So to those of you who don’t know what’s been going on in my life recently, here is a quick run-down: 1) moved to Washington state in March. 2) Got engaged. Getting married in 3 weeks. 3) Working remotely (here in Washington), and traveling back to San Diego for workshops, and to be involved with the Boudoir Divas studio there. In short, it has been a year of change, transitions, excitement, tears, saying goodbyes, and starting a new chapter of life. There are days like today when I feel so sad that I am working all by myself… especially after spending the last couple weeks in SD with the amazing Boudoir Divas San Diego staff (I LOVE those girls so much, it’s such a great team of women!)… and after spending time with my bitner (nickname for Marissa, business partner) nearly 24/7. I feel like I’m going through withdrawals. 🙂 But then I look up at the view from my office today, with the sun shining and a light breeze hitting me off of the sound. Watching the birds flying overhead, looking at the boats and the islands that seem a stone’s throw away from the deck I’m sitting on… and I just have to pinch myself. I love my new home, and I love the man I’m going to marry in just three weeks. I miss SO many things about San Diego, but I am falling deeply in love with my new home. And that is the strange dichotomy that I am living in right now. So, those are my random rambling thoughts for you on this Friday afternoon. Hope you have a great weekend! xoxo, K
PS… here is the view that I am currently looking at as I am responding to emails, writing guest blog posts, and finishing writing the Posebook Part DEUX!
We cannot WAIT to come to Spain in October! We are incredibly honored to have been asked to join with many amazing photographers for the Foro de Fotografos convention in Madrid, October 30-Nov. 2! Some names you might recognize, like Yervant… Jim Garner… David Beckstead… Bob & Dawn Davis… and more! Sheesh, we are so blown away at the opportunity that WE have been chosen to travel around the world and share our boudoir photography speaking programs with photographers in Spain. We’ll be giving a full-day program on the 30th, and then a platform program on the 31st. I (Kimberlee) spent a month in Madrid back in college, so I’m thrilled to have a chance to go back and explore! You better believe we will be updating about our trip on our Boudoir Divas Twitter account, and also on our official Boudoir Divas Facebook page, and possibly even here on the blog… so tune in!
Yes, I know, this is one of the most excited blog posts we have written in a long time. Try to contain yourselves. 🙂 The rumors are ALL TRUE!!!!! We are writing a NEW BOUDOIR POSING GUIDE!!!!!! Woo-hoo!
So, with this being the THIRD Boudoir Divas book that we’ve ever released… we decided that we wanted to do something a little different this time with the foreword. We are ready for one of our photography friends to write it for us. That means YOU. I don’t care if you have shot boudoir for 10 years or 10 months… we are not looking for an ‘expert’ – we just want a real person who is out there doing real boudoir and loving it. If you have come to a Boudoir Divas’ workshop, and/or if you’ve been inspired by us somehow through the years, and/or if you have purchased the original Posebook and found that your business has changed because of the tips you’ve learned with posing… then we want YOU to write this for us! Think about writing a letter to other fellow photographers out there – share a little bit of your story and how posing is important for boudoir. Interested? We’d love to hear from you. Email me: [email protected]
Since the release of the original boudoir posing guide back in the day, we have received RAVE reviews about it. For instance…
“I received The Boudoir Diva Pose book only a few days before I had a boudoir client scheduled to shoot. This was by no means my first boudoir shoot, but I used the pose guide and only used about 4-5 images in my shoot from the pose book. My session sales are typically $250 for my 5×7 20 image book. After my client saw the images after using The Boudoir Diva Pose book, she purchased one of my largest packages: a 8×8 34 image album. With her sitting fee she spent nearly $700~. I can say without hesitation that the small tweaks I made in my posing that I learned from the Posebook was the reason for my successful sale! Thank you Boudoir Divas! I am so excited to use the rest of the tips I’ve learned from your Posebook!”
“I had done a number of boudoir shoots before I came across the Boudoir Divas. Whilst my clients were always thrilled with what I produced for them, I knew in my heart that I could do so much more … I just had no clue how to start. I invested in the pose book and the minute it was in my hands I felt that tingle of excitement and actually couldn’t sleep the night before my next boudoir shoot. I only referred to the book once or twice during the shoot, but the difference knowing it was there improved my shoot by 1,000! I have posted some of the shots on my Facebook Business Page and the response I’ve had has been amazing … my enquiries alone have increased tenfold! THANK YOU DIVAS!!!!”
“This was a gift from my hubby and I was jealous when I found out that he actually CALLED and ordered the book and spoke with Ashley… gasp.. great hubby! This book is the best! Not only do you get the poses but you get the info from the divas about how to make your girls feel amazing, little tips and tricks to getting the pictures YOU WANT! The DVD was so helpfull because reading how to interact with your client is one thing, actually seeing and hearing how to interact and how to put them in poses is another! So great and just by getting this book, your pictures will already turn out FAB!!!! You will see great things through your camera after getting this book! I bring it where ever I go! Thanks again Divas for a great product!”
Tonight I was inspired. Really. Not just saying that in the flippant way people say, “uh…mazing.” But in the way that makes you sit on a couch and stare at wall for a couple hours. I picked up a magazine today and found an article about Angelina Jolie that really got me thinking. She wrote a screen play and has now directed her very own creation. It is a very worth read, and I won’t spoil the article for you by spelling it all out, but I will leave you with a few of the quotes and one of the main points that really left me pondering my own course in this short life.
One section reads, “you have to admire her. If she felt the need to write and direct, something lighter would have been the easier choice…..Easier still would’ve been to continue on as she had been: big movies for money, small movies for soul, sitting back as the coffers filled. Being a movie star is not such a bad life. But this woman, a pure product of Hollywood, is not only wildly ambitious…. [she] knows that capital kept out of the game is not saved but diminished. To get big, risk big.” Vanity Fair Writer
“There’s a famous quote, if it doesn’t scare you, it’s not worth doing. I think there is truth to that.” Angelina Jolie
She goes on to talk a bit more about other things that spoke to me as well, and while I do my best to be as open as possible there are some things that are just legitimate TMI. So I will keep the how and why to myself on those items, however, the words above….I can’t tell you why they speak to me exactly. I might never know. But after dealing with what felt a little bit like a season of winter in my life, I feel spring upon me. I feel like it’s time to enjoy this unreal day to day we call The Boudoir Divas, but also time pull up the sail because I feel the strong winds ready to take this adventure to a new height. We just need to decide what that is, and there are so many different pictures that could look like. What an amazing place to be. I feel so blessed. I don’t know what season you are in in your life, but I pray that you too are able to soon enjoy a season where the snow settles and all you see in front of you is an overwhelming excitement and adventure. Risk and reward.
So if you are in the grocery store line, I recommend grabbing this article, read about someone who seems to have reached all her goals just to stretch herself to new place she never thought she could go. Uh- mazing 😉 – M
So last night, I decided it was finally time to print some images from my trips to Paris. Our first workshop there was over three years ago, and can you believe that I have not printed ONE single image from any of my three trips there? It’s one of the problems with this digital age of photography… I have millions of photos stored on a half dozen hard drives, and yet I very rarely print them out. If you shot on film back in the day, didn’t you just LOVE working in the darkroom, developing your images, and watching the MAGIC happen as your images came to life before your eyes, as you held them in your hands? I really miss that feeling. So I’m telling myself that it’s time to start printing some of my photos. I want to remember all of the amazing trips and adventures that I have been on, and someday maybe I’ll create some books that document these memories. In the meantime, though, I finally decided to bite the bullet and print a few of my favorite images from Paris to hang on the walls of my new home (when I get married!!!) I had so much fun going through the images from my first Paris trip, and I couldn’t help myself – I just had to post a few here.
SO many amazing memories from Paris! After our Paris boudoir workshops, we usually take an extra week of vacation to travel around and do some sight-seeing. These are some of my all-time FAVORITE memories… and I can’t WAIT to take my new hubby with me to Paris someday! 🙂 PS – I’m getting married in about SIX weeks! Woo-hoo!
Also, I have to mention that we are for SURE doing a Paris Boudoir Workshop in the Spring of 2012! So, start planning and saving… the Paris workshop ALWAYS fills up VERY quickly, so make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter, and once we make the announcement (within the next couple weeks), sign up fast to secure your spot!
PS – There’s a CANVAS SALE happening right now with Bay Photo Lab – but it ends Sept 1st (ummm… that’s TODAY, can’t believe it’s already September!)… so go order your canvas prints right NOW. Seriously. Do it.
A lot of photographers ask if we ever sell large prints to our boudoir clients. You may not think it’s possible, but it IS! We DO actually sell large prints to our clients… especially artistic images that they can hang in their bedroom, master bathroom, or walk-in closet. So, if you are hoping to sell more large prints, you really need to have a sample to show your clients what type of image they ought to purchase. Order a canvas print of a black and white, beautiful artistic image, show it to your clients, and mention that they can purchase a canvas like this to hang in their walk-in closet. If you don’t ASK, you will never know whether you’ll be able to sell this product. So give it a try! Get a sample canvas print from Bay Photo, and ask your clients if they would want one. If they can see a sample, and hear you talk about the options of where they might be able to hang it, they will be able to envision having a piece of art like that in their bedroom.
Care to see our latest studio tour?! It’s just an updated version of the old one… if you have heard us speak before, you’ve probably already seen it. But if you’d like to see it, here it is! Enjoy!
Also… if you would like to come hang out at this studio for two days, shoot on our cool boudoir sets with our amazing models and learn our divalicious lighting set-ups… we still do have a few slots available at our September boudoir photography workshop! We would LOVE to have you come join us! Email for all the juicy details: [email protected]
We are SO excited to be hosting the WPPI Road Trip in San Jose tomorrow!
Our program is called “Dare to Dream” – and here’s the description:
“The Boudoir Divas will be sharing how you can design your dream life and business! They call themselves the “Disneyland” of all boudoir studios, and have women coming form all over the world for their boudoir experiences. The Divas have taken their passion for creating an experience where a woman can feel pampered and beautiful, and created a thriving business with over 400 shoots per year. They will talk about designing your dream life-both personal and professional!”
M & I really enjoyed putting together this presentation (it’s something we’re really passionate about!) I’ve also been nicknamed the ‘Slide Queen’… if you’ve ever been to one of our workshops or platform presentations, you may remember that we like to have goofy/quirky/fun slides (no boring power point presentations here!) So, needless to say, I had a LOT of fun creating new slides for this presentation. Who else has 50 slides for a half-hour program? Heehee… For those of you who aren’t in San Jose, I wanted to give you a little preview of a few of our slides:
We’re also THRILLED that we have a chance to listen to some amazing industry ‘greats’ tomorrow… Jim Garner, David Getzschman, Jared Platt, and Bambi Cantrell
Thanks, WPPI, for inviting us to host in San Jose. We’ll be around all day, and we’d LOVE to meet you – so PLEASE say hi! (We’re really friendly, I promise). 😉 See you all tomorrow! xoxo, K & M
Hey photographers! Hope you’re having a wonderful Monday! I just wanted to write and talk a little bit about email marketing. Our email newsletters to our boudoir photog clients are so incredibly important. This is a marketing strategy that we have used since the very beginning – and it is something that has worked really well for us. Emma is our email marketing partner for all of the newsletters that we send out to our clients, and we couldn’t be happier with this program. Emma gives us the flexibility to create a newsletter that is consistent with our Boudoir Divas brand. We love creating these email newsletters – it’s so much fun to design them in a way that makes them look more like a magazine, rather than a boring ‘ol email. (See sample below – this is an email we just sent to our past & potential clients, letting them know about our open house!)
Email newsletters are a great way to get in touch with potential clients, after they have signed up to receive your newsletter. They are also a helpful tool to stay in touch with your past and current clients – it’s our way of letting clients know about special events, tips for their boudoir session, and all of the ‘happenings’ here at the Boudoir Divas. And the awesome thing about using Emma for our newsletters: we get to see the results right away! We can log-on and see exactly who has read our email… but not only that, we can ALSO see which links they are clicking on from our newsletter. This information has helped us big-time when it comes to creating our email marketing programs, because we have data to tell us what things are typically more well-received, just by looking at our past email responses.
So… If you are a professional photographer and you’re NOT yet using an email newsletter to market to potential and current clients, what the heck are you waiting for?! Sign up with Emma today and start utilizing this easy and effective marketing tool!
Check out this awesome email we just got! We LOVE helping to empower other boudoir photographers to realize their dreams. xoxo, K & M
Hi, This really isn’t an email requesting any information. I just wanted to let you all know how amazing I think you are. I have only been into photography for the past year and a half but I am loving it. Boudoir was instantly my favourite! I love it because I love showing every woman how beautiful she is and I see the beauty in my work through this kind of photography.
I just wanted to thank you for having resources for other photographers who are starting out and may be a little lost like myself. It is often hard to find people to help. I just purchased your pose book and your lighting DVD and I am instantly just beyond excited for my next shoot! You made me realize that although obviously its not easy its easier than I was making it out to be. I was terrified of lighting and you have given me some confidence to give it a try. I also just purchased your perfect boudoir action for photoshop and once again I am in love. I took a a photo I had taken of an older woman in a previous shoot and used your action on it and I cannot believe the difference it made in the photo.
Anyways I just feel so much more confident and excited about my venture into Boudoir Photography. It is what I would like to concentrate on.
Thank you so very much! and if I ever get the money to take a trip out to San Diego I will be contacting you so I can have the supermodel experience myself. I know without a doubt you would make me look beyond stunning!!
–Sarafae
Thanks so much, Sarafae, for sharing your words with us! We love to hear that other photographers are inspired and/or empowered to take their boudoir photography business to the next level after coming to a workshop or utilizing our products for boudoir. That’s why we do what we do!
If you’re interested in checking out our boudoir resources for professional photographers, go to the Boudoir Shop!
