A History Lesson…
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
It started so long ago for me with photography that I barely know which came first.. .the business or the egg (hobby). My dad is an Italian immigrant and one of the first things he purchased with his KFC money, was a camera. That camera got passed to me in high school and it was like the art form I had always been waiting for. I flipped around lenses spent hours in the darkroom at school (cutting my other classes), and making what I thought was super impactful and meaningful art. Of course, what I was making were solidly ok photographs, that won a couple state competitions, but my love for photography grew.
In college I continued photographing all my friends and our projects, and started doing little jobs here and there. Family portraits, parties, little events. Friends who wanted to get dressed up and just have fun in the park.
As I became a teacher (and taught photography to high schoolers) I realized that my passion was in also photographing people, not just the art form, or teaching it. I started my first business in 2008, when I has only been teaching for 2 years, and I was 23. As all we photographers are want to do, I photographed EVERYTHING. Weddings, Senior Portraits, Family Portraits, Reunions, Funerals (yup… weird), Newborns, Pets… everything. Until I photographed Boudoir.
I went to a learning session to how to pose boudoir clients, and it was me, and four creepy older dudes, with a young 20-something model in a hotel room, and our old dude instructor. The models audible sigh of relief when I walked in was palatable. The instructor posed her in a many variety of poses that were beautiful but didn’t showcase what made her gorgeous. We each got a turn posing and photographing, to use the photos for out portfolio. I went last, of course, and we tried a bunch of different poses, and outfits, and scenes that the others hadn’t thought of. Not because they weren’t professionals, but because they weren’t humans who identified as women.
The model and I exchanged phone numbers and we walked out of the session together. I later sent her the images I took, and she used them for her own modeling portfolio.
Creating a safe, loving, and comfortable environment for a woman to feel as sexy as she wants was now my new mission. I started photographing Boudoir and Women’s Intimate Portraits in 2010, and haven’t looked back since.
It’s been a long road of learning, taking breaks, refreshing, going back to basics, and always always putting my clients needs first. But in the end, this is what I love doing. Inspiring women to see themselves how I see them, and how the people who love them see them. Beautiful and gorgeous and authentic.
