Why Most Women Are Nervous Before Their Boudoir Session (And Why That’s Normal)
If there’s one thing I hear from almost every woman before her boudoir session, it’s some version of, “I’m really excited… but I’m also SO nervous.”
And honestly? That is completely normal.
Most of the women that walk into my Sacramento boudoir studio have never done anything like this before. They’re not models. They don’t spend their weekends lounging around in lingerie while someone photographs them. 😂
They’re regular women who decided to do something a little outside their comfort zone. And somewhere between booking the session and actually showing up, the nerves kicked in.
Suddenly all the questions start.
What if I’m awkward? What if I don’t know how to pose? What am I supposed to do with my hands? What if I hate every photo? Should I have lost ten pounds first? Am I too old for this? Should I have gotten botox first? Does my body look weird? Am I actually confident enough to pull this off?
If any of that sounds familiar, I promise you are not the only one thinking it.
I think sometimes we see beautiful boudoir photos and assume the woman in them must have walked into the studio completely confident. Like she showed up knowing exactly how to move, where to look, what to do with her body, and just naturally felt amazing in front of a camera.
That is almost never how it happens.
The woman you’re looking at in those photos may have been sitting in her car ten minutes earlier giving herself a pep talk. She may have told me she hates having her picture taken. She may have worried about her stomach, her arms, her smile, or that one part of herself she has spent years trying to hide in photographs. In fact, 95% if the women you see in my galleries all were having these thoughts before getting in front of my camera.
And then we start.
We talk. We laugh. I guide her through everything. And little by little, she realizes she doesn’t have to know what she’s doing because that’s my job. She can literally turn off her brain for a moment and know that I am going to completely take care of her and support her through this experience.
You don’t need to practice posing before you come in. You don’t need to know your “good angles.” You don’t need to figure out what to do with your hands or where to look. I’m going to help you with all of that. I’ll guide you through the session so you’re not standing there wondering what in the world you’re supposed to do next.
And yes, there will probably be some laughing.
Actually, I hope there is.
Because a boudoir session doesn’t need to feel like some super serious, intimidating photo shoot where you’re trying desperately to look sexy for two hours. I want you to be able to relax. I want you to feel comfortable. I want there to be moments where you forget you were nervous in the first place.
One of the biggest things I wish more women understood about boudoir is that you don’t have to be confident before you do it.
I think we get this backward sometimes.
We tell ourselves, “I’ll do something like that when I feel better about my body.” Or, “Maybe after I lose some weight.” Or, “I could never do that. I’m not confident enough.”
But confidence isn’t some requirement you have to meet before you’re allowed to have beautiful photographs of yourself.
You’re allowed to show up nervous.
You’re allowed to have parts of your body you’re still learning to love.
You’re allowed to be excited about the experience and also wonder what the heck you were thinking when you booked it.
Those things can all exist at the same time.
For a lot of women, the hardest part is actually everything that happens before the session. It’s the anticipation. It’s imagining every possible awkward scenario. It’s standing in front of your closet wondering what you’re going to wear and suddenly questioning every decision you’ve ever made. 😂
Then you get here and realize… oh.
I can do this.
That’s the shift I love watching.
At the beginning, you might be thinking about every little thing. How you’re standing. What your face is doing. Whether your stomach looks okay. Whether you’re doing it “right.”
And then at some point, you stop thinking so much.
You start trusting me.
You start having fun.
You start seeing little glimpses of yourself differently.
And THAT is where the magic happens.
Not because you suddenly became a different woman. Not because your body changed in the hour since you walked through the door. Not because we somehow transformed you into somebody more worthy of being photographed.
You were already her.
Sometimes you just need a little help seeing her.
So if you’ve been thinking about booking a boudoir session but you keep waiting for the day when you magically feel 100% confident and completely fearless about it, I’m going to save you some time:
You probably won’t. 😉And that’s okay.
You don’t need to get rid of the nerves first. You just need to decide that being nervous isn’t going to make the decision for you.
Come nervous.
Come excited. Come with a million questions. Come convinced you’re going to be the most awkward person I’ve ever photographed.
I can work with all of that.
And you might be very surprised by the woman you see looking back at you when we’re done.
So if you’ve been looking for a Sacramento boudoir photographer but keep thinking, “I really want to do this, I’m just nervous,” I want you to know that you don’t have to wait until the nerves disappear.more ready than you think.
You’re one click away.
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