Surviving Abuse and Loving Life | Dallas Boudoir

Back in December I held a model call.  I host model calls because I shoot a lot of boudoir but not a lot of women want to show off their beautiful work.  Don't get me wrong.  I get it.  Many women want to keep their intimate sessions private and I totally respect that. While I get super bummed about that I do inherently understand.  

Therefore, I decided to host my VERY FIRST model call in Dallas.  Boy was it a freakin' success!  I actually only did it on Facebook and I got a number of cool inquiries coming in.  Since I only had a limited number of women that could participate in the model call it was hard making a final selection.  However, I was able to pick a few ladies for this project and I couldn't have been happier.

One of those ladies was Shalena.  Since then I have fallen head over heels for this beautiful soul.  Shalena was picked for this model call because her reasoning really touched me. In her email for consideration she wrote: 

"My reason is because behind every smile there is a deeper story to be told. And I am one of many survivors of mental, and sexual abuse. I've come a long way in my life. People always tell me that I have an amazing smile. But if I had a chance to tell my story, to encourage other girls/women like me, I would. It would be a privilege to be chosen. And to finally have supporters instead of users and abusers who take advantage of my beauty from within."

I have never been mentally abused but I have known people who have and I can tell you that it's very hard.  Even when said abuse stops, it's never really over for that person because they still have to live with the effects of that daily. 

Shalena is a strong woman with a beautiful personality.  She has a smile that can light up a room.  She is fun, friendly, and carries a sense of happiness that is totally infectious.  I couldn't be more happy to have shoot Shalena. 

Another thing that made Shalena stand out was her short hair.  Won't lie.  I have been LIVING to shot a woman with the same haircut and face shape as Shelana.  Short haircuts are so awesome and bold and not many women outside of Amber Rose have the balls to just rock a short cut.  Shalena knocked it out of the damn park! Lets just call Shalena's session a home run!

For the Model Call sessions I wanted to shoot it somewhere very cool so we opted for this awesome Airbnb that randomly populated days before our attended session.  The guy who owned the Airbnb was so incredibly gracious. He also turned out to be a furniture designer so the space looked extra cool.  

I love when I become closer with my clients.  They mean the absolute world to me.  Getting to know people on a deeper level for why they want to do a boudoir session has allowed me to dive deeper inside of myself to deliver the products they need.  

Didn't she rock the hell outta her session?! I hope you guys enjoyed Shalena's session as much as I did!  Just in case you're wondering Jazzy did the makeup!

In the comment section below who are some other celebrities that can rock the bald cut?

A Major Surprise at a Boudoir Session | Dallas Boudoir

When of my favorite things about boudoir are the shocking revelations that come from my clients.  Case in point with Ms. A.  She told me she was actually four months pregnant!

Say what?!  I did not know that when booking a session with her.  In fact, I think she was just now finding out.  LOL. So keep this fact in mind when you see the photos of our four months pregnant client doing a boudoir session.  

You would never know this because posing we leveraged posing to her advantage to keep the appearance of the belly down.  I LOVE posing women to get the desired angles needed.  Learning to pose women is important for two reasons. It leans your subject out and allows you to shoot more evocatively.  I mean let's be honest, what sells a photo is the story that it wants to tell.  Storytelling is successful when the viewer can sense and feel the emotion from the still pictures.  Photos can be done to make us feel any array of emotions.  I look to make my photos powerful.  

I feel as though there is a lot of power in allowing ourselves to be evocative and emotional and that's what I was doing with Ms. A in her session.  

This is another session that was styled by me and makeup was done by Jazzy Baptiste. 

In the comment section below let me know what you think the most important elements of a photo is.

Blonde and Boudoir | Dallas Boudoir

I love being a boudoir photographer in Dallas, Texas.  I meet so many incredible women.  Some whom I have shot three of four times already.    It's great to earn the trust and love of your clients.

Speaking of I am shooting one of my favorite faces, here we have  Ms. M again!  This has to be about my third or fourth time shooting Ms. M and trust me it never gets boring.  

Ms. M gave me the liberty to style her boudoir session.  Down to clothing, hair, and makeup.  I love these types of challenges because it shows me the client REALLY believes in my ability, and it also gives me the chance to be more experimental.  This is why I love my clients, they really allow me to stretch my imaginations.

If you can believe it or not, we actually shot this whole series in my apartment.  The first look took place on my balcony.  We had Candy from StylesByCandy come in and handle hair.  Jazzy was covering makeup.  I actually styled both looks. 

For hair I wanted to go for something full body and free. I love messier hairstyles in boudoir sessions.  It makes it much easier when shooting because I am not constantly concerned about the hair being perfect.  Messy hair gives me the liberty to push the session to the limit.  

Jazzy went with a very classic makeup look but still gave it his signature style be giving her the perfect heart lips.  The lips match perfectly with the aesthetic and style.  

The clothing pieces actually came from a closing American Apparel store.  If you guys didn't know, American Apparel is, at the time of this post, in the process of closing all of its locations.  This entire outfit cost me less than $5.  Yes, I bought all the pieces for 90% off.  I am willing to bet that anything with the American Apparel tag will be considered vintage and worth a lot of money in the future.  So hanging on to your American Apparel pieces may come in handy in the future... just not the near future.  

In this second look, we stuck to American Apparel high waisted bottom but then opted for this beautiful top purchased from Forever 21. Again, this purchase was from another clothing store.  I picked the top for $3... again, another boudoir outfit that cost less than $5.  

This goes to show that it's not about the price of the pieces but how you rock them.  

In the comment section below please let me know which look that you liked best.

Boudoir on a 70 Degree Day, Texas Winter | Dallas Boudoir

In order for me to be a better Dallas Boudoir photographer, I have to either be constantly shooting or consistently studying the craft.  As a person, I have a huge issue when it comes to just being still.  I feel like being "still" brings complacency, and if you guys are long time followers of this blog you know complacency is something that I am not about.  

After December business slowed down a tad bit. This free time allowed me to really put effort into putting together a whole boudoir session styled for myself.  It allowed me to focus on things that I need to work on.  This includes how I work with people, styling, hair, and makeup.  Downtime normally gives me the opportunity to be experimental in what I do. 

That's precisely what we did when meeting up with Aroy.  Aroy and I have been trying to work together for awhile.  Even before she officially moved to Dallas we were trying to work on something.  Finally, January arrived and I had free time. 

I am a proponent of whatever you're doing on the first of January is going to line up how your year is going to go.  Therefore I love spending my January 01st working, grinding, and networking  

I feel like each person I work with is my favorite person in the world, and Aroy was no exception.   She was just so easy to talk to, very open, and incredibly intelligent. She was just the meaning of life.  

For 2017, I am trying to get better at styling my sessions.  I hate limiting myself to typical lingerie pieces in order to create a beautifully styled session.  

I am a lover of sequin.  I have no idea why but I have always loved sequin since I was a young child.  LOL.  I know a lot of people don't like sequin because if you're not careful it can look very comical.  

Since this is Texas it means that our January first was 70 degrees.  (I do not envy people in the north).  I also wanted to experiment with video as well.  By no stretch of the imagination am I a videographer, however, I do want to start making video a real thing in my work. So working with Aroy really helped with that.  

Aroy is close to 6 feet tall and VERY lean so I wanted to take on the challenge of styling her. I have a lot of clients who are worried about what to wear for a boudoir session if they are super tall. So I decided to place Aroy in this beautiful one piece lace number.  I want to say this piece was from American Apparel.  We kept is super simple with bone straight hair and simplistic posing.  

In the second look, we went a little more experimental.  You guys already know my love and appreciation for high waisted bottoms so I paired this piece with a sequin bandeau and a sequin jacket.  The sequin bandeau was purchased from Forever 21.  The jacket was a vintage thrift find from Austin.  I picked up it for right around $10.  I mean how can you say no to vintage 80's sequin jacket?  

I loved how this jacket caught the light of the sun and would just bling for the Gods.  We ended up removing the jacket and focusing on posing and facial expression by using the strength of her body to create some Vogue worthy images.  

These photos really make me want to work with fashion more and work with better quality pieces.  I plan on networking more with lingerie brands to make this happen.

In the comment section below let me know what you think of the video.  I am open to critique as I am learning more about the art of video. 

Announcing the Winner of our Awesome Boudoir Giveaway

The winner of our boudoir mini session is Kristina Marshall!  

Everyone, please take the time to congratulate Kristina in the comment section below!  

Didn't win?  Don't fret.  We will have another opportunity NEXT WEEKEND to win a chance at a $50 gift card from Victoria's Secret!  Yes ma'am!  Use that gift card to buy something super special that you can wear to a boudoir session with us!  

• Please check out PORTFOLIO here.
• Or read about one of your awesome clients who came in after shedding 100 pounds!

If you like to book us please use the contact form below as we would love to make art with you!

Have an awesome Sunday Funday!
-K