Ms F’s boudoir shoot happened in January, and I designed a leather bound photobook with the images for her boyfriend as a Valentines Day present.  I’m completely thrilled that he loves the book .  Doing a boudoir shoot is such an experience for any woman… and there’s such an enormous build up to the day and so much anticipation and anxiety around the shoot and what the photos are going to turn out like.  And it’s also the most empowering and ego-boosting thing that you can do for yourself too (I should know, I had one done last year).  So, to get amazing feedback from a client about how she feels about the photos, and that her boyfriend loves them is just SUCH an ego boost for me …. I LOVE that it was so well received.

When Ms F chatted to me about her boudoir shoot and we started planning it last year, I just knew that an ordinary hotel would not do for her.  We chose the 12 Decades Hotel in downtown Johannesburg, and after chatting to the hotel, I chose the “Catwalk Customs” room designed by Black Coffee because it was the lightest and largest of the rooms on offer.  It was PERFECT!! The light was incredible, and the room had more than enough spaces in it to create such awesome variety in the shoot.  Well, ok almost perfect, because I didn’t actually realise how many people came traipsing through the hotel just looking around at the rooms… and that was a little disturbing.  But anyway, Ms F was amazing…

Make-up by Maureen

Oh and you know how I love sheet shoots… I actually want to do an entire mini boudoir shoot day just using white sheets!! 

I didn’t manage to take proper photos of the book because of the rush to deliver it, but did get a few with my iPhone…

You may remember that I had a boudoir shoot done for my bucket list last year, by Yvette from Innovate Photo.  Well, a few weeks later, she advertised her workshop and I signed up for it.  I haven’t done a workshop for 2 years, and this year I feel that I need to up my skills and learn more… it’s always nice to learn from other photographers.  I’m also doing more and more boudoir shoots, and I like knowing that I’m prepared for shoots… so a boudoir workshop was in order

It was awesome!! We spent the day today at the most gorgeous Fairlawns Boutique Hotel in Morningside.  There were 2 models and a make-up artist and Yvette presented her workshop to a small group of 5 photographers.

I took far too many images like usual… and the models, Mine and Amorie, were just so gorgeous so it’s just so tricky to choose my favourites tonight!

And OMG I love white sheets!! Every time I do a boudoir shoot with them, I swear that I’m going to book just sheet sessions! Love using them

It was a huge amount of fun… and just in time to give me loads of inspiration for tomorrow’s boudoir shoot

If you want to see more, there’s a few more in an album on Facebook

R contacted me months ago to organise this photoshoot that took place a few days before her wedding in November.  She wanted some boudoir photos taken as a present for her future husband, and she wanted her bridesmaids to join her… as her gift to them.  So I took leave that day and met them in the afternoon in a friend’s house for the shoot.

It was such fun, and I’m so pleased that they’ve let me show you a few of the images.  As you can see, one of the bridesmaids is pregnant with a long-awaited set of twins and I loved that she got to celebrate the changes in her body in this way.

Organising a boudoir portrait party with friends is such an awesome way to get boudoir photos!

I have quite a few photobooks in my pipeline at the moment, and I collected the remainder of quite a few orders today which are now ready for delivery… so I’m going to have at least 2 happy clients this week!! I cannot resist showing them off a bit, because even the book printer commented about the one book and how they liked the unusual book size that I ordered.

You may remember Michele’s shoot from a while ago.  In addition to the canvases and prints she ordered, she ordered 2 books as well… one with her portrait session, and another just with her boudoir photos.  They’re not big books, they’re both A5 in portrait with flushmount pages (which is unusual because normally that size is printed in landscape but I just felt the photos needed a portrait book).  The portrait shoot has a printed cover and the boudoir shoot has a black leatherette cover.

The other books ready for delivery are for Maxine’s family.  Maxine has ordered 4 books from Peyton’s shoot that are all slightly different, and I’m only showing you one of them.  They’re all A4 flushmounted landscape books with printed covers (that means the pages are stiff and lie flat when opened).

I’m really pleased with the way they’ve turned out

Samantha contacted me months ago after I took photos at her sister’s wedding, and we finally managed to get together today for her boudoir shoot.  You see, Samantha is based in Dubai and only gets to Johannesburg for short trips and it’s normally during the week.  However, she’s been here for Christmas so it was an opportune time to do the shoot.

I met Sam at her family home in Lonehill for the photos, and I had such fun!! Huge thanks to her for allowing me to post a few photos on my blog too!!