Here's what I learned this weekend about posing my clients... | Atlanta Boudoir Photographer
Sarah
This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting a few (or seventy) of my fellow boudoir photographer colleagues for an annual retreat in Boulder, CO!
Now, business retreats aren’t known for being loads of fun. I mean, you’re usually sitting in a conference room for 8 hours a day drinking burnt coffee and trying not to let your butt fall asleep. However, get a room full of boudoir photographers together from all over the world and the business retreat gets taken up a few notches.
One of the classes that I took was focused on the art of the selfie. Forget your iPhone selfie, we’re talking full-on remote control camera and huge lighting strobes. We boudoir photographers cannot be counted on to take a generic selfie. Oh helllllllll no. If we can’t take a great photo of ourselves then how will we take a great photo of you, right? I’m not sure that logic is exactly sound, but it’s what I imagine is going through the heads of my clients.
So… what to do with all of my newfound selfie knowledge? Try it out, duh.
I had an amazingly gorgeous AirBnb on the side of a mountain that just screamed for me to shoot in it. On top of the two boudoir sessions I had already booked I decided to get a little bold myself and attempt my selfies.
The behind the scenes includes:
me running back and forth to the camera to set the timer
nearly falling on my side as I try to “pop my hip” and stick out my butt (I feel for my clients now)
eyes closed and mouth agape as I didn’t get into position in time
ducking into the bushes as a car drove by so as not to show off the boobs to innocent bystanders
my camera falling off of the makeshift tripod I had made
The behind the scenes is not for consumer consumption, but here is a final result from one of my attempts.
Now, what did I learn?
I learned that I need to be WAY more patient with my clients when I ask them for certain poses. Posing is HARD. Keeping your balance is even harder. Knowing what a pose actually looks like as you’re doing it is impossible.
There are times when I ask ridiculous requests of my clients… like: “Hey can you wrap your left elbow around your back and touch your toes to the ceiling while also smiling and playing with your hair.”
or
"pop your hips to the left while standing on your toes and pushing your boobs together and also can you flip your hair back and forth 80s hair-band style?”
So, dear clients… forgive me for asking the impossible. I failed MISERABLY posing, and I only came out with about 3 final selfies that I deem viewable by the public. I promise that I’ll be more understanding in the future… and feel free to call me out and shut me down when I’m asking you to be a human pretzel :)