For some people, boudoir + empowerment sessions actually aren’t about “sexiness” at all. They’re about feeling powerful, and that can look a lot of different ways for a lot of different people, and doesn’t always have to include getting naked or wearing lingerie!
Below are some inspiration pics of non-lingerie clothing options you can consider for your boudoir + empowerment session!
—Sam
Enjoy volume one of Reverence Intimate Portrait’s Self-Love Playlist!
—Sam
And both were so fun and amazing! I absolutely love how our neon shower setup turned out! Enjoy these fun photos and consider booking your own neon session!
—Sam
Sara really wanted to do an outdoor shoot, and I was thrilled when we decided on Governor’s Island on Madison’s Northeast side! Governor’s Island is freaking beautiful (all year round, but in the fall particularly) and we had a blast walking around getting photos and laughing out butts off. It was chilly, but worth it!
—Sam
She wanted a mix of flirty and romantic, so we played around and had fun in the studio for the occasion! I love how these turned out, and am so glad we got to do a belated birthday session for her!
—Sam
When Sebastian and I talked about what a gender affirming session would look like for him as a trans man, he said that one of the things that helps him feel most centered in his gender is leather, and puppy play. I had heard of puppy play, but didn’t know much about it, so Sebastian was kind enough to explain it to me, and even gave me a little crash course on the overlap between the leather community and pup community. He also wanted to work some fun top energy into his session, which we absolutely did!
Sebastian’s session was a blast and I am so honored to have been able to photograph him!
—Sam
Marie (@the_spiritual_candy on instagram) arrived for her session with $100 worth of candy in a large tote bin, and a clear vision for how she wanted her session to go. I normally have a bit of a moody vibe to a lot of my portraits (my inner goth kid coming out to play), but when Marie told me that her vision for her session was bright, colorful, and filled with whimsical candy and yoga-based play, I knew I finally had a use for that bright yellow backdrop at the studio! Marie did her yoga flow in a sea of candy, and we got photos of it, and they were awesome! We also did a little floral-based stuff at the very end, before all the candy cleanup commenced. I love these photos and I hope you all do too!
—Sam
I love the different styles and presentations, and Wendi’s take on what femme + masculine look like on her was stunning!
—Sam
But when they saw some neon-themed images on my instagram page, they were smitten, and we decided to go the route of a faux shower neon light setup (what, you don’t have neon lights in your shower at home?) and it was awesome! I’m so excited Red was up for playing around with neon, getting sprayed down with a water bottle, and being a vulnerable and all around amazing human for our session! Enjoy these fun photos!
—Sam
For some folks, booking their first boudoir + empowerment session feels like a full-body “fuck yes!”, and that is truly awesome, but this blog post isn’t for those folks. This blog post is for the folks who are on the fence. Who want to book but aren’t sure if they should spend the money on themselves or if they’ll even like the photos because the photos are of them. That is who this blog post is for. So, how do you know if booking a session with me is right for you?
If you’ve already been working on your body image
Boudoir + empowerment photos can be a powerful tool on your body image journey, and for some folks, a session like this can be the catalyst to having a better body image and kinder thoughts about their body. Other folks may need to get to body neutrality before they’re ready to view themselves as worthy of being documented. I can show you how beautiful and worthy you are, but I can’t make you believe it if you’re not ready. If you’re truly not sure where you fall on this spectrum, let’s chat!
If you’re ready to do this for yourself, not solely for a partner’s benefit
Do we all love when our partners think we’re hot? I think most of us do. BUT, these photos and this experience aren’t about your partner (unless you’re doing a partner session of course), they’re about you. YOU are worthy of being photographed even if your partner never sees these photos, or even if you’re single. You deserve to do a thing that is solely for you and no one else. If other people benefit? Awesome, but they’re not the main focus here. If you’re not in a place where you can do something solely for yourself whether or not it directly benefits someone else, you may need to work up to a session, and that’s okay.
If you’re ready to believe that you are worthy of love and respect (from yourself)
You don’t have to already have achieved perfect self-love (does that exist?) to book a session, but you do have to be ready to take the next step in your self-love journey. You do have to be ready to see yourself as worthy of love and respect and being documented, even if you don’t quite feel that way yet. You have to want to see yourself that way while understanding that seeing yourself that way isn’t contingent upon changing your body first. It’s okay if you’re not there yet, you just have to be ready to have the conversation with yourself.
If you’re still on the fence about whether a boudoir + empowerment session is right for you, let’s talk! I promise my goal isn’t to talk you into a session if you’re not ready. My goal is to answer any questions you have about what to expect, and to help provide you with some food for thought on what a session can provide you, and then you decide when the right time is for you. :)
—Sam
On average, boudoir clients can expect to spend somewhere between $3000 - $5000, depending heavily on the experience of the photographer and the a la carte items or the packages each photographer offers.
Why so expensive? It’s a very reasonable question, and I’d like to help break it down for you.
First, and most importantly, I’d like to say that only you can decide if boudoir photos are worth the cost for you specifically. No one can make that determination for you. But you deserve to invest in yourself and your body image journey. And you deserve to work with a professional who makes you feel comfortable and seen, produces work that showcases your glorious, badass self, and who knows what they’re doing.
Many folks wonder why boudoir photography is so much more expensive than a regular portrait session, but boudoir + empowerment photos aren’t like a traditional portrait session, and they are considerably more time intensive for the photographer than say a family portrait session. I’ll show the difference below:
What goes into a boudoir session:
Pre-booking consultation (30 min)
Pre-session consultation (1 hour)
Emails/messaging back & forth prior to session (3-5 hours)
Shoot setup and prep time (1 hour)
Shooting the session itself (1-2 hours)
Shoot tear down and clean up time (1 hour)
Post-processing/editing and retouching (10-15 hours)
Album and prints - design, ordering, quality control, etc. (3-7 hours)
Client education, prep guide, etc. (30 minutes to 1 hour)
Image reveal session (1 hour)
Business management including social media, blog, contracting, etc., per session (1-2 hours)
That’s up to 36 hours per session!
What goes into a family portrait session:
Emails/messaging back & forth prior to session (1-2 hours)
Shooting the session itself (1-2 hours)
Post-processing/editing and retouching (3-6 hours)
Business management including social media, blog, contracting, etc., per session (1 hour)
That’s 6-11 hours per session. See the difference?
What the numbers above don’t include are the hard costs associated with running a studio (something that is not necessary for most family portrait photographers but is critical for boudoir + empowerment photographers), as well as hundreds of hours (and thousands of dollars) spent on boudoir-specific education and formal training, the thousands spent per year on software, websites, business licensing and insurance, the hard costs on ordering albums and prints, the expensive equipment, the credit card processing fees, and then the big kicker; the 30-35% taken off the top in taxes.
Because of the time-intensive nature of boudoir photography, boudoir photographers also can’t take on as many clients as they could if they were only doing family portraits, so there is a pretty hard limit to the number of sessions we can do in a given week, month, or year.
Absolutely. You can always find boudoir photographers who charge less, but it is often because they are either much newer, without the experience and education to provide excellent service and an amazing end result, or because they’re offering a very stripped down (no pun intended) version of the service where not as much time is spent on education, prep, body image, etc. While the phrase “You get what you pay for” is not always true, it is often true when it comes to photography in any genre. As a wise person once said, if you want fast food prices, you’re going to get fast food quality.
Maybe after reading this, you have a better understanding of why boudoir photography is more expensive than other kinds of portraiture. And maybe you feel like “Yes this is great, and I want to try it, but this is still out of my budget!” and that is totally reasonable. I’m a big believer in the importance of sticking to a budget! Most boudoir photographers (myself included!) offer flexible payment plans for up to a year prior to your session. If this is an experience you think would be helpful for you (and it’s definitely one you deserve to have), consider saving up for the session you want with the photographer you want, and if that’s me (yay!), just know that I offer super flexible pre-payment plans to help you plan for the session you want to have! Hit me up with any questions, or visit my FAQ page here for more info!
—Sam
She absolutely rocked it, and was happy to play around with flowers, crowns, and that badass sparkle robe! Thank you, Miss H, for your wonderful spirit and for posing for these lovely photos!
—Sam
