How I Became a Boudoir Photographer

I honestly can’t believe that I have been shooting boudoir for 11 years!!!! I wanted to share the story of how I became a boudoir photographer since a lot of my clients ask me when they come in for their sessions.

It’s 2011

The year is 2011 and I have been trying to get my photography business up and going. I have been begging friends to let me photograph their children, their family, literally anything so that I can get business. I remember charging $50 for an entire session with a full gallery and still, no one would book me!

This is a photo from around that time frame, it’s got a lovely hue of yellow and it’s crooked for more visual interest. It’s really a wonder why I wasn’t more booked!

Valentines Day 2012

Whenever there was a holiday I would try and offer some kind of holiday-themed shoot, with Valentine’s Day approaching my husband suggested I offer boudoir sessions. He told me that I would be really good at that kind of photography. I agreed to offer the sessions, but I told him that boudoir was just a fad and that I only wanted to offer them for the holidays. (I was so silly)

Model

We had a friend who had gotten into modeling and she agreed to let me shoot her, I didn’t have a studio at the time so I borrowed my friend’s bedroom and I brought some constant light stands with opaque umbrellas. Wow, I gotta say after that first session I was pretty stoked! It was soooo much more fun than photographing children and family!! After I announced the sessions on Facebook I got several bookings, the first time that had ever happened! Those first sessions I did were done in the client’s own homes for the most part and I quickly realized I need to have a dedicated space.

This is one of the photos from that very first boudoir session, it became an iconic image for my brand and this pose was requested for years to come.

Home Studio

I got my husband to agree to tear down a wall in our home to join 2 bedrooms, our bedroom, and a spare bedroom, this would become the shooting part of the studio, I used the 3rd bedroom for my office and did in-person reveals of the sessions there. We also added another entrance to the studio so clients didn’t have to walk through my home. After that, we moved our bedroom to my dining room and only used half of our home.

My home studio is still one of my favorites, I created some of my favorite photos in that space.

This photo also became an iconic photo, it even made it to the cover of a magazine that I was featured in.

This was the first session that I did hair and makeup for the model/client.

Living Social

My big break came when I offered a living social deal, some of you probably don’t even know what that is, it’s very similar to Groupon and at that time they were both very popular options. I sold about 12 living social sessions and started making more money with photography than my full-time job.

This is a photo from one of the living social sessions I did in my home studio.

First Real Studio

In the Fall of 2012 I had enough business to take the huge risk of renting our first commercial studio, it was in downtown Shreveport and was $900 a month including utilities. I was scared, but I quit my job and focused 100% on the business and it grew pretty rapidly.

This studio was so cool and had such a rad vibe, unfortunately it wasn’t heated or cooled well, the walls leaked every time it rained, and you had to walk through an unfinished space to get to mine. So I only stayed in this studio for one year.

The Rest is History

After that I moved around to several other studios, I can’t stand to shoot in the same space for too long before I get bored. And we even moved states, now my business is in Sanford, NC and we are back to shooting in my home, now that I have kids and with the threats of lockdowns it was the best choice for our family and my business. Here is a photo of the current studio, to see the most recent work visit my solo boudoir or couples boudoir portfolio.

I recently went back to Shreveport and while I was there I shot a client who has had 3 sessions with me, I am going to include her session in this post so you can see some of my more recent work. P.S. Her green set is from HoneyBirdette and it’s amazing!