy for my mama heart. Ending. Beginnings. Closure. Starts. Reflection. Renewal. It’s all just a lot in all of the beautiful and messy and wonderful ways of life.

The days are long, they say. But oh how the years are short. Tonight my baby boy went to sleep for the last time as a five-year-old (if you watch my stories you’ve known this day was coming since the beginning of August😉) and the awareness of just how short those years are gets me. The years. They are so, so short.

It really was just yesterday that I could hold my son like this, snuggled tightly against my chest, with his head nuzzled into my neck, fingers in my hair. With soft eyes and a softer heart, at the very beginning of our journey together as mama and son.

The years are short. Thank goodness the days are long. 💙

08/15/2021

What does it mean to let go? ❤️

To me, it means to release. To allow something or someone to be free. Free of the expectations and ideals, plans and perspective you may have. To let go is to trust beyond comfort. Understand without knowing. Love without measure. In motherhood letting go is removing attachment and reminding myself they are made for something more specific and greater than even my mama heart could imagine.

It is holding space for both the greatest pride that swells up inside of you and can’t be contained alongside the greatest sadness at the loss of what was and the newness of what will be.

To let go is to watch them spread their wings and soar, while standing firmly rooted in my own presence and parenthood, so that as they fly into a new chapter, they know they can always return home. Home to you. Home is you.
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Caroline’s Senior Session was a special one! She picked the most unique spots around Dallas that really reflected her creative, fun, joyful spirit! Her big brother was the first senior I captured two years ago and she is the first (and only) girl I’ve captured and goodness we had the best time! Senior Sessions are so deeply meaningful and emotional for me to photograph. Because it signifies and starts the beginning of the letting go.

So whether it’s a time of letting go for college or Kinder, daycare, dreams or desires for your child, there is a deep comfort in knowing that every time we…
“Let it go, it’s time to grow.”
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08/10/2021

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯-𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯.

It’s rare I can’t find the words to convey how I feel. But sometimes you’re the writer. And sometimes you’re the reader. Sometimes you’re the giver. And sometimes you’re the receiver. And words couldn’t more perfectly capture how I’m feeling right now. In both big and small ways. Thank you for writing these beautiful words about this fragile time - the in-between.
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“In between where you are and where you want to be, there is endless, boundless peace. There is an opportunity to be still, as you find yourself in the gap between the past and the future, knowing that this is the space where you were called to come alive. And it’s okay if you feel uncertain here. You don’t have to have it all figured out. You are free to take this moment by moment, and see the wholeness of it all: some things will be difficult. Some things will be easier. Some things will make sense, while other things leave you with questions. But all together, these mountains and valleys create a landscape, where somehow, through it all, everything finds its place.

And it will take time, it might even take years before some of the things you are wondering about start to make sense. But the more you can remember the wholeness of it all, and the more you can remember that you are a part of a greater picture, the more you will find that despite your unknowing, the grass, the trees, and the creatures throughout this vast landscape are still growing, and somehow, through it all, it all works together, and you too, are a part of that. Even in your in-betweens.” 💕

𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯-𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘴.

08/05/2021

Bear with me here for the next few days as I use this as my personal journal ✨😭💞

It’s our last Wednesday together. 73 consecutive Wednesdays. And my what a ride it’s been. I say that not to brag. Not at all. But rather to commemorate the most beautiful days of my life marked by one of the proudest decisions as a parent. And to celebrate. Celebrate a chapter of our family’s story that changed and shaped each of us into better versions of ourselves. And to remember. Because as we all know the days and years will once be distant memories and sadly, I’ll forget some of the details of this time and 73 weeks will feel like but a blip in time.

73 Wednesdays. And next Wednesday I let go. And loosen the clasp on the hands that I’ve held, and send them out into this big, beautiful, bumpy world. My heart swells with pride as I know they are more than ready. I know this time together as a family of four was exactly what each of their hearts + souls + selves needed. Mine too. And I know we all did our best. Was it easy? The exact opposite in fact. But in my 35 years of life I know that the best things in life often are the hardest. They involve work and time and intention and resilience and patience. Each of those things were the glue that bound our days together and kept us moving forward. But the adventures and zero plans and lessons learned and kindness + grace shown and personal growth and time + togetherness as a family - those are the titles of the chapters. The takeaways we’ll carry with us forever.

So next Wednesday, as you let go of my hand and step foot into a whole new world, I have peace knowing that you will have each other. But more importantly, you have yourself. A deep knowing of the unique and beautiful way you were made. Of the countless lessons to fall back on from these 73 Wednesdays.

Six more days to simultaneously finish writing our story while turning the last pages of this chapter. You better believe I’m going to savor every. single. second. 💛

08/04/2021

My family and I were lucky enough to be invited to a friend’s lake house this weekend and we jumped at the opportunity to go. Invite me to anything near any body of water and…I. am. there.

I’m in a season of observation. Taking it all in. Watching from the sidelines while actively participating. Asking the internal questions of why and how and who and where did this belief or that response or way of doing things come from. It’s both a blessing and really hard to be honest. To be in a season of healing and have a new set of eyes and information upon which to view the world. But I know if I keep watching closely and keep taking it all in, and doing the work, I’ll gain clarity.

And I’ve found that water has a way of really helping to make things clear. All of the thoughts and concerns and pain and hurt sort of wash away near the water. If 60-70% of our bodies are made up of water, then it makes sense that our body and soul feel more relaxed when near other bodies of water. It’s science. And it’s soulful. There is a calm that is unexplainable. But a knowing that is universal.

It’s not by coincidence that God lead us to the East side of Dallas six years ago to a pocket of town called the Peninsula that I had never been to or heard of. To rent a home with an address bearing the name “Lake,” where we would bring both of our babies home.

It’s not a coincidence that my very first sessions were shot at White Rock Lake. And where I continue to capture beautiful moments + countless memories alike years later.

Water is home to me. A place of peace, calm, knowing, clarity, and ease. ⛵️

How do any of those thoughts relate to this image? Well, when you show up for your son’s Senior Session and a boat straight out of The Notebook is sitting inches away, you better believe I’m going to ask you to sit in it 🥰🛶✨💦 From one water lover to another ☺️ I know you understand 💕

07/30/2021

I feel like the proudest friend to have a sideline seat and self-proclaimed cheerleader role to your story and journey and walk through life 💜 Today was a day to remember and I hope you let it sink in to the depths of your soul. Not because of a number or finishing place, but because of what it took to get there. Against hardship and struggle and the passing of your father and a pandemic and huge move across the country and loss in a lot of ways. But today (and every day) - you shined bright my friend! ✨ Your hard work and perseverance are unarguable. Your humility, confidence, composer, and joy are the essence of who you are. It is a gift to call you friend.

07/20/2021

10 𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴
10 𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘦𝘴
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘴
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘦 💕

The most precious one-year-old studio milestone session for this baby girl ✨ Including a smash cake and all 🎂

07/15/2021

With less than four weeks left until my babies start school (yes…LESS than four weeks 😭😭😭) this is my reminder to you to soak up the moments. Hold and hug and squeeze your babies tight (no matter how old they are) with a little extra love and seal in those moments of connection. It wasn’t long ago I was carrying and holding my own children all around the house and town as newborns and infants and now they are ready to soar and start a whole new beautiful chapter at a new school. Truly the end of an era for the McNeil fam as we relish these slow mornings and long days of no plans and playing outside and memory making and togetherness 😭🥰🙃🙂😍🥳

Pause. Slow down. Take a moment. And really soak it in. ✨💙

Caitlin McNeil Photography

11/16/2021

09/09/2021

09/03/2021

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