Almost every woman who walks into the studio says a version of the same thing in the first five minutes. She is not sure she is the kind of person who does this. She has been thinking about booking for a year, sometimes longer. She is worried she will not know what to do with her hands.
That is the normal starting point, not the exception. What follows is the whole shape of a session, written down, so the only surprise on the day is how much you enjoy it.
Before the day
We start with a conversation, not a booking form. You tell me what drew you to the idea, what you want the images to feel like, and what you would rather we avoided. Some women want soft and romantic. Some want the version of themselves they only let out at 11pm. Both are welcome, and knowing which one you are chasing changes how I light the room.
From there I send through a preparation guide covering wardrobe, hair and makeup, and the small practical things that make a difference. Two pieces of advice sit above the rest.
- Bring more than you think you need. Six outfits gives us range, and we will not use all of them.
- Book your hair and makeup for the morning of the shoot, not the day before.
Walking in
The studio is private. Doors closed, no walk-ins, no one else in the building. There is a rack for your outfits, a mirror, a kettle, and usually something playing that you get to change if you hate it.
We spend the first twenty minutes not photographing anything. Hair and makeup happens, we talk, and by the time the camera comes out you have already stopped thinking about it. That gap is deliberate. Nobody is at their most beautiful in the first three minutes of being looked at.
During the shoot
You will not be left to work out a pose on your own. I direct every frame, down to where your chin sits and which way your fingers fall. If you have ever seen an image of yourself and thought that the photographer must have caught a lucky second, they did not. It was built.
The rhythm of a session usually goes like this.
- A soft first setup, fully clothed or close to it, to warm up.
- Two or three lingerie setups with different light and different moods.
- One setup that is entirely your idea, whatever that turns out to be.
Sessions run two to three hours. You will be shown the back of the camera early and often, because seeing one good frame of yourself changes how you carry the next hundred.
The women who arrive most nervous almost always leave with the strongest images. Nerves and honesty look very similar through a lens.
After
Around two weeks later you come back for a viewing appointment and see the full gallery for the first time, properly, on a large screen rather than a phone. We choose your favourites together and decide how they should exist in the world. An album, prints, a folio box, or just the files.
There is no obligation to show anyone. A good number of these sessions are never shared with a single other person, and that is a completely valid reason to book one.
The question everyone actually asks
Am I the right shape, age or confidence level for this?
Yes. The women photographed in this studio have been in their twenties and in their sixties. Some came in after a divorce, some six weeks before a wedding, some after finishing treatment, and a few for no reason at all beyond wanting to see themselves properly for once.
That last one might be the best reason of the lot.
