The flawless pin up

Pin Up girls. Poster girls. When you think of them you think- the ultimate woman, perfect, adorable, sexy but classy. Flawless.I can picture the posters lined up over the soldier's bed and the girls with their cute expressions and their adorable outfits. Most were hand drawn based off real photos from back in the day. Because they were drawn though, it was easy to be flawless, you just sketch it in!
It’s not every day that a real girl walks in to my studio and is literally flawless, but I think Alyssa just might be.
Photoshop is nowhere near responsible for this beautiful skin you see, and yes these really are photographs. Yes, she has makeup on, but it still doesn’t matter. And the outfits! Look how adorable she is. They just reinstate I’m right. She’s flawless. Ok, so maybe she did have a few little scratches from her new baby kitty we had to get rid of, but that was just bad timing! 
Don’t hate her for it though! You HAVE to see how AMAZING she did when she came to our Retro Truck Pin Up event!
We hooked all the girls up with professional hair and makeup that morning too, so cat eyes, a red lip, and victory rolls were a must- which I LOVE. It’s such a gorgeous look. It’s fun, it’s out of the box, and it forces you to rely on yourself and your personality to be sexy instead of your body.
But… if you have a fabulous body as well, then… aren’t you just lucky. Again- flawless, right?
Take a look!

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Check out the full beauty gallery here!

If you're dying to see more sassy pin ups and trucks you're in luck.
Here's a secret garage girl shoot we did for a hubby who's a mechanic
And another with a mom who dropped her baby weight and celebrated with a timeless, flawless retro shoot!

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a boudoir session made for royalty in an amazing old mansion

a boudoir shoot made for royalty

shooting beauty in a 100+ year old mansion
in St. Clair, Michigan

   This boudoir shoot will probably go down as one of my faves, due to the fact she looks like royalty in that round bed. I mean, she totally rocked this!
She looks like a queen here. Take a peek.

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St. Clair, Michigan Boudoir Photographer

Check Out Our Full Beauty & Boudoir Gallery!

For Some More Glam Boudoir Check out Jodi's Photoshoot!

For More Class Yet Sexy Boudoir Check out Jain Darling's Shoot!

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embracing your inner skinny girl

It's the holidays. EVERYONE wants to take your photo, they want a family photo, they want the WHOLE family in the photo. You can't get out of it. And you don't want to be in front of the camera because you never look good, right?
I'm not assuming this about you, it's just what I'm told by you over, and over, and over again. 
"I look bad, I look old, I have 3 chins, I'm too fat."
Lies. 
I'm sorry, but even the littlest of girls have an inner fat girl. Even the youngest among us have creases and skin that moves. We're human. That's how bodies work. I'm pretty petite and I'll tell you what, catch me when I'm not looking and I can sprout jowls, 2 chins, and all kinds of neck rolls. 
Don't believe me? Let me show you. 

And while you look at all my imperfections see how I teach YOU how to avoid it all!

You don't need awesome light, and you don't need to lose 20 pounds. You just need to be aware of your body! Every session I do I spend time to make sure every pose my beautiful ladies get into flatters them, because I'm not relying on photoshop to turn them in to someone they aren't. I just need to help them move their body in a way that says, "I'm confident, I look good, watch me work."
The following photos were taken with my cell phone in my bathroom. Nothing fancy. 
They were NOT edited (only background stuff was removed.) The quality is below average because I want to show you what REAL life looks like, and what SIMPLE tricks can be done to make a HUGE difference in real life without a professional posing you. I have my girls tell me all the time when looking at their final photos- "Oh my gosh- photoshop does wonders!" No... NO! This is YOUR body, just like it is EVERY DAY, just being demanded by me to look it's best for you.
Now it's your turn to demand it.

When we're comfortable we tend to sink in to our own bodies. Our shoulders curl in, our chins drop, and our necks relax. Yay for several chins and a sleepy looking face. 
Now- roll your shoulders back, make your neck tall, and pop that chin out. You look more vibrant, younger, and better posture will give you better confidence. Try it!

Oh- you're comfortable? Good for you and YAY for neck rolls!
Now- elongate the neck and stick your chin down. Good. Instant slimming. 

Hey, what's down there? Are you reading, are you just sitting? Are you comfortable? Good, because everyone else is wondering- Jesus, with those jowls did you fall asleep and not wake up for 10 years!? Make that neck long and pop that chin! Instant facelift! Hold your head high- literally and figuratively! It looks good on you!

Know your body, be confident, and hold your head high. 

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Want to see more tips and tricks on how to slim down your whole body? Check out my body transformation story and how I changed my appearance almost instantly!

2015 recap

Two Thousand Fifteen. 
Where do I begin?

All these beautiful, unique, life changing squares before me. 

My gosh. Every single one holds a face that has made me in to the artist, photographer, and person I am at this very moment, after another full long year of connecting with people through squares and rectangles that define who they are in just 1 moment of time.

   The beginning of 2015 started out with snow, love, pin ups, and models. I got to photograph people in the first few months of this year that would become friends of mine, have babies, get married, go on to be successful in their careers, win awards… Every person in those first squares are so much more than faces to me when I look back.

   At the very beginning of March my husband, Jake, and I went to Las Vegas for the biggest Photo Expo in, possibly, the world, WPPI. On the plain ride home I exploded a small notebook with ideas, inspiration, things I wanted to change, and ideas I wanted to create. That’s when The Revolution was born.

   Around May I took about 1 1/2 months off of work. I go through phases with my art, like we all do in life, but at that point I had realized that, if I didn’t make a change NOW I wasn’t going to be able to make that HUGE jump in to the art that I've always been drawn to, that really makes me happy and keeps me feeling alive. I had to make a cut in the timeline, so I disappeared for a bit. 

   You will see a lot of little squares that are of me this year. It’s not because I love myself that much but I find that inverting inwards helps me understand situations better. Sometimes I find messages to myself in my work before I’m even fully aware there’s a message to be found. Through my self-portraits I pushed past what I was comfortable with, what I thought I knew, and started over. I let go of what was holding me back and pushed towards what made me happy. I found myself outside more, exploring more, and having a better understand of what actually made me happy when it came to creating for others. 

   From that time The Pillow and The Pond and Floating through the Veil was born, as was another piece I am still waiting to release. 

   After that the squares starts to shift back to everyone else. The people who keep my art alive- you.
We did so many gorgeous seniors, hot bridal boudoir, families, even a few babes! We got to experience being with hundreds of people for weddings, big commercial shoots, I even climbed 100 feet up in to a giant Michigan Sequoia to get some shots of climbers. You rolled around in leaves, climbed up and down hills with us, got sassy with an old retro truck, sun gazed, and threw around flour. You laid in ponds, jumped on trampolines in sweaty haunted buildings, and stuck antlers in your hair.

   You made 2015 beautiful, truly, unremarkably beautiful. And I thank you for that. Over and over and over again.

   Here’s to another years of beauty, stories, and fairytales brought to life.