About a month ago, I was fortunate enough to attend an incredible class on the art of posing for photography. Now, full disclosure, I am a blogger for {Hive-Workshops} who put on this amazing class, but I hadn’t been able to attend any of their workshops until this particular one a few weeks ago. My reason for attending was mostly so I could blog about it later…but holy wow, I got so much more than I expected!
The instructor, Petra Herrmann of Bella Boudoir in Kansas City, was incredible. While the techniques she taught us could work for many different genres of photography, I really felt my heart skip a beat when she talked about her boudoir sessions. This was completely unexpected! If you know me, you’ll know that I’m a bit of a dork when it comes to (ahem) sexy stuff. I can barely watch couples kissing in movies without squirming or running to hide in another room. So I was totally shocked when I felt the pull to boudoir photography.
A huge part of this inspiration came from Petra, who talked about photographing women of every age, race, shape and size. She told the class a big reason she does what she does is to empower women.
“I’m allowing them to see themselves as others see them,” said Petra. “And they are beautiful, no matter the age, shape or size!” – Petra Herrmann
I left the workshop feeling excited, but I had no idea what to do next. I mean, how do you end up doing a boudoir shoot when you have zero experience. Well, another photographer friend recommend I do one as soon as possible, before I could chicken out! I was lucky enough to have a friend who was interested in doing a session, and the stars aligned at the perfect moment.
You guys…the photos from this session are some of the best I’ve ever taken. For reals. I had so much fun creating this shoot and collaborating with my client, I knew when I left that I wanted to do as much boudoir as possible. And yes, I still can’t watch kissing in movies, but this is different. I felt a huge surge of GIRL POWER AWESOMENESS as I photographed this gorgeous woman, and I just kept thinking, “I definitely want to do this again.” When I saw the images on my desktop later that night, the deal was sealed. I love boudoir. I love my clients. I love my life.
Every time I think I’ve learned all the lessons there are to learn, I find out something new. This experience taught me to try something I haven’t before. Get out there, and do what makes you happy! The little voice inside my head was telling me, “You can’t shoot boudoir…you have no idea what you’re doing! You’re not good enough.” But it turns out, when you do something you’re afraid of, you might just end up finding out what makes your heart sing.
If you’re interested in booking a boudoir session with me, please contact me here or at megan@crazybananas.com.
