What should you expect from this whole process?
Well first you have to decide that you are fully committed and willing to explore yourself and accept your own strength and beauty. You have to decide you are open to realizing how worthy and amazing you are and ready to document it in a powerful and artistic way.
After that we start with...
1. A Consultation Meeting
I want to make sure we've had a chance to get to know each other, which is why I require all my clients to schedule a free consultation call so we can chat and dig into what you want out of your shoot. I want to discuss your ideas, goals, visions, what made you want to book a boudoir shoot as well as answer any questions you may have, plan out a bit about your session and set a date. If you are interested in something a little more than the traditional Boudoir studio session, such as outdoors, couple's sessions, special locations or anything else you can think of, this is the time to talk about it. We can also go over wardrobe, things you want to focus on about your body or distract from, and any physical limitations you may have such as injuries or if you're like me lack of flexibility haha, and last but certainly not least we will talk about pricing.
If you choose to book your session at this time, I will send you your booking proposal which will have your contract and retainer deposit and through that you will set up your client portal. On this booking proposal you will choose your package and have the opportunity to add any a la carte items to your package at a special booking rate. You can always purchase a la carte items after your session, but the special booking rate is only available as you book. Keep in mind we can create payment plans for your products in your client portal.
2. Personal Prep
After you have had your first meeting, booked your shoot, and hopefully are feeling confident about how this will all happen, it’s time to gather outfits, go crazy on Pinterest, continue asking me any and all questions you have, and get ready for your session! You will start getting some prep emails from me as well as just some tips and tricks, but I never want you to feel stressed about HAVING to do anything before your session.
There are a lot of things you CAN do to prep for your session, be sure to read my full blog post about Preparation For Your Boudoir Session!
However you can also show up to your session with no outfits, no ideas, no prep, and we will still make magic together don't worry!
3. Session Day!
It's the big day! You've done all the prep (or not) and you are ready to go!
When you arrive on shoot day, if you have chosen to take advantage of the complimentary hair and makeup, we will start by settling in for your pampering with snacks and a drink. We can have wine, champagne, tea or coffee depending on your preference, although alcohol will help a bit with the nerves if you need that haha.
You will get your hair and makeup styled by one of our talented hair and makeup artist here in Durango, most likely at my studio but every once in a while we go to their studio.
We will chat and hang out while you are all pampered up, and the hair and makeup artist will always ask you how you like your look before they finish up and head out.
After you are all done up, we will look through all the outfits you brought, along with what I have in my closet that may work for you. We will look around my home studio or wherever we have chosen to have your shoot, and determine which spaces best suit your personality. At this time we can plan out the session a little bit before we get started.
The actual session will last somewhere between 1.5-2 hours. In this time we will cover various outfits, poses, and settings. This meaning that we will change locations around the room, throughout the house, or if we're outside we will go to different locations. We will cover multiple poses in each location, I will help with all the posing so you never feel like you are responsible for posing yourself.
Overall I normally am able to fit 2-4 outfits (with variation) into each session.
You can choose to have your session at my in home studio, at your own home, or we can discuss outdoors or renting an airbnb or hotel space. If we rent a space you will be responsible for the charge of renting that space. If we end up doing an outdoor session, know that will involve a bit more planning and certain travel fees may apply depending on how far away from the Durango area you'd like to go. (I consider all the neighboring towns like Pagosa, Silverton, Dolores, Farmington etc. to be the Durango area, pretty much an hour or so drive is like here haha)
The session itself is an EXPERIENCE, it is more than just a regular photoshoot. Unlike family or head shot photos, you will be going on a journey within yourself throughout this shoot. I cannot count the number of times I have had a client text me after their shoot and tell me about the emotional rollercoaster they went on throughout their shoot and how grateful they are to have had the experience.
I have had numerous clients actually ask me to wait to show them their imagery because they wanted time to absorb and work through their shoot experience first.
I love getting to know my clients, so a lot of times I know some of the stuff they're dealing with throughout their shoot (i.e. having just gone through surgery, having lost a child, having gone through a bad break up or divorce, infertility, and much more). However sometimes they don't let me know what they're going through until after their shoot when they confess to me how much I helped them deal with something they had been struggling with within themselves.
So be prepared that this can be so much more than just taking pretty photos. We are here to celebrate who you are and what you've been through. We are here to connect or reconnect with yourself, and learn more about yourself along the way. Our goal is to lift your confidence and help you see the raw, natural, true beauty within yourself and how that is reflected out to the rest of the world.
We are here to help you love yourself, so that you can go out and spread that love to others.
KEEP IN MIND
Boudoir Sessions are not easy. I mean in the physical sense. I know when looking through Boudoir images, it may appear that all the ladies are just relaxed laying on a bed or standing against a wall, but it can be a bit of a workout! Sexy poses are rarely easy or all too comfortable. I mean think about it, the most comfortable position for me is laying blobbed out on my couch in my sweat pants haha. So come ready for some back arches, stretching, and a lot of sitting and standing up straight! Stretching before your session and having advil handy for the next day is not a bad idea.
4. Viewing and Ordering
This is when you get to finally see your beautiful images!
There are two ways for this to go, in person viewing session or online gallery viewing session.
It is a good idea, if you haven't pre-purchased any collections or products, to look over the price guide one more time before your viewing session to help determine how exactly you want to narrow down your images.
In Person Viewing
In person viewing sessions tend to be 1-2 weeks after your session depending on time of year and how our schedules align.
We will start off with a little video of a select few images to give you a little sneak peek before we fully dive in.
After that we will go through all your images together and help narrow down your favorites. First we will go through them all and select any and all images that you like, that includes maybes. After the first pass we will look through all your selected images again and start narrowing it down. This is when it is good to know what you are aiming for product-wise because all the album and digital collections are based and priced on the number of images you want.
As we are narrowing it down, you may decide you can't narrow it down any more, if the number of images you want surpasses the number of images in your package we can start talking about purchasing extra digitals, or an album to fit all your extra images. I like to put aside a very large chunk of time for these viewing sessions so we can take as much time as you need to narrow it down and figure out what products and collections work best for you and the images you want.
All album designs will be proofed for your approval before ordering.
Online Gallery Viewing
For the online gallery viewing, this is if there is just no way for us to set up an in person viewing in a timely manner, I will send you an online gallery of all your images. They will be watermarked in the gallery but any purchased images will never be watermarked.
Screenshotting images in the gallery is considered stealing, this is just a place for you to view and favorite your images.
You will be given a digital download credit for the number of digitals in your package, and we can work together with your selected favorites to put together albums or any print products. You can also order print products and extra digitals straight from the gallery.
So as I'm sure you can see the in person viewing experience is a little easier, but I am totally willing to work with your needs on viewing your imagery!
If you have any questions about any stage in this whole process from booking to viewing, don't hesitate to reach out!
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