About luck

"You’re so lucky, you’re living a dream life and you get to travel all the time !" I get that really often. So let’s get clear here. Being a wedding and destination photographer has nothing to do with luck. I’m not lucky, I show up, I hussle and I make things happen. However, some part of my life can be called “lucky”. I am lucky to be born in such a beautiful country as France and a pretty city like Paris. I am lucky to have the freedom to be who I want to be, to say what I want to say, to make choices...when in a lot of countries, it’s not the case for most women. So I get slightly puzzled when people are telling me how lucky I am to be where I am at now, as if it was a magical thing, as if it didn’t require any efforts from me. Because just as a reminded dear friend, this is what Luck is :

LUCK : (noun) : “the force that causes things, especially good things, to happen to you by chance and not as a result of your own efforts or abilities”.

So for instance : seeing wild dolphins while cruising Milford Sound, THAT was lucky.

Anyways, what I wanted to share here is that YOU can live the life that you dream of, EVERYONE can. Sounds stupidly easy? Well, believe me it’s not. Living the life you dream of requires actions, it requires commitment, it requires becoming comfortable with uncertainty, it requires fighting against yourself sometimes, because you have fears, because you procrastinate. Basically, it requires personal growth, and growth is painful. BUT the pure joy of being able to decide how you want your life to be, the freedom that comes with it, and feeling that you serve your life purpose,  is totally worth every single painful steps. It’s like losing weight, you can’t expect to be fit and healthy without taking actions, and sit on your couch, complaining how fat you are and binging on Häagen-Dazs (me, last Saturday night. PS: my favorite flavor is Pralines&Cream, what’s yours??).

Ever since I quit my day job which I’ve been working at for 8 years, I made a commitment to myself that I wanted to work on myself everyday to become the person I need to be to create and live the life I dream of and to be of service and selflessly add value to the life of people who will cross my path, be it through my Faith activities or through my work as a photographer. People think that success - whether we talk about business, money, love or health- comes to those who were born in the right network, whose parents had the useful connections, to those who are more beautiful, have the right genes, etc. Sorry to say, but these are just excuses we use to avoid taking actions to build our own success. It’s all about the MINDSET : “ You are just as worthy, deserving, and capable of creating and sustaining extraordinary health, wealth, happiness, love, and success in your life, as any other person on earth. It is absolutely crucial - not only for the quality of your life, but for the impact you make on your family, friends, clients, co-workers, children, community, and anyone whose life you touch - that you start living in alignment with that truth” (Hal Elrod - The Miracle Morning )- PS : READ THAT BOOK, it’s life changing.

From a young age, I refused to believe that because I was a daughter of immigrants who don’t have much education, I was not entitled to have a higher education, that because I lived in a neighborhood where drug dealer was a dream career for some, I was doomed to a not so bright future, that because I was a girl, I was worth a lesser pay than my male peers… Of course, oftentimes I have doubts, I have fears, I compare myself to others, but I am aware that this is not the right path that will lead me where I want to be. So I fight, I fight against myself, against my ego, I stop asking the wrong questions like : “why am I not as successful as X” ? but instead : “What can I learn from X’s success and how do I become better to achieve it?”. The only person we should compare ourselves to, is the person we were yesterday, and the day before, and one month ago, a year ago, five years ago. And surely, if you take actions and commit, you will see how a better person you’ve become. “Your level of success will rarely exceed your level of personal development, because success is something you attract by the person you become” (Jim Rohn). So it starts with YOU and it starts NOW.

Keep me posted on how you are taking actions, I’d love to hear and be inspired ! (remember, it always starts somewhere, even with baby steps ;) you GOT THIS !

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With love and gratitude,
Celine xx

Governor's Bay Engagement Session - New Zealand

New Zealand is THE most amazing country I've got to see so far. I've traveled quite a lot, having worked for the airline industry, I've seen most of the countries in Asia and Pacific, but New-Zealand really had my heart. The landscape, the people, the good vibes, the Maori culture, everything adds up on my "why" list for "why should you visit New Zealand?" . One city in particular touched me, not because it's the prettiest but because of its people. That city is Christchurch, which was hit by a massive earthquake in 2011, destroying most of the city. The first time I visited Christchurch was in 2014 and the city was still rebuilding itself; I was struck by the resilience shown by its people, the positive mindset, the energy put into making the city beautiful again... And that was the spirit that I felt throughout my trip within the North and South Islands, Kiwis are one of the most welcoming and warm people I've got to meet, I think, we as -French, especially Parisians- have A LOT to learn about. Now, enough about the blabbering, I'm sharing with you this engagement session with Nooshin and Judah, a lovely couple who was getting married the week after this session. We chose Governor's Bay as a location for this shoot because... well just look at it:

Shot on Mamiya 645 AFD; Film Lab : Carmencita Film Lab

Love is light

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

- Martin Luther King

This quote has run through my mind on and off for a while now, especially after the horrific attacks in Paris, Brussels and around the world. I've quite pondered about how my work, how my passion for love stories and for the beauty of life in general could, in some ways, bring light in others' lives, or a breath of life to the lifeless minds who are driven by hate. Tough question, I know right ? To date, I don't have a clear answer to it. But the project I wanted to share with you today was a sort of revelation to me, a sort of glimpse of how light, love and art can do when they're put together. A few weeks ago, my friend Nick from Greece showed me some pictures of an amazing place called Tatoi, I booked my flights straight away because I knew I wanted to shoot there. It used to be a Royal Palace (you can read more about it here and see some pictures of how it used to be here). But it's now completely abandoned and what used to be a magnificent Palace is now turning into ruins. It's quite an amazing experience to walk through these abandoned buildings and imagined how life was back then...Some buildings still have some furniture, old cars and wine barrels are still left there. The fate of this Royal estate is both sad and mesmerizing at the same time. I couldn't help but compare it to Versailles, imagine how it would be to see it abandoned and turn to ruins ?! 

So our aim was to kind of bring back to life this lifeless place. To bring the light of love within this complete chaos of ruins. To see life and motion where you think it wouldn't be anymore. Here are the pictures:

White dress : Violette Tannenbaum | Lilac Dress : Shopgossamer | MUHA : Frantzeska Koukoula | Headpiece and Silk runner & ribbons : Orchidée de Soie | Calligraphy : Nice Plume Calligraphies | Bespoke rings : Myrtille Beck | Film Lab : Carmencita Film Lab

Engagement session on Bethells Beach, New Zealand

Last January, I had the chance to travel through New-Zealand (for those who never been, write it down on your TO DO LIST NOW) to discover its amazing landscape and people as well as to shoot for Soil and Stem's amazing floral workshop. It was such an amazing experience to be surrounded by so many talented florists and see how they create, but I'll tell you more about it in a next post! Today I wanted to share with you this engagement session I had the chance to capture while I was there. I am beyond grateful to have met these two. Theo and Maddie are the sweetest couple and I'm so happy we got to shoot at Bethells beach which is the epitome of the natural beauty of New Zealand, it is not only surrounded by the ocean but also rocks, caves, white sand dunes and freshwater streams - paradise in a nutshell!

Shot on Mamiya 645, Fuji 400h. Dev & Scans by Carmencita Film Lab

Flowers by Horrobin and hodge | Dress  : A la robe | Calligraphy : Nice plume Calligraphies

This session was also published on Style Me Pretty

On experimenting and the creative process

I believe all artists face the same issues when it comes to inspiration and creativity. Sometimes, we beat ourselves up because we found our work deprived of any creativity or inspiration, we tend to stick to what we know how to do well. We can also get stuck in over thinking the creative process, about what we should be creating, what others will think about it, and what they would say about our work (like I've explained HERE)... The truth is, we get so caught up in thinking about others that we don't even create anymore, and the irony is :

"We all spend our twenties and thirties trying so hard to be perfect, because we’re so worried about what people will think of us. Then we get into our forties and fifties, and we finally start to be free, because we decide that we don’t give a damn what anyone thinks of us. But you won’t be completely free until you reach your sixties and seventies, when you finally realize this liberating truth—nobody was ever thinking about you, anyhow.’  They aren’t. They weren’t. They never were…People don’t have time to worry about what you’re doing, or how well you’re doing it, because they’re all caught up in their own dramas. People’s attention may be drawn to you for a moment (if you succeed or fail spectacularly and publicly, for instance), but that attention will soon enough revert right back to where it’s always been—on themselves….You are free, because everyone is too busy fussing over themselves to worry all that much about you.

Go be whomever you want to be, then.

Do whatever you want to do.

Create whatever you want to create—and let it be stupendously imperfect, because it’s exceedingly likely that nobody will even notice.

And that’s awesome”  (Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert)

 Last year, I had the chance the meet Sofia and André from Branco Prata, an amazingly talented duo that taught me how to push myself out of my comfort zone and EXPERIMENT. It was one of the most insightful experiences of my life as an artist. We shot on the top floor of the amazing Galeria de Paris where we had big windows with gorgeous light coming in. It was the perfect conditions, especially when you shoot on film. However, the aim wasn't to shoot gorgeous images, the aim was to experiment. So they closed all the shutters of all the windows! *gasp* and left just one - ajar. I decided to push the experiment even further by shooting mainly in black and white, something I rarely do. (T-Max 400, for the photo geeks out there!).  Ever since this experience, I know that experimenting is key in my creative process and most of the time, it's when we experiment that we come up with our best piece of work. It's the only to expand our limited view as an artist.

Shot during the Carmencita Meets Porto, on Mamiya 645 AFD, Kodak T-Max 400 and Portra 400 | Dev and Scans by Carmencita FIlm Lab