Why Boudoir?
I love a good story. It all started many years ago, I photographed my first boudoir shoot and while I loved the power of it, it was extremely terrifying. I knew immediately that I could crush a woman’s spirit if I didn’t do this right. I didn’t want anything to do with it after that session. Yet, boudoir kept coming into my life no matter how much I pushed it away. So I jumped in and knew I had to educate myself. This is such a powerful and intimate form of photography that it wouldn’t be hard to really hurt someone’s self esteem.
Boudoir is life changing to me. It’s not about the photos themselves, it’s about how you feel when you see them. It’s an experience. I am helping you see how incredible you are and helping you learn to love yourself. It’s about self love, laughing, strength. It’s about being truly who you are, not what you think you should be.
When I realized the power that boudoir could hold and its ability to change lives, I knew it was what I needed to do. I have always wanted to find a way to empower women. A way to help more women, lift them up and let them spread that joy and happiness to others. I found that I could do that with boudoir.
The Transformation
Let’s talk about the mind-blowing transformation that happens between walking in my door and leaving. This. This right here is my favorite part of what I do. I get to witness you falling in love with YOU.
You walk into the studio SO nervous (trust me, I know. I almost threw up before my first session). You relax a little more during hair and makeup and aren’t as nervous as much as anxious. Then we get to you putting on your outfits…. the nerves come back a little. We start shooting and those nerves, the lack of confidence, it all just melts away. By the end, you are posing yourself (every single one of my clients does it). And you haven’t even seen your images yet.
When you see those images, you are mind blown. You can’t believe that is actually you. You thought you weren’t sexy and we just blew that myth right out of the water. You now see what I see. What everyone else sees. It’s a magical experience.
A Little Piece of My Story
I have shared some of these things in the VIP group and here and there but my journey with this really starts when I took a leap of faith and did my own session. I was shooting boudoir before that but MY session changed my life and business forever.
I had just had my son about 6-9 months before. I had gained 80 pounds (yes 80, that’s not a typo) during pregnancy. I have always been horribly underweight so imagine the amount of self hatred when I gained 80 pounds. It didn’t matter that I was growing a human. I wasn't doing anything to cause the excessive weight gain other than having horrible genetics. I felt out of control. I felt like shit about myself. Everything changes when you have a kid, NOTHING is in the same place. It’s fucking hard.
I was working late one night when I saw that Michael Sasser, an incredible boudoir photographer based in L.A. was in Austin and had ONE opening the NEXT MORNING. I was three hours away from Austin, had an infant and it’s 11pm the night before. It was a whirlwind to make it happen.
Photo Credit - Sasser Stills Boudoir
Photo Credit - Sasser Stills Boudoir
BUT I did the damn thing and had my first session at one of the MOST vulnerable times in my life. I used the “I need to lose 10 more pounds” excuse. But I did it anyway. I was terrified and so nervous that when I went to change into the first outfit, I did it in the bathroom because I was going to throw up. Me, a boudoir photographer, was seriously seconds away from throwing up.
(Spoiler alert, I did not throw up)
That session not only changed how I saw myself and felt about myself but it changed how I talked to my clients. It changed how I ran my business. Being in your shoes was the best thing I ever did.
That session was almost four years ago now and they are still some of my favorite images. I was 100% vulnerable and he showed me what others saw. I hated what I looked like until the day I saw those photos. I’m not normally an overly emotional person but when I saw those images, I cried. That confidence I gained may fluctuate now but I have NEVER lost the power that session gave me.
Photo Credit - Sasser Stills Boudoir
Photo Credit - Sasser Stills Boudoir