You have probably already decided you want to do this. What is stopping you is not the decision. It is not knowing what the day actually looks like.

So here it is. What to expect at a boudoir photoshoot, start to finish. No surprises.

Before the day

It starts with one phone call. Fifteen minutes, no pressure, and you can decide afterwards. We talk about what you want from the session and whether this is the right time for you. Some women book that week. Some ring me back a year later. Both are fine.

Once your date is booked, you start getting emails from me. What to bring, what to think about, how to prepare. You will not be left guessing.

What to wear

Bring more than you think you need. Three or four options is plenty.

The things that photograph beautifully are often not the things women expect. A white shirt of your husband’s. A silk robe. Good quality lingerie in a colour that suits your skin, not the colour you think is expected. A pair of heels you can barely walk in, because you will mostly be lying down anyway.

If you own nothing you feel good in, tell me on the call. That is more common than you think and we work it out together.

The morning of your session

You arrive at the studio in Footscray. There is no one else here. Just you, me, and your hair and makeup artist.

Hair and makeup takes about ninety minutes. This is the part women tell me they did not expect to love. You sit, someone else does the work, and you watch yourself change in the mirror. Most women arrive nervous and are laughing by the time the eyeliner goes on.

The first ten minutes are the hardest

I am not going to pretend otherwise.

The first ten minutes feel strange. You are half-dressed in a room with a camera and you have no idea what to do with your hands. Every woman feels this. Every single one.

Then it passes. Usually it goes when you see the first image on the back of the camera and think, oh. That is me.

You do not need to know how to pose

This is the fear I hear most, and it is the one I can put down fastest.

You will be directed through every single frame. Where to put your chin. What to do with your left hand. When to breathe out. I will tell you when to laugh and I will tell you why, and then you will laugh properly because the reason is usually ridiculous.

You do not need a good side. You do not need to have practised in the mirror. You do not need to arrive ready. That is my job, not yours.

How long it takes

Plan for most of the day. Hair and makeup, then two to three hours of shooting across a few different setups and outfit changes. There are breaks. There is food. You are not being marched through it.

The reveal

You come back to see your images properly, on a screen, at full size.

I have watched hundreds of women do this. Almost all of them go quiet first. Then they say some version of the same sentence: I did not recognise myself, in the best way.

Then you choose. An album, wall art, a folio box, digital files. There is no obligation to buy everything and there is no pressure in that room either.

What about the photos being seen

Your images are yours. Nothing goes on this website, on Instagram, or anywhere else unless you have specifically told me it can. Not one frame. Some women share everything. Some women want their photographs to exist only in a box in their wardrobe. Both are completely normal and neither needs explaining to me.

Who actually does this

Not models. I want to be clear about that because the photographs can be misleading.

The women in my gallery are teachers, nurses, mothers, grandmothers, women who pack school lunches and have not had a photograph taken of themselves in eleven years. Women in their forties and fifties who have spent two decades being useful to everyone else.

I spent years as a Nurse Manager before I picked up a camera. I have seen women at their most vulnerable, in hospital, at their worst. This is the opposite of that, and it uses the same skill: making someone feel safe enough to stop performing.

If you are still not sure

That is normal, and it is not a reason to rush.

Book the call. Fifteen minutes, no obligation, and you will know a great deal more afterwards than you do now. If it is not the right time, I will tell you so myself.