Fall In Love With YOU – Green Bay Boudoir Photography
Valentine’s Day? Let today – let EVERY day – be a day to celebrate YOU, just as you are. You are enough. Today and every day.
… of friendship, of the future, of life.
I have been so lucky in my life to meet SO MANY wonderful people. Some have come into my life for only a short time, leaving me with wonderful memories of laughter shared and a few have stayed, becoming good friends and sometimes my partner in crime.
I met Prudence just a few years ago and I knew immediately that we’d be friends. We have so much in common and most importantly she loves to laugh. If you know me at all, you know that laughter is an important part of my life
Lucky for me, my camera loves her.
Beside being the hair and makeup artist extraordinaire that brings out the beauty in the girlies in front my camera, Prudence is also my “session director”, in charge of in-studio hospitality and entertainment, keeper of the dirty words and mover of furniture.
She also gets right down on the floor next to our clients and shows them how to pose for the camera.
And you can see she sure knows how to do THAT.
Birthdays, once you get to a certain age, are ALL milestone birthdays and if we’re smart, we find some way to celebrate ourselves. MsS was all for a funny Big Girl Birthday Session and she brought her A game. She is the master of hilarious facial expression and Prudence and I actually rolled around watching her.
She also managed to look incredibly gorgeous and I know she’ll be reminded of this birthday “party” for years to come.
Not everybody wants to “unleash” their inner sexy for our birthday or any other special occasion. That’s okay, we can document ourselves, our birthdays, our lives any way we want to, but …
Document your birthday with photos to remind you just how incredible you are. That body gave birth to humans and it is SPECTACULAR.
Let’s be real, if we wait until we feel we look good enough to have our photos taken, they’ll never get done. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got all I can do to get all of my mail opened on the regular. If you’re thinking of having your photos taken, just DO it. You can wear as much (or as little as) you want and you’ll appreciate those photos on every birthday from now on.
Birthday Boudoir sessions are easy to set up. Want to set up your own session? Just email me or Facebook PM and we’ll get the ball rolling
Revenge Boudoir? Sounds terrible, right? But read on …
Here it is the middle of June and we’re right in the middle of wedding season, but come sit here by Mama and let her tell you a story …
A couple of years ago I had a young lady come in (not the chickie in the photo, for complete transparency) to have bridal boudoirs taken. She’d brought her gown, her tiara, and the beautiful lingerie she was saving for her wedding night.
We had a blast shooting, cuz that’s how we roll at JLReis Boudoir/Glamour and she fell in love with her photos. She chose a Little Black Book as a wedding day gift then came back a week later and ordered a wallet accordion book for her man.
Right before her goodies were to be delivered, she contacted me in hysterics. She found out something awful about the groom-to-be and called off the wedding. She wanted to cancel delivery of her photos as well.
I went to my photography peers because I was nearly hysterical – the photos were due to be delivered and because the B2B hadn’t signed a model release (as is EVERYONE’S choice) I couldn’t use them for ANYTHING!
Here’s what I tell clients NOW about why their session with me is more important to THEM than it is for the person they intend to gift the photos to:
In the past five years I’ve had women come to me for boudoir photos for so many reasons. It started as bridal boudoir, but at some point I started realizing what these photos were doing for my clients. I’ve shot photos of women who’ve just turned fifty, I’ve had clients who are newly divorced and need a boost, I’ve shot women who’ve lost weight after having a baby and are in love with their new bodies, I’ve taken photos of women who were eight and half months pregnant and loved THAT body …
Just lately I’ve been taking photos of women who did it the firs time for their love, but have come back the second time (one has been to see me THREE times) for themselves.
Women deal with so many stressful things in their lives; their jobs, their marriages, the joy and craziness of being a parent. My brother called me this morning and said he felt like the world was out to get him and I laughed. Not at what he saw as his bad luck, but at his belief that he’s the only one that this happens to. Every one of us go through challenges on a daily basis, from fixing the baby’s booboo to losing a parent to sever health issues.
Women just can’t allow themselves to appreciate and reward themselves for challenges they deal with. Having intimate photos taken, dressed or NOT, helps you to see and love yourself. Every time a client tells me she takes her photos out and looks at them more than her lover does, I laugh with joy.
So what happened to that first bride I had? She actually kept the photos. The last I talked to her, she was seeing someone new and terribly happy. Did she get revenge on that sorry groom? I don’t know, but I like to hope she accidentally showed him those photos, lol.
THAT is what boudoir photography is about to me.
!!!GASP!!
Isn’t that a shitty reason for a photographer to give? Isn’t that a terribly awful shitty thing for a photographer that says she’s trying to RAISE women’s self-esteem to say to a bunch of women?
I thought this reason was so important that it needed a whole damn blog post.
On the surface it sounds shitty, but think about it. Nearly everyone is so wrapped up in their own bullshit that they don’t have the time or the inclination to pay attention what other women look like. So we all sit in our heads and imagine what OTHERS are thinking of us, when in reality, no ONE is thinking of us.
Everybody has issues with their looks or their bodies, no matter our size. I’ve had thin-thin-thin women walk in and say they’re embarrassed for ME to see them, cuz they know they don’t look like my other clients. WTF? Of course you don’t look like my other clients, you’re YOU. Over the years I’ve had clients (hair clients, nail clients, etc) that have spent half their adult life obsessing on something that NO ONE notices but them: a slightly crooked tooth, the tip of a finger that bends just off true – HONESTLY, shit that NO ONE else notices. I’ve seen boobs that are one cup bigger than the other. I’ve seen broken toes that healed crooked. I’ve seen so many things that were so UNIMPORTANT that I can’t remember who they belonged to … because I have my OWN shit that I worry about.
Why the feck are we all so dissatisfied with the body that we live in? Why are ALL, yes ALL of us, so dissatisfied with the body God’s given us? We need to realize that we will NEVER be perfect: PERFECT is a MYTH.
When will we realize that no ONE but us sees those horribly “ugly” parts of ourselves but US? When will we realize that we are as beautiful RIGHT NOW as we are – RIGHT NOW!!! Those things we consider so offensive to the rest of the world don’t matter to the rest of the world because the rest of the world is obsessing with their own bullshit.
We need to accept our bodies as they are and peace with how we look. Having your portraits done will give you a incredible boost of confidence and the chance to see yourself in a new and different light.
Boudoir/Glamour sessions are easy to set up. Want to set up your own session? Just email me or Facebook PM and we’ll get the ball rolling
