Why Blogging Is Important for Boudoir Photographers... or Is It?

Boudoir photographs are by their very nature intimate and revealing, and therefore they are sexually provocative. Deciding you want them of yourself has been described to me as... exciting, exhilarating, liberating, and even life-changing. But for many, those feelings quickly turn to apprehension and anxiety as they ponder the reality of actually doing it. Some proceed, more do not, and that equates to fewer clients for my boudoir photography business. Read more...

Don't forget: The Boudoir Photographer has moved.

As many of you already know, I've moved my web presence to a different platform. I thought about continuing to mirror my blog articles here on Blogger, but I'm not sure the time spent yields many benefits, if any at all. For a while longer, though, I'll post excerpts here that link back to my new site.

If you link to the Boudoir Photographer on your own website or blog, here is the new URL:
http://boudoirphotographer.squarespace.com/blog/

If you subscribe to the Boudoir Photographer via a newsreader (RSS), here is the new feed URL:
http://boudoirphotographer.squarespace.com/blog/rss.xml

The Boudoir Photographer Has Moved

As many of you already know, I've moved my web presence to a different platform. I thought about continuing to mirror my blog articles here on Blogger, but I'm not sure the time spent yields many benefits, if any at all. For a while longer, though, I'll post excerpts here that link back to my new site.

If you link to the Boudoir Photographer on your own website or blog, here is the new URL:
http://boudoirphotographer.squarespace.com/blog/

If you subscribe to the Boudoir Photographer via a newsreader (RSS), here is the new feed URL:
http://boudoirphotographer.squarespace.com/blog/rss.xml

Thank you for you continued readership.

The Temporary Pass

I teach a class entitled The Intimate Female Portrait. It focuses on the client-photographer relationship as it evolves from the initial interview through the photo shoot. At the beginning of each class, I ask the attendees what they want most to learn. The consensus so far? They want to know how I interact with a private client or someone new to modeling--how I move beyond a conventional portrait to something more intimate, something more sexual. READ MORE...

You lightened my load... thank you

It has been two weeks since my daughter's death. Two weeks made bearable by the hundreds of well-wishers: blog comments, emails, text messages, voice mails, cards, and letters as well as many hugs and tears. As part of my support group, you lightened my load and made the road easier for me travel. And for that, I am very, very grateful.

Part of that travel was a magic carpet ride back in time--a ride made possible, of course, by all of the photographs I took of Elizabeth over the years. I am so grateful for them now; they evoke many wonderful memories.

The slide show I made from a few of those photographs was a labor of love that allowed me to work through my own grief. Since I posted it, it has been viewed more than a thousand times. Many of those viewers were Elizabeth's friends, people I never knew, who took the time to share with me what they felt and what they will remember about her. Their memories are now intermingled with my own, adding a richness I wouldn't have otherwise known.

Again, to all of you, thank you. And never be too busy to take out the camera when your loved ones are near.

Farewell sweet child, farewell...

[The slide show has been moved here]

My daughter, Elizabeth. A beautiful child and a beautiful woman—a woman who radiated warmth, love, and inspiration. I saw her just last spring, when she surprised us with a visit from the East Coast. I cling to that memory now because there will be no more.

Last week my son called with wrenching news—the kind of news a parent never wants to hear, the kind of news that tears at your heart and twists your stomach: Elizabeth had suffered a stroke and was in intensive care. She seemed to improve a bit over the next few days, but on Friday, things went horribly wrong and she fell into a coma. Within 24 hours all brain function had ceased, and by Sunday morning, she was gone.

Gone. I have repeated that word so many times I have lost count, yet I remain unable to grasp its ultimate meaning: that I will never again be able to call her, or to tell her I love her; that I will never again be able to see her, or to hug her; that my last photograph of her is the last one I will ever be able to make.

It is all too unimaginable and all too unimaginably painful.

Elizabeth is survived by her mother, brother, grandmother, cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, countless friends, and by me and Patty. All of us will remember her warm, loving, and inspiring ways for the rest of our lives.