Originally posted July 07, 2017
I don’t talk often about myself on my social media, but I wanted to share with you how I got into photography because it’s a question I’m asked often.
In 2013 I asked my husband for a “nice camera” because I wanted to take better pictures of our two boys. I’ll explain further down why I put “nice camera” in quotes.
So, my sweet husband bought me a Nikon D3200, which is an entry-level DSLR. Armed with the kit lenses, I set out to start taking pictures of our boys—I had a lot of fun playing around! After having the camera for a week or two, I decided to challenge myself and learn how to shoot manual—I recommend Click it Up a Notch, which is the site I went to learn the basics! The site’s owner, Courtney, has a wonderful way of explaining the exposure triangle, what metering means, how to Back Button Focus (BBF), etc. It’s a great beginning resource for anyone just starting out.
Armed with the exposure cheat sheets to help me figure out what shutter speed, ISO (how much light gets to the sensor), and aperture (how much is in focus) I needed, I set out to tell the camera what to do. But, my then-2-year-old and 9-month-old boys wouldn’t sit still long enough for me to think through my settings (they still don’t sit still to be honest), so I reached out to a friend to see if she’d let me photograph her older kids, which I can happily say she did.
This lead me to deciding I was going to challenge myself to shoot a different genre each month for the rest of 2013, so one month I shot a maternity session, the next a lifestyle newborn (meaning the newborn was not posed), then a couple’s session, followed by a family session… This brought me to January of 2014. I knew I didn’t want to shoot weddings…the only thing left for me to try was boudoir.
It was a rainy and cold morning when my friend Kelly came to my home for her boudoir session. We shot several outfits that morning in the dark house, which you can see HERE.
Now, believe me when I say I had a great time shooting all of those genres over the course of 2013 but they did not make my heart sing like boudoir did.
Why did boudoir make my heart sing? I loved I could use shadows to hide what we wanted to hide, and focus the light on what we wanted to focus on. Other genres require the subject to be evenly lit, but with boudoir, I could put her face in shadow and light her body.
My heart sang so much, I decided boudoir was what I needed to do. I was going to specialize in this genre. Master it. Become the best I can be in this art form.
This image below is from that very first session with Kelly. I have this image on a huge canvas in my studio—it’s the #1 requested pose from my clients.
And this image is also Kelly, in 2018, at my Carlisle, PA studio on Pomfret Street.
An Observation I Just Had: It’s interesting that the darkness/shadows of that first session in 2014 is what caught my heart with boudoir, because (at least I find this interesting) my “voice” in my portraits, overall, is light and airy.
Although I do love me a good shadowy image!
So anyway… That first year in business, I had just my entry-level camera, a reflector, and a desire to create something bigger than me. I lucked out and met my lead hair/makeup stylist to this day, Nath, in May 2014.
My very first paying boudoir client, also in May 2014, Alisha, became my assistant for three years, until I want full time with boudoir and her schedule no longer worked for my shooting days.
My assistant now, Dianna, has been with me since September 2017, and she’s been a wonderful addition to my team, often making clients laugh and helping them change in and out of their outfits.
I’ve worked hard to learn my art. I have a wonderful mentor for posing—it’s a never-ending journey to improve!
And here I am, five years later! I have a beautiful studio in Carlisle. I upgraded my camera a few years ago and I do use soft boxes now instead of just all natural light, but I know me using just the entry-level Nikon and a reflector that first year helped me to become a better photographer—it forced me to learn the technical side of photography, to understand lighting, and to push that entry-level camera to do what I needed it to do.
And I still shoot only manual—I just don’t trust the camera to know what I want it to do! (PS: I now hire family photographers to photograph my children since they sit much better for someone other than Mom!!)
So, why did I put “good camera” in quotes above? Because it’s not the camera that makes the photographer. A good photographer can use the equipment at hand and make amazing portraits. Does nice equipment make a difference? You bet! But it’s not the equipment that makes me a photographer. Think of it this way: Rachael Ray could still make an amazing meal using my mid-90s oven. Make sense?
So that’s basically how I got into photography. I have a BA in professional writing and a minor in creative writing—I find a lot of similarities between writing and photography: Does it tell a story? Who is my target audience? Does it have a beginning, middle, and an end?
It’s a never-ending story to improve from session to session, year to year. Mastering the posing is the most challenging thing to do with boudoir and contemporary glamour, but it’s also one of the most rewarding! Showing a woman how to pose to remove a double chin and define the jawline is life-changing for her!
Showing a woman how to create a booty in pictures is just as life-changing.
If you haven’t done a session with me, you’re probably thinking, ‘That’s silly! How is posing life changing?’ But trust me, it is. Ask any of the woman I worked with over these years.
OK! I’ll wrap up here. Thank you for listening!
Until next time,
Shannon
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