I recently attended a Boudoir shoot at Smart Photography near Oxford. I was selected at random for a free shoot and one little framed photo in a bid to bring in new clientele. I'm pretty sure I told them I wrote a fashion blog, but I'm not sure they understood me. Whoops.
Anna Smart, with her photographer husband Robin, run the studio and take nice family, couple, and increasingly, boudoir portraits. A boudoir shoot is basically, dontcha know, a Burlesque-style, posing-in-your-pants session that ideally produces photos that one would like to gift upon a husband-to-be, or your posted-abroad military man (like the old days!). These shoots also seem to be trendy with middle aged women who fancy a confidence boost in the form of stripping down to their knick-knacks in front of a photographer. I get it; a little risqué, a little I'm-a-real-woman-not-a-skinny-model. I was up for it.
I naturally started a Pinterest board called "boudoir shoot inspo!" so I could convey to the photographer the feeling I wanted for my shoot, and was really excited at the prospect of being properly made up and having some sexy photos done. I mostly pinned looks that fell into one of two categories: overtly pin-up, and quirky cute, hinting at sexy. I quickly realised during my chat with the owners that they were not used to people having their own ideas for the shoot that branched outside of cliché sexy. I didn't bring a corset or basque? No. I didn't bring garters or suspenders or fishnets or red high heels? No, no, and no! I brought cozy cardigans, thigh high socks, ankle boots and an un-matching bra and knicker set. I brought a white shirt and a semi-sheer sporty t-shirt. They didn't get it.
I asked the hair and makeup girl, Holly, for relaxed old-school Hollywood glamour and although she was really fashionable and lovely to talk to, hadn't a clue who Veronica Lake was (if you don't either, shame!!! Google her.) and also didn't know the J'adore Dior add with Charlize Theron sitting on a chair with golden waves in her hair, so I'm not sure she quite understood what I was going for either- I ended up looking like Xtina in her Lady Marmalade collaboration with Lil Kim et al. Yuck.
Safe to say I wasn't feeling that hot when I went into the shoot, and when I saw the set was full of red satin and a blow up bed I almost walked out. It's a set obviously geared for a certain look: contrived. I never really felt that relaxed especially when the hair stylist walked in unannounced and decided to hang out while I got nakeder and nakeder, so my good side or my fun and sexy side neverreally came out. I can't rightly understand all the superb reviews on their Facebook page, especially if these were paying customers!
In the end it was fine, I had to fight a bit to get the kind of feeling in the pictures that I wanted (not slutty), we overran the allotted shoot time and Robin said I had really made him work for the shots. Hah.
Went back for the viewing having been told I would LOVE the photos and would obviously want to spend a fortune on prints, there were only two that I would ever consider having printed and I literally said "hate, delete" to at least half of them. Also the cost of the finished prints were ridiculous. I mean, really silly. I know photos are expensive to have done professionally because they have all the equipment and one is literally paying for their time and all that, but for a 30-60 inch printed canvas it was almost £500!!! Which is crazy because there is no mounting, no frame, they just send it off to the printer and send it back printed onto the canvas. You can do that at Tescos for £20-40.
I haven't received my photo yet so hopefully they don't decide to be poor sports and withhold my photo if/when they read this. But even when I do I am forsaken from using my image online (what?) or in any way that would promote myself. I'm not sure if that's just for the non-paying clients since I thought that when one paid for a service, you PAID for the SERVICE and the end results were your own to use as you would? Unreasonable? Not sure.
Anyway if you fancy a Boudoir shoot, I'd say go for it, but not here. I am hopefully taking my family in for a portrait shoot at Clifton Photography Company in Bristol later this month, stay tuned...
Adios xx
(PS...come check out my Pinterest Board for my shoot inspo: @lauracrampton1)
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