Hey everyone! Kimberlee here, getting back into the swing of things after taking 2 days off… so strange, even though I haven’t been gone for too long, it FEELS like I’ve been gone for about a month! I’ve missed all the gals in the office, and it’s good to be back. (I had a great little weekend vacation though, to visit a friend in the Pacific Northwest – it was so beautiful up there this weekend!) 🙂 Ok, anyway… getting back to the studio, I’m really excited about our new “Studio Stories” on our Youtube channel, and I’m really excited to share a little more of the behind-the-scenes happenings and random craziness that takes place here at our boudoir photography studio in San Diego. So as I’ve been gearing up for this week and getting ready to tackle some projects, somehow while going through all of my folders, I came across a few REALLY random videos that we never posted. Working on posting them later this week. Like this one below……….
Oh – AND – we’re doing a little drawing at the end of this week, prize to be announced later… one random winner will be chosen out of the people who have SUBSCRIBED to our youtube channel! So go subscribe right now!!!!!!!!!!
SUBSCRIBE for the Divas’ channel on YouTube! (it’s the BEST boudoir photography youtube channel in the whole wide world!) 🙂
We’ve already told you guys how much we love Drop It Modern, but we had to share our newest backdrop from them! We LOVE it. It is so different than all of our other sets, and this now brings our studio to about 15 unique sets. As Kimberlee mentions in the video, we think it is important to constantly be adding and changing our sets to add value and options for our customers. This way they can come back for more shoots as well! 🙂
We also wanted to show you this new backdrop because we are bringing it with us to our PARIS workshops!. So if you are attending one of our two workshops (space still available for the second week, April 29th-May 1st!) then you will be able to use this beautiful “canary” backdrop to build your portfolio.
Do you have any Drop It Modern backdrops? Tell us which one is your favorite!
You have been asking, so here it is! Our final workshop of 2010 will be: OCTOBER 5-7 at our Studio in San Diego!! Need to build a bad-ass portfolio? Want to start a boudoir photography business or take your current one to the next level? Or do you just want to hang out with some cool Divas and make new friends!? Then the Divas’ Boudoir Workshop is for you!
Lunch will be provided both days, as well as dinner with the Divas the final evening (optional). Travel and accommodations are on your own. Once you register, we can send you a list of recommended hotels close by.
More details can be found on our Boudoir Shop.
Check out the video below for more info:
PS: There are still spots available for the PARIS workshop in April and the SD Workshop in June!
I opened my Facebook account and checked my messages the other day, something I rarely do as much as I should so I apologize to peeps who have written me on there, but anyway I had this amazing message. The kind of message that just lights up your day, your week, heck maybe even my month.
So here’s the message, I have taken out as much personal info as possible as “Miss A” has given me permission to blog this but I didn’t want to totally give away her identity. Our response to her was of sincere gratitude for sending us this kindhearted and honest letter. Wow, just wow. Thank you Lord for blessing when you least expect them. Maybe you all too can give her words of encouragement and any advice you may see fit. – M
Hi Marissa & Kimberlee,
You don’t know me, and I have never met you! But right now I find myself sitting and writing you (with my husbands encouragement as he finishes off supper!) and wanting to tell you a little bit about my story and why there are tears running down my face.
Oh where to start! I guess I should introduce myself, so hi, my name is A——, I love Jesus, my husband and photography (and many other things that don’t apply to this tale). A few months ago I got this idea in my head to give my husband a few sexy pictures of me for Christmas. The challenge is that its rather difficult to take great pictures of yourself like that! So I enlisted my aunt who is a great friend of mine, and even though she was scared and couldn’t believe I had talked her into to it, we found ourselves running around her bedroom in skimpy little outfits with a camera. The result was incredible! My husband was blown away, but better yet my aunt’s husband was astounded. Last spring their marriage of 17 rocky years almost blew up. But they pulled through and have been working hard at it since then. Her little album to him changed everything! Suddenly she felt sexy for the first time in years, and he found her new confidence incredibly attractive! Now they leave love notes on each other’s facebook walls, spend time together and even enjoy each other. Our God is good! And he used something as simple as a beginners try at boudoir photography to glorify Him
Right around that same time my husband and I moved from a small prairie town to a big mountainous city (I live in Canada by the way), because my husband and I are involved in ministering in prisons and felt an incredible call to follow the opportunity to be involved closely with a chaplain in K——-, BC. So within a couple of months we had quit our jobs, packed up and said goodbye to family and started a new life. God blessed my hubby with a job, but somehow I never found one, and after a lot of encouragement from my amazing man, we decided I would pursue starting up a photography business, with an emphasis on boudoir. Yup me, who has only ever done one shoot, and was a part of it! I had been doing other photography for quite a while, and knew it was something I loved doing, so before I knew it plans were in motion!
Originally it was going to be fairly low key, but suddenly I found myself accepted to apply for a grant and needing a business plan. Things snowballed as I realized that I was getting into this for real, and really wanting to make a difference in the lives of women.
So that leads me to you, in my research somehow I kept returning to the Boudoir Divas site. I must have looked at it every day for the last week, always finding something new!
However, then the fears also starting hitting, who was I to think that I could do something like this? I don’t have a studio, not even a house to do it in! I have no hair experience, and though I love makeup I haven’t done much on other people. And hold up, I only have a $500 dollar camera, 1 lens, no lighting let alone lingerie and sexy heels! Only a knowledge that this was something I was called to pursue. I kept finding myself struggling to trust God though, worrying that maybe I wouldn’t get any funding, maybe all these dreams were for nothing. Well today was one of those days. I knew I should be trusting God, but there were so many impossibilities and unanswered questions! So I started looking at boudoir photos and sites simply to get inspired and reaffirmed that that was what I was supposed to do. Well God led me back to your site. And then to the video of your studio and I was so surprised to see a psalm written on your wall. So I paused it and then noticed Prov 3:5-6 (Which has been a verse that has been a huge part of my life) and I almost started crying. I found myself heading out the door for a walk, and stopping on my knees crying out to God “I trust you, I have to trust you, I can’t do this on my own!” and this incredible peace came over me and I knew that I wasn’t doing it on my own. Well when I got back home God blessed me again, I became curious as to who these Boudoir Divas really were, and did they mean what they had on their office wall. I found your mission statement, and it blew me away. When my husband got home I grabbed his hand and led him over the computer where we both sat and read it over and over again. Tears streaming down both our faces as God confirmed again that he is the one who leads, and sustains.
And so I find myself writing you a massive note, smells of chicken wafting out of my kitchen as my man tells me supper is ready, and tears replaced by a smile. All this to say Thank You. It is incredible to know that I am not the only one God has called to do this, I am not alone. And he does provide in incredible ways! May you and the other girls be incredibly blessed for the work you are doing, and the encouragement you have been to me.
Love, Your sister in Christ
A.
we are going to take it to a whole new level. We have said in the past that we were going to video blog every other day, but the excitement of other major projects has held us back so now we are buckling down and re-committing. These video are going be more for our clients than anything else but will also give photographers a behind-the-scenes look into our studio and the shenanigans we get ourselves into. So ‘hold onto your hats and glasses, cuz this here is going to be the wildest ride in the boudoir wilderness!’ (Disneyland anyone? Oh wait how about ‘permanence sentados por favor’???) Anyway, here is our first “Studio Stories” Video which you can also subscribe to our new youtube channel and be notified when new ones are posted, if you like, at http://www.youtube.com/boudoirdivas. -M
Hey everyone! We’ve got some BIG news. If you received our last newsletter, you’ve already heard this news! (If you want to read the entire newsletter, we’ve uploaded it online for you: The Boudoir Divas MARCH 2010 Newsletter)… if you would LIKE to receive our future newsletters, you need to sign up to be the first to know!
So now for the big news…. Who wants to be a part of the Divas’ referral list?!
That’s right, friends and fellow photographers… It’s on it’s way! We’ve been dropping hints about our referral list on our blog for a while, and a few of you have already emailed to tell us that this is something you’d be interested in. And the great news is that it’s coming SOON! We’re working on the finishing touches of the referral list, and we’re about to start taking applications for photographers who would like to join! Why did we decide to create our referral list? In short, it’s because we get TONS of inquiries every week from potential clients from across the US and around the world who are interested in finding a boudoir photographer that has a similar style to our photography… and we would LOVE to have a place where we can list the TOP BOUDOIR PHOTOGRAPHERS in every city, state, and country worldwide! So… wanna join our list??? Well, once this baby is officially launched, we’ll have a lot of info & details, but in the meantime, here’s what we’re asking you to do in order to start the process of joining…
SEND US AN EMAIL! ([email protected]), and tell us:
1) Your name
2) City (where you’d like to be listed)
3) A link to your website/boudoir portfolio
We’ll be finishing up the boudoir referral site SOON, so we’ll get in touch with you if we’d like to feature you as a part of our Boudoir Divas referral list! Thanks so much to all of the HUNDREDS of boudoir photographers from around the world who have already submitted your requests to be added to our list. We’ll be in touch soon! xoxo, Kimberlee & Marissa
www.boudoir-photographer-international.com
LOVE these photos… LOVE the inspiration! Hope you all have a FABULOUS day. xoxo, Kimberlee
SOPHIA LOREN is the perfect inspiration for boudoir photography!
Many of you already have our Posebook. And we don’t mean to brag, but we LOVE our Posebook and still use it at almost every shoot. If you don’t have it yet, it includes 28 of our most popular poses, describing which poses are most flattering for every body type, variations of each pose and how to shoot it to achieve the best look. It also includes an instructional DVD of Marissa and Kimberlee showing you how to get your client in these poses.
We just wanted to share a couple of those poses with you and give you a little teaser of what you can expect to find in this book. (if you attended Marissa and Kimberlee’s speaking engagement at Imaging, they should look familiar 🙂
Check out the video below to see how Marissa’s demonstrates the Laura pose to a client!
PASSWORD FOR VIDEO: freebie
Kimberlee and Marissa discuss their favorite parts of the Posebook in this video:
You can find more variations of these poses and 25 MORE POSES in our Posebook! Enjoy!
Did you miss our “BOUDOIR IS THE NEW BLACK” speaking presentation at Imaging USA in Jan? (We heard that it was so packed, 1600 people, standing room only, and people got turned away at the door)… SOOOO… here’s the good news: we’ve got an encore presentation, a little shortened version, coming up TODAY!!!!!!! (It’s a webinar with PPA). We’d love it if you signed up! Thanks!
CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE DETAILS!!!
March 22, 4pm ET
with the Boudoir Divas: Marissa Boucher and Kimberlee West
$39 for PPA Members
Click here to register
Ready for an insider’s look into the boudoir photography business? The Boudoir Divas will give you an overview, sharing their own secrets. They will tell you how they replaced their Saturday wedding income with a Friday Pin-Up Party™ that has become all the rage. And most importantly, they will share why they believe they were so successful from the start.
And here’s our OUTLINE for what we’ll be going over today!
AND… click here to read the blog post PPA wrote up about us and our business! Thanks so much, PPA, for inviting us to share!!!
Also… a big thank you to Bay Photo – for donating a free 10×10 thin wrap to one lucky winner (given away at the end of our program!)
… AND, a big thank you to Showit – for the promo code they’ve given us to share with you all, to get a sweet deal on a brand-new, bad-ass, custom website!…
…AND, a big thank you to My Emma – for the awesome deal they’re giving you when you use their awesome email marketing program! (Promo code: ‘Divalicious’) 🙂
Happy Monday, everyone! xoxo, Kimberlee & Marissa