Why I Love to Shoot Boudoir
Being a guy and shooting boudoir tends to make people think "He's a creep and just wants to see women naked." I completely understand how people can think that right away, there are creeps out there, but that's not why I shoot boudoir. The fact of the matter is...
It all started when I was young
Growing up I have always been around women more so than men. Once I got into grade school, I had a few best friends that were boys, but I started to find myself being more friendly with girls and liked two of them so much that I got married to them. The first was Tony, we had a cute ceremony and were husband and wife for maybe a week until she bites me in the arm. The second girl I married was Vanessa, and it was a much bigger ceremony with almost all the kids on the block showing up. My older brother was pretending to be the priest, and we made it extra official when we exchanged Ring Pops and made some silly vows. I was only seven or eight years old, but I knew I loved women.
Come time for middle school my family decided to move to a new neighborhood so I had to go to an all new school knowing nobody. To make ends meet my father would work night shifts so when I would get home from school, he would either be sleeping or waking up to start his shift. I had no friends that lived near our new home, but my mother did her best to be there for me. She would play games with me and take me shopping with her, and I remember that she would play chess with me just about every night before bed. She was always there for me, and there was no woman that I loved more than my mom. Until....
August 18, 2007. I'm 21 years old, and it's the happiest day of my life. This is the day that I married my wife, Melanie. (This time a real wedding not pretend.) We had dated for a little more than two years before I knew she was the women I wanted to spend my life with. We both love video games; I'm a big Mega Man fan, and she loves Final Fantasy. So as she walked down the aisle, we had Dr. Wily's theme playing on guitar, and once we were announced as husband and wife, we had the victory song from FFVII played. It was a fantastic day, and nothing makes me happier than seeing her smile.
What does any of that have to do with Boudoir?
In short, I love women. In every sense of the word, I truly love women. And as I started to explore the world of photography, there was nothing more rewarding than taking a photo of a woman and showing her that she is beautiful. I tried shooting other genres.
Weddings became too big of a job. It's hard enough getting a good picture of one person, having to shoot an entire family, ceremony, and the party is a nightmare to me
Sports are fun to shoot. There's constant action going on, and it takes real skill to capture that right shot of the player in action. The problem with this is I'm not a sports guy. The only game that I enjoy is Handball, and there isn't much, if any, money in shooting it.
Products can be cool to shoot. I have been shooting a lot of E-Juice bottles for various Vape companies that I do side work for (I'm also a graphic/web designer.) The problem with products is that there is absolutely no life to them. Everything in a product shot has to be perfect, and it can be draining spending hours to get the right shot of a tiny little bottle.
Infant photography is probably the hardest to shoot. I tried photographing my first daughter professionally, and it is so hard to get a good shot. They are always moving and crying and fighting you at every turn. God bless baby photographers, and after trying it myself, I totally see why they can be expensive to hire for a shoot.
Boudoir is where I found my calling. It gave me something I didn't get shooting anything else; gratitude, thanks. Nothing made me happier than showing a woman a photo I shot and seeing her expression. That look of "OMG is that really me?" Then seeing herself in a way she never has before, seeing herself as beautiful. Nothing can beat that for me.
I would like to give the gift of self-appreciation and confidence to all women, however, I have to do so one at a time, so I hope you'll give me the chance to to show you how beautiful you really are.
Article by: Gregory James Thelian