A "little" bit about... me.

I am Renée Michelle

My name is French. But I am not.

I'm the weird, sometimes awkward but always nice, wife to an incredible guy, and mom of two amazing kids, who aren't "kids" anymore.

Sigh.... Where does the time go?! I think it might get swallowed up by the multi-verse.

Or... something. Anyway... moving on...

I was a 9-1-1 Dispatcher for over 20 years. Yes. I have lots of stories.

In the awesome year of 2020 (she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm), I was forced to leave my career due to ongoing, new and worsening medical issues, plus a big heaping dose of anxiety and depression that comes with them. Yeah, it sucked for all of us. Let's move on again, shall we?

I wanted to magically transform my lemons into lemonade and finally attempt to hone a career in photography, photo editing, retouching, and digital design... I've been learning and practicing these trades for a very long time, and I loved it. But alas, the fates had different plans for me, as my medical issues have so far prevented that from happening. I'm not letting it stop me, but it's slowed me down. A lot. So now I do photography and editing to keep me sane, creating some unique and interesting images for myself, for models I'm lucky to sometimes work with, and for the occasional person that loves my style and wants to create some amazing imagery with me. It's not as much as I wanted, but it's something, and that's something to hold onto.

So now my goal is to keep pushing past all the yuck, and do as Walt Disney stated, via The Robinson's (watch the dang movie if you haven't, so good!) and do my best to "keep moving forward".

I'm a big movie fan (action, sci-fi, fantasy) and a ginormous video game freak! RPGs are my favorite, but I get around. Faves are Final Fantasy(s), Horizon Zero Dawn(s), Resident Evil(s), Nier(s), Last of Us(s). I'm also a big reader and huge fan of King, Koontz and get my fantasy dose from Sarah J. Maas. As seen on my left arm, I'm a big Alice in Wonderland nerd and I LOVE strong, bad-ass females characters. I'm a huge music lover. I find it odd that some people don't like music... crazy, right?! My tastes are known to be a bit... eclectic. My Spotify obscurity score is 55%. I seriously have 61 genres that I listen to, but my ultimate favorite is Chevelle. Pete is a freaking GENIUS.

See below for a link to my Spotify profile to see what I'm listening to!

My general photography style is sometimes a little dark, and fantastical. I like to blend the darkness with beauty, and color, and light. I love to create characters from compelling stories that are born in my head. I also enjoy working with others to bring the characters and stories in their minds to life as well. Even those who just want "senior" photos or "headshots" , I love to bring out what's inside of them, or just let them be themselves and shine! My awkward self who lacks confidence goes away when I'm behind my camera, and I hope to do that for those who grace me by standing in front of it.

I've recently discovered a new love of building images completely from scratch by creating entire outfits and looks for my "characters". I take inklings of ideas from books, movies, dreams and games, and I cultivate and grow them from seed to fruit, or taking already existing, favorite characters and putting my own spin on them. I've also been toiling around with AI as an inspirational tool. Most of my creations start from an amazing find at a second hand store. Thrifting and upcycling are my new passions and Goodwill is my new best friend. I'll be making some blog posts talking about how I've created some of my stuff, along with any other tidbits rattling around in my brain. I can be an awkward, quiet, introverted person most times, but apparently (!) I have a lot to say, even if most of it is just babbling nonsense. Should be fun. Stay tuned!

If you like my stuff, give me a shout, I would love to hear it. If you want to work with me in some capacity, please reach out and we'll see what we can do.

I have a feeling it might just be something magical.

TL;dr: I'm a weird wife, mom, ex-9-1-1 Dispatcher who loves video games, books, movies, music and art and making some cool shit with photography and editing, with my broken body, while trying to maintain my sanity :)