I began my photography journey back in high school and the darkroom will always be my first love. The smell of chemicals, the steps you had to take to develop both the negatives and paper and then watching images appear in front of my eyes was magical to me. As the years went on, I was always the one with a camera in hand at any event. Capturing memories has been engrained in my being for so long and I loved documenting literally everything my camera. It was not until I was pregnant and on bedrest with my 3rd child that I got my first DSLR and started learning about digital photography. I launched a successful photography business focusing on families and children and also shot weddings for years. It was in these last couple of years that I fell in love with the art of boudoir photography. Boudoir is now my sole genre that I shoot and I could not imagine doing anything else!
A little story for you...Growing up in Northern Virginia, one of my favorite memories was when summer would hit and us kids would spend all day outside going from pool to pool or running around with friends. There was nothing like coming inside and grabbing a glass of ice-cold super sweet Kool-Aid to cool off.. And I'm talking old-school, super bad for your health, Kool-Aid!! We would make it in tupperware pitchers with the small 10 cent envelope of Kool-Aid and about 2 cups of sugar. It was SWEET...like overly sweet!! Now fast forward into my teens...I will never forget the day a guy told me that I looked like the Kool-Aid without the sugar. This was obviously not intended to be a compliment because Kool-Aid without the sugar was gross! It hurt me to my heart. Any type of confidence I had as a teenage girl was gone with that one sentence. The point of me telling you this story??? I have carried that with me for almost 30 years. The weight of one sentence made me feel not good enough, not worthy and it has echoed in my head whenever I looked in the mirror over the years. As women, we are already our own worst critics. We have a hard time believing and accepting compliments and will always be quick to point out what we don't like about ourselves. Add to that, the unrealistic standard the media and social media put on society and it is sometimes really hard to feel worthy.
I want each and every woman who trusts me with a session to leave their Boudoir Experience feeling beautiful, confident, empowered, worthy and knowing that they are a 2-cups-of-Sugar-in-the-Kool-Aid-Bad-Bitch!!! YOU are already all of these things...it is just my job to remind you!
all the small things...