This wasn't her first time in front of my camera.
She'd already done a solo boudoir session with me—and that experience helped her find a little more love for a body she'd felt pretty disconnected from.
So when a couples boudoir opportunity came up?
She jumped.
Her husband didn't exactly need much convincing either. 😂 He was already comfortable in front of a camera and had even been approached about underwear modeling when he was younger.
Basically, his response was, Pictures? Okay. Let's do it.
Which was convenient, considering she'd pretty much already signed them up.
But even though she'd done boudoir before, that didn't mean the nerves magically disappeared this time around.
The Week Before, She Almost Backed Out
As the session got closer, the body-image bullshit got louder.
She felt bloated. She started telling herself she wasn't good enough. And she seriously considered canceling.
Again.
Because she'd almost done the exact same thing before her first session.
The difference this time was that she already knew what would've happened if she'd listened to that voice the first time.
She would've regretted not doing it.
So instead of canceling, she and her husband grabbed a big coffee and headed to the studio.
And she told me that as soon as she walked through the door, the jitters were gone.
That's the thing about being nervous before boudoir: sometimes the hardest part really is just getting your ass through the door.
This Was Never Going to Be a Generic Couples Session
One of the reasons she wanted me to photograph them was pretty simple: she wanted photos that actually captured the way she and her husband look at each other.
Not just sexy photos for the sake of being sexy.
She wanted funny. Carefree. Intimate. Playful.
Them.
We'd already talked through their ideas during the consultation, and once session day arrived, we figured out their outfits together—including coordinating his and hers looks.
There was Pokémon involved.
There was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles involved.
Because of course there fucking was. 😂
One of the pieces she'd ordered didn't arrive in time, but thankfully the client closet came to the rescue with something we could use for her Pikachu-inspired look.
Apparently I also had Pikachu ears at home that would've worked perfectly had I known the full vision beforehand.
So there's your lesson:
Tell me your weird ideas.
There is a non-zero chance I already own the thing we need.
The Photos Look Sexy. The Reality Was Mostly Giggles.
Once we started photographing them, posing wasn't something either of them had to figure out.
I handled that part.
And according to her, I made it feel “effortless and easy.”
What she remembers most isn't worrying about where to put a hand or whether they were doing something correctly.
It's laughing.
A lot.
There were also these little moments when their eyes would lock and everything would get quiet for half a second.
Those were the moments she wanted me to capture in the first place.
And then, approximately two seconds later, they'd be trying not to crack up again. 😂
She described the reality behind some of their sexiest photographs basically like this:
Wait. Hold. Don't laugh. Wait for Tiffany to speak. Okay, good. Breathe again.
The finished photographs might look hot as hell, but she described the two of them as “sexy, sweet, goofy, and wild.”
That's what I wanted to photograph.
Not two people suddenly pretending to be some super-serious sexy couple because there was a camera pointed at them.
At one point she said the whole thing felt like we were best friends goofing off and taking pictures for fun.
Meanwhile, I'm climbing on top of shit trying to get the perfect angle because apparently that's also part of my job description. 😂
Underneath all that silliness, though, was exactly what she'd hoped I'd capture:
The way she and her husband look at each other.
And we fucking got it.
And She Still Got to Have This Part for Herself
Doing a couples session didn't erase what she'd gotten out of her first solo boudoir experience.
She still got the pampering.
She still got to step outside of her everyday routine.
She told me she's not someone who's particularly comfortable doing her own makeup, so professional hair and makeup is one of her favorite parts of the experience.
For a little while, she gets to sit there, get taken care of, laugh with everyone, and let somebody else handle it.
Then she gets to walk out feeling, in her words, “everyday fabulous.”
And after spending the week feeling bloated, talking badly about her body, and wondering whether she should cancel?
She showed up anyway.
That's the part worth remembering.
You don't have to win the argument with every shitty thought you've ever had about your body before you're allowed to be photographed.
Sometimes you just stop letting that argument make your decisions for you.
“Sexy, Sweet, Goofy, and Wild.”
When she saw the photographs, some made her laugh her ass off.
Others made her cry.
Because somehow, between all the posing and joking around and trying not to laugh during the sexy parts, we'd caught those little looks between the two of them.
The ones she wanted photographed from the beginning.
She described the two of them better than I ever could:
“We are a sexy, sweet, goofy, and wild and Tiffany got all that!”
And that's exactly what these photos feel like.
Not two people trying to imitate somebody else's idea of what couples boudoir is supposed to be.
Just two people being very, very themselves.
The sexy parts.
The sweet parts.
The ridiculous parts.
All of it.
Your Couples Boudoir Session Doesn't Have to Look Like Anyone Else's
That's probably my favorite thing about this session.
It wasn't polished into something that didn't feel like them.
They brought their interests. Their inside jokes. Their relationship. Their weird shit. Their nerves. Their laughter.
And yes, their chemistry.
She didn't need to suddenly become completely confident in her body before she walked through my door.
Her husband didn't need to know how to pose.
Neither of them needed to become different people for the camera.
They showed up together.
I handled the photography part.
And what came out of it were photographs that made her laugh because she could see how ridiculous they actually are together—and photographs that made her cry because she could see exactly how she feels about her husband.
That's what I want from couples boudoir.
Not for you to look like some random hot couple on the internet.
For you to look at the photographs and think:
Holy shit. That's us.
Thinking about doing this with your person? You can see exactly what a current session includes on my Couples Boudoir Photography in Jacksonville page.
