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Boudoir Boot Camp Wrap Up

Hey. Hi. I can't believe this is our rap. I'm gonna cry. I'm gonna miss you guys so much. Um, let's talk a little bit about what we have done in this class. First we started with getting so started in brood war on we talked a lot about you, you know, hurdles, hurdles and what? Why we shoot boudoir and some of you shared your experiences. I'm really looking for a lot of feedback from you guys in this. Because you've sat through this whole class also along with our, uh, audience out there tell me, is anybody really had some good time to think about why they shoot boudoir? Anything that they want to share with that jen's like, I think I might want to, but I'm not sure. Give me the microphone. Give me the microphone. Huh? Um, I think I should boudoir because I like to make women feel beautiful about themselves. It's more about the experience for us. So and kind of like you how it makes you feel better. It makes me feel better. Tow, see them come back and be like I look so pretty. How did y...

ou do that? Like that's? You it's not me, it's you yeah, yeah, that's, great. Yeah, I agree that I thought I started shooting it to make women feel beautiful and that's still definitely a part of it. But there's still there's also a big, selfish part of it, but it just makes me feel so great. I could be having the worst day in the world and go to a studio and watch a woman blossom and just feel so great and it just makes my day good. Yeah. That's not selfish, that's. Good thing, uh, yeah, so we talked quite a bit about that. That was our kickoff day. So we're going to move forward and talk about the new york city boudoir studio tour. And in that I was able to really show you guys what us small space I have again, my studio's, only about ten by twenty, and I go back and forth between sharing it with somebody and not sharing it with somebody. It looks like now my, my students moving back in super trying to find space for her stuff. But really, taking such a small space and making it work for you is so important, and this is true. Even when we shot at the hotel the other day, it was a small space. I mean, even though my room is a pretty big size, you don't you can't move things off the walls, you can't move the bed. Um, and I just really wanted to show everybody how really my studio's pretty ghetto, I mean, it's, like, really, really not nice at all like it's, not pretty. I don't have gorgeous sets, I don't have tons of props or catches or chairs, I have very minimal stuff that I'm able to make it work, and if you have that skill, you can take it into a hotel. You could take it into a client's home or into an airbnb, renzo or any other studio in the world and make it work and, you know, like when we were shooting in the hotel, you said to me, this isn't what I do. I'm not on location shooter, I was well, you're about to bay, you know? And if you could make it work in that hotel room, you could make it work anywhere, right? And sometimes I think you even struggle with your own. Studio not in a bad way but it's like how do you make it creative how do you change the look of it how do you keep it up to date you know we talked about maybe painting a wall gray I'm putting that out there so your husband hears may uh um it's a good idea more again wherever you are but just kind of creating some variety and some difference and and you know I have the ability I ran my studio so I could move whenever I want but you can't you're stuck with that serve you forever right so how do you make changes to make it interesting for you even though it's not small it might be boring sometimes so small boring spaces and overcoming that hurdle this is all this wrap up is all about like coming you know overcoming those hurdles that we all face so and you know even though I have a studio I do sometimes step outside this to you our rent other locations I rent hotel rooms and went up just because I want some variety you know, sometimes I swap studios with other photographers and like you could use it my studio we'll use your studio just give me a little bit variation here just just take it out of the comfort so it's it's gonna be really important for you allie because the truth of the matter is that we get in the zones we get bored and we do the same thing over and over it's important sometimes to get out of the studio to even though you have it prep for photographers and clients so first I'll adjust the clients we talked a lot about hair and makeup right and wardrobe and how to know what the right outfit is to put on the right person and where to find the laundry and howto work with laundry stores right but mostly like the hair and makeup in the pre shoot consulate and talking about you know, what do you want what do you want out of the session marrying your style along with what they're looking for right how do you do that? Um prep for the photographers I want to talk to you guys a little bit about that I don't think I did so much of the prep for the photographer besides the fact that I taught you posing and pricing imposing flow and all the other stuff tell me a little bit about how you guys prep for a shoot I know some of you said you get really nervous before a shoot often um so tell me is there a certain way or a tip that you could give us that how you prepped for a shoot? Yeah I have a lot of nerves before every shoot and the way that I combat that is with preparation so I actually have like index cards so if I know where I'm shooting I write it out before if I don't know where I'm shooting while she's in hair and makeup I will walk around the space and I will basically storyboard everything I'll pick out the outfit I know I want this outfit by the window and I'll even like pull up interest or you're posing guide and I'll remember what poses a mai going to do by the window so that by the time she's ready to go I am totally prepared and that's been like really helpful for me yeah that's a great idea so I um don't do any of that I watched the client in hair and makeup and I listen teo her in the make up artist talk and I try to be quiet and listen to what she's saying and that's when I start to notice that she has a certain giggle or that her back is the sexiest part of her and I tend to be really inspired um just by watching her and trying to be quiet that was good anybody else I usually when my clients come first come in I have them kind of lay their outfits all out on the bed everything that they brought in I want to see what they brought you know, for me I look for some sort of consistency and actually I'm going to flip to the next light talking a little bit about styling and wardrobe we talked about that, but I have her laying everything out I want to see everything she brought and I kind of wanna see how she treats her and things to like sometimes she'll be like, lay something out really beautifully and then she's taken in this old thing you know and and I'm like, well, what is that? You know, I've been known to dig through girls bags would you not take out there that you know I don't get to see but what I always look for us, some sort of consistency and some sort of variation so again, it might be a variation in styles that will will display her three words like sexy, edgy and romantic just for argument steak or whatever they might be, but maybe all the outfits are black so one might be a really sleek body suit one might be a bra and panty set and what might be a vintage outfit um you know that looks they'll look nothing alike, but they're all blacks there's some sort of consists c or maybe all the colors are really muted and they go nicely together or maybe everything is lace that fits together. So I'm always looking to tell the full story those are things we can't depend on our clients or because they don't understand how albums go together or how the shooting works and then once I picked that lingerie and I helped her pick the three or four outfits is she's wearing will then decide which areas of the studio we're going to shoot it and the order of that depends on her outfit. So you, like I said, usually her favorite outfit will go last and our least favorite will go first or the most clothes off. It will go first down to the skimpiest. Okay, but I like to sort of get that lay out those also when you lay things out like that and you put her shoes up and you see her jewelry and you get, like, the whole picture of who she is. It's great to take a picture of that and post it on in sta, graham or facebook because those are the types of images that we can post without a problem without signing model releases, right? And, you know, I don't think I've ever really addressed the whole model released question in this class, so this is a good wrap up. We can kind of tie all those loose strings together. Rate. I don't ask my clients assigned model releases. Do you guys ask your finds assigned model releases at all? Yeah, okay, there's a yes, and a nose. So for me, I feel like I'm trying to build intimacy with the client and I go okay? You know, like we're going to do this I'm going to get you ready and I want to get to know you and I'm gonna pose you and you're gonna tell me all your secrets and I'm gonna tell you all my secrets and we're gonna spend all this time together and we're gonna come up with lies to tell your husband about where you were today and why you have makeup on and we're going, you know, we're going to do all of this great stuff together and then when we're done, I'm going to show you all your pictures and then can I show everybody I know and that felt kind of weird to may, so I've stopped asking my clients aside model releases if they want decided moderately is they will let me know they will be like posing and they're like you I mean, julian did it the other day, you guys could put this anywhere you want I love it, I feel hot you compose my pictures anywhere you want they'll say to me, you could definitely you're gonna use these in your block I'd love to see myself on your blogged, but if they don't ask, I don't ask and yes, there might be every once in a while that question of like, did you not ask me? Because I'm not hot enough for just but I basically that my clients know from the upfront start. I'm not going to ask you to sign a model release and nothing that you sign has a model release in it because I really want you to be comfortable if you want me to share it. It's great. If you don't that's fine too these air for you not everybody agrees with that and it's okay, if they don't and it's okay, if you ask your client to sign model releases that's totally fine. This is where I've come. This is just where I am. I also find the maura client spends, the less likely it is that she'll spend that she'll sign no model release for whatever reason. Yeah, our model release has, like, six check boxes for two so that they know also that the top one is do not share my images with anyone. So then they know what I'm not going to share him with. Everybody on facebook or put him in the blood if they don't want to, so but we also have you can share. Yeah, yeah, or just x y and z pictures it's everything. Yeah, and I have done that to be fair, like I just wrote a book so I will go to some clients I go listen, I want to share this image in my book and talk about it. Are you okay with that? Her image? Sometimes, yes, sometimes no, but sometimes I need to ask because you know what, ninety percent of the work that I've shot nobody's ever seen and, you know, that's hard for me sometimes, you know? Yeah, I found that almost every session, they someone wants to share their images like they're so excited about them and they want to show them sometimes it's like, you know, wait a couple weeks till my husband gets the album, but they usually want to share, but I did have one instance where a woman was really mad that I didn't share any of her images, that she thought that I I didn't think she was pretty and actually her serves session was like, right after I had had surgery and I just wasn't in a mode to share them, but she felt really bad and I shared some later, but that was surprised not to the other side of it too. So that's why? I'm also a little careful because I'm bad about posting things sometimes and I go oh my gosh, if I tell her I'm gonna pose him and I don't post them, you know it, it gets a little hairy, so just be careful with that, but yeah, I don't present my clients with the model these and I certainly would not recommend building a model released into your contracts. I don't think that that's very smart um, I think you could get into a lot of trouble that way, so just talk to them about their comfort level. We've talked about that over and over comfort level come for level, just be respectful just remember you, you know? I mean, I've seen it even before with wedding photographers it's like, I'm not shooting anybody that won't sign a model release and like it's, not really about you, you know, this is their day, and if they don't want to share the pictures of anyone that's their progress, if you're not there to shoot to to market if you build that relationship with them and they trust you, that is the marketing it's, not the pictures that that's how I feel about it, I know some people don't agree, but that's how I feel about it on the flip side, when they do by their digitals or when you're giving them your did their digitals do you have? Do you give them a user release? Because that's something I've just come across tonight wasn't really doing before I d'oh I do I give them apart, really? So that this white some places do ask for apartment leases before they print any pictures? So I do give them a print released without any basically states, some sort of legal mumbo jumbo that I'm still the copyright holder, but I give you the right to print it. You have to really check with an attorney to see what was valid in your state. You know that this is why my legal doctor, but I don't make available to anybody when I teach because in new york, it's totally different than it is elsewhere and lawyers will give different advice of different people. So check into that on dh some organizations like people, what that might have it's forms like that that you can you can use here's the, you know, proofs that you give your clients, do you have your water mark on that or it's just completely blank? Now I have stuff award marking almost everything this point I mean, if I block by water mark um but you'll see a lot of pictures, even I post on facebook, I don't really watermark that much that's, one of the advantages of having the copyright built right into it. So when it pops up on facebook, it has your copyright information. Um, I don't know, you know, sometimes greg it's, just another step to put a heart got it it's, like, I just don't have the time right then and there, but if I'm giving images to models, this is another thing to a lot of people provide models, images when they trade for performing portfolio, and they put water marks all over, and I get it it's advertising, but, you know, she can easily cut that out. I mean, if I give her a rectangular picture and she puts it on square and instagram and cuts out my water mark, and she tags me what's, the difference, you know, I tell my models up front, like, just happy I'll take you, you tag me, we're in this together, you know, um, so I don't spend as much time worrying about watermarks is I used to spend I I worry about it more when it's a client, um, that somebody might steal her image or do something with it, so this is also part of the reason why I don't ask my clients a sign releases because I just want to be held responsible for their stupid decisions sometimes, you know, like when a client like, oh, I got a job is a kindergarten teacher, can you now take down all my images? No, I can't, because I don't know where they all are, but a model is a different story. I paid her where we traded services or whatever it might be, so I don't feel as bad about that. Um, so yeah, I don't want marcus muchas I used teo, I still d'oh, but it's, sometimes I'm just anyone from my computer like I just want to share a picture and I just don't want a market, I just throw it out. Can you explain the difference between a release in a copyright released because I know a lot of people do it backwards? Yeah, my understanding is if you were giving up copyright that's bad, uh, what you're doing is based really saying I don't own the copyright any longer you do so not that it's bad. But for example, I have sold images where I've sold the copyright to somebody else that they could do whatever they want with them, so if they want to use it for an advertisement and they cut the girl in half and they turn her green, I don't own the copyright to that anymore, so I can't do anything about it, but when I give it to my client technically she's not supposed to edit it crop it, move it, changing it anyway, because it's not her piece of art it's my piece of art I'm letting her use it and look at it and printed, but she cannot change it in any way when you sell a copyright, you are, they can do whatever they want to it. Does that make sense? He sure no e I knew what it meant, but I know a lot of people unlike the group and things say that they give a copyright released and it's something that I'm always like no, don't do that give them a print really correct for your clients you give print releases, not copyright releases now if a client takes a picture and they edit it and they crop it and they move it and they put, I saw somebody recently put like double exposed made herself a double exposure, it was really about really, really, really bad can you sue her? Yes will you know so don't stress yourself out about it you know like there are some people register their images to the copyright office I've never done it I probably should especially certain like images that I use over and over again um it's something I'm going to look into but you know just be really careful and don't go like people that post things on facebook that say like enjoy looking at my picture but don't crop move tag at it a copy would like please all you're doing is giving them ideas you know just put the picture up any normal person is not going to take your picture and make could create and do whatever but if your clients do it you have an option you can either say hey jimmy favor stop or you could just let it go let it fall off into the distance and you know if she likes it that way that's fine you know I find as I get older I need to stress myself out about a lot less things and that's one of them that I just can't be bothered tracking down all my clients to see what they're doing with my images you know it's it's not always good things but I just turned my back okay whatever any more questions on that that was a good question those junks I'm sure a lot of people have that question um posing onto the posing week this was a big one, right? We spent a lot of time talking about the foundation's opposing the eight point supposing all the different areas that we check on the body I want to know from the girls who were all in my room yesterday shooting each other tell me about I mean, I know you guys and you guys have also sat through the foundation posing already but something I think you picked something up every single time you hear it even I do I pick something up every time I hear it. So tell me, girls that were shooting yesterday do you find that it's helpful? Did it slow you down? Will it make an impact on your images in the future? Um, definitely makes an impact on I mean, every time I can only absorb so much. So you know, every time I watch your posing, I get a little bit more and more and so definitely for me. I probably shoot like two hundred fifty images and show them sixty. I'd like to still be shooting two hundred fifty images and showing them seventy five, four hundred and so taking that time going slower and getting more variety out of my image is it just it takes a couple times of hearing it for it to all stick yes oh yeah again it's the kind of thing you might get worse that before you get better it's gonna slow you down you have to remember to check all the different points again I checked them when I called the images again right because I don't always trust myself to check it the first time in camera so I'm going to check it again when I called but checking those eight points opposing is really, really important and that we'll build the foundation for all the posing that we're going to dio everything that we learned after that so once you have the foundation posing down then you can go into opposing flow then you know which way your poses is go okay you know what? She's on the bed I'm going rotisserie chicken her I'm going to move her around I'm going to move on our solar system around her and rotate and see where the good shots are right? All of that stuff is based on the foundation of the posing and that stuff is so important and that is something that takes practice, practice, practice, practice practice I'm still learning it the more I work with women, different types of women, different body shapes and sizes, the more I learn about what works who again look through your images that don't work a cz well and understand why they don't work versus something that does work keep these notes remember in your head or write them down or whatever and you'll see that there's going to be trends and you'll keep using these trends over and over to get good poses in gregoire I think with the posing flow my goals to get faster because they know you and allie can shoot in an hour and for me that's not quite enough time and I'm I'm always been a slower person but I would really really like to be able to get everything I'm getting now in an hour and that's probably my goal for the rest of the year like I said I don't always shoot for an hour I love our shoots I do I love them because I feel like it's like the perfect time for me to like concentrate and get everything I want but in ours about enough time to shoot two outfits for me I take about a half an hour profit that's why sometimes people offer like really tight many sessions like fifteen minutes or half a hour I need a little bit more time to that I'm like you I need a little warm up time um about a half an hour per outfit so for me my goal is hour hour and a half two hours max if we go over to ours grocer going really tired really cranky and you know again we want them to leave psyched had the best time yesterday you know, I had the best time today I have you know, it was amazing and not like oh my god I'm so tired I don't want to talk to you I'm so tired right? I want them so leave that was yesterday right change topic a little bit but one thing that I loved about the posey in week was I I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to be super creative every shoot and I realized that I was really hurting myself I need to go back to the basics back to that foundation in nail those shots and then maybe in on something super great ever soup something different and fun and this was like an excellent reminder for me because I haven't nailed the foundation poses so why do I feel like I could move on to something else? So I'm really excited to get back to shooting and focusing on those foundations yeah that's a really really good point when we talk about um you know, sticking with what you know even yesterday, lauren when we shot right there was a time where like it wasn't working it was out of my comfort zone I what it just wasn't working my comfort zone was near the window, I like the window look beautiful, right? We were using lights and I wasn't I'm familiar with using and an umbrella that I never shot with and you didn't even have your camera all right I didn't have my camera that's right shooting with somebody else's camera it was it was like a recipe for disaster basically and any time I got to the point where I was like whoa this isn't working for me remember I said to learn you know what let's come over by the window for a minute let me reset let me go to my comfort zone for a minute let me figure out what I know let me get some good shots let me even remind myself that I can take some good pictures sometimes I need that right let me remind myself that I could actually do this and then once I'm calm and she's good and I got some good pictures and I know okay I've added a few more pictures to that library of the good photos let's go reset let's go somewhere else now let's kind of work out of our comfort zone a little bit right and the more you're going to push out of your comfort zone the more those uncomfortable shots will start getting comfortable so that's how you keep building up that toolbox right so you might start with five things that you know we're going to work with everybody and then you try a six thing and it worked and you go you know what I'm going to try that next time to now you have six things in your toolbox in your toolbox it's getting to point my tongue is just numb so and then you you push again and you try something different and you go oh you know what jen used to do hair flips let me try a hair flip right? I remember she did that on creative like let's try that and then you add that in you know so then you just keep building and building and building and there's nothing wrong with taking the same pose over and over and over and over again those girls want that they see that their friend's got this pose they want a look I got two with that two shot that you take that we love so much to do that for every single girl if you could make every single girl a good that's a shot that you sold now you only need to find nineteen more that will work for you every single time and you have a twenty page album if not more right our top selling shots after you go out of your comfort zone you you master the basics and by the way remember I said to you also you can't break the rules until you know the rules so that's a good point so once you know the rules you break the rules and you start building up this toolbox of all these poses that you have and all these shots that really work phew now you can start recognizing what your top selling shots are like that tush pose and you keep doing it over and over and over again, there are certain recipes that work if it ain't broke, don't fix it okay again, then add the creativity on top of that don't not be creative, but that toolbox is so in horton because if you have a client that won't allow you to be creative or is just like I said in a bad mood or having an off day or she just has a really difficult body to pose or she can't move the way you're used to these standard top selling shots that you know work on everybody will always be there for you is your parachute you'll never feel unprepared if you have those so three lighting setups and how to create interest in boring spaces. This is again a conversation allie and I had, and in this class, I showed daylight constantly and strobes and how I use them in the same exact spot in my studio with the same exact model and how I got different looks from her. This is going to be really important for you because again you're in your studio, you're gonna be in there for the rest of your life, right? You're gonna be shooting there forever and so you need to know how to make a white wall black you need to know how to create dramatic lighting. Greg, you need this because you're more into the dramatic lighting, right? So you want to know, forget the window. I want to know how to create the dramatic lighting that means learning how to use strobes or constantly and different modifiers and how they're gonna work. And when you use a grid and when you don't a beauty dish in the strip box and whatever else it might be and this is gonna take some practice from you, it's practice for me, I am newer, distraught. They still make me nervous, as I said before, um but you know what? The only way I'm gonna push myself and I'm going to create variety and my work is by trying out these different things. So I think we all could use that lesson because I know cindy when you did the male versus female, the first thing was I don't use this lighting, okay? That's fine, but now this is what you have. So how can we make it work? Ali, I'm not on location shooter. I'm used to my big window is now we have, you know, a stroll, what are we going to d'oh okay, we're going to make it work. Okay I don't believe every photographer needs to know every single type of lighting and how to use it in every different scenario that's just ridiculous I think it's even possible but I do think you have to be able to accept stepping out of your comfort zone a little bit to push yourself in photography lauren you might not be there yet you maybe still have to work on your posing on then once you nail the postman go okay, now I'm gonna experiment of my lighting because my posing is easy now I'm gonna bring in this variable I don't recommend necessarily doing like I'm gonna learn posing and lading all at the same time it's it's a lot get good at one thing then go get another or have them overlap a little bit but start with something this is ryan what we were talking about prioritizing which one is more important? Is it more important for you right now to learn you're posing or is it more important for you right now to learn your lighting where you at with that? You know you need to think about that um but definitely lighting is important photography of course that we do not have photos without light and it's important to be able to push yourself creatively was not until I really started shooting strobes that I had some visions for photos that I actually could make in my camera it was like I thought of how do I get this? I want to create this and it actually happened and that's another one of those like ah ha moments where you're in that like four stages of learning like that moment where, you know you picture something in your head and you actually made it happen on your camera. Aaron, we were talking about this, right? Like, you see something and you go, I see it's so beautiful, but my camera's not capturing it the way I wanted. Teo, when you start working with different types of lighting, I think that that's the time where you could and start saying, wow, my cameron irs are on the same page. We're really seeing the same thing cause I'm creating that making the most of a small space hotel shoot this was just have I mentioned before? How is uncle is that lighting was, uh that was crazy and and again, similar to what we were doing in the hotel room the other day, this was a fairly boring space. It was not crazy. There was not like this was not, you know, a penthouse in vegas. This was a very sick standard hotel, something that you would find the middle america and how he made the most of it, how we lit it, how we were prepared how we weren't prepared, we forgot light stands oh, my god, what do we do to make up for that? How do you get around that? So again, this is a really good steel toe have, especially if you're going to start doing some on location, shooting at different hotels, you need to be prepared for whatever is there. This is also true. If you're going going to go into clients homes, I definitely recommend if you go to somebody's house that you visit their home before you actually shoot there and see what you're working with, they could have black walls and, you know, beer cans everywhere and you're like, oh my god, what am I going to hear? Or they can have gorgeous daylight and they want you to shoot at eight o'clock at night, you know? So so I definitely recommend saying to them, listen, part of my price includes the fact that I'm going to come to your home, I'm going to give a little walk around your house, I'm going to tell you how to rearrange your furniture so it's good for me and we're both going to be happy. So this is there's a lot of lessons to be learned about just going into a little hotel room and making it work. Then we moved into pricing pricing weak I think this was like the heaviest one for you guys I think everybody's rework their pricing three times since we don't we've done this already, right? So we talked about shooting, burn and allah card this is how I started right and there's lots of lots of hurdles with pricing I mean, erin, you're a great example of that, right? You were losing money procession, but you didn't know it, so we sat down and worked out the numbers right? Pricing is so important, you know, we are not charity. Geez, I said this way back in the beginning, we're not charities where businesses and if you're going to be a business, you have to make money period, so you really need to decide which pricing method is best for you and how to make it so that your pricing covers all your expenses and you make some money off of it. So allah card is a big one. We've all discussed it in person sales have helped our business is so that something is anybody planning on trying that that hasn't tried it before here, or anybody have anything to say about the ala carte from their experience with it, the in person sales? Well, I mean, I'm planned on doing packages as well as allah cart, so that, you know if they're not happy with my packages they could go to the ala carte menu but it's going to be like really expensive so it's like I want to force them to get into a package and it's like if you want digital negatives and that's it then it's going to cost you you might as well get the album with it, right, right yeah it's just about making some decisions about what you want to sell. Like I said, I really pushed albums from the get go the first time the client contact me I will say to them oh, and then when you get your album and your album and we shoot for your album and I say album like fifteen times in the beginning conversation because I'm really pushing towards an album right from the beginning that's what I want to sell it might be different for you guys julian I know you like to sell wall art also, so you've organized your pricing that way I help to do that to push people also towards some wall are but also to buy albums um so everybody's gonna have a little bit of a different thing. I mean, lauren, I'm really interested to see what's gonna happen with you over the next couple of years because I think that your style of photography mayor may not lend itself to albums I think you might be more of a wall art girl I don't know yet we're going to see we don't know right but I'm just saying keep your mind open just because I sell album doesn't mean that's the right way to go for you or for you or for you it's like everybody has to kind of come up with their own their own way of doing things so the pricing that I've really taught in this class is not just how to price your boudoir is how not to make the mistakes that I've made and then we moved into the name your own vice method and this was really important as far as work life balance I talked a lot about why I did this how I did it the message I was trying to get out there this goes back to the idea of referrals and putting your name out there if you're not getting referrals intend to people this is why I do what I do this was part of it for me it was sort of a social experiment right to see what people thought boudoir was actually worth which was more than I thought it was gonna be thing awfully and then really working it into my life and seeing how it affected how much time I have at home and how much time I spent with my family and how much I really enjoyed it actually how it almost brought back that spark and that that remembering why I do what I do and how much I love it, even though I wasn't making as much money, right? And then we moved into the packages again. This is where I'm back at the packages and I took the pricing from the name your own price, and I kind of molded that into the packers they want and that's when we sat with you, aaron, and did your pricing and realize that you need to change some some of your pricing and that's okay, there's, nothing wrong with admitting that. And, um, you know, I hope everybody out there gets you know, that work work that you guys got that we can kind of come up the own pricing and figure out what your, um, expenses are and stop pulling it out of our tush. Right? So picking and prepping of the images I showed you how I went through and I called, and I think that a lot of the hurdles here are really the fact that people spend too much time thinking about it. Um, aaron, we spoke about that during that segment and, you know, really just kind of going through it fast and training yourself to check the eight points of every picture and make sure you get in your good pictures. Going through it a couple of times and realising if you're not really sure which one you like better stop wasting your time trying to take. Why not just put them both in again? I show about one hundred to one hundred twenty five images, ideally procession, and I'm hoping to sell twenty to thirty photos. Thirty five is better, but at least twenty to thirty and then the final at it's, an album design, and I really hope that I'm actually going back one ous faras the picking and that the edits that I give for for the sales sessions is that I really hope you guys say you don't have to give full, complete edits if you're doing it properly. If you're just taking clean images and you're you're lighting is proper and you're posing is proper that you'll have very little editing to dio toe actually show the images so that this way you can prepare them pretty quickly and then when you do your final edits it. Not even that much more editing you're just taking out blemishes lightning under the circles under their eyes, lightning, some dark spots doing a little tiny bit more skin retouching where they needed bumping up some blacks and that's about it really simple editing you guys, I'm not I am certainly not a photo shop artist by any means I hope you even learned something for what I taught you, but if anything you learned, I hope you really learned that you can keep it simple and clean and still it's very effective an album design, so we used kiss and it was really easy and it was fast and lauren especially hope it'll save you some time after you know those templates are killer I just I don't know I never seem to get them to work properly eso again time saving, time saving time saving. Every time I save a little bit of time I make a little bit more money and I get to spend a little more time doing something else that I love to do is well as at its and taking pictures and then we get the bonus speak, which you guys got to see most of it in the bonus speak is awesome it was something that I really created for some extra things that I wanted to share with everybody that were a little hard to do on regular creative live right so the first one is the day in the life of me and that's when I met everybody and to my home and spend a little time talking about how I balance my day what my schedule might look like um you know what being a mom and being a photographer is like and I think that again it's not only being about about being a mom I think everybody has a lot of stuff on their plate all the time with your mom or not how do you balance all of that and how you make decisions and one of the first things I said was well there's no such thing as work life balance would stop looking for it you can just take that off your to do list and then it kind of went from there and I just explained on how I do it and some tips and tricks to make everybody happy when when it's hard to to balance your day and then we did male versus female and greg jensen to you guys I swear you killed it I was so happy at the point of this was that so many male photographer saved me I can't be a boudoir photographer because I'm a man and I totally disagree with that um tell me a little bit about I'm gonna put you on the hospital for two seconds to tell me a little bit about your experience with that is there anything you would do differently and how you think being a male boudoir photographer is going to go over in your world? Well, it was tough, you know, kind of like getting into it, you know, like I just started off did a lingerie shoot like it was a workshop in the city or whatever and I just really enjoyed like, the entire experience, you know, working with the women shooting them and then like once I gave them the images just seeing the smile on their face you know, I really made them happy and I was like, you know what? This is much better than doing like weddings and shooting babies and I enjoyed the entire process but being a man it is a bit difficult, you know? Everyone thinks it's like, oh, you do shoot hot women and you know, it's like all my guy friends like let me be your assistant, you don't even have to pay me, I just want to say it's like, no god, don't be a creep, you know, just coming over all that is a little tough on dh I don't know why don't you find your experience here in the actual shoot here? It was awesome because you were right there helping may I've always had more female friends than guy friends, so it's like interacting with women isn't a problem with may. You know, I'm always been fine with that. It was just getting the posing right. Posing was tough and I know what I need to work on now, you know, from doing that and like you putting me in the hot seat so it worked out great on dh. I just wanna shoot more, you know, I need all that experience, so yeah, god, I'm glad that you did it. Thank you for volunteering for it. Very nerve wracking. I was extremely nervous and I think I learned definitely to slow down and, you know, look at what I'm doing more and take my time and I think art. It was nerves. I was shooting extra special, vast here but it's funny to think back, but they're like moments of clarity where I was like me, it's, like I kicked off my boots and jumped on the on the bed and it's like that's. Totally me that's. What I would do it. My studio, it's, like they were just moments where I forgot everyone was here. But then also thinking back on it, I think. I think that, like, you know, fifteen minutes before the shoot with a client where I'm really getting to know her and she's really getting to know me, and we're really getting comfortable with each other. I think it was a big deal to kind of not have that because that kind of eases me into it and eases her into it. So I think I would have liked to have more time with her to get to know her. It was it was definitely interesting. It was a learning experience. I'm glad I did it, even though I was terrified. Yeah, I'm glad you did it to thank you, and I think it is such a learning experience and it and it's good that it proves you how important that that pre shoot time is for you and your client where somebody else it might not be as important for it is important for you and greg. Maybe you could learn from her lesson that maybe you are a female assistant whatever needs a little more appreciate time with your clients especially because you're a guy there's certain things that men have to do to prove themselves to these women to say I'm safe I'm comfortable I'm on the same pages you and but I do think I do think it's possible I think some of the best food war photographers in the world are men and I've been shot by men twice and I enjoyed my experience with them they were both very professional so yeah that's really the way that I overcome that is I always meet up with the client beforehand you know it's like the client I haven't actually had a client yet but you know like the models that I've been shooting you know I meet up with them first since like listen this is how I am this is how we're going to go about it if you're comfortable with it let's proceed if you're not that's fine I'll find someone else so it's just that initial contact and getting them used to me first and when it's time to shoot it's just happiness long time no good but I'm glad that you guys volunteer for it was also really interesting to see how your images were similar and different based on the fact that you had the same lighting same model same camera even same everything and how different they could be so I really enjoyed watch she tried to help. Everybody else really enjoys it too. You were very brave, and I do. Shooting on creative life is one of the hardest things in the world to do so I appreciate that you did that. Uh, and yet my message out there to men is like, don't let being a mouse stop you from being a boudoir photographer that you khun absolutely definitely do it. So in my studio, we also discussed thie finding the hidden gems. Now, this was one of those days that I planned on, like, you know, x y z and then it was like the darkest day that new york ever had to offer, and I could do everything I wanted to dio so I was put in the hot seat, too, and I was like, what are we going to do? We're shooting this thing today and and everything I wanted to do doesn't work, so that was okay. It showed the rial life issues of how do I make something else work? And I was able to show in my studio all the little areas that, um you might not think would work the little dark alleys of the little areas that, like, maybe there's, just a little bit of lights. So that's something that is really helpful because in somebody for somebody who's in a studio for a long time or if you're in a hotel and your grad in the hallway, it's always nice to find some hidden gems around wherever you're shooting, that might be a non expected area, and this is again one of those things that you could do that makes photography different than just taking a picture on a cell phone and looking hot, and you're in your, you know, iphone. So this is nice, that little hidden gems, and then we did the fly on the wall shoot, which with amanda and I was able to just really shoot, I wanted to show everybody what it was like for me to shoot and have everybody wash just to see how I work in my element, and I think that there's a lot to learn from that as well, so we were able to do that. So I think overall this week, we've discussed the two biggest challenges really are the hurdles that we find in the confidence we have to overcome them, right? Everybody has hurdles. You guys talked about your pricing and, you know, not putting your pictures up on facebook and not knowing if my clients will pay what I'm looking for, and finding clients, we all have a lot of hurdles and we have to find the confidence to overcome them. I think that that's really important. So I picked a couple here's mark cuban again, I love him, I really do, I think is so genius. So I love this quote, it doesn't matter if the glass is half empty or half full. All that matters is that you were the one pouring the water and, you know, I think maybe that's a new york thing is, erin like to point out to me like new yorkers, air just so, like, this is what you're going to do, and everybody says, okay, then I'll do it, you know? But I don't, you know, I'm not a hard sell person, and I don't think that I'm a forceful person. I think I found ways to communicate with people that have basically said I'm in charge here, but in a good way, like, if you trust me, I will take you to a good place. I mean, you know, when we were shooting together, I think I was very like, this is what we're doing, lauren, and you will follow me, and you will do what I say, you know, and the room was like, yes, I will do it say, um, but this is not hard sell this is really about being in control of your life, and I'm not just talking about with your clients. I'm talking about like I said, work life balance or it's creating your goals and your boundaries so that you have the life that you want because this for me, I didn't set out and go, I'm just gonna be boudoir photographer, I said, I want to be a mom and a boudoir photographer, and I want to be able to figure out howto have it all. And even though I don't think every woman could have it all, I'm pretty close to a cz much as I'm going to get that, there are moments where everything is really out of balance, like preparing for creative live, everything else gets put to the back burner and there's times where my kids are sick and all my work gets put to the back burner, this is just the way it might be, or my kids are off in two weeks, so we're going to go skiing and no work will get done during that time period. I won't be in the studio shooting, but I created this play for I have this flexibility and I get out from behind that desk, which is really what I wanted, I felt stifled and and I felt like a failure in my own life even though I was succeeding I was making money, I was working in a family business and I was happy to be with my parents. I didn't want to do that anymore. I wanted to always I always said I wanted to do some creative that made people happy and sitting behind a desk was not that and I wasn't making myself happy. So now I have a life of happiness and sometimes not happiness sometimes it's hard to have your own business and to be creative and like we said, we'd go through those moment where we're like, oh my god, I'm never going to get is good at this as I want to be, but the truth is that the end of the day my job does not stock at all and I absolutely love it and my life does not suck I have this life in this job that marry each other and they work well together so for me I know that I'm pouring the water that's the most important thing for me another quote from mark that I love is I wherever I see people doing something the way it's always been done the way it's supposed to be done following the same old trends well that's a big red flag to me to go look somewhere else this is this quote really hit me because it really brought me back to my year of three hundred women where I was so obsessed with what everybody else was doing, and the year after, I really did find myself saying, well, everybody's working with backdrop, so I'm gonna throw all my back drops away, everybody's doing this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to go the other way, and this quote is so important, it's not necessarily about doing everything that everybody else isn't doing, but it's about doing it the way you I want it to be done. So I've stood up here for days now, you guys are probably sick of looking at me, telling you how I've done everything I tell you how I price, I tell you how I pose, how I communicate, how I sell, but it doesn't mean that it is the way it isthe, okay? It means you take my inspiration, learn from my mistakes and go out and do it the way you want to do it. Nobody out there is gonna judge you and say, well, you don't do it the way jen does it, so it must not be right, I think it's awesome, I've learned things from all of you this week that I'm gonna make changes in my business and my life because of in the or lauren, you had told me that you have people initial your price sheet, so you know that they read it, genius, I'm doing that from now on, that's great, you know you. You've all taught me something, and I hope that I've taught you something, but please don't think that the way I teach you is the way to do it, it's just my way I don't even know if it's the way I might change it next week. In fact, I will so I can come back on creative live and tell you all that I'm cheesing. But the truth is that it's, just because I say it works through this way for me doesn't mean that that's the final answer, and I want you all to go and find your way of making it work, and again, I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of end with this one it's not in the dreaming, it's in the doing you guys, you, you've invested, you've come here, people out in the audience have invested their time and watching this class or invested their money and purchasing the cost. It is so important for you to take. Action! You cannot just sit here and dream about your business and go wow, this is gonna be amazing. What are you going to do about it? Because, greg, I'm not going to be there next to you at your next to you telling you how to pose somebody and aaron, I'm not gonna be there to tell. You're not making enough money on your next shoot, right? And lauren, I'm not going to be there to tell you to shoot nudes from now on because I really love them, ok? But but I will be there, but I won't be there. Ok, so the truth of the matter is you guys have to take the action. This is this is mo mentum that we have going right now. It's, adrenaline and momentum. And I want you two take it and bring it home and do something with your business. Ryan, I want you to go home and make that list that we spoke about on prioritise it and readdress it every day. If you have to change your priorities, move them around. But be realistic and be laser focused on what you want to dio and make it happen. Every single one of you has the talent to do this and has the ability to do it the only thing that's stopping you is you your own hurdles so you don't just dream about it do it guys do it even if it's uncomfortable the only time you're gonna learn and grow is when you're uncomfortable you never learn and grow when you're sitting in your comfort zone so it's really important to put yourself out there we're going to start by after this class everyone's taking headshots of aaron can I go up on her facebook face and do you guys have any other questions? This is it this is like the under our journey here together any any last questions? Thoughts, things that you're taking home with you um just what you were saying and wrap up um you do it a certain way but everyone needs to find their own way and over the last two years I've really, really found that is the key to my happiness to really sit and think quietly about how many hours I wantto work, who I want to work with and the other things in my life besides wood war and um no one you can't teach that but it's very it's it's so key to my happiness and I just want to say thank you kill julian anybody else have anything they want to say I also just wanted to say thank you jen um for everything for being who you are for how you inspired us I get choked up lauren gets tender way cry that's funny but it's true you have affected so many of us and you've affected the industry in such a positive way and me personally and I just want to thank you thank you and you really mean to turn this into like everyone told me I lost my hand but keep going I one night at dinner you're telling us that you did not want to create copies of yourself you wanted us to be ourselves and take you know what we can away from this and incorporate into our own stone I think at the beginning I was like I'm doing this all wrong and then by the end I'm like well I'm doing a lot of stuff right but if I can just tweak a few things it will be even better and I'll still be myself and I love that you're not trying to create carbon copies of yourself yeah no the world can only tolerate one of man sure that my husband's going no no no the world can only tolerate one of me and I think it's so great how unique all of us are how we connect with different people and I appreciate you saying that because yeah I'm not trying to create clones I'm just trying to inspire people to be the best that they can possibly be. And I say this all the time I teach and I go out there and I put myself out there so world so all of you will be better photographers, that me and that would make me the happiest thing in the world if all of you blew me away and you took way better pictures and you reach way more women than I ever could, because that is really what this is all about. That is the mission period, so thank you guys do anything, mate joins crying. All right, um, I would really love to hear from you guys out there. I'm going to go back once I'd make sure that you asked me questions in my facebook group or find me on facebook. Uh, so tell me, what is the most exciting thing you learned in this boot camp? What can you not wait to go out there and try and do? And to put into action? You could sweep me at gen rosemount with his e at creative live also and hashtag jen's boudoir boot camp thank you so much for joining me for this boot camp. It was a labor of love and thank you guys all for joining me, tio and let's go out there and rule the world