Greetings faithful followers, loyal friends, and random stumble uponers. I had an amazing weekend this past weekend and I want to tell you all about it. It's probably going to be a long story so I hope you'll stick with me to the end.
BACKSTORY
To properly tell the story, I have to go back to late March. That's when I shot some nude sessions. But I messed up. I didn't talk with my wife about it beforehand. Sometime prior to the shoot, my wife told me that she knew that I was going to shoot nudes someday, but she wouldn't like it. I took that as tacit approval to shoot nudes. It wasn't really. She got more upset and angry than I expected.
She put a lot of restrictions on me as it pertains to photographing people: no nudes, no topless, no implied nudes. I can abide by that though it meant I wouldn't be able to do any shoots for Suicide Girls ☹️. She also said no shooting in hotels and Airbnbs... studios or outdoors only. That's a problem. There aren't many studios in Las Vegas, and of those, very few, if any, that have divided its space into sets: bedroom set, bathroom set, sofa set, etc. And while outdoor shoots are certainly possible with a variety of awesome outdoor locations in Southern Nevada, temperatures, especially summer temperatures, limit outdoor daytime photography to a small window of opportunity. I almost gave up photographing people right then, but I decided I'd try working with her constraints.
We also started going to couples and individual counseling. It's been extremely helpful for both of us, individually and as a couple. One thing she learned during her individual sessions was that she wasn't really all that upset that I took nude photographs. It was more that a) I didn't discuss it with her beforehand, and b) it triggered some things from her past that she thought she had dealt with years ago.
Fast forward to about a month ago. I've been doing some research and study on boudoir photography. An amazing thing happens during boudoir shoots with non-models: they transform right before your eyes. They realize that they are beautiful and sexy. You can actually see them gain self-confidence and self-esteem. I get a lot of satisfaction and pleasure out of empowering people in this way. So, as I said, I've been learning all I can about boudoir photography, not just about photography aspects such as posing and shooting, but also business aspects such as marketing, the process, customer acquisition and more. I decided that I wanted to focus my photography business on boudoir photography.
I talked with Mrs. DeadGuitarist about what I wanted to do with my photography. She seemed ok with it. To further help her understand why I am so passionate about focusing on boudoir photography and to show her what happens during one of my shoots, I decided to give her a photo shoot of her own. So I made elaborate plans for her birthday weekend, which was last weekend (her birthday was yesterday). I wanted it to be an experience and special since it was her 50th birthday.
I booked a suite at New York, New York Hotel & Casino. I picked NY NY 🌃because a) I hadn't used NY NY 🌆for a shoot yet, and b) we talked about seeing a show, Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity, one night. My wife found a MUAH 💄company, so I booked MUAH 💄for her, which is included in my boudoir photo sessions.
THE NEAR PAST (AS IN LAST WEEKEND)
We checked in late Friday afternoon, dropped our stuff off in the suite, and went and had a nice dinner in one of the restaurants. We just relaxed the rest of the night, watching a posing video from one of the boudoir photography courses I purchased. I crashed early (well, early for me) around 11 PM. After all, I'd been awake nearly 40 hours straight... I worked all day Thursday, all night Thursday night, and into Friday morning. I left the office around 11 AM. I was trying to get a lot of work done in a short period of time. Mission accomplished.
Anyway, Saturday morning, we left the suite for breakfast and to "waste" some time so that housekeeping could do their thing. The MUAH arrived about 1 PM. She did a fantastic job. When she was done, my wife looked like Liza Minnelli from Cabaret. Then the shoot began. Three outfits, just like in my photo session package. She has some body issues, so her outfits were pretty tame.
Outfit 1: Her authentic road #17 VEGAS STRONG Golden Knights sweater 🏒, black boy shorts, and black thigh high boots. I bought a hockey stick to use in this set. We shot this set in the living room of the suite, standing, and sitting and lying on the sofa.
Outfit 2: A United Stated Air Force outer shirt, black thong, black garter belt, black stockings, black stilettos, black bra, and a camouflage cap. She also wore my dog tags and had my expired USAF ID. We shot this in an easy chair in a sitting area and on the bed.
Outfit 3: A black lace bodysuit and a black sheer skirt. We shot this on the bed.
Normally I allow 2 hours for my photo session, including outfit changes, but we went much slower as I wanted to take time to practice my posing direction and coaching, and I wanted to make sure she had a good time without experiencing any pain or drop into any dark places (those experiences she thought she dealt with years ago) that might be triggered during the session.
The shoot went really well. We got some really great photos.
ABOVE: from the hockey set
ABOVE: from the military set
ABOVE: from the lingerie set
@chef has the same smirk!
After the shoot, we went down to the casino, got a drink at one of the bars and vaped (no vaping in the rooms ☹️), then got Greenberg’s Deli to take back to the room. We didn’t see Zumanity. If I’d have known that in advance, I’d have gotten a suite at Vdara because they are gorgeous, or Aria or Cosmopolitan.
Anyway, if it was just the photo shoot, it would have been just as an amazing weekend as it was, but there's more to the story.
THE REST OF THE STORY
I planned to talk with her about building the boudoir photography business and some of the things it would require... I would need to be able to shoot implied nudes, topless, and sometimes, artistic nudes as those are shots some customers will want occasionally. And I'd also need to use hotel rooms and Airbnbs for shoots. We don't have a space in our home to convert into a studio, except the garage, which is too hot in the summer. But I was planning to bring it up a couple of weeks after her shoot. Instead, she brought it up. And she agreed to shooting implied nudes, topless, and artistic nudes, and to using hotels and Airbnbs... but that's not all...
She suggested looking into combined commercial/residential property that we could use as a studio and business space, even renting it out to other photographers when I don't have anything booked. Then, since the lease on the place we live in now is up in 6 months, perhaps we could find an exceptional place to rent or buy that I could use for photo sessions: 5 or 6 bedrooms (2 master bedrooms if we can find one), large master bathroom with an open separate bathtub and a large walk in shower, large open floor plan, swimming pool, jacuzzi/hot tub, patio space, and more. If we can find something with a casita or a mother-in-law suite, so much the better, because we could rent those out when I'm not using them. WOW! But that's still not everything...
(@zen and @avrora will be interested in this news since they sent me messages about it) She also said I could resume shooting for Suicide Girls and stuff for Patreon. So, ladies, I'm now back and available for SG and Patreon shoots!
So that was my amazing weekend. I am so stoked!
Well, that story is long enough, so...
Stay Tuned
DeadGuitarist
