HELLOOOO WORLD!
I say world only because I still have half a foot in Italy and the other in Greece, so the world is still my current playground in my head and not my reality, sadly. Vacation hangovers are the worst possible hangovers for me. Hand me a bottle of wine, I’m fine in the morning. Give me a two week vacation to my dream countries, I may need a week to recover.
And yes, that photo is of me. I KNOW- Terri Mother effin Hoffard took some photos of me at a little Seattle boudoir photogs meet up. Terri is a huge boudoir photog inspiration of mine. She shoots damn good work and runs a killer business. I feel so cool to have photos of me taken by her, fan girl moment.
I wanted to blog today about a few things- most of those things revolving around, ME! In the past, posts like this would terrify me. Talking about myself, my business, what it all is, not trying to sound weird, sounding professional, sounding whatever- it would always get to me and I would throw in the towel before even starting to type. Today, things are much different. I am evolving as a person, a womxn, a photographer and an entrepreneur. As scary as all of that would also of sounded to me years ago, today I am more motivated by it than ever. I have never wanted to bloom and blossom so bad in life, even if the process of getting there absolutely terrifies the shit out of me. I am making new leaps and decisions in my career and while they are scary, yes, its only to better the experience I get to have with each and everyone one of my amazing clients and the experience they get to have with me.
Me. Something I shied away from and never wanted to know most of my life. Today, Me has a whole new meaning. Through being, learning and growing into a photographer who photographs bodies, I have come to love and appreciate myself more, physically and emotionally. Photographing amazing womxn after womxn after man after couple after womxn after any damn body, I have realized something so profound, huge and humbling. I know how to take amazing photos, yes. But, the reason why everyone comes to work with me, is because of ME. After my mini out of body, who am I, what am I doing, do people really like me, am I putting on fronts, am I being authentic, am I yadda yadda yadda yadda, I said, fuck year girl. These people are also here for you, YOU GOD DAMN QUEEN OWN YOUR MAGIC YA BISH.
So I thought to myself, well I guess I am special but what’s even more special are the amazing humans that open up their souls to me. That’s special, how can I make this experience an even better, more rewarding, more empowering more one on one, more everything moment for my clients? GOT IT. I am going to start selling high quality art work and albums with every session. I have always said, these photos never belong in the computer and I’m damn sure right! With doing album and print sales over this last month and getting to see these photos printed in real life form, I was right. These photos don’t deserve to be hidden in your computer or phones, they deserve to be printed big and boldly for you to see. There is something about seeing yourself in print rather than just on a computer screen. To hold a piece of art work in your hand and you are that damn art work is a whole other feeling. Which is why I knew I needed to offer this for my clients.
If I can leave you feeling like a million damn bucks after your session, I want to make you feeling like another million bucks once you hold these prints in your hand. It’s called the two million dollar feel and I can guarantee you’ll feel like a whole lot more once our time and experience together is done. This is why I decided to change up my system, for you. I want you, my client, my baby so to speak, to have the best damn experience with me, with yourself, with your body and every time to look up and see yourself on your walls or in an album. I want this feeling you had the day of your session and they day you saw yourself printed for the first time to stick with you forever. I want that self love to be with you for as long as you live. To remind you daily that you are beautiful, loved, worthy and a god damn sexy queen.
So why the change really…
Number one reason, you guys, my clients, the babes of the world to need to see and love themselves again. But if I am being honest, I needed a change for myself and my business. It was time. I put in the work, the hours, the sweat and tears, the free sessions, the grinding, to overworking work. I was getting BURNT OUT ya’ll. Shooting 3-4 sessions a week while being able to pay for bills comfortably, but not really plan for my future. I knew I needed to do something different if I wanted to be the photographer I wanted to be.
I also hated my current process of things. HATED IT. But, It served me well this past year and I am always and continuously learning. But what I hated most about it was the fact that I got spend so little time with each of my clients. My booking would happen via email, all of them. I would move them over to my client portal online, they would pay for their session, all online shit, no face to face yet. I would share tips and tricks to help them prep for their session, basically guide them every step of the way, so it felt like we have already met. I would FINALLY see and hang out with them at their session, connect for just a short couple hours, then away they went and I never really saw them again, sometimes never hearing back once the photos were sent- it happens, I don’t take it personally, peoples lives can be busy. I. Did. Not. like this process and I am so glad to be out of it. I hated only being able to see these amazing people who wanted to work with ME only for a couple hours and then barely taking to each other after the fact. I wanted to be with them every step like I was in email but now, face to face. More one on one time together, more personal, more connection, more real, more comfortability the day of your session. I want to be there with you when you look at your photos for the first time. I want to share every joy you feel as I did on the day of our shoot. I want to share that love more, live in those moments more and love and appreciate my job even more. Once I started selling albums and seeing, and feeling the reactions they got when my clients would hold their album in their hands was an even better than making them feel like a damn goddess at their shoot. Seeing the tears, hearing the “oh my god’s” and seeing those little smiles washing across their faces saying yeah, shit! That’s ME! Once I did the process a couple of times, I was hooked. This is an experience. This is a damn luxury experience, this is the most amazing self love experience, it’s an experience everyone needs to have at least once in their life.
I knew I needed to change my system for so many reasons. I wanted more time to connect with every person, talk face to face about why they were doing their session, what they wanted out of it and how they want to feel. I wanted to have time to meet someone before hand and get to know them even if it’s just for a few minutes before seeing them again next and basically telling them to get naked in front of my camera. It’s a scary process and no matter how close you and I, even if were good friends, there will be a little bit of nerves before hand. So I just want to make sure now that I do everything in my power to get you ready for your session and guide you every damn step of the way.
I’m like your fair godmother throughout this process. I encourage and help you get ready before your session, make you feel like a damn queen as I work my magic on you and hand you over a beautiful album like Bippity boppity boo, here’s a whole new you.
So my new process is a little different. We will be spending more time together. Creating deeper, more meaningful art together, sharing every emotion and all the “hell yah’s!” You will be getting to most baddest, sexiest art work for your walls of just for private eyes only to hold on and cherish forever. You will leave with a new air of confidence that is unlike anything ever before. If you have worked with me in the past, but not in this way yet, get ready ya’ll. it’s a WHOLE other experience. I know you had fun the first time, but damn, mama’s been hustlin and working hard at making this experience even better and I cannot wait to get some old babes back in here and show new ones what this experience is like.
I cannot wait to start working with more amazing humans out there and creating some dope ass art work for them. Life is short, do the damn session, hang yourself up on a wall, love yourself everyday, know you are a badass and live being proud of your body.
If you want to know more about the process, more about booking and pricing, get in contact with me! Or– you can also look at these links below to get more info and start your booking process!
Let’s get it, let’s live life, lets love ourself and let’s say FUCK YEAH!
