In the Feels Tonight….

I’m going to warn you ahead of time and tell you that I’m breaking my rule. There’s no drafts here, it’s going to be raw and everything you read will be as It comes out. Yes I’m in my feels right now and it’s going to be what it’s going to be. This business is 1/1 and simply put its going to be damn hard to find two people that believe as strongly as to their purpose in life than Rachel and I. We started this 5 years ago not knowing or having any understanding of what this is and 5yrs later we are one of the highest rated studios in the entire state of Alabama, and this didn’t happen by chance. 

When we started this business local photographers still whispered about boudoir, most that shot it only did it as a way to make extra cash amongst the 20 other things they prioritized. You might have seen a post pop up around valentines when someone could cash in on “sexy pics” however come Feb 15th those posts would disappear from their pages because god forbid someone be proud of offering something that could change a persons life. Back in 2019 there were still only 2-3 FULL TIME boudoir studios in the entire state of Alabama and this was the birth of Elevation Boudoir.

If I’m completely honest I’ll tell you that we had not a fucking clue of what we were stepping into, and had we known Im not sure either of us would have continued. There’s a lot to unpack here but ill spare you the diatribe. I’m just being real here, we aren’t the same two people that started this (Reason 5874 of why this can change your life). 

Back in 2019 we were both still employed at the University of Alabama, Rachel working directly with students as a career adviser then as a recruiter, myself as a groundskeeper for 2 1/2yrs and then as a police officer for 7 years. At that time I was on 3-11 with Tuesday/Wednesday off days and Rachel a normal day shift. Due to shift schedules/overtime we literally almost never saw each other. The most time I had with my family was when my Lt would let me drive the 15 minutes home during my lunch break to see the kids (we didn’t see eye to eye on much but I owe him for this one, shoutout to Sanford for this).

This business was born as a way to spend time together but it didn’t begin with boudoir. For the first two months we were family photographers and I hate to say it but we absolutely loathed it. It just didn’t feel right so we tried a little bit of everything and nothing fit us. Eventually we found boudoir and after a few alcohol induced failed attempts of photographing Rachel I hit on a few shots that she loved. It was damn near immediate that I watched the most shy, introverted, and conservative person I’d ever known change into a badass confident boss babe, there’s other words I’d use but I’m sure those might be a little much for a public blog. From there it felt like a no brainer that we needed to invest more into this. 

There was just a few problems here, I had damn near ZERO skill behind the camera, no knowledge of lighting/posing, oh and the elephant in the room….I’m a guy. If the deck wasn’t stacked enough don’t forget that no one talked or posted about this on public pages. We didn’t care though, we went for it and created the Facebook group. We figured it out as we went and fucked up way more than I’m proud to admit. For years we had every reason for this NOT to work but we never made excuses, we started on a $20 air mattress in our kids playroom and has now evolved into an over 3,000 sq ft studio in Downtown Tuscaloosa where clients regularly fly from across the country to work with us. My mind is still blown every single time this happens but after all the years we’ve dedicated to this I understand why.

Just like our clients who put every bit of trust they can in us to muster up the courage to walk through our doors, we do the same for them. I can’t back this with a statistic so I’ll spare you the bullshit but from my experience there are a substantial amount of photographers who’ve only ever been photographers. That’s all they know, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing but in 2020, just over a year in business we quit full time careers and went all in on our clients and Elevation. Rachel and I thought ONE thing above all else, how the fuck could we ever ask someone to trust us and get out of their comfort zone enough to use Elevation Boudoir if we didn’t believe in it enough to go all in. October 9th 2020 we both quit our careers, for me, I left a job I worked for years to get, the best part…. We had maybe $5,000 to our name (I’m not saying it was the most financially sound decision nor do I recommend this). It was barely enough to get through the month but it didn’t matter. What mattered was the clients we knew we could help. 

Since day one the goal is to learn from every session and above all make a positive impact in every single clients life. We do all that we can to help you build on top of the immovable foundation of your core self. We don’t believe in “Self Love” our believe is to push yourself to live to the highest standard. Had we lived a life of “Self Love” and “Acceptance” we wouldn’t be here , we’d still be taking it easy collecting bi-weekly paychecks and the over 700 clients we’ve worked with wouldn’t have had the experience that they did. 

You may never see this at another boudoir studio and some will say that this goes against the core believe of this industry but we aren’t for everyone. Our goal isn’t to appeal to every person that reads this however, it is to be a relentless force for those that care. 

One thing is for sure and anyone that knows us outside of this business will attest, the husband/wife duo you see on social media are the exact same people you see outside of it. For the people that judge us, cool, have at it. The moment we invited those first 20 people to our Facebook group we stopped giving a fuck about opinions. The only opinions that matter are the 762 people that have walked through our doors. One thing I can tell you if you are a potential client, we are the people that will have your back. Believe in yourself, believe that you can do anything you push yourself to do and trust us to show you the way. 

Justin