She Is Not A Model. She Is Just Like You (Amanda)
“Oh my God, I’m hot!”
That was Amanda’s reaction when she first saw the portraits from her Hollywood Boudoir session.
I live for reactions like that.
Amanda is not a professional model. She is a local business woman who had followed my work for several years. She loved the classic Hollywood style, the black-and-white film, and the way the women in my portraits looked confident, elegant, and glamorous.
But admiring the photographs and deciding to have a session herself were two very different things.
But, a recent breakup made her decide to finally do it, to treat herself, and to get absolutely tangible proof of her beauty.
I always tell my clients that the best reason to do a boudoir session is to validate yourself. Do not do it for others. Do it for yourself first and, if you want, give an album or some prints to somebody important in your life as a gift.
And so, Amanda decided that the session could be something positive she did for herself. It could be a way to reconnect with the confident woman she knew was still there, even if that confidence had been bruised by what she had recently experienced.
She did not come to my studio because she wanted to become somebody else.
I did not change Amanda. I did not do anything drastic to alter her appearance.
Instead, we worked together to bring forward a side of her that was already there: bold, sensual, and daring.
It was still Amanda, but perhaps a version of Amanda that does not get to come out and play every day.
That is one of the things I find so interesting about a Hollywood Boudoir session. We all have different sides to ourselves. There is the woman who goes to work, handles responsibilities, and gets through the thousand practical tasks that fill an ordinary day.
And then there is another woman.
The mysterious one. The more daring one. The one who loves to be playful. The one who remembers the fantasies she had when she was younger about the kind of woman she would become with time and experience. It's time to feel in that way again. To remember the dreams, to remember how it felt to be so vibrant, vital, full of excitement.
That woman did not disappear, she just got buried beneath everyday life. But she deserves to be in the foreground again.
Amanda was confident by nature, but even she was nervous before the session.
Breaking The Ice
Amanda arrived at the studio a little flustered. Her hair appointment had taken longer than expected, and she had not had enough time to finish her makeup. She was also understandably concerned about whether she would feel safe and comfortable during a private boudoir session with a male photographer.
That is a concern many women have, even when they do not say it aloud. But I know that it is a reality and I go out of my way to make the studio a comfortable place where there is no shame, no judgement.
Amanda later told me that she felt completely safe and respected throughout the session.
We did not begin with the most daring portrait. We started with a series or "ice breaking" poses that I use to ease-into the mood.
One of the things that helped her greatly, was that I prepared a series of photo ideas that I showed her. Amanda told me how helpful that was, so that she did not have to guess what a given pose or situation was about.
I prepare a "script" of pose ideas for every client, based on our style consultation. In this way, it is much easier to get in the right vibe, because you know in advance what we are aiming for. And then I help you with direction to get there.
Occasionally, I showed her an image on the back of the camera and those little previews meant everything because she could see what we were creating.
And so, Amanda began looking forward to each new image.
“I can’t wait to see the next one,” she said.
And so right after the first hesistant moments, the nervousness had been replaced by excitement.
Like for many other women, for Amanda, the hardest part was not posing. It was not wearing lingerie. It was not being photographed.
The hardest part was simply making the appointment.
That is where many women remain stuck. They look at the photographs. They imagine what the experience might be like. They wonder whether they could really do it.
Then they close the page and return to ordinary life.
Amanda chose differently.
She made the appointment. She stepped into the studio. And when she saw the finished portraits, she did not ask whether she looked beautiful.
She declared it: “Oh my God, I’m hot!”
The session did not turn Amanda into someone new. No, it just reminded her of the woman who had been there all along. It gave the opportunity to live that emotion, to feel like the woman she wants to feel.
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