Meet Carlee
Photo by Michael Gomes
This is me...
Photo by Julia Steadman
Welcome to the little corner on my website where I get to talk about what my life is like outside of photography!
A big "adventure" of my life (and business) lately has been adjusting from a big move from Edmonton to Calgary with my husband, Michael, and our sweet Bernedoodle, Ted. It has been an adjustment, but has also allowed my business to blossom, and Calgary is such a beautiful city to call home. We are so grateful to be here.
Being outdoors (especially exploring in the mountains), is probably my favourite hobby aside from photography. A huge perk of moving to Calgary has been being able to do skiing, hiking, Jeeping, and camping trips with such ease and spontaneity.
Aside from mountain trips, you can often find me hanging out on the weekends at parks, by the river, farmers market dates, checking out fun cocktail bars downtown, and training classes with our fur baby.
I cherish family time more than anything, and work/life balance is incredibly important to me. Being a freelance photographer is the biggest blessing of a career for me and being able to honour the sacred time I get to spend with family and friends is an absolute dream.
Lastly, I'm sure almost every woman can relate, but I have sure experienced my fair share of challenges with self-love and body image. My journey with this is what truly blossomed my passion for boudoir, and I couldn't be a bigger advocate for self-acceptance and appreciating and loving the body we are each blessed with. Learning to feel confident and sexy no matter what or how much you're wearing is one of the most beautiful journeys. In other words, I am very much pro love every body!
Photo by Vanessa Paterson
Photo by Peak and Pebble Photography
Photo by Lapela Photography
Photo by Carlee Marie
So why Boudoir?
Okay, there sure is an important story behind my "why", and it's a good one, I promise!
Back when we lived in Edmonton, I had essentially accidentally built a business that had nothing to do with photography, and everything to do with the other passion of my teen years and young adolescence; softball.
As an elite athlete in the sport myself, playing with one of the best teams in Alberta as a pitcher/first baseman, and traveling all over the world to play (and eventually scouted to play collage ball in the United States), I quickly fell in love with coaching at the early age of 17. This was a byproduct of my coach at the time, convincing me to start a small winter pitching clinic with a total of 6 young athletes, that eventually turned into multiple clinics each year, weekly private sessions, and in total, over 150 students, many of which were regular clients, within the 7 years I spent coaching.
So why does this matter? Well, whether you're familiar with the sport or not, might I start with the fact that softball is a very female dominated sport, and although I had the privilege of coaching athletes anywhere between the ages of 6 (yes, this student's sister sure inspired her), and 20, the vast majority of my students were between the ages of 14-16.
Let's pause here, shall we, and take a little detour back to your own personal experience of being around this age...my guess: it sucked. And a lot of the suckiness probably had to do with a major lack of self confidence. I know mine sure did.
It was so evidently clear in almost all of my students, especially this age, no matter how physically gifted/talented they were, their confidence was at an all time low, which ultimately effected their game in so many more ways than they realized. So, I made it my mission to inspire and empower these athletes beyond just their physical abilities, to ultimately create an unshakable pitcher and overall human in every single one of my students.
When we decided to make the move to Calgary (for the development of my fiancé's career), I was heartbroken to be leaving this incredibly inspiring line of unique work, BUT, I was also also ready to dive into being a full time artist. My only fear was losing such a huge piece of who I was; empowering, inspiring and building confidence in others so that they could be the best version of themselves in all that they do. Naturally, I started exploring the art of boudoir. I fell in LOVE.
To me, there is nothing more powerful than facilitating an experience for a woman that moves them so deeply, they walk out of the studio with the utmost love for themselves, and tear up when they get to peak at the back of my camera because they CAN NOT believe it's them...zero editing, and 100% the most empowered, highest version of them. *insert goosebumps*
So there you have it. I'm that photographer that cares about making you look and feel your best. Being confident is so incredibly important, dictates your success, and allows you to show up unapologetically to be the highest version of you. So. Let me be a stepping stone to getting you to that place. You deserve it more than anything.
xoxo,
Carlee
