I never want to minimize how someone feels about themselves, but I want to show them how the rest of the world sees them.

What has been fascinating to me over the past few days is the response I’ve seen to the campaign. Most of it has been very positive. It has made people think about the language they use about themselves, which I think is fantastic! But there are some people who are uncomfortable & angry about the videos. Wondering why there is so much focus on beauty. Friends wrote comments on my post, and I exchanged emails with others as well.

“I should be more grateful of my natural beauty. It impacts the choices and the friends we make, the jobs we go out for, they way we treat our children, it impacts everything. It couldn’t be more critical to your happiness.”

Here is the thing I’ve observed in the 140+ sessions that I’ve done. I work with women in a very intimate way, and they have to trust me in order for me to work with them. I hear a lot, and I observe even more. I hear how you talk about yourself, and sometimes it breaks my heart. It makes me even more driven to show you the way I see you, the way the world sees you.

The Perception of Beauty

This perception of beauty? It impacts almost everyone. There have been very few people that I’ve come across in my life who don’t feel the same way as that woman in the video. Some level of insecurity, fear, doubt, questioning themselves. At some point it has had some impact on everyone’s life.

My dream is to eradicate that sort of thinking about ourselves. Thinking that beauty is so important, and that beauty has such a narrow definition. But it isn’t going to happen over night. We have to start it, we have to redefine what beauty is and change its level of importance.

I see us all at the beginning of the change. I am hopeful for the future. We have to be the start of it, women. Both in the language we use about ourselves and in the language we use about one another.

Just think about that the next time you start to make a catty remark about how another woman is dressed, what she weighs, or how she styles her hair…

Confidence and Rediscovering Beauty

You may have noticed above that my mission, my Superpower, is helping Hot Mamas grow their CONFIDENCE by rediscovering their BEAUTY. Those words are something I have spent hours & days thinking over before I ever shared them with the world. They are in that order for a reason, because I feel that confidence is one of the most powerful things you can possibly have. As for rediscovering your beauty? To be honest, it is REDEFINING your beauty. Seeing yourself in the light of beauty that the rest of us see you. Seeing that the issues that you have are not the ones that the rest of us see, and that we have to choose to stop letting this issue of beauty stand in our way.

My client Ms. S said it best in an email she sent me after her session:

There needs to be more AVENGERS of SEXINESS in the world, allowing other women to take back their self worth and sexiness and tell society to go to HELL. “I am SEXY and I KNOW IT”…. Thank YOU Christine for being my AVENGER of SEXINESS!

Should beauty be a non-issue? Absolutely. But people do judge a book by its cover, and people by their looks. It is time that we all stood up and redefined beauty, together.

You are more beautiful than you think. YOU ARE ENOUGH.

The post Beauty is a Matter of Perspective appeared first on Boudoir Photographer in Houston | Hot Mama Boudoir in Houston Heights | Christine Tremoulet.

Women. We are our own harshest critiques. Maybe it is because we are told at a young age not to be vain? Not to say that we are pretty? To be humble, to describe ourselves as plain so that we aren’t seen as boastful?

Maybe it is the impact of the mass media on us? What they try to tell us is “beautiful” in the magazine pages, which is actually a Photoshopped version of reality that isn’t attainable by anyone that is human? Like the time that Redbook decided that Faith Hill needed an arm so skinny that she has no elbow.

Whatever it is, it has to stop.

You are amazing. You are beautiful. You are incredible.

I am so in love with this Real Beauty Sketches campaign from Dove. We study ourselves in the mirror every day, yet no woman could accurately describe her features, and the language that they use about themselves is so harsh. It was heartbreaking to watch it, and I cried at the end.

If only you could see yourself as the rest of the world sees you, then you would know how beautiful you truly are. It looks nothing like what you see in the pages of the magazines because you are so much more than that.

This is something I also need to remind myself of on a daily basis, but I know that it is true thanks to all the women I’ve been fortunate to work with. That knowledge makes it so much easier for me to remember.

YOU ARE ENOUGH.

The post How You See Yourself vs How the World Sees You appeared first on Boudoir Photographer in Houston | Hot Mama Boudoir in Houston Heights | Christine Tremoulet.

Last summer I took the Hot Mama Tour on the road and set up San Francisco boudoir photography sessions. While I was there, I had the absolute pleasure of photographing Ms. T. Ms. T & I go way, way back – we first met years ago when she let me stay at her house when she lived in Austin and I needed a last minute place to stay during SXSW Interactive. Oh, what a trip that was – we had the best time that week! We simply clicked, rather immediately. Well, once I remembered to use my inside voice at 1am in her apartment.

Back when I very first started doing boudoir sessions, Ms. T let me photograph her — and it changed everything. I think hers was the second or third session I ever did. Afterwards, when she saw the photos, she told me, “Everyone always tells me I’m beautiful, and I’m like ‘Whatever!’ But you made me see why they say that. You made me see how beautiful I really I am.”

She didn’t know until I told her about that this summer, but I still get choked up when I talk about that moment. It makes me cry. It was an absolutely life-changing moment for me, which lead me on the path to where I am today. I owe her everything for making me see the power of these photography sessions.

It has been 4 and a half years since that first session, so it was wonderful to get a chance to photograph her again! Since she lives in San Francisco now, we did her boudoir photography session there at my friend Tess & RC’s studio in Alameda. A Sunday morning full of crazy laughter, these are just a few of the photos from our day – shared, of course, with permission from Ms. T, as per my Privacy Policy.

As T & I were emailing about which photos I was going to use for this post, she sent me this note. Just like the last time I photographed her, she made me cry all over again…

Christine,

Thank you for once again showing me how beautiful the world is through your eyes.

I actually have gained weight since the last time you shot me and you know what? I DGAF*. I didn’t care because when I saw the photos that you took of me, I realized that no matter what the scale says, your lens says something else. Your lens says that I am beautiful – with all the rolls and lumps and bumps and scars. For that, I love you. I love you for making me feel beautiful and powerful and capable of being loved.

Thank you!
T.

*I Don’t Give A F.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Ms. T – for all of the many amazing things you have done for me over the years, for the countless hours of laughing so hard it hurts, for introducing me to Domino Magazine (sadly now gone), for your design help, for being an aunt to my son, for understanding that I deserve nice things, for putting up with me, for your encouragement, for believing in me, and most of all – for trusting me. You have had a far more significant impact on my life than I believe you will ever know, and I love you for that.

I can’t wait to return to San Francisco and see you again SOON!

(The black t-shirt on the left was purchased for my husband as a gift from Prather Ranch Meat Co., where I had one of several amazing burgers while I was in San Francisco. Go there when you visit!)

The post Ms. T’s San Francisco Boudoir Photography Session appeared first on Boudoir Photographer in Houston | Hot Mama Boudoir in Houston Heights | Christine Tremoulet.

Mrs. K took a fun “day off” from being a mom to come in to my Houston Boudoir Photographer studio in the Heights to do a Hot Mama session to surprise her husband with a birthday present. We had such a fun time working together! Oh my goodness. Her laugh & her smile just radiated – and of course I appreciate anyone who thinks my horrible jokes are as funny as I think that they are! I’m so thrilled that not only did she give me permission to share her photos here with you, as per my Privacy Policy, she also gave me permission to use them to design an album that my album company will be displaying when they launch their new product at their tradeshow booths later this year! So thrilled, I’ve been so excited about these new albums launching at the end of the month!

Thank you to Jennifer Aronson for your amazing beautiful work. Thank you again Mrs. K for being so delightful to work with – I hope we get to do it again soon!

Have you been considering doing a Hot Mama session? Maybe for your spouse or sweetheart for Valentine’s Day? I still have a few weekday sessions available between now and the deadline of February 3rd, but you need to book soon because they are first come, first serve! Contact me HERE to book yours!

Mrs. K before her session when she sat down in Jennifer’s makeup chair on the left, and afterwards on the right. Stunning! I love the very natural makeup look that Jennifer did for her. So perfect!

Thank you again to Mrs. K for giving me permission to share her photos, and to Jennifer Aronson for her wonderful makeup! Ready for your Hot Mama session? Contact me NOW to book yours!

The post Houston Boudoir Photographer – Mrs. K’s Session at the Heights Studio appeared first on Boudoir Photographer in Houston | Hot Mama Boudoir in Houston Heights | Christine Tremoulet.

Damn it. WE ARE ENOUGH. Just like we are. And my goal in life? My goal is to celebrate that through boudoir photography.

I’m a boudoir photographer because doing it reminds me daily that I am enough, too.

This is a message I want to spread far & wide. I don’t know how yet. I don’t have a plan. I just know I want to share it with the world. With every woman I meet. Every woman who tells me that they can’t do a boudoir session, at least not until they lose 20 lbs, get tone, or whatever the case may be.

We are loved for who we are TODAY. Right now. In the present. The woman you are today is who I want to document. Right now. (By the way, if you told me you could never do a boudoir session, sorry if I was a little over the top dramatic about why you CAN do it. I’m a little passionate about it.)

For the past 3 years, I’ve had the distinct honor of photographing TEDx Houston. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, and is focused on ideas worth spreading. Speakers are given at most 18 minutes to share their ideas. Doesn’t matter who you are, 18 minutes. At first there was just one TED conference, and tickets were hard to come by and very limited. In recent years, they have decided to open up TED and create TEDx events. Local events, ones that can celebrate the city that they are a part of, and still help to spread ideas around the world. You can view all of the TED & TEDx videos online, and they are so wonderful. I love being a part of TEDx. Cameras are not allowed at TEDx events, so being one of the selected photographers has been incredible. The bonus has been the TEDx events I’ve been to, and they have taught me so many things both about Houston and about myself.

I try to make a point of watching as many of the TED and TEDx videos as I can. Recently, a link somewhere lead me to the video below. (I unfortunately don’t remember where, as I opened the video in a new tab and lost the original source.) The tab stayed open in my browser for several days, the time never being quite right to watch it.

Until now. Tonight I watched it, and it left me in tears. THIS. This is why I do what I do. It is for the moms out there that feel they have to hide. For our children. For your daughters. For our mothers. For US. For the fear that we have to hide who we are. For the shame.

What we look like does NOT define us. We need to change the world. We need to let the world know that WE ARE ENOUGH.

Thank you to Brittany Gibbons for putting yourself out there. For creating Curvy Girl Guide. For reminding us that we, as women, need to treat each other with a bit more kindness. And most of all, for reminding me to be strong. To continue to spread my passion. To stand up and celebrate our beauty, both inside and out, just as we are.

To the readers of this site, thank you to you for allowing me to share my passion with you.

To all of my amazing clients, YOU help make my dreams come true by sharing your laughter and trusting me with your fears. You are amazing and strong. You are beautiful in ways that words can’t express and photographs can’t even accurately capture. YOU ARE ENOUGH.

To all of the Hot Mamas out there, I celebrate you all every time I lift up my camera. Thank you for giving me that opportunity. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are a part of me, and because of you I am enough, too.

The post You Are Enough. Celebrating Being a Boudoir Photographer. appeared first on Boudoir Photographer in Houston | Hot Mama Boudoir in Houston Heights | Christine Tremoulet.

Hello, Mrs T! I’m so excited to share this session with you today! (With her permission, of course.) She came in to do a boudoir session at my studio in the Heights in Houston as a gift for her fiancé for their wedding. Bridal boudoir sessions are so much fun – the anticipation of giving him a gift on that special day? I love it! And trust me … he loves it too!

Makeup by the always wonderful Jennifer Aronson.

Now that the wedding day has passed, I can finally share these! Check out the new studio colors – I’m so in love! White and blue and so soft and lovely. I’ve done so many sessions recently with the new colors, and they look fantastic with everyone’s skin tone. Especially this blue wall – it makes me swoon all the time. So fantastic!

For part of Mrs. T’s session she did a “White Sheet Session” and then she also brought beautiful lingerie – a white chemise, and a robe that her fiancé loves. It all looked so wonderful together!

How fabulous is this owl tattoo? I’ve never wanted a tattoo before this year, but every time I see pretty ones like this, I start to reconsider. Problem is, I’m so indecisive, I’d have no idea what to have inked on myself that I would love for years and years. So for now, I’ll stick to admiring awesome tattoos like hers! I love this owl!

I also learned during our session that she loves Harry Potter (no, that is not Harry’s owl – I asked), and it inspired me to download the whole series on to my Kindle to start reading them all over again. I forgot how excellent Harry Potter is – especially the first book, when you’re just learning about everything. I’m completely sucked in to reading them all over; I’m thankful for my Kindle because it is a lot easier than reading them all in hardback book form like the first time!

I had *SO* much fun working with Mrs. T – and I’m so glad that she allowed me to share her photographs with you!

Interested in having a boudoir session of your own? There is still time for Christmas gifts! Book by December 2nd for Christmas delivery – and I even have a weekend session or two still available!

The post Houston Boudoir Photography – Mrs T at the Heights Studio appeared first on Boudoir Photographer in Houston | Hot Mama Boudoir in Houston Heights | Christine Tremoulet.

One of the perks of living in Houston is that I can easily do New Orleans boudoir photography sessions. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities – I am there once a quarter, and the sessions are always SO much fun! I love being able to bring my work to the fabulous Hot Mamas of New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana as well.

Mrs. S doesn’t live in New Orleans – she actually drove TWO hours to come do a session with me! I was so honored that she coordinated making that happen, leaving the kids at home with her husband to spend a fantastic afternoon with me. (I always hear the BEST stories of what wives tell their husbands about where they are going when they are really coming in for a boudoir session for a gift. You sometimes have to get a bit creative to get out of the house without spoiling the surprise!)

Mrs. S originally was looking for a boudoir photographer for one of her girlfriends who wanted to do a session. Her girlfriend ended up deciding not to do one, but Mrs. S was so excited about it, she went ahead and booked one for herself! How awesome is that?

I loved her enthusiasm before the shoot – she told me that it was her dream shoot! She absolutely LOVES New Orleans and we were able to incorporate her wedding dress (while showing off some skin!) to make it a dream come true. She did the session as a gift for her firefighter husband who works in the oil field, and we had such a fabulous time!

Thank you again, Mrs. S for allowing me to share your photographs! (As per my privacy policy, I never share things without my clients saying that it is ok!)

A few days after our session, Mrs. S sent me the sweetest email thanking me for the session, and I loved how she summed up the experience:
“As I drove away from you Sunday night, a little teary-eyed, I realized I haven’t felt that good about me being me in so very long. You managed to make me feel like I was on top of the world, not like I was doing something derrogatory or dirty.”

That? That is why I do what I do. I love being able to share that feeling with Hot Mamas!

In New Orleans and want to know when I’ll be back so you can book a session with me? Keep an eye on Travel Dates (aka the Hot Mama World Tour!) page, and contact me to let me know that you are interested and I’ll notify you when the next dates are set up!

Here are more from her session!

Here is that wonderful wedding dress she brought along to incorporate in to her boudoir session – so beautiful!

How hysterical (and awesome) is this t-shirt that her husband bought for her that she brought along!

She also brought along her favorite pair of boots and cute dress, and we headed down to the lobby of the hotel and headed outside!

While we were out walking around the area and taking photos, we spotted this car. Mrs. S told me it was her dream car – so we had to get a photograph with it! RAWR!

Don’t forget — if you’re in New Orleans and want to set up a boudoir, beauty or glamour session, let me know! Watch the Travel Dates page, and contact me so you’ll be at the top of the list for booking your session!

The post New Orleans Boudoir Photography – Mrs. S’s Beautiful Session! appeared first on Boudoir Photographer in Houston | Hot Mama Boudoir in Houston Heights | Christine Tremoulet.

My friend Trunetta Atwater & I met when we attended a boudoir photography workshop together in Paris earlier this year, and let me tell you – this woman is FANCY! That is exactly how she wants all of her clients to feel, whether they are boudoir clients or brides-to-be, and she is all about giving them that experience. If you’re in Jackson, Tennessee or anywhere nearby, you really should look her up!

The minute I met Tru in the lobby of the Saint James Paris, I was struck by her beauty. A tall, strong, bold woman – I was drawn to her like a bee to a flower. She has the most amazing smile, and laughs with her entire spirit and being. Oh my, and that natural hair! She is so lovely, inside and out! We spent practically every moment possible together throughout the boudoir workshop. From our visits to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Musee Rodin to our adventures on the subway – Paris was an adventure that just would not have been the same without her!

Shortly after we met we headed off to find lunch in Paris. Over that lunch together, Tru shared with me the story of her boudoir experience being in front of the camera. The photographer she worked with didn’t even try to connect with her, instead just posing – sit there, stand here. I could tell that Tru & I both strive to give our clients the most amazing experience possible, so I was truly heartbroken when I heard about her experience, and I could see in her eyes how sad it had made her feel. I asked her if we could make time one morning before the workshop started so that I could photograph her — and I was THRILLED when she said yes!

Tru just turned 30 the other day, so this post is a bit of a belated birthday tribute to her and her Fancy fabulousness! She is the mother of a sweet little boy, and the wife of a husband that she absolutely adores – it is their anniversary today! I loved hearing her stories about her family and how much she loves them during our time together, and I look forward to meeting them someday! When Tru told me she was from Jackson, I knew it sounded familiar and I found out later in May that that was because that is where Mike’s cousin (my cousin-in-law?) Shannon and her family live!

I’m so very grateful that for just a little while she let me know what it feels like to be Fancy, and I got to share with her the experience of being a Hot Mama — and the images here are the result! We didn’t have long to work together, but we definitely made some magic! This is one of the few sessions you will see on my site where I was not officially “hired” for the session, but it is always a HUGE honor to get to photograph another photographer! I hope Tru and I get to work together again some day — maybe next time I’ll be in front of the camera!

As per my privacy policy, all photos posted here are shared with Tru’s permission.

Trunetta & I went to see the Eiffel Tower … uhm … at least 4 times, maybe 5? We went almost every day. We love the Eiffel Tower! I just had to include one photo of the Eiffel Tower in this set!

And who is in that top center window there on the hotel? The amazing, gorgeous, beautiful, and not afraid of heights like me Tru!

The Hotel Saint James was an absolutely AMAZING place to stay – I can not recommend it highly enough! They took such excellent care of us, it was so delightful! I will definitely return there someday – maybe Mike & I should visit for our 10th anniversary? Hmm…

When Mike & I go back to Paris, I’m going to finally tour the Louvre instead of just using it for a photo backdrop! (There simply was no time on this trip!)

As I looked through my photos tonight to prepare for this post, I came across this one and I had to share it too. That is my crepe on the burner on the far right, cooking. Note the largest jar of Nutella EVER there — Mmmmmmmmm… The crepes from next to the carousel across from the Eiffel Tower were delicious! (I’m sure the magic of the Eiffel Tower at night had something to do with that!)

Thank you again, Trunetta for being such an amazing friend! I’m glad that Paris brought us together, and I am looking forward to seeing you again soon — it can’t be soon enough!

Feel free to leave her a comment and let her know how gorgeous she TRU-ly is!

The post Trunetta is a FANCY Hot Mama! Boudoir Photography in Paris, France appeared first on Boudoir Photographer in Houston | Hot Mama Boudoir in Houston Heights | Christine Tremoulet.

I’ve been featured in other publications over the years, but I think I may be the most excited about THIS feature! This one is all about empowering women through beauty & boudoir photography, my FAVORITE topic! And look at that – the photo of me is huge!

The text is a little hard to read in this image, so I’m transcribing it below. (Unfortunately, the article is not online or else I would link to it.) My only regret is that he did not mention The Flirt Sessions – women don’t have to just wear lingerie when we work together! Regular clothes are always welcome too!

From the Ultimate Height section of the Houston Chronicle for the week of July 26-August 1, 20012, page 2:

Photographer Wants Women Empowered

By Will Livesley-O’Neill

Christine Tremoulet believes the culture of beauty is changing for the better, and she’s found a way to combine her passion for photography with this mission for a new standard of how women should look.

“There are definitely stirrings among women about things like how Photoshopped women look in magazines or the expectations of models to be extremely thin,” she said. “I want to help women see themselves in a different light.”

Tremoulet is the founder of Hot Mama Boudoir, a studio in the Heights specializing in beauty photography targeted at women. Boudoir photography is generally intimate and shot with its subjects in lingerie or other undergarments.

“(These women) are awesome and amazing, and once you get into the everyday life, you forget about that a little bit. My goal is to help women see how pretty they really are, and through that to help them feel more confident about themselves,” Tremoulet said.

Her clientele, who find her mostly through word of mouth and her website, are usually looking to use the photos from the session as gifts for their husbands or boyfriends. But they leave feeling as though the session has been a present to themselves, Tremoulet said.

Tremoulet, a former wedding photographer, studied photography in high school and college and took photos recreationally for 20 years. After selling her blog-hosting company in 2006, she saw an opportunity.

“I decided I wanted nothing more than to make a living taking photos,” she said.

As some of her wedding clients began to ask about boudoir photography, Tremoulet transitioned her business until it was exclusively glamour, beauty and boudoir shots.

“I love being albe to give this service to the women I worked with, to help these women see themselves in such a better light,” she said. “We’re just so warped by magazines and everything else out there, we have distorted views of our own bodies. Doing this helped people reclaim something about themselves.”

Thank you again to the Houston Chronicle for featuring me today!

The post Hello, Houston! Featured in the Houston Chronicle! appeared first on Boudoir Photographer in Houston | Hot Mama Boudoir in Houston Heights | Christine Tremoulet.

The post has been brewing in my mind for awhile. How do you explain something so personal as a major shift in your dreams? A complete change within YOU that is bigger than something you can even put in to words?

I guess you start at the beginning.

Grab a drink & relax, this is going to be an incredibly long one!

In 2006, after years of taking photographs for myself, I decided I wanted to take photographs “for a living”. Forget the American dream, I wanted THAT. I didn’t know yet what that would even look like, I just knew more than anything I wanted to do it. So I did. I’m a jump in the water and learn how to swim type of person. On a phone call with Elaine, I told her I wanted to photograph weddings and I wanted her to photograph them with me. She laughed and replied that we didn’t even photograph people. I told her that was ok, we knew how to photograph them. She is the yin to my yang, and has been excellent at making me stop and question things. I still charged ahead. I had gone back to school in 2005 to finish that degree that I thought I HAD to have, but the fall semester of 2006 was the last semester I attended. I dropped my scholarship I had received for pursuing a medical field degree (pharmacy) and walked away. One of the many reasons I love my husband is how incredibly supportive he is – I told him (while on the phone long-distance to him in The Hague for work, having a nervous breakdown over Organic Chemistry, which I actually enjoy, and my horrific instructor that was hindering my learning) that “All I wanted to do was take pretty pictures!!!” and he said that I should go and do it. School would always be there if I wanted to go back. Go and follow the dream now. And I did.

Elaine & I photographed well over 100 weddings together since 2007, and some more on our own or assisting other photographers. Our first clients are all having their 5 year anniversaries this year. Many of them have families now. Some have several children. Others are pregnant as I type this with their first child. Only one couple that I know of is divorced. I’ve stayed in touch with many of them thanks to Facebook and Twitter. It has been an amazing journey.

I love being invited to be a part of such an intimate experience as a wedding day, of watching it all unfold and documenting it for them to relive.

In 2008, my friend Mitch called me and told me about a space for rent in the Heights – and it was the exact same building I had spotted as I pulled out of a parking lot 5 months earlier and thought “I want that to be my studio someday.” When I was meeting with the owner about renting it, I opted to add a second room to the “meeting room” I was going to rent. Again, spur of the moment. The light in that room was amazing. I had to have it. And I declared that day that I was going to start taking boudoir photographs.

My experience with boudoir up to that point had been the Polaroids I had taken for a friend to give to her boyfriend 10 or more years earlier.

Initially, boudoir seemed to be a natural extension of my wedding brand. I expected that couples would hire me to photograph their weddings, and the bride would add on boudoir photography as a gift for the groom, right? Wrong. It never did work out that way. Instead, I’ve photographed over 100 boudoir clients, many of them were brides who wanted a gift for their groom, but out of all of those, only four of them hired me to photograph their wedding plus their boudoir session. On the flip side, three of them hired me a year or two after their boudoir sessions to document their weddings – two of those weddings are coming up this year.

I discovered something in those early boudoir sessions — I discovered that I could be a champion for women. I can cheer them on. I can help them see their own beauty. I could help them peel back the layers of the years of society telling them that they aren’t “ENOUGH”. Whatever “ENOUGH” meant for them, our sessions were almost always caused a crack in that and helped them turn it around. They always ended their sessions saying how it was supposed to be a gift for someone else, but it ended up being the best thing for themselves.

But it wasn’t just them. Working with them helped ME heal too. But we’ll get to that in a minute. Keep on reading.

Jumping ahead to 2010, as I sat in Kay Eskridge’s panel at WPPI talking about her Celebrate Sexy brand of boudoir photography, she mentioned working with Moms. I looked at Kari who was sitting next to me and practically squealed. O.M.G!!! We HAD TO focus on working with MOMS!!! (Ok, out of respect for the people sitting around us I wrote notes to her on the top of my notebook, but only after gasping out loud.) Yet time passed, Elaine & I had a busy wedding season that year, and with boudoir sessions on top of it, the idea stayed with me but I didn’t act on it. I just knew it was everything I wanted to do. Somehow.

In September of that year, I went to a workshop by Jeff Jochum on Selling to the Millennial Bride, with Me Ra Koh as a guest speaker that evening. When Jeff started the workshop, he went around the room and asked each of us to introduce ourselves and what we did. When he came to me, this is what I said, “Hi, my name is Christine, wah-wah-wah-wedding photographer-wah-wah (pretend that is the Charlie Brown teacher voice, pretty monotone), and I also shoot boudoir AND OMG I WANT TO FOCUS ON SHOOTING BOUDOIR FOR MOMS IT IS OMG GOING TO BE SO AWESOME!!!”

Jeff just looked at me and said, “Did you hear it?” Yes, Jeff. Yes, I did.

He went on to ask us what our t-shirt would say if a client was wearing it. An exercise in thinking about your brand and how you represent yourself. For example, if someone is wearing a t-shirt with the Apple logo on it, it tells you something about that person. Then it happened. While I could tell you everything about my boudoir clients, I couldn’t tell you what that looked like for my wedding brand. Not at all. I was a blank.

My own crack happened that day. It was only amplified when Me Ra & I were talking that night and she asked where I saw myself in 10 years, and all I could think about were the amazing women I wanted to be working with, and how I wanted to spread the message that we are ENOUGH.

Because like my clients, I’ve battled not being ENOUGH for a long, long time. It is why I went back to college, because I thought I had to have a degree. It is why I stayed in an ultimately dead-end relationship with my ex for 8 years. It is probably part of why I married my ex-husband when I was 21. The list? It is a mile long. I had fought not being ENOUGH for what felt like my whole life.

In October 2010, Jeff returned to Houston to teach his Biz Clarity workshop. I hosted it at my studio. I was still holding on to being a “Destination wedding & boudoir photographer” when I introduced myself. (I was trying to find my place in the wedding label.) Jeff looked at me and said, “Trying to run two businesses at once, huh? How’s THAT working for you?” I gave him a hearty “DAMN IT JEFF!” – complete with fist shake – in reply. By the end of the day, I declared I wanted to break up with weddings.

What I didn’t realize at that moment though was how hard the road ahead was going to be. In the 3 years up to that point, I had completely wrapped myself up in being a wedding photographer. All of my friends were wedding photographers. My life was spent online talking to other wedding photographers. I looked at wedding blogs. I went to wedding photographer workshops and conferences. Weddings. Everything was weddings.

And while becoming a professional photographer in 2007 had changed my life in many excellent ways, it seemed I still didn’t know who the heck *I* was. My only identity was as a wedding photographer. That made the change even more of a challenge.

I started working with Jeff one-on-one in December of 2010. We dug in. What was my why? Why was I so drawn to boudoir? What made me unique? What made this truly, truly my passion? Why, why, why??? Who AM I?

Over time, Jeff set up a Facebook group for the members of Team-X, and having a community of amazing like-minded people, all of us searching for the answer to the same question of “WHY” but with wildly-varying answers, helped me grow and learn.

By March of 2011, my landlord informed me she had to sell my studio. Mike & I tried to get a loan to buy it. We were approved for a residential loan (we had plans to make it a live/work space), but the bank then said we couldn’t use the loan for THAT building. The same day I got that news, I met with Adam Nyholt to see the space he needed to sublet so I could tell friends about it. I rented it for myself instead. The first week of May I went house-hunting in the Heights because we already had an approved loan, so maybe it was time to finally move here and live that dream. House #4 that I looked at that day was the one we now own. Then there were the 7 long months of owning two houses while we sold our other one. Possibly one of the most stressful times of my life. All while trying to make such a change in my business.

It was SO worth it though. I’m glad I stuck with it.

Somewhere in that mess of moving out of one house and prepping the other one for sale – I know I was already in the new house when it happened, so probably June or July of last year, Jeff finally pulled the magical thread. The one that still makes me cry when I think about it, because it holds that much profound truth:

“What are you healing in yourself with every boudoir session you do?”

It had been over 10 years since that dead-end relationship ended, and I realized at that very moment just how profoundly the ghost of it still haunted me. How often I looked in the mirror and heard that I wasn’t ENOUGH. How I had never faced that ghost and dealt with it, I had just tried to walk away. It was time to deal with it.

DAMN IT!!! I *am* ENOUGH.

SO ARE YOU.

Once we figured all of that out, everything else happened so quickly – I knew what my Superpower was. I knew without a doubt not only what I want to do, but what I was already in fact doing. I was helping women grow their confidence and rediscover their beauty. And they were in turn helping me grow my own confidence and rediscover my own beauty as well.

It is hard to describe, but I feel a sense of joy & self-love that I don’t think I’ve had since I was probably 17 or 18 years old. I can honestly say that I LIKE ME now.

The best part of working with Jeff is that he doesn’t give you the answers, he just asks the questions. He keeps asking and asking, until you find the true answers.

Change is hard. I had so much change in my life last year. 2011 was THE year of change. Moving is stressful. Moving, selling a house, moving your studio (both moves happened on the same weekend) … well, completely moving my business away from where it was just wasn’t going to happen. Not yet. Matter of fact, by October 2011, since I had my Superpower all worked out, I made one more push to hold on to weddings. I do, truly, absolutely love them so much! Our coaching calls turned to weddings. I realized that part of why I love photographing weddings is that they too heal something in me – they show me after getting divorced and then being in a dead-end relationship that “Happily Ever After” can happen. Not only do my clients show me that, but my husband shows me that all the time through how supportive he has been!

However, running two businesses is HARD. Especially when, when I am honest with myself, helping Hot Mamas find their awesomeness is TRULY all I want to do.

Weddings are my love. Photographing Hot Mamas is my PASSION.

I spent months fighting that change. Months trying to find the “Why” of my wedding brand. It was never there, it was never right. Not like my Hot Mama mission and my Superpower. In March of this year, the armor cracked and fell off. I woke up one day and just KNEW. It was time. It was time to let weddings go, time to give my all, time to be completely focused and driven.

And that is what leads you to the change. That is why the weddings here have been moved off to their very own section. I still photograph them – I still absolutely LOVE them. I will photograph them for the right people – mainly referrals from family & friends of my past clients. I have several left this year in addition to the ones I’m second-shooting for other photographers – but I’m giving my ALL to my Superpowers.

Well, my Superpowers and having a life outside of photography.

I am a Hot Mama photographer.

I don’t limit it to just boudoir – it can be beauty, glamour, in lingerie or in regular clothes. It doesn’t matter, I just want them to see their beauty. I no longer attach weddings to that statement either. At first it made me cringe a little, a twinge of sadness, but it doesn’t any more. When I get feedback from my clients months or years after their sessions telling me that they have never loved themselves more, and it all started that day of our shoot? I know. I know that that is where I am meant to be. It makes my heart sing with joy.

I’m still exploring. I know that there is more that I want to do. I was interviewed earlier this week by the Houston Chronicle and when he asked me my future plans, I laughed. I haven’t found the words for them yet – they are still growing and waiting to be discovered – but I do know that I want to do more. I want to get the word out to other women that they are ENOUGH. I want to help them see their beauty through teaching them about it, even if they are not doing a session with me. I want to speak to women about feeling beautiful in their own skin. I want them to know how great it feels, to help them find a way to tear down those walls. How will I speak to them? That I don’t know yet. If you have ideas, let me know.

In addition to photography, I’m learning to have a life again. It isn’t too surprising, considering all the stuff I was dealing with on the inside, that I had stopped doing that, instead covering myself in what I “was” – my job was me. Not now. I surround myself with all types of people, and I enjoy doing so many things. I’m grateful for our move, because it opened up so many opportunities for us. It opened up ME.

My life has completely changed, and I owe it all to the Hot Mamas I’ve worked with! They may not realize it, but THEY showed me the way. They helped me discover that I am a Hot Mama too!

I also owe it all to my amazingly supportive husband who has cheered me on through all of this, listened to me rattle about it late at night, heard me out as I needed to sort it all out and to find my own way. Mike pretty much rocks as THE MOST AWESOME HUSBAND EVER.

There is also my Team-X family, to the Group Coaches I now have the honor of working with, and of course Jeff Jochum.

And last, but absolutely not least, is the support of my parents, my son, my in-laws, and all of my friends. You guys are all INCREDIBLE. And you’ve put up with a lot over the past few years from me.

Now you know the story behind all of the changes here, just in case you were wondering. I felt sort of strange having just done it without letting you know!

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