Paris Boudoir Photographer | A warm summer morning

 

Capturing a delicate morning boudoir session. Waking up in a Parisian apartment bathed by the summer sun.

If you want to see the behind the scene of this shoot, here are some footage captured by the amazing Claire of Image Clairity

Lingerie : The Lace Atelier

Robe / Lace kimono : The Lace Atelier / Violette Tannenbaum

Ring : Myrtille Beck

Film Lab : Carmencita Film Lab

Video : Image Clairity

You were born to be REAL not Perfect

Yes YOU.

As a wedding and portrait photographer here in France but also around the world, how many times have I had female clients believing they will never look beautiful on pictures because they were told they're not "photogenic".

So let me tell you now that Photogenic is a myth honey, your beauty is unique and can be shown is so many different ways, but most of all, it's in your beliefs. Once you understand that there can be no other you than YOU, that you have a light that no one else has on this planet, that your uniqueness is what makes you gorgeous, then you'll understand the power you have within you and grow that confidence that'll make you shine. And if you don't get it, hit me up and I'll show you your beauty through my lens✨

Find your way back to CREATIVITY - Reconnect with your inner child

Are you lost in your search for creativity? Every artist might face this phase where he/she feels stuck, whether you are a wedding photographer, or even travel the world as a destination wedding photographer, whether you are a painter, a singer, a writer... I bet we all have felt that at some point. At least, I have. Until that day, when my sister called me as she needed me to babysit my nephew...

Spending time with my 3 year-old nephew has opened my eyes on how we think about creativity. I realized that as adults, we overthink creativity, we think that it’s something we need to find outside, draw inspiration from God knows what source … Pinterest? Instagram? Fellow artists ? (yes, I do all of these three I have to admit) but we forget that creativity comes from the inside FIRST. Watching my nephew create his own world for a whole day made me realized that every one of us used to be THAT creative, we could see a sword in a wooden stick, we could see a castle out of a couch and a pile of pillows, we could talk to anyone anytime, we never felt judged for not being creative enough or not doing it right… But growing up, we built walls with social pressure, fears...and we stopped exploring.

That’s it.

We  JUST. STOPPED. EXPLORING.

Because we are driven by the pressure of creating. We think we need to create, we must come up with something others will like…

Remember when we ALL used to be like this creative building our own reality:

Best of Action Movie Kid's adventures Thanks to Hashi and his son for these great videos. You can find the original channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2hAbftpVjHtFrDOpEM90aA http://www.kainio.com

I gave my nephew an old Holga plastic camera for him to play with. Oh boy, I can’t even describe the joy and light in his eyes! He grabbed the camera and snapped the hell out of it, he snapped everything that caught his attention. He was so happy about it. Did he care that there was no film roll inside? NO. Did he care what people around him would think ? NO. Did he felt pressure to come up with amazing pictures? NO. Although I’m sure in his mind, he did created amazing pictures! 

I asked myself when was the last time I felt so much joy and excitement… 
If only we could reconnect with our inner child, if only we could reconnect with that joy, that part of us that doesn’t care what others think. If only we let ourselves to just be. If only we could let the social pressure go. The pressure we create ourselves in our own mind about : the NEED to create to please others (aka get praise, get new clients, get likes, get shares and comments, etc)

STOP PUTTING PRESSURE ON YOURSELF to create AMAZING things. A lifetime of creativity will probably bring out only a few chefs-d'oeuvre and THAT IS OKAY. Let me ask you: Who's your all-time favorite artist? Can you name some of his/her major chefs-d'oeuvre? How long is your list ? I bet it has less than 10 items. I remember reading the story of John Keats, one of the greatest English poets. He lived his whole life thinking his work was mediocre, he even wrote himself : “I could have been one of the greats if only I had enough time”. Isn't it sad ? So don't waste your time trying to create the perfect thing. JUST CREATE.

One effective way I found to reconnect with our inner creativity is to break the daily routine. Remember the very first time you brushed your teeth, on your own? Weren’t you the most excited kid the the WHOLE WORLD ?! Of course you were. Were you that excited about brushing your teeth this morning ? I guess not. But that’s because it became a must-do, a daily thing we need to do for a specific goal : get our teeth clean. 
Why not try doing something without a goal? Trying just for the sake of EXPLORING. EXPERIMENTING. Because the joy we will feel doing this, will trigger a new way of feeling, seeing, and then CREATING differently. 

“I find as my imagination strengthens, I live not in one world but a thousand” - John Keats

We can just start by doing ONE thing differently everyday. Take a different route to go to work, change the order of our daily routine, eat something we’ve never tried, but above all, just create without any goals in mind : pick up your guitar, your pen, your brush, your scissors, your camera, whatever is your favorite tool of creation and just do it. CREATE.

"All children are artists, the problem is how to keep being one ?" - Picasso

Here are some phone snaps of my day of adventure with Leo :

Leo on top of a Skyscraper

Saving the world like Spiderman

Leo being a photoreporter

Leo catching life in motion

Leo creating magic on the train

Leo checking his shots on his backless camera

Share with me your thoughts about creativity and your experiences on reconnecting with you inner child. I'd love to hear about it and get inspired ! Meanwhile, register below if you want to receive your daily dose of inspiration.

With love and gratitude,

Celine xx

Find beauty in the imperfections

Friday morning, I wake up early. Craving for something nice for breakfast, and lucky me, I have the best bakery round the corner (that makes me REAL happy, my weight scale, not so much …). I go for a “feuilleté aux framboises”, basically raspberries folded in heavenly buttery pastry. Got home, put that on my new favorite plate, top that with fresh raspberries, brew some coffee and I was finally ready to devour that. Except that my plate was so pretty that I wanted to show it off and that’s when the endless photo snapping started. Shall I add some flowers to make it pretty-er, a fork, a knife maybe ? - while I know I’ll probably end up eating with my hands… - shall the coffee be on the right, on the left, in the middle ?? Snap, snap, snap, this angle, no, that angle, straighten the fork, the knife...15 photos later… I ended up with a feeling of frustration because these snaps were “not good enough”. But then I caught myself thinking why am I even allowing myself to get frustrated for such a small matter. No one cares about this plate of raspberries and my coffee, like I remembered writing in this post. I don’t need to show a “perfect” breakfast to anyone. I suddenly remembered about this article and the “dream life” of instagrammers. So I just grabbed my half cold coffee and devoured that feuilleté aux framboises - with my hands. It was yummy, and it was messy, crumbs all over the place. And the more I was eating, the messier it was, the more empty my plate got, the more beauty I found in there, and THERE it hit me. It was imperfectly perfect. I snapped. And I loved it. I loved the beauty of the unplanned mess. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be pretty. It shouldn’t be. Because REAL life is not perfect. And I feel that my call is to reflect authenticity in my work so why should I pretend that my life is perfect.

Imperfections are perfectly beautiful. I love them and I want to photograph them. I want to be me, the imperfect girl who eats with her hands, who’s not a size zero, and who loves butter, cheese, chocolate, and everything my bakery has to offer, in real life AND in the so call "social media life" . So to all of you out there, I want us to embrace our imperfections, those who make us who we are. I want to meet you and your imperfections and capture them and show the world how beautiful they are. Are we meeting soon?

Here are the snaps of this morning imperfectly perfect breakfast including the hundreds snaps that got my coffee cold: 

The carefree bride in Provence - Domaine des Grillons

Provence is probably one of the most beautiful and one of my favorite regions. I love how being a wedding photographer in France helps me discover little gems. Not only in terms of location but also in terms of persons. I've met Morgane of  Big Day Events and  Violette Tannenbaum few months ago as we worked together for the Love Etc. wedding fair. We clicked instantaneously. I love how Morgane is able to turn a vision into reality, how she is able to reflect elegance and simplicity, raw and authenticity into her styling. And I'm in love with Violette's dresses, soft, delicate, modern and romantic at the same time. After we met, we knew we wanted to work together on some projects. When Morgane told me about this gorgeous location at Domaine des grillons, I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. Surrounded by fields of poppies, olive trees, woods, and hills, it was the perfect place for this bridal inspiration. Actually Provence might just be the perfect place for a wedding in France to my opinion...

When I saw the poppy fields, it reminded me of Monet's painting : Coquelicots. 

We wanted to create something romantic but quite wild at the same time as the location entices you to do. An elegant bride but carefree at the same time, you know. Here is how we turned our vision into reality. Would love to hear your thoughts about it folks !

Styling and flower arrangement : Big Day Events | Lace robe and dress : Violette Tannenbaum | Make up : Diamond Heart Make Up | Hair : Agnès Caneri | Silk ribbons and table runner : Orchidée de Soie | Calligraphy : Nice Plume | Chain Ring : Myrtille Beck

Location : Domaine des grillons | Film Lab : Carmencita Film Lab |