Today we’d like to introduce you to Chrissy DePauw.
Hi Chrissy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I had my own company for ten years, Love Shack Designs, where I crafted custom headboards and beds. About six years in, I decided I needed a good camera to take pictures of my work. As soon as that camera arrived, the end of Love Shack Designs began. I just fell madly in love with photography and wanted to take pictures of everything and everyone. I signed up for classes at Santa Monica College, took online courses, and started to spread the word and accept whatever work came my way.
It was a boudoir shoot with my sister-in-law early on that lit the fire in me to pursue this genre that I truly believe is changing the way women show up in this world. It’s a common thing for a client to tell me that she’s walking differently, dressing differently, being kinder to herself, exuding confidence that she didn’t know she had. To be a part of a shift of that magnitude is so special.
While living in Los Angeles, I was photographing everything from babies and families to weddings and boudoir. But boudoir and women’s portraiture have had my heart since the beginning. This pandemic I know has helped a lot of people, including myself, really step back and look at the type of life they want to live. It gave us a sense of calm and a time to reflect that most of us have never experienced. It was that time for me that allowed me to see that I needed to stop spreading myself so thin and truly put my all into what truly lit my soul on fire.
In the middle of a pandemic, Chrissy René Studios Luxury Beauty & Boudoir Photography was born.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As soon as I decided that I was narrowing my focus and fully closing the doors of my other business, it has been a surprisingly smooth but very intense road. With furniture, I didn’t have a road map. I flew by the seat of my pants. With my portrait business, I have mentors, educators, guides, etc., which means I’m leveling up in so many ways and that takes a lot, and I mean a LOT of hard work. When you know WHAT to do, you have no excuse not to do it. The biggest struggle I’ve dealt with in this transition is time management and work/life balance. Not a bad problem to have!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Chrissy René Studios specializes in luxury beauty and boudoir photography that’s heavily inspired by black and white fashion photography and the core of human emotions. We also shoot color, but oooh that black and white just invokes all the feels! I seem to be known for making my clients feel like we’re long lost friends meeting up for a girl’s day. I love my clients and I just think they’re so brave and I’m so proud of them for taking the leap to do something like this that I just really relish being in their presence!
I take a lot of pride in the full-service experience I provide for my clients. It’s not a one day thing. It starts with a phone chat where we get to know each other and you give me advice on your favorite Texas gems to escape to on the weekends, and I give you the rundown on how you do not have to be nervous about posing AT ALL because I’m the posing master and I will coach you through everything! Then I send out lots of emails, we share Pinterest boards, we go back and forth about wardrobe and you even get a jam-packed prep guide. Then there’s shoot day. You get pampered by our skilled hair and makeup team, we prep looks/sets, then we start your photoshoot! I cheer you on and we create the most beautiful custom art together. A week or two later, you get your own private ordering appointment where I help you decide how you want to display your new art.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Seeing the elevation in confidence of my customers brings me insurmountable joy! I’ve always struggled with self-confidence, feeling feminine enough, pretty enough, desirable, etc., and for me, seeing beautiful photos of myself greatly helped serve as a reminder that I am all of those things and more. I don’t want this to sound superficial because it’s really not about “looks”, but about the essence of who you are. And you only see such a small amount of that when looking in the mirror. A photoshoot with me gives you a 360 degree view of YOU. And I’ve never had a customer not fall in love with themselves just a little bit more after seeing their pictures, and just being a part of that makes me the luckiest girl in the world!
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@chrissyrenestudios.com
- Website: http://chrissyrenestudios.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/chrissy.rene.studios
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/chrissyrenestudios
