Outdoor boudoir is a whole different animal. The traditional boudoir poses just don't do here. And outdoor boudoir is so much more than being sexy and seductive in your lingerie. Over the years my style of boudoir has been described as "Free People". Yes Free People has become an adjective for my style of boudoir photography. Inspire was created to nurture a woman's femininity, strength, and spirit. It is flirtatious and wild. It isn't about seducing men. It is about seducing life. So I am sharing MY favorite poses. This is boudoir unplugged. Flirty Hair PlayMany women don't know what to do with their hands during a photo shoot. I always encourage to play with your hair. Zhuzh your hair to add volume and texture. Wrap your ends around your face. Slightly graze the ends with your fingertips. Dance and shake your head! Be playful, fun, and flirty...okay and a little sexy too. Bottoms UpOh the booty shot! Every client wants at least one good photo of that ass! Instead of the traditional bent over provocative booty shot that you might see in studio boudoir, I love to keep my clients standing and feeling free. I will tell you to put your hands above your head while you dance to music, or to put your fingers through your hair. I will direct you to cross your feet and push your hips and butt toward the camera while also standing on your tippy toes! Since high heels aren't in your normal outdoor boudoir wardrobe, standing on your tip toes will create the same booty lift effect. Warning, your lower back will hurt! But it will be worth it! The Closeup - hands by the chin and mouthNot only does putting your hands by your chin and mouth give you something to do, it creates a flirty allure. It brings attention to your lips where the power of your voice comes from...and the occasional sexy kiss. :) Shooting OverheadI love this variation of the close-up portrait because it gives me a chance to play with your hair - maybe put flowers all around you The CenterfoldOkay so this pose is a little more traditional to a studio boudoir shoot. I like this pose because it emphasizes the hips, zhuzhes the hair, and shows off the boobs. It also makes a great centerfold for your album! GracefulI wouldn't really call this a pose, but capturing graceful movements. If shooting in a body of water, I encourage clients to bring a long dress or kimono. Not only will the fabric give you something to do, but it captures femininity. Okay there you go! Those are some of my favorite poses when I shoot outdoor boudoir, but certainly not limited to! Make sure you pin this for reference before your own boudoir shoot! PIN IT FOR LATER!Client to photographer relationships are just like any other relationship. You have to not only trust each other, but be able to freely communicate and establish a comfortability with each other. Boudoir client/photographer relationships require an even deeper relationship then most. As your photographer I will be witnessing some very vulnerable parts of you, physically and emotionally. Boudoir IS nerve wracking already, then I go ahead and add the great outdoors! Yes, you will be in the elements getting your portrait taken in as little or as much clothing that suits you. Women have real insecurities, myself included. Having a camera pointed right at you doesn't make it any easier to overcome them! Girl, this is what an Inspire Boudoir experience is for! I give you the tool of nature to calm your nerves and begin to be present. I add the tool of boudoir photography to not only help you face your fears and begin to own the incredible woman that you are, but to document this momentous adventure you are going on. Lastly, I have one hell of a playlist that will help you feel more comfortable! So here are 6 ways to build trust with boudoir client: 1. Have an authentic online presence. Most of my boudoir clients come from seeing me on Instagram. Not only do I post lots of work from my portfolio, but I post from my personal life. My clients already know I have 3 dogs, that I am married, and what I like to do on my free time. There they can see my Instagram stories of my every day and behind the scenes from shoots. Through my personal stories and images, trust is already beginning to be built. They get a sense of who I am before they even decide to schedule a consultation. 2. Have a pre-boudoir shoot consultation. We meet for a pre-shoot consultation to get know each other face to face. We meet to go over your boudoir shoot expectations. I ask you lots of questions regarding your intention behind your shoot and your why. But before we get down to business about your boudoir shoot, we just sit and talk! "SHOW THEM THE BACK OF THE CAMERA"3. Help with client wardrobe and overall tone of their boudoir shoot.
During your consultation, I will pull up Pinterest and we begin to brainstorm! This is the fun part! We pull inspiration on location, what to wear, and overall feel of your boudoir photography shoot. Here we are already making you feel more comfortable, as your excitement rises! 4. Have one hell of a playlist! My clients range from early twenties to late forties for the most part, and all can relate to my 1990’s - early 2000’s r&b playlist full of Nelly and Ludacris. I sprinkle in some Queen B too! During your shoot we have dance parties. You begin to loosen up while we party, adventure, and take boudoir photos. 5. Tell them to just breath and guide their poses. Often boudoir clients and overall photography clients do not know how to pose their body or relax their face. My trick is to tell my clients to close their eyes and take a deep breath. As they breath out I tell them to open their eyes and I take their picture. 6. Show them the back of your camera. This is my biggest trick to build trust with my boudoir client. After I take their photograph, I show them how they are looking on the back of the camera. They can’t believe that is really them! It builds their excitement and confidence and they trust that I am making them look their very best. I also use this trick to compare poses. Sometimes poses aren't very comfortable to get into, but they look good! I show them the back of the camera so they can have proof that it is all worth it! Our world thrives on quick fixes. There is a magic pill for absolutely everything! What if you could not only prevent underlying symptoms of fatal illnesses, but also reduce your body from going into overdrive mentally? Imagine a treatment that is readily available and cost absolutely nothing. Nature Therapy is the treatment of going outside in nature to heal. Studies conducted in many parts of the world, including Japan have shown a correlation between green spaces and lower mortality rates up to 12%.
"The percentage of green space in people's living environment has a positive association with the perceived general health of residents," concluded a Dutch study of 250,782 people. Inflammation is the body's response to an outside threat like spraining our ankle, stress, and toxic chemicals. Since city dwellers are surrounded by toxicity and the busyness is a constant stimulator of stress, our bodies response system goes into overdrive and instead of inflammation keeping us safe it starts to cause auto-immune diseases, depression, and cancer. Our bodies start to attack itself. Early phases of research in Japan has shown a connection between nature and the making of anti-cancer proteins in our body. The boosted levels of these proteins can last up to seven days after a long trip in nature. By taking long walks every day surrounded by trees and slowly breathing in fresh air, your body will be able to fight off cancer causing toxins and mental stress. Your mental health is also directly correlated to your physical health. Studies have shown that mental clarity was greatly improved just by looking at images of nature. When mentally stressed your body physically tenses causing headaches and fatigue. Without proper sleep your body cannot heal. So before you pop that Tylenol PM, try taking a free walk, breath, and relax. Your body will thank you. “Pretty is as Pretty Does” Boudoir photographers have a reputation that is our job to make you feel beautiful, to make you feel empowered and strong, and sexy. Well, I disagree. It is not on me to make you feel a certain way. IT IS YOUR JOB TO MAKE YOU FEEL BEAUTIFUL. It is my job, as the photographer, to bring you the tools and the experience to look within and realize who you are, what you are capable of, and how you feel. The work is all on you, lady! I won’t lie, it is WORK to overcome the societal standards of what beauty is and what your life should look like. Trust me, I am working on it every single day. I know it is not as easy as it seems to just accept or believe YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. You have to show up for yourself and the what you care about in this world. It is easy to blame the modeling era and the perfectly tanned skin of all the wanderlust girls on Instagram, but truth is we do not give ourselves enough credit of all the good we do in the world. We are usually to busy bitching and comparing ourselves to others to even realize it! Plus beauty is subjective. Our looks WILL fade. It is inevitable. So, what we have to look back on in this world and within ourselves it what we did and how we made others feel. Those habits and actions are beautiful. The work starts here: 1. Start a journal. Writing out all your thoughts, feelings, fears, all the ugly dark shit deep within ourselves. Write it all out! Because we cannot truly accept ourselves if we are to busy judging and trying to ignore, and cover up the dark and ugly parts. Truth is we are all imperfect beings. As soon as we accept we are imperfect is when we start to feel beautiful. 2. Sit in silence. Feel the sunshine on your face. Breath. These very very small moments inyour day to day will begin to snowball into making a huge impact on your life! 3. Feel gratitude. Feel gratitude that you woke up this morning. That you have clean clothes to put on. Feel gratitude for how good your shampoo smells. Right away it may feel hard to feel gratitude for how your life and physical self looks as a whole, but if you feel gratitude for the little things they begin to build one beautiful world. 4. Eat healthy. If your body feels good, YOU feel good. You look good and perform good. 5. This goes with number 4, EXERCISE. I started to really get into physical fitness to look good! I wanted that flat stomach and an amazing ass, but as I got older I realized how important it was for my body to function properly. When my body is operating like it should, then I feel and look beautiful! 6. Do something for someone else. It is scientifically proven that the happiest people in the world are those that act and give to others. Happy people = beautiful people. 7. Small gestures count too! Hold the door for someone. Pick up a small piece of litter in the parking lot. Pick up a stray dog and find its owner. Small gestures to you, are BIG to others. 8. Talk kindly about others. 9. Sit with reality. Right now I am in a place where I dream of BIG things. I want so many things and I complain or feel frustrated that I don’t have those things yet, which makes me angry, judgmental, and resentful sometimes. What I am slowly realizing through hard work is that I have everything I have ever wanted. I am exactly where I am supposed to be and God has granted me what I wanted in this world. I was just to busy bitching and looking to closely at my life to see the bigger picture. I made 2 columns. Column one was everything I wanted in life. Column two was writing out what I already had and was thankful for. The more I wrote the more I realized my 2 columns were matching up! Now is my life perfect? Of course not! Do I yearn for more, to grow, to dream bigger? YES! I am sitting with my reality though and it is beautiful. 10. SMILE! Here is where an Inspire Boudoir shoot is beneficial! Nature is the tool that calms the mind, frees your anxiety, and makes you feel beautiful. Your boudoir images are a documentation of the tranquility and inspiration you felt being in nature. That’s inspire boudoir! A simple reflection of just how beautiful you really are! It is a reflection of all that hard work to ignore societal standards and stay true to yourself. FEEL BEAUTIFUL AT THE WILDY INSPIRED BOUDOIR/YOGA RETREATCLICK THE IMAGE FOR WEBSITE AND DETAILS
1. GET BACK YOUR SEXY!You were a woman first. A woman with swag and sex appeal. You were a woman before you were a mom and now that you are walking milk dispenser for tiny humans, it is easy to forget that you were once that sexy woman. So grab your favorite set of lingerie or that dress that makes you walk a little taller, and book yourself an outdoor boudoir shoot! 2. IT WILL ALSO BENEFIT YOUR KIDSNot only is it easy to forget you are a sexy woman, but it is easy to forget your initial hopes and desires when you are caring for kiddos. An outdoor boudoir experience taps into nature's powerful ability to remind you of who you are at your core and inspires you to take that experience home with you! Your kids will see this shift and will also be inspired to go for their dreams, to connect with what is important, and to ultimately always be true to themselves. 3. TO REMIND YOURSELF AND OTHERS YOU ARE MORE THAN JUST A MOMIt is easy to get stuck in a rut when you are busy living your life for others. When there is already so much to clean and laundry to wash, is it really necessary to change sweat pants? Yes girl, it is! Throwing your dirty hair in a bun and putting on those trusty sweat pants does sound appealing, but get out of that comfort zone! It is not okay to live complacent in life! It is not okay for your kids to see that either. Push yourself to try something new and remind yourself you are more than just a mom. You are an adventurous, fierce, hardworking woman and you are an inspiration to others! You are an adventurous, fierce, hardworking woman and you are an inspiration to others! 4. FOR BETTER SEX!Let's not forget what brought those little bundles of joy into this world to begin with! Not only it is easy to forget to care for yourself, but it is easy to forget to care for your significant other! Parenting isn't supposed to be a one person job. It takes 2 to make them and it should take 2 to care for them! So what makes you and your person feel more connected to work together? SEX. An outdoor boudoir shoot is an experience that makes women feel more primal, more connected, and sexy AF! Most of the time, they cannot wait to get home and work off all that adrenaline created during their boudoir shoot! And those beautiful images are just a reminder to not only feel more connected to yourself, but to connect with your person too! 5. BECAUSE YOU DESERVE A BREAK DAMNIT!Mom life is chaotic. You experience life changing moments ALL THE TIME from giving birth, to those first steps, to sending them off to college and it just doesn't slow down long enough for you to take a breath and let it all in. Outdoor boudoir uses nature as a tool to help you breath, refocus, and feel refreshed. It is a spa day mixed with a little sexy. So experience something just for yourself and get to your inherent qualities of power and beauty through nature.
Feminism: the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. Last post I mentioned I am not a feminist in the way society has deemed feminism. You can read that HERE. I believe 100% in the actual definition of feminism. I believe in the equal rights and opportunities for both men and women, especially growing up an only child, independent. I was taught to do everything, "feminine and masculine" tasks, cleaning and changing a tire. Getting paid less just because of my sex is NOT okay with me. Treating me differently because I may fit a female stereotype is NOT okay. However, I believe I should not hate men just because they are paid more, because they are more likely to gain respect. I do not believe I don't need a man in my life. I CAN change my own tire, but that doesn't mean I won't accept a man's help. Men and women are like yin and yang. We both have different skills and when we work harmoniously, the world is a better place. I believe in men being gentlemen and holding the door open for me. I believe in women being nice and holding the door open for me. I believe in being a decent human being to all. When women put down men just for being men, we are just as bad as men not treating us equally. Do not hate the player, hate the game. Rise up and own your power as being a woman, while also being human. Change the game. Change the world. DARE TO BE DIFFERENT. DARE TO BE BOLD. DARE TO WALK YOUR OWN PATH.OWN YOUR POWER AS A WOMAN & GET IN TOUCH WITH WHAT YOU ARE TRULY CAPABLE OF AT THE WILDLY INSPIRED BOUDOIR/YOGA RETREAT!CLICK THE PHOTO BELOW FOR MORE INFO!
I am not a feminist in how society has deemed feminism. I completely agree with the equality of men and women, but do not agree with hostility that this word has been made out to be. I believe in the strength of women. The strength that women have to be who they really are. To dare to try it all and be okay with failure. The strength that women have to be both a lover and a mother. The strength women have to start movements and make their voice heard. The strength women have to speak out for what they believe in. The beginning of the feminist era in the 70's paved the road for women of today to step out and speak up for what they believe in. To truly live in their purpose. "Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning." - Gloria Steinem
No one WANTS to get uncomfortable! Discomfort…well its exactly that, UNCOMFORTABLE! It is this space where all the magic happens. It is this place that you look back on when you are telling stories to your grandchildren and recall all the amazing courageous things that you have accomplished in your life! Getting uncomfortable doesn’t necessarily mean bungee jumping or finally telling your boss to F off and stomping out of there! Every single day you can do something small that scares you. Maybe it is sharing something personal on an Instagram post or cooking a new dish to eat. All these little changes over time add up to one amazing life! They help you grow and before you know it is easier to make those big scary decisions! One day you can actually quit your job and do something that truly sets your soul on fire. One day you can put on that bikini and strut your gorgeous self around the pool! The point is discomfort leads to growth. You will never change if you remain complacent and coast through life. I recall one area of my life where I did something uncomfortable every single day. No matter what came up, my answer was yes. When I was invited to go on a mini road trip, I went! When I was invited to have drinks with strangers, I had a drink! When I wanted to get in shape and tone up, I ran 6 days a week no matter the weather and hired a personal trainer. It was uncomfortable being in the unknown. It was uncomfortable at first talking with strangers. It was DEFINITELY uncomfortable running every day and pushing weights. It was even more uncomfortable fronting money for a personal trainer. Ha! But making new friends, having more energy, the feeling of confidence from working out, IT ALL TRUMPED DISCOMFORT! One night I was cuddled up and in my pjs. I finished a 10 hour work day and I was exhausted. My friend texted me and begged me to come out country dancing. I really really wasn’t in the mood. I wanted the comfort of my bed. I grumbled while I brushed my hair and threw on my clothes.When I got there I spotted a guy at the bar that looked exactly like a guy I used to know from 3 years prior. I hadn’t seen him in forever so I wasn't sure. I just kept watching, creeper status, in his direction. My heart pounding, trying to build up the courage to approach him. I finally found him alone at the bar and I approached him, “BUDDY!” I called out, “How are you?!” He gave me a big hug and made small talk for awhile before asking, “Wait, what’s my name again?” “Buddy!” He answered, “That’s not my name.” Oh shit! I thought! So embarrassed I tried to walk away. This was EXACTLY what I was afraid of. I didn’t want to make an ass out of myself and approach a total stranger. He stopped me from walking away and asked my name. We talked the entire night and he asked for my number. Little did I know, that total stranger at the bar, that man I embarrassed myself in front of, would become my husband 5 years later. Because I stepped out my comfort zone. Because I felt the fear and approached him anyway, I met the most important person in my entire life. Getting uncomfortable and facing your fears IS A GOOD THING! Sure it can be terrifying! It will make your heart race, cause anxiety, embarrass you, but you will grow! It will lead you to BIG GREAT THINGS! BIG GREAT THINGS THAT YOU WILL TELL YOUR GRANDCHILDREN ABOUT! Every single one of my clients are super nervous before their shoot. Their mind races with doubts about their body, their ability to pose in front of the camera. They don’t let those thoughts take over though. They feel the fear and book their shoot anyway! I guide them every step of the way. First by sending them my Dream Shoot Planner. In this pdf magazine are posing guides, wardrobe ideas, etc. It eases their fears. I am always available by text during business hours and often I get photos of possible wardrobe purchases. My job is try to ease your fears, get your cute booty to face them, and capture this beautiful moment for you! You can read more about Growing a Pair and Getting Uncomfortable HERE: I quote Betty White and it's hilarious! “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
|