Let me guess. You’ve been thinking about this for a while. Maybe weeks, maybe months. You’ve looked at the photos on this website more times than you’d like to admit, felt something stir — excitement, curiosity, something you haven’t felt about yourself in quite some time — and then immediately talked yourself back out of it with the same few words. “I hate having my photo taken” – or “Good luck with me – I’m unphotogenic”

You’re not alone. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that if you feel completely comfortable in front of a camera, you are almost certainly not my ideal client. The women who book with me are, almost without exception, the ones who have spent decades avoiding lenses at family parties, angling themselves away from group shots, and asking to be cropped out of things. Sound familiar?
So yes. You can absolutely still do a boudoir shoot. In fact, you might be exactly the right person for one

Why the camera-shy ones often get the most from it

Here’s the thing nobody tells you: feeling uncomfortable in front of a camera usually has very little to do with how you look, and everything to do with how you feel about yourself. Which is exactly what a boudoir shoot — done properly, in the right environment, with someone who actually gets it — is designed to address.

My clients are women over 40. Most of them haven’t had a photograph taken of themselves that they genuinely liked in years. Some of them tell me they’ve been hiding since their 30’s. They come in nervous, make a few jokes to cover it (I do the same — nervous energy has to go somewhere), and they leave with images that stop them in their tracks.
Not because I’ve worked some kind of miracle. But because this is what happens when someone finally sees themselves properly.

What actually happens on the day

You won’t arrive and be immediately handed a stockings and suspenders and told to pout . There’s no conveyor belt of poses, no barked instructions, no “give me sultry.” We start with a cup of tea and a chat. We go through the things you’ve brought and add some our own accesories to compliment. (It really is big girls dressing up!) We have a lot of fun!

Your hair and makeup are done here in the studio by the lovely Katie — which takes a good couple of hours and is honestly one of the loveliest parts of the day, even if you’re not a fuss-and-pampering sort of person.

By the time we actually pick up the camera, you’ve been here long enough to feel like you know the place. The nerves haven’t necessarily gone, but they’ve settled. And I’ll tell you what I tell everyone: you don’t need to know how to pose. You don’t need to have done this before. You don’t need to be a certain size, a certain age, or a certain level of comfortable in your own skin. That’s what I’m here for.

I’ve been doing this a long time. (16 years in fact) I know which angles work, how to make people laugh when they’re stiff, and when to say “right, let’s just try something different.” I am not going to make you do anything that makes you want to die inside. I will show you back of camera as we go along.  So you KNOW you are looking good – no trickery or filters needed.

One of the most common things women say to me when they see their images on the back of the camera for the first time is some version of “is that actually me?”  Not because they look unrecognisable, but because they look like themselves — an uncensored, uncontrived version of themselves — and they’d forgotten that person existed.

That is not a small thing. Especially if you’ve spent years shrinking yourself, turning sideways, and letting everyone else be in the photographs while you stayed firmly behind the camera.

A note on bodies, because someone has to say it

Boudoir photography for women over 40 is not about pretending the years haven’t happened. It’s not about sucking everything in and hoping for the best. I’m not here to photograph your idea of a perfect body. I’m here to photograph your actual body, in a way that is beautiful, genuine, and yours.
The women who come to me have had children, illnesses, surgeries, decades of life lived in these bodies. That doesn’t disqualify them from this. If anything, it makes it more worth doing.

So, can you do a boudoir shoot if you hate having your photo taken?

Yes. Categorically, unreservedly, yes.
The only thing I’d say is this: the discomfort you feel about being photographed is not a reason to wait until you feel differently. You probably won’t just feel differently on your own. This is one of those things where you have to decide to do it first, and let the feeling catch up later. And I promise you, by the end of the day, it usually does.

If you want to have a nosey at what’s involved, or you’ve got questions you’d rather ask quietly without committing to anything, you can drop me a message from the contact page. No pressure, no sales pitch, no trying to talk you into something you’re not ready for.

Just a chat, and we’ll take it from there