Why I Chose Boudoir Photography | My Story

I definitely did not grow up thinking, You know what I’m going to do with my life? Photograph people in their underwear.

That would have made career day considerably more interesting, though.

I bounced around between ideas like most kids do. At one point I wanted to be a veterinarian. Then I became an art kid. Photography wasn't some perfectly mapped-out childhood dream where I got my first camera at six years old and immediately knew I'd found my calling.

My path to becoming a photographer—and eventually building Hype Girl Boudoir—was a lot messier than that.

Which, if you know me, feels pretty on brand.

I Didn't Start Out Planning to Be a Photographer

Growing up, I went through quite a few answers to the whole what do you want to be when you grow up? question.

In elementary school, I wanted to be a veterinarian. By middle school, I had officially become an art kid and decided becoming a manga artist sounded like the perfect plan.

Then high school happened, and I started thinking I might become an art teacher instead.

I had some incredible women encouraging that part of me, especially my high school art teacher, Mrs. Smith, and my stepmom, Susan, who was an elementary art teacher. Both of them contributed way more than they probably realize to the woman—and creative—I eventually became.

But somewhere along the way, I picked up a camera.

And I really, really liked it.

Not because I immediately knew what I was doing. I absolutely did not. 😂

I just loved creating. I loved photographing people. I loved figuring out how light worked, trying things, getting things wrong, and occasionally getting something right and thinking, HOLY SHIT, I MADE THAT.

Photography slowly went from something I was interested in to something I couldn't stop wanting to get better at.

I Learned Photography by Actually Doing It

There wasn't one magical moment where suddenly I became A Photographer™.

I learned by doing it.

I photographed people. I experimented. I took workshops. I watched other photographers work. I tried ridiculous angles—which, clearly, has not changed—and kept learning what made an image feel like mine.

And the more I learned, the more obsessed I became.

I wasn't interested in just making technically correct photographs. I loved photographing people.

Their personalities. Their weirdness. Their relationships. The little moments that happen when somebody stops thinking about the camera for half a second and just exists.

At that point, though, boudoir wasn't even on my radar.

I didn't choose boudoir.

Boudoir kind of found me.

And Then Craigslist Happened

Yes.

Hype Girl Boudoir can technically trace its origin story back to Craigslist.

Very glamorous. Extremely prestigious. 😂

I had posted an ad while I was trying to grow my photography business, and a woman reached out because she wanted Valentine's Day photos for her boyfriend, who was stationed somewhere else at the time.

I'd never photographed a session like that before.

Actually, I didn't even really know boudoir photography was a thing.

But it sounded fun, so we talked about what she wanted and set up a session.

And y'all...

I will forever love this woman for trusting Baby Photographer Tiffany because I did not know what the hell I was doing.

We were both nervous. We looked up posing ideas together. She brought different outfits. We experimented.

And we had a freaking blast.

We laughed. We joked around. We figured it out together.

Somewhere during that session, something clicked.

Not just photographically.

I realized there was something different about photographing someone this way.

The Part That Hooked Me Wasn't the Lingerie

A few months later, my husband and I moved to Virginia, and that's where this little accidental boudoir thing actually started becoming a business.

Within a few months, I went from photographing that first client to photographing around ten women.

And session after session, I kept noticing the same thing.

People would arrive nervous.

Sometimes really nervous.

They'd tell me they weren't photogenic. They didn't know how to pose. They weren't sure they could look sexy. They'd point out all the things they didn't like about themselves.

And then we'd start photographing.

We'd talk. We'd laugh. I'd guide them. They'd start relaxing.

Eventually I'd see this little shift happen where they weren't worrying quite so much about what their body was doing or whether they were doing everything "right."

They were just having fun.

Then they would see the photographs.

That was the part that got me.

Watching someone look at a photograph of herself differently than she had looked at herself five minutes earlier.

I couldn't get enough of that.

Somewhere Along the Way, This Became Hype Girl

Eventually, all of those sessions became Hype Girl Boudoir.

And the name fits what I realized I wanted this job to be.

I'm not here because I think women need to be "fixed" by a boudoir session.

I'm not handing out confidence like I'm some magical confidence fairy with a camera.

I'm here to create a space where you don't have to wait until you've lost weight, figured out how to pose, become more confident, bought the right lingerie, or magically transformed into someone who "belongs" in boudoir photos.

You already get to do this.

My job is to guide you through it, photograph the hell out of you, probably make some inappropriate jokes along the way, and create photographs that actually feel like you.

What started with me figuring things out one session at a time eventually became a private studio, a client closet filled with sizes XXS–6XL, years of ridiculous creative ideas, and an entire experience built around making this feel a whole lot less intimidating.

And somehow, after all these years, I still haven't gotten bored.

More Than a Decade Later, I Still Choose Boudoir

What started with one Craigslist ad eventually became more than a decade of photographing women.

I've photographed first-timers, moms, brides, couples, women celebrating birthdays and divorces, people exploring parts of themselves they hadn't felt comfortable showing before, and clients who traveled to Jacksonville specifically to have me photograph them.

I've photographed bodies through pregnancies, weight changes, scars, aging and all the other very normal things bodies do when we're busy living in them.

And after all of those sessions, I still don't believe you have to become a different version of yourself before you're worthy of being photographed.

That's probably the biggest thing boudoir has taught me.

The women in front of my camera are a huge part of why I'm still doing this.

They have trusted me when they were nervous. They've let me photograph pieces of their lives they weren't always sure they were ready to celebrate. They've made me laugh until my face hurt. They've challenged me creatively.

And they've taught me just as much about confidence, bodies and being human as I could ever hope to give back to them.

That's the part I couldn't have understood when I photographed that first boudoir session.

I thought I was taking pretty pictures.

I had no idea how much the people in those pictures would eventually change me.

So... Why Boudoir?

There still isn't one perfectly packaged answer.

It's the creativity.

It's the one-on-one connection.

It's watching someone walk into my studio nervous and slowly realize, Oh shit. I can actually do this.

It's getting to make art with people who don't necessarily think of themselves as someone who belongs in art.

It's creating a space where bodies aren't problems we're trying to solve.

It's watching someone see a photograph and recognize something in herself she hadn't been able to see before.

And selfishly?

I really fucking love my job.

I didn't grow up dreaming about becoming a boudoir photographer.

I didn't even know boudoir photography existed.

I stumbled into it because one woman answered my Craigslist ad and trusted an inexperienced photographer with a camera and absolutely no idea where this would eventually lead.

I'm really glad she did.

Because more than a decade later, I still get to pick up my camera, meet incredible humans, make weird art, laugh entirely too much, and remind people that they don't have to wait until they're different to be worth photographing.

That's why I chose boudoir.

And that's why I'm still choosing it.

This is why I do boudoir. This is why Hype Girl exists. And I will continue to empower women and remind them of their beauty and strength for as long as I am around.

Want to know what it's actually like to be photographed by me?
You can read about the full Hype Girl Boudoir experience, from planning and wardrobe to posing and seeing your photographs.