After months and months of searching my photographic passion, I have finally realized which area of photography my heart lies. I've tried family portraits, weddings, events, landscape etc. They're all great aspects of photography, and they all have their own little perks, but when I pick up my camera and shoot boudoir, high fashion, or conceptual fine art portraits, my heart sings. This doesn't mean I won't be doing any family portraits, or engagements, or weddings, it just means I'll be doing a lot less of them and trying to put my time and energy into Boudoir, High Fashion and Conceptual Fine Art Portraits.
Today marks the day of my new journey into the world of Boudoir Photography. I have shot some boudoir type stuff with my best friend a few times, and if you follow my work, you've seen her face a few times. I decided that I need to book some ladies and give it a try full out, so thats what I did. My best friend had shown her shots to some of her friends and they loved them and wanted to get some done of themselves, so I said " Lets do a mini boudoir marathon". I will have 4 ladies showing up at 4 different times through out today at a beautiful Hotel in London, ON Canada.
I've been asked " do you get nervous for these kinds of shoots, you're photographing women who are half naked and you're a guy, don't they feel awkward?"
The answer: Yes, I always get nervous before shoots, especially these but not because the ladies are half naked, thats doesn't effect me at all because my mind is completely focused on capturing their beauty, camera settings, lighting etc... I want to be able to provide these ladies with beautiful, tasteful images they can look back on in their elder years and remember how fun it was and how sexy they felt. I want these ladies to feel confident and sexy. Some of them are taking these images for their boyfriends and I want their boyfriends to love them and "get in the mood" if you know what I mean.
As for the ladies feeling awkward, I'm sure at the beginning when they first start the shoot they're a little nervous and maybe it feels awkward but once the ball gets rolling, they start to feel more comfortable. As a photographer, you need to make the clients feel comfortable, and be very respectful of them. I always chat during the shoot " How has your day been so far?, what are you doing after the shoot?, Have you done any modelling in the past? " things like that to make them feel more comfortable and not focus to much on the fact that they're being photographed. Another good technique is to have music playing during the shoot. Dance around and act like an idiot, seriously, do it... the more you look like a moron the less nervous they will be, because they don't feel like the only one being the centre of attention and being weird, It works, Plus if you can get them to laugh at you and snap a shot, you may get an amazing image out of it.
This image below was one of those shots. I was being an idiot and doing some stupid funny faces at her and she went to do one back, then busted out laughing. I took a quick shot, and this ended up being one of her fav shots from the shoot. Yes the image is a little burry because i quickly raised the camera up and shot with out allowing the camera to focus 100% but she loved it, so that works!
- Shutter Click
Ps, keep an eye out for the images from todays boudoir marathon. I'll be doing a PART 2 of this blog about the shoot.
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