I came across Grace on Instagram — one of those scroll-and-stop moments where a single photo of her line made me want to reach out. She's a Ballet Austin company dancer, currently in her BA Two season, and when I messaged her about a session, I had no idea yet that this would be my first time shooting in the city.
I love combining travel with photography — there's something about discovering a new city through a camera that makes both experiences better. I knew I wanted to build this session around sunrise, so we met downtown at 7:30 AM, before the streets had really woken up.
We shot at the Butterfly Bridge, a spot I'd scouted both online and in person ahead of time. A lot of downtown Austin can feel a little generic if you're not careful about location, but the bridge has real character — long architectural lines and the way early light comes in low and gold across the water made it one of my favorite backdrops I've worked with anywhere so far.
Grace has the kind of quiet strength a lot of company dancers develop: she can hold a line en pointe like it costs her nothing, even when I know it doesn't. Originally from Las Vegas, she trained under Alison Kravenko before Boston Ballet School's Pre-Professional Program, then went on to Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, where she earned a degree in Ballet and Environmental Science — not a combination you run into often. She's performed featured roles in Balanchine's Tarantella, My'Kal Stromile's Baile de la Gente, and Justin Peck's Heatscape, among other classical and contemporary work.
We spent about an hour and a half moving through downtown as the light changed — a few frames on the bridge itself, then out onto the street catching her mid-leap against the skyline. Partway through, we randomly ran into former ballerina Hannah Bettes, which turned into one of those unplanned, memorable moments that make travel shoots feel different from the ones closer to home.
The gallery opens with Grace en pointe at sunrise on the Butterfly Bridge, the early golden light catching the architectural lines of the bridge behind her — a quiet, still moment before the energy of the shoot picks up. From there, the images build momentum: a series capturing her mid-leap, suspended against the downtown Austin skyline, her lines sharp and controlled even in motion.
One of the standout frames shows her leaping across a crosswalk, the city's morning traffic just beginning to stir in the background, which captures exactly the kind of unplanned, textured moment that shooting on location makes possible. Several portraits lean into the golden hour light directly, with soft, warm tones wrapping around her as she holds classical positions en pointe, the bridge and river providing a clean, uncluttered backdrop that lets her technique take center stage.
Later images move further into the city, showing her against a broader urban backdrop that places the session firmly in Austin rather than any generic outdoor setting. Throughout the set, there's a clear progression — from stillness at sunrise, to movement and leaps as the light strengthened, to a final stretch of more grounded, portrait-style shots as the session wound down. Taken together, the images tell the story of the shoot roughly in the order it happened, giving the post a real visual arc rather than a loose collection of unrelated frames.
We wrapped up the way I always do — with a selfie to commemorate the session. Grace has since seen the full gallery and shared some of her favorites on her own Instagram.
If you're a dancer in Austin — or anywhere I travel for sessions — and you're looking for a photographer who treats a shoot like a real collaboration rather than a checklist of poses, I'd love to hear from you. Contact here!
