2025 Update: It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to retire from professional photography. Such a tough decision that has been a decade in the making. My life journey took a turn in 2014 when I became interested in emergency medicine and has continued to develop a path in healthcare. My career in photography will always hold a special place in my heart and soul because it was where I met and got to know so many amazing humans, many of whom I still call friends today.
A little background on Christine
It's funny how life turns out. I fell madly, deeply in love with the boy next door. We quickly became teenage parents (Whoops!). We were too young, too poor, too scared, but luckily still too in love to care. We found ourselves just crazy enough to go for round two, so we had our daughter. Somewhere in all that, I went to college...but just like Bruce Willis in Die Hard...I was the classic case of the right place, wrong time. There were a whopping ZERO jobs out there for what I studied. However...A couple years before finishing school, I got invited to a friend's wedding who didn't have a photographer. They asked me to bring my camera. I had NO IDEA at the time...but I had just started my wedding photography adventure. So skipping forward...here I was after college...still too young, too poor, too scared, too in love to care...and started taking too many pictures. Obsessed with people and pictures!!! Slowly taking my hobby from a few portrait sessions, to deciding to make it a full time career in 2007. I've worked hard, played hard, stayed hungry to learn and evolve, built a business I'm proud of, and have always provided a service I believe in. I'm no longer too young, too poor, or too scared...but too grateful for bad timing. It's funny how life turns out.
My life adventure had a twist in 2014 when my hubby transitioned into a firefighter-paramedic career. His life adventure sounded exciting and rewarding as he quite literally helped save peoples' lives. I decided to dip my toes into such adventures myself. I became an EMT in 2014, Paramedic in 2015, Firefighter in 2016, and a Registered Nurse in 2021.
Sound crazy? Yup. It is. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
FUN FACTS
Here's a few more things about me. :)
- I am an optimistic realist. Sort of a "hope for the best, plan for the worst" type of girl.
- I'm a firm believer in living life without regret. I fear looking back and wishing I'd done this or that. Sometimes I put a lot of thought and planning into my decisions...other times, I just have to jump into that cold pool without too much thinking or I won't get in.
- I'm married. My husband, Matt, proposed to me twice, I turned him down twice (only because we were the cliche teenage pregnancy story). So the final proposal was by me to him in 2004. Crazy man...actually said yes.
- I'm the oldest of 4 children...so naturally, I'm my mom's favorite (she tells us all that though...can't believe anything that woman says.)
- Matt and I are empty nesters!!!! I have 2 children...Tate (24yrs) is living the bachelor life and working on an apprenticeship at MCI to become an airplane mechanic. Niki (21yrs) is currently a full-time student at Mizzou, seeking a Chemical Engineering degree. They make my heart full.
- When I was a young kid, I used to be bilingual and speak a form of Spanish called Castilian, so that I could translate for my great-grandmother. I moved to Texas for a year, and when I came back my Spanish was gone. They say it will come back to me, but after 6 years of High School and College Spanish classes...I'm going to call BS. :)
- I love listening to all kinds of music, but never keep track of artists or song names. It drives Matt mad!
- I only have one style of dancing...and it's pretty much just jumping up and down and throwing my hands up in the air. It's also the BEST calf workout in the world.
- I have Apple computers, but have an Android phone....so please, for the love of the world...don't include me in a group text. I will never be able to escape.
- A handful of times a year I’m thrown into a laughing fit that takes me a long time to escape. Tears rolling, belly hurting, face sore, snot bubbles bursting out nostrils, bladder hard to control...that type of laughing fit. Embarrassingly enough, it’s usually around the wrong crowd of people, or in a professional environment...which leads people to wonder if I’m on something. To clarify...I’m drug free. Just have a defective giggle box.
- For some bizarre reason, half of my friends or clients are named Sarah, Jennifer, or Ashley.
- One of my favorite quotes: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi
- One of my other favorite quotes: “I’m too old for this shit.” - Roger Murtaugh (Lethal Weapon)
