Empowerment Through the Lens: One Soul Boudoir

Welcome back to Skirts Up! Samantha and Melissa dive breast-first into the world of boudoir photography with the captivating duo, Jill and David of One Soul Boudoir. Ever wondered what it's like to be caught between the lens of a dynamic husband-wife photography team? Brace yourself for an episode brimming with laughter, heart, and unexpected revelations.

We uncover everything from hilarious mishaps ('I did it, I got naked!') to moving testimonials, all while demystifying the boudoir experience. Who knew a red camera and a shared hug could spark a journey of a lifetime? Plus, hear how their heartfelt mission transforms lives, one powerful photo at a time.

Whether you're looking to boost your confidence, capture a special moment, or simply curious about the world of intimate photography, this chat will leave you inspired and perhaps even booking your own session! Learn the truth to capturing true beauty.

(psssttt. It's YOU)

#BoudoirPhotography #WomenEmpowerment #BodyPositivity.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, you.
You're tuned in to the Skirtsup show with Samantha and Melissa.
Join our mission to normalizefailure, but still uncover the positives
at every twist and turn.
Skirts up, but keep yourpanties on.
What's up, Skirts up squad?
It's Samantha and Melissa.

(00:21):
We are here today to share some.
Of our new friends with you.
Yeah, we're really excited.
We say new, but we've actuallyknown them for, what, how long now?
Oh, my God.
Almost a year.
Oh, I don't know.
It was like the end of.
Towards the end of, like, 2024.
Yeah.
Yeah, because you're Britney,isn't it?
Brittany, who was like, hey, Iwent and did this awesome photo shoot

(00:44):
with this awesome.
It's called One soul photography.
They do boudoir photo shoots,among other things.
And, oh, she just raves about them.
Well, she looked so good.
And then she shared it with us.
And it's like, you should do it.
And.
And then, Sam, you were like,melissa, power boost.
Yeah.
Like, because you had done oneonce before, kind of.

(01:05):
Yeah.
Not with them.
Yeah.
But yeah, I'd done one kind of similar.
Like with Simon.
We did a photo shoot togetherthat was a little spicy risque.
Yeah.
Wasn't a great experience.
So I guess I was.
But hearing her rave about it.
Yeah.
Might have been what made yougo, oh, it can be different.
Yeah.
But also, really, when you'reon, like, we got invite.

(01:29):
I had gotten invited a longtime ago because of Brittany, to
their Facebook page, like,where you see women, like, you know,
get their photos back and thentyping about how it made them feel
and, you know, what they justfelt from those photos and that.
That day.
And it really clicked when,you know, you were looking at Britney's
photos at one of our eventsthat, oh, photos really can give

(01:52):
you that boost that you need.
And from there, I was like,oh, you're doing it.
She was so.
It was really swee.
Because you really wanted meto use this.
Saw that I wasn't reallyloving myself.
My body, for sure.
Like, it's true.
I don't love my body the waythat I should, but I should be so
grateful for so many thingsthat it offers.
And I learned that when I wasso You.
Anyway, I'm getting ahead.

(02:12):
Sam was like, melissa, you'vegot to go do this.
You need to do these photos.
And I told you.
I was like, please don't letBrent go.
And I think you were kind of offended.
No, I was like, well, I wasn'tplanning on taking him.
It didn't offend Me, but itkind of was like, oh, she really
wants me to do this for me.
And I like that.
I was trying not to be pushy,but I was like, oh, I hope she's

(02:32):
not mad at me, but I'm serious.
Don't bring Brett.
I hope you're not mad at me,but I'm so serious.
And not bring Brett.
Well, Brett would have been fun.
And it's true, though.
I would have looked to him,wanting to, like, be like, oh, what
do you like?
And he's sweet.
He.
At the.
Like, in many ways, he wouldhave probably been like, well, what

(02:56):
do you like?
I don't know how.
The truth is, I know had Ibrought Simon and we are in a very
healthy spot and healthyrelationship, I would have asked
him, I don't know, what do you like?
Like, which ones look good to you?
And I wouldn't have beenhonest with myself.
You're like, this is for you.
Yeah.
It would have been more oflike, oh, I want to make sure he
likes it and not, I like whatI'm seeing.

(03:17):
So that's.
Yeah.
I think for in any direction,that's kind of where that goes.
But I think you guys willreally love this episode because
it's the real version ofpeople like, you know, these.
This couple behind the scenesand behind the lens and knowing them
as a person and then reallyhow their mission just kind of came

(03:39):
about and how it is what it istoday, and it really is a power booster.
Women empowerment.
Like, it's just.
They also do it for men, too.
They do, and they really arebig on.
It's.
It's.
They'll never say, hey, let'smake you look sexy.
It's only about what makes youfeel good.
Do you want to feel sexy?

(03:59):
Do you want to feel strong?
Do you want to feel seen?
Like, what do you.
What do you want out of this?
Yeah.
And, like, clarifying, like,what that looks like to you, because
what looks sexy to you.
Exactly.
Is not what my brain mightthink as sexy.
Exactly.
So it's like getting to knoweach individual person and helping
them bring out their visionfor themselves.
And I just think that that'sso cool.

(04:21):
Yeah.
They're.
They're pretty much miracleworkers, so you.
Guys will love it.
Yeah.
But, Melissa, do you have afail before we scoot on?
Yeah, it's just a cute littlesilly one.
But it actually happened theday that we were interviewing David
and Jill.
Oh.
It's not a fail, per se.

(04:41):
It's just something I like.
I have, like.
I swear George is the worst.
Constant allergies.
We've already talked aboutthis, but Sam let me know.
And I'm like, what the.
You never told me this.
She was like, melissa sniffsall the time.
And because they were like, ifyou need to cut something, cut it.
Maybe I'll.
I might cough and cut it.
And Sam was like, yeah, we'llcut it.

(05:02):
Don't worry.
I'm snuff.
I'm snuffling.
I'm cutting.
Melissa's sniffles out all the time.
And I was like, what?
And she's like, yeah, it'sthis randomly right in the microphone.
I was like, oh, that's so embarrassing.
It's true.
I have allergies, like, constantly.
But it was funny because Davidwas like, just next time someone

(05:23):
says that, just be like, doyou want to.
What do you say?
Oh, I don't remember, but hemade a coke joke.
This makes me want to, like,type up something on Reddit and be
like, am I the asshole?
You're not an asshole.
You're only an asshole if youoffend or hurt someone.
No, but am I the asshole fornot telling you?
And then randomly.
Maybe a tiny bit.
You could have probably toldme, like, in the past so that you

(05:46):
wouldn't have had to edit so much.
You're an asshole to yourself.
Oh, geez.
Yeah, my bad, my bad.
It's all good.
It's all good.
I didn't mean it in, like, anunloving way.
No, you're just like, this isa thing that happened.
It's fine.
It's fine.
And I'm like, oh, well, I canfix that.
Actually, I'll be more cognizant.
It's hilarious.

(06:06):
We learn every day, don't we?
We do.
I had a situation not too longago, but kind of a while ago at this
point, where I wascommunicating with this.
This friend, and we weretalking about getting together for.
They wanted help branding.
And I was, you know, thinkingabout doing some, like, mixing and

(06:27):
trying to get, like, you know,help each other, right?
Get, like, the vision, spit,word ball, you know, with each other.
And I helped them with what Ipromised, and I never heard anything
back from this.
This friend.
And I really thought that wehad kind of gained a friendship.
So I.
I tried.
I tried to follow up and belike, hey, like, just wanted to know

(06:50):
when we can schedule, youknow, the thing that you promised
me and, you know, get thatworked out.
And I didn't get a response.
And so then I'm like, well, Jesus.
I just feel like I'm writingthis person off.
I'm writing this person off.
Like, I feel like I'm beingused, and I just feel like I'm getting
used all the time.
What does that say about mycharacter to feel like that?

(07:10):
But yeah, that's how I was feeling.
Exactly.
It's totally valid.
But I'm glad that you said,like, sometimes we have to look inside
and say, wait, is thissomething that I'm projecting?
So what you did, what she didwas really actually commendable.
She was like, melissa, I'mabout to write this person off.
Can you read these texts andtell me, like, is this okay that
I'm jumping in?
Yeah.

(07:30):
Yeah.
No, I said, well, what do you see?
What do you hear when you read this?
And I was like, okay, I do hear.
Well, first, I didn't reallypick up on what she was picking up
on, but she's like, well,don't you hear this?
That I was promised this one thing?
And I was like, oh, yeah, theydid actually say that.
That it was a mutual.
Right.
And then she's like, well,it's been this many weeks, I haven't
heard anything.

(07:50):
I said, well, did you tell them?
Because this person can have abad memory.
And she's like, well, I feellike I did.
And so I'm scrolling throughthe text and I was like, I'm actually
not seeing it that way.
And I see that you were tryingto be very fluff, fluff, fluff it
up and be nice in your text.
But it wasn't direct.
Yeah.
And so I was like, well, whydon't you just be direct and say,
hey, I want this thing that wetalked about?

(08:10):
And she was really scared.
Yeah, I was like, what?
I mean, I just feel like it'sin the text and like, I feel like
an asshole being like, hey,this is what we discussed.
When are we meeting up again?
And I don't know, maybe that'snot the.
I mean, you were right.
I finally did just like,straight out, like, ask, hey, when

(08:31):
are we scheduling xyz?
We do need to finish what weagreed upon, do this thing, and they
want to respond.
You're right.
I forgot we're going to do that.
Let's.
Let's figure that out right now.
Yeah.
So has it come through yet?
Let me just say.
No, it hasn't.
It will.
But I.
At least there was a responseand not like a blown off.

(08:53):
Yeah, you weren't blown off.
This person still likes youand wants to make it work.
I think so.
For sure.
For sure.
So yeah, just a little.
A little fail of just feelinglike I'm gonna write people off real
fast and then being remindedlike, no, let's be clear with our
words.
Which tends to be a bigmessage in a lot of our episodes
recently.
It does, actually.

(09:14):
I want to say one thing beforewe hand it off to our episode with
David and Jill.
Someone recently came to meand was like, I've been listening
to your guys episodes, and Ifeel like the beginning when you
always say, what's a fail?
They were like, it seems kindof harsh.
And I said, well, okay, in ourfirst season, we talk a lot about
why we do that.
And they're like, oh, Iprobably missed that.

(09:35):
So I just want to reiterate.
Yeah.
The reason we talk aboutfailing is not because we're like,
hey, let's focus.
On the negative and let's talkabout ourselves.
Like, no, exactly.
That is not at all what we're doing.
We are trying to, one, breakthe stereotype of only sharing our
perfect facade on social mediaor different things like that.

(09:55):
But two, reminding each otherthat, like, we failed because we
tried something different andwe can actually succeed through learning
from those fails.
Right.
You fail to succeed.
If you're not failing, you'renot going to succeed.
You're not giving yourself a chance.
So, yeah, it.
I mean, you can read our mission.
It's to normalize failurebecause we all have it and it's healthy

(10:19):
and it's normal.
And we.
What we see on social mediawith, like, these perfect houses,
when there's five kids in thehouse and, you know, these women
who have time to do their hairand makeup just perfect every single
day, like, that's not normaleveryday life for everyone.
And so having just thosestandards on social media, it's really
harmful, in my opinion.
So I feel like that's whatwe've aimed to exactly try and eliminate

(10:43):
is everything that we post israw, is real, and that's just who
we are.
And, you know, if you want tosee the perfect, then that's not
us.
I don't think that's what theperson was saying.
I think they were just worriedthat we were just like, sound.
It sounded harsh.
That was the word.
They were very kind about it.
And they're like, it's just harsh.
And so I just want to remindeverybody we are not at all trying

(11:03):
to focus on the negative here.
Yeah.
We are growing reflection as humans.
That's right, Reflection.
All right, so let's get into it.
Yeah.
Here's Jill and David, and weare excited to learn about them.
That's right.
So this evening, we aresitting here later than usual with

(11:27):
Jill and David.
So thank you guys for joiningus today.
We have been waiting for thisfor months.
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Absolutely.
Yeah, we're super excited.
And thanks for coming to our studio.
Absolutely.
So, wait, I sign.
Y' all are gonna have to cometo us.
I'm not gonna make them do that.
I will.
I like it over here better.

(11:49):
But I was gonna say just tokind of, like, catch everyone up
and myself.
Cause I don't really remember.
How did it even come up?
Oh, I know how we met you guys.
That's what I was gonna telleverybody, our audience.
Okay.
One of Sam's friends had comeover and done a boudoir shoot with
you guys.
And so when did she tell youabout that?
Was that at.
That wasn't at the karaoke thing?

(12:09):
That's not the first time you heard?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Like, I don't remember whenshe told you.
I don't know.
But obviously she's told usmultiple times.
So, anyway, we heard about you guys.
She was like, you, they are amazing.
And then Sam had been to aboudoir shoot before.
Kinda.
Not like this.
Not like this.
Not as awesome.
I'm sure.
I had never been.

(12:30):
And I was just like.
Sam was like, should we go andjust kind of see what it's like and
show the masses?
And I was like, okay.
And I was very nervous.
Well, we keep talking.
You're always downing yourself.
And we keep talking about,like, oh, we should be positive about
ourselves.
Positive.
And then I was like, boudoirwomen empowerment.
Exactly.
Exactly.

(12:51):
So here we are.
Hi, Jill.
Hey, David.
Hey, guys.
Hey.
Hey.
Glad you're here.
All right.
Yeah.
So tell us, like, how did youguys get into this?
Tell us a little bit aboutyour backstory.
I guess it started when.
How long do we have writing?
When I was born.
I'm just kidding.
Yeah.
So literally, it started acouple years after my ex bought me

(13:17):
a birthday present.
It was a camera.
Okay.
I was about to say, where arewe going with this?
This is fun.
I remember him saying that she bought.
Me a camera, and it was aprosumer camera as an icon, a D90.
And it didn't come with any extras.
It was just the camera withthe lens.
And.
And she thought that was theend of the gift.

(13:38):
What?
She didn't know.
That was kind of a.
That was kind of a downpayment on a whole bunch of stuff.
And that was.
I don't know.
20 years ago.
Wow.
So fast forward and we'resitting here today and we got, you
know, equipment out the years and.
And we do hundreds of sessionsa year and.
Okay, but why does she get you?

(13:59):
That's what I was going to ask.
Have you shown interest?
Like what?
Well, I.
In one of my past lives, I wasa reporter for the Orlando Sentinel.
Before that, I went toUniversity of Florida and had to
take a photojournalism classin order to become a reporter because
you can't rely on aphotographer to show up at the scene

(14:22):
of the crime or whatever.
So they would give me a littlesure shot to carry around in case
a photographer didn't make it.
Okay.
And I don't mean to diss allthe photographers out there who don't
show up.
It's just, you know, you don'tget calls, traffic or whatever.
Yeah, but.
Yeah, so I would carry acamera around with me and pop shots.
Never could afford an actualcamera myself, as on a reporter's

(14:43):
salary.
And that's always had that interest.
And I think that she knew thatI had a photography bug in me because
if we went on vacation, wecame back with all these photos that
were like, of, you know,these, you know, angular photos of
buildings.
Yeah.
And, you know, interesting.

(15:03):
Very artistic.
And no pictures of us, youknow, in front of some, you know,
important.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So my travel photography sucked.
And so that's where I guess myinterest became apparent.
So she bought me that camera.
I started shootingarchitecture and Buckhead bugs, animals.

(15:28):
I started shooting homelesspeople in midtown, which was really
cool.
A lot of.
There's a lot of soul and alot of history in the lines in someone's
face.
And then I decided I wantedmore pieces of equipment.
I kept, you know, looking atthings and everything was expensive
for the camera.
And after I bought a flash, Ibought another lens.

(15:50):
It became apparent to me thatthis was going to be an expensive
hobby.
And I'm a cheap person, and Ican't just go out and just splurge
on myself like that, which issomething that we preach to a lot
of our clients now aboutsplurging on oneself.
So.
So I had to justify.
You just weren't there yet.
Wasn't there yet.
I had to justify being able tospend money on equipment, which means

(16:11):
I had to make money with my camera.
Okay, so how do you make money with.
With your camera?
You.
You do some research andfigure out what do people do to make
money?
Well, one, they.
They can.
They can become a commercial photographer.
They can become a Wedding photographer.
And those are kind of the onlytwo things that I could even even
think about.
Maybe portrait photography.

(16:31):
I'm not sure that even likeresonated with me.
So I became a.
I became a weddingphotographer, a wannabe.
In order to shoot weddings,you had to have pictures of, have
pretty pictures of brides.
I didn't have any brides.
How am I gonna get my firstbride if I don't have any pictures
of all of them?
All have pictures of are oldguys in parks in midtown.

(16:52):
It's that age old story.
Like, you can't do anythingwith this unless you have experience.
But how do you get experienceif nobody will hire you?
That's exactly right.
It's like with any bigendeavor, you sit around say, how
are we going to tackle thesaying, well, first you get some
money?
Yes.
We all know where to startwhen you said that.

(17:12):
Yes, I'm having a hard timeinvesting on myself.
You know, I have to make money.
My next thought, like myinitial thought was, yeah, that's
great, but now you have toinvest in yourself again to actually
teach yourself how to be wellenough to make money.
Yeah, exactly right.
So my first, my first endeavorwas to go out and find someone to,
to be a model for me.

(17:32):
I bought a wedding dress offof davidsbridal.com for 300 bucks,
did a shoot in it, box it backup, and returned it.
And that's how I got my firstbridal pictures.
And I used those to get myfirst super cheap wedding.
And, and I did that.
And I learned right away thatI didn't charge nearly enough for

(17:54):
my time and all that.
So any fast forward, you know,it was just kind of a process of,
of getting, getting skilled, getting.
Getting a lot of people infront of the camera.
I started hiring people off ofModel Mayhem and One Model Place
to model for me.
And this is getting to thequestion you're going to be asking
in a little bit, which is howJill and I met.

(18:16):
I had a studio created in mygarage, had a couple lights and stuff,
and learning how to use all my equipment.
I was hiring these ladies offof one Model Place and Model Mayhem.
You're a model?
Yeah.
So that's part of my story.
That's right.
Okay.
I'm about to end up David.
Pause.
Jill, what made you look intobeing model?
Full of the model.
Yeah.

(18:37):
So that's one thing.
But also like, is that part ofyour journey that led you here?
I take it.
So my background.
I'm a licensed doctor ofphysical therapy.
What?
Yeah.
So that's my background.
And I was going to the gym.
I was feeling good aboutmyself, so I wanted to, like, just
dabble into, like, editorialmodeling and stuff like that.

(18:59):
And then so I put myself outonto Model Mayhem, and then that's
where David had contacted me.
So we did a session together,and I'm not good with stories, so
here we are.
Well, what were you thinking?
Like, how many different,like, jobs had you been on before
you, like, met him?

(19:19):
Just one.
One.
Oh, wow.
Her girlfriend took picturesof her.
Yeah.
To use Model Mayhem.
And I found her then, and Ithink two or three photographers
had contacted her at that point.
And I was going to be at thefirst shoot and had a hiccup, and
I had to cancel my sessionwith her, and.

(19:42):
And a guy who later became agood friend of ours booked her and.
And took her out.
That's a.
That's a whole WASP story to tell.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I just was kind of,like, just dabbling in front of the
camera while practicing withmy license, and.
And then I was just like,well, this is a lot of fun.
And then David asked me toshoot a wedding with him, and I was

(20:05):
just like, you know, I reallywanted to.
Oh, yeah.
I skipped a whole bunch tonight.
Yeah.
Okay, so.
And.
And then our kid was 18.
Wait a second.
Something's not making sense here.
How our stories is, like, I'll be.
Like, hi and goodbye.
Actually, no.
This is so cute.
Okay, in that case, Jill, pause.

(20:25):
David, go.
I was gonna be like, wait,just go.
Go back to the thing thatDavid wanted you to say, but okay,
David, go.
Yeah, so.
So I'm skipping about 200shoots that I did in my garage with
ladies off of Model Mayhem.
One model plays because theydon't matter.
Jill is the one that does.

(20:47):
There's an interesting littlefootnote there.
And I like to tell peopleoccasionally that Jill was the last
model I hired, and she was thefirst one that I kissed.
A.
Here we are.
No, here we are, she says.
So anyway, so, yeah, we just.
I hired her to.
To do a specific shoot I hadin my head.
I used to be very methodicalabout my shoots.

(21:09):
I was.
I had exactly the look in mymind that I wanted for whatever I
was creating.
I was not out here to serve a client.
I was here to, like, serve my vision.
And I would sit in front ofthe computer with Excel up, and I
would just like, visualize allthese shots and.
And the lighting and.
And the outfit and all that stuff.

(21:29):
And I would just make shotafter shot in.
In Excel, I Print it all out.
And, and I would go over theshot list with whoever and, and get
him to get some pieces ofwardrobe, whatever it was we were
shooting in.
So anyway, yeah, so I had,that was my whole shtick and, and
I had pretty much polishedthat by the time I got Jill into

(21:50):
the studio and I had this oneshoot in mind, it went really well.
And obviously I'm kind ofskipping over all the, the, the chemistry
and all that, but we ended upshooting together over the course
of a year.
And in that course of a year,she wanted to get behind the camera
and learn photography.
And I remember with the timethat she said, would you show me,

(22:14):
I got this little Nikon consumer.
Would you show me how to usethis thing?
I said, I'm really interestedin knowing rather than being in front
of the camera, I wanted tostart learning behind the camera.
And so I asked him, I said,would you show me how to use a camera?
And not like automatic, likeactually like learning how to use
the camera.
And he got so nervous.

(22:36):
It was so cute.
No, no, no.
I like Jill's story.
No, Jill's.
So, so we met at Roswell Mill.
So fun.
We read.
We met at Roswell Mill and shehad this little red Nikon, you know,
like a digital pop up camera,you know, a point and shoot and it

(22:56):
had a few extra features in it.
The only camera I had usedthat was a digital camera was my
D90.
I knew it really well.
Okay, so we're sitting here onthis bench and she hands me this
little red camera.
And I know my camera reallywell, but I'm, I'm like trying to
figure out how to use it whileat the same time I'm thinking about
how much I like her.

(23:17):
That's adorable.
And it reminds me of a storymy son told me when he was in, I
don't know, middle school.
He calls me up.
He was living with his mom in Colorado.
He calls me up and says, dad,I have a problem.
I said, what's your problem?
He goes, well, there's thisgirl, she's like my best friend.
We've been together and we'vebeen in school.

(23:39):
We've been best friends sincegrade school.
And I can't talk to her anymore.
I said, why not?
He goes, because I think Ilike her.
That's cute.
And he just like, he had knownher, he had played ball with her
and like going walks andhanging out and watching TV together.
And one day something snappedand he was connected to her.

(23:59):
And now he, he had lost allhis Words and didn't know what to
say to her.
So you also couldn't figureout the camera.
That was kind of what had happened.
I don't think I learnedanything that day, but it was a lot
of fun.
Yeah, I, I, I was, like,nervous as a cat.
I'm a whole.
Did you learn that he liked you?
When did you.
Well, we pick up on havingjust like this mutual connection.

(24:20):
Connection.
Yeah.
It just, there was no, like,oh, I think we're going on a date.
It was just kind of, just,things just started happening.
I just want to be very beautiful.
For all you romantics.
Yes.
So when Jill arrived for thevery first shoot at my house, I,
she pulled it in the driveway.

(24:41):
I went out there to meet her,and I'm a hugger.
So we hugged as I am.
We hugged for about, I don'tknow, three seconds too long.
And that was it.
The first time you met.
Interesting.
And neither one, I mean, we had.
Already communicated a fairamount talking about the shoot that
we're going to do.
So we met, sort of felt likewe knew each other a bit.
So we hugged.
And it was just a little bitof an, an, an, an extended hug.

(25:03):
And that was just kind rightaway, my ears like, oh, a little
warm.
Yeah, yeah.
And then we go to walk in thehouse, and I had steps coming to
the house.
I'm a gentleman.
And she was going up the steps.
I put my hand in the small ofher back as she was going upstairs.
Right.
And that ruined me.
I got me.
Oh, that's like, that's theone thing I really remember.

(25:24):
And then we're sitting infront of.
The computer, such a gentlemanabout, like, pulling the doors open
and just guiding and, and yeah.
So you don't, you don't findthat very often.
Yeah.
And it's like just sitting forthe computer screen, talking about
what we're going to do andthinking about the shoot and everything
and just being that close, youknow that I think all the little
bells and whistles kind ofwere ringing.

(25:45):
Yeah.
You were Twitter painted.
Yeah.
No, but I can appreciatesomething so small, like being like,
oh, that's what I remember.
Because when Simon and I talkabout, someone asked, well, how did
you know that you liked him?
And I was like, oh.
I started speaking about aconcern I had about my child.
And he put his phone down and,like, paid attention.
And I was like, yeah, I can'treally tell you anything other than

(26:06):
I remember.
He put his phone down and gaveme eye contact and listened.
And sometimes it's the Littlethings that mean the most.
Yeah, it's that connection.
But so you guys start shooting together.
He teaches you how to use the camera.
How.
I guess I have multiple questions.
I guess I was going to askwhat led you guys into branching

(26:27):
into this particular niche.
It's a pretty short story.
Okay.
Yeah.
So we.
I had.
We.
We traveled around theSoutheast quite a bit shooting Jill,
and she was also learningphotography as we went.
And she was learningphotography fast enough that I asked

(26:48):
her if she wanted to.
Had you shot Al at that point yet?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I just sort of dropped ashoot in our.
She had.
We had a.
A.
That was our gym trainer.
We.
We had a personal trainer thatwe both used at the gym that we both
went to.
And she wanted to practice onhim, and he was looking for some.

(27:13):
Some pro shots.
So I had the studio set up,and I.
I couldn't stay and help herdo it.
I just sort of dropped it inher lap.
And so she had Just figure allthis equipment out by herself.
I was like, all right, this is.
This is learning opportunityis now I have a person in front of.
And I.
You know, he's very kind.
He.
This is his first time infront of the camera as well.

(27:33):
And he knew that this was myfirst time, like an actual session,
but that was my first timeshooting one person in a studio.
But David had asked me.
Well, so it was after that Iasked Jill because she had actually
done quite well.
It was a really great shot.
Did you say accidentally didquite well?
Actually, I was like.

(27:55):
Which is also a little funny.
Cause it's like.
Actually, I was shocked.
Shocked how.
Well, she.
No, just kidding.
That's my lazy tongue, actually.
She did well.
She did quite well.
I was.
I was shocked because workingwith Studio Light.
And I will say that knowinghow little, you know, when you start
out like that, it is accidental.
That makes that.
That even got a shot that was cool.

(28:17):
And then you're like, okay,how the hell did I create that?
And then it's backing into itall and trying.
If you try to recreate, that'swhen you figure out how little you
know how to do it again.
That makes sense.
But anyway, so.
So.
But she was very voraciousabout learning, and.
And she had just an amazingappetite for learning.
And I could say somethingonce, and I'm used to having to repeat

(28:39):
myself, and she would beimpatient because if I tried to say
it again, because she hadalready heard that and she'd already
moved on.
She was already processed that.
Was already.
Already applying that to thenext thing that she was trying to
figure out.
And so I asked her if shewanted to shoot a wedding with me.
Was she taking.
Were you taking classes fromanybody else or any other way?
Okay.
No, no.
She's a super fast learner.

(29:01):
She's smart.
Yeah.
And.
And.
And she doesn't say what she'slearned, so I never know if she already
knows something, you know, SoI find myself saying a lot of unnecessary
things.
But yeah, so I asked her.
She wanted to shoot a weddingwith me.
I was shooting weddings prettyregularly at the time, and I was
hiring.
I had several second shootersthat I would bring with me.

(29:22):
And they're all sort of like,not really heavily committed to the
enterprise at all.
You know, they were just kindof there for 50 bucks or whatever.
And I asked Jill, she, like,to shoot this wedding with me, and
she was like, oh, no, I justwant to do this for fun.
I convinced her to shoot awedding with me in Rome, Georgia.
We went there and sheliterally fell in love.

(29:42):
Fell in love?
Yeah.
I was like, oh, my gosh, whatam I going to do?
I.
Now I'm doing physical therapyand photography.
A career.
Okay.
Did you fall in love with thewedding scene in general or, like,
figuring out the.
I specifically loved doingdetails of the wedding and then the

(30:03):
happiness and the candidatesof, like, the grandparents holding
hands.
And so that's the stuff that Ireally liked.
And then it got to, you know,the bride being super happy.
And I love doing just like,the bride portraits.
It's being in the moment, but you're.
You're also apart from the moment.
And you've got this piece ofequipment in your hands that you

(30:25):
have to be responsive with.
Like.
Right.
You don't.
You just get one chance to geta shot.
Yeah.
And to keep that in mind whileyou're saying, oh, my God, she's
so lovely.
Oh, I got her.
Yeah.
Snap, tap.
And.
And she's really great at.
At keeping her mind on hertask and still taking in everything

(30:46):
around her.
She's hyper focused oneverything all at once.
Oh, that's a talent.
And that's how I'm the shinyball still in the studio, because
I'm bouncing and you are.
You really are.
And also.
Okay, so just to fast forwarda little bit to with your shoot with
me, you.
I remember, David, you have,like, all these artistic things going

(31:07):
on, and you have beautifulshot, and then you just say, okay,
Jill, go have a minute.
And you just go in there andyou kind of, like, feel it out.
I don't know how to explain it.
But you really do do thedetail, though.
But you do really do do.
We don't do the doo doo here.
That's kind of gross.
But you like what people willnotice when they come in?

(31:29):
What y' all will notice, like,when they come in is that it's always
Jill's the butt person.
And like, that's a detail.
That's a specific detail ofthe body.
So true.
I like to take the detail,like the closer up shots with, you
know, the curvature of thewoman, or let it be the bust or the
booty or the hand runningdown, you know, your neck or your

(31:51):
ring by your face.
David is so good about, likeyou said, the artistic shots.
Like who the studio lights,all the setup, like, all the gear
is here because of him and hisknowledge of just creating.
That's amazing.
The just craziness.
So.
Yeah.
And again, you self taught.
Self looked up taught.

(32:12):
You didn't take a course, takea class.
We didn't go to college or.
Or anything for photography.
I mean, I.
I took a class in college onesemester as a photojournalism class,
which is completely differentfrom this.
It's natural light.
It's getting pictures of, youknow, whatever in the moment.
In the moment.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So.
But being in a studio andlearning the light, you know, with

(32:35):
studio lights and working on acamera that's not automatic, and
making sure all your settingsare how you want your portrait to
be.
But there's always learning.
So even though we know whatwe're doing right now, I mean, no
matter what career you're in,you should never stop learning what
you're doing.

(32:55):
I like that.
Yeah.
And it's just so important.
And it's fun.
And it's fun to learn newthings, to create new art with women
that come through here.
Because, I mean, as you know,compared to your session, both of
them are different.
Yes.
You know, Very true.
Yeah.
So what made you guys go,we're done with weddings now let's

(33:15):
do the more sexy photos.
Ooh.
I also have one more questionthat's an in between one.
How long did you start afteryou started that first wedding?
I'm guessing you startedworking together.
How long did you work togetherbefore you then also beside it a
lake.
So we shot that first weddingand we were on the road to another
wedding.
I was doing about 25 weddingsa year.

(33:37):
Okay.
I were kind of in the middleof things.
And when she could go, she would.
When she could shoot awedding, she would.
She would come help.
She was really interested inshooting weddings that were away
games that were.
We got to go.
I like to travel, you know, Iwould too.
Yeah.
And so we were.

(33:58):
I don't know how.
How many weddings we hadbehind us at this point.
It wasn't very many.
A handful.
And we're on our road.
We're on the road toAsheville, North Carolina, to shoot
a wedding.
And I'm already, I.
I'm in the moment and I'malready thinking, you know, six months
down the road, a year down theroad, I'm.
I'm always like out in thefuture somewhere in my.

(34:21):
And yeah, I'm never.
Yeah, I am a planner.
Yeah.
Probably intensely so.
Okay.
Now that you mention it.
But so I'm thinking.
And I knew early on when Iasked her to shoot her first wedding
with me, that she hadsomething and I was nurturing that
as much as I could and pushingher along even faster than she wanted
to go sometimes I feel like.

(34:42):
But we're on.
We're on the road at this point.
We were pretty much an item.
We're on our.
On the road to Asheville toshoot a wedding where.
And I said was.
So would you want to be mypartner in photography?
And she was like, okay.
But she didn't say this.
I just assumed that shewouldn't want to be a creative working

(35:05):
under the brand David Scruggs Photography.
Right.
I wouldn't want that if I wasanother person.
It makes sense.
Yeah.
That's actually reallythoughtful of you.
It would need to be somethingthat realize where she would feel
like she had skin of the aim.
She owned it as well.
And.
And I.
And my.
My thought was that so if wecould create something together that

(35:27):
would survive, you know, fordecades, then it would be something
that she could wrap her headaround and wrap her heart around
and be immersed in.
It would be hers.
And so we were trying to thinkof names and we're playing around
with names and turn on the radio.
We're with Amazon prime orwhatever we were listening to.
And.
And Jack Johnson, a JackJohnson song came on angel and lyrics

(35:53):
in the song we share the same soul.
Oh, oh, oh.
And started playing with weshare the same soul.
One soul.
That's like two hearts.
Two hearts, one soul.
And so.
And that's where the whole one.
That's where one soul came from.
2018.
Okay.
Is where we got One soul photography.

(36:14):
So the one soul is us together.
So two hearts, one soul.
And we incorporated that.
Yep.
Wonderful.
Yeah.
We paid a guy in overseas tomake us a logo that's got the two
hearts on the ends.
Cool.
Now there's some guy in Indiawho's hijacked our logo and uses
it.
Are you serious?
Nothing you can do about it.
They're on Instagram.

(36:35):
So I go find them Instagramand I say, this is not a once open
bubble.
Oh, my gosh.
I wouldn't be able to let thatgo either.
2018's One Soul Photography,and then 2019 is when we started
One Soul Boudoir.
Okay.
That's where.
Yeah, kind of.
I Forget when in 2019.
Did you guys get that?
He just talked a whole bunchand I was like, these are the dates
now.

(36:55):
Yes.
The details.
Yeah.
Punchline.
I go straight into it.
Boom.
I like it.
But yeah.
So along the way, when we didweddings, we were still doing boudoir
for like the brides and such.
Oh, okay.
And.
Oh, is this like day of.
Or like, just like they wouldbook you for before the wedding.
Like, let's do something forthe groom.
It would be before.
So they would hire us prior.

(37:16):
We would recession, and thenwe'd have like an album to give to
their spouse.
Okay.
That's really cool.
It's a service that we wouldoffer just more.
More stuff to offer as a giftfor the.
For the smart.
For their partner.
Yeah.
Just trying to market yourservices in more ways.
Yeah.
We shot a wedding in Jamaica.
We were actually secondshooters for a guy that I knew who

(37:39):
was shooting weddings in Jamaica.
And Jill wanted to go overseasto shoot.
She wanted to do destination weddings.
So I contacted him, I said, doyou need a second shooter?
And he was like, well, Iguess, yeah, I could use one on this
date.
And he's.
I can't pay much.
I said, no worries.
I said, we'll just come downand we'll second shoot.
So we went down there for 250bucks and spent however many days
down there and helped shootthe wedding and came back.

(38:01):
And then the bride reallyliked us.
Okay.
And.
And we reached out to her abit later to see if she'd be interested
in boudoir session.
And she lives in New York, sowe ended up organizing boudoir session
at the Latte Palace, New Yorkover New Year's weekend.
And I don't know what yearthat was, but yes.

(38:24):
Shot a boudoir session there.
That was fun.
Okay.
As a post wedding gift.
Yeah.
So as we're.
As we're doing boudoir andweddings, I was just like, oh, I
just love, you know, the.
Just.
How do I say this?
Like, when a woman is like,oh, I'm doing this for my spouse.
But when they see their photosand they're like, oh, my gosh, this

(38:46):
is me.
Oh, my gosh, I'm so beautiful.
And, oh, my gosh.
And they realize that they'reactually doing it for themselves.
But it's then a gift.
But that first thing of when awoman is like, oh, my.
I've never thought, felt like,or seen myself like that.
It's so powerful.
You just gave me chillsbecause I feel that from you, that

(39:06):
you love the empowerment ofall of this for the women and making
the people around you buildthem up.
And I feel it and I see it,and I felt that way.
So thank you.
But, yeah, so I was just like,I love.
I love doing this.
How can we.
How can we do more of this andless weddings?
And that was the hardest partuntil Covid hit and Covid hit and

(39:33):
weddings stopped.
So we were 100% in for boudoir.
We were.
We had already started shooting.
That might have been the faststory, but.
No, this is good.
No, no, that's hard to tell.
We'd already started shootingboudoir more regularly at home.
We were working out of ourhouse, and we had an extra bedroom
that we set up for.
And everything that's in ourboudoir suite over here.

(39:55):
Yeah.
Was in our extra.
Oh, my gosh.
And can you imagine?
And yeah.
And so we were shooting a lotof boudoir.
I think we shot where.
I think the first year that wereally tried to do boudoir, we did,
like 38 sessions that year ontop of, I don't know, a couple dozen
weddings.
And then Covid hit, like Jillsaid, and we kind of went into the

(40:18):
first year of COVID allfocused on boudoir because had nothing
else to do.
It was amazing how many.
How many sessions we were ableto book that first year in the middle
of COVID we had 70 weddingsout of our house, and we were like.
Oh, my gosh, this is.
This is going to be awfulbecause, you know, with COVID and
the precautions and the.

(40:39):
I said 70.
I said 70 weddings, 70 boudoirs.
I was going to ask if I.
Knew what you meant, but,yeah, everyone got bored.
And, like, you can't havegroups things anymore, but you can
do things with just you and acouple of people.
So we wore our mask, our makeup.
Artists wore mask, and thenthe client.
Got to take their masks offand yeah.
Oh, my God, I can breathe again.

(41:00):
So women at that time, youknow, there's Not a whole lot of
things that were opening, youknow, jobs.
Everything was remote.
So women really needed to getout of the house.
Yeah.
And.
And if you think that weneeded to expand, we need to express
ourselves in a regular.
Every day.
Yeah, we sure did then.
Yeah.
So we were 100% in a mom cage.

(41:22):
Pre Covid.
During K.
During COVID you had, like, just.
Sam.
Well, I mean, I always had.
What do they call it?
What do they call it?
I always felt like we wereliving in like a divergent times,
like with fractions or something.
Because it was like, oh, doyou have the necessity job?

(41:43):
Or like, what was it called?
Are you a convenient.
Or what's it called?
No, I.
I just.
I don't know.
Anyway, like, your job wasdeemed important enough that, like,
you had to come in and, like,work and so, like, I didn't have
any time off.
Stuck with the kids.
Yeah, but.
But we.
I mean, we just shot out ofthe house and got so busy shooting

(42:04):
out of the house.
We live in an HOA.
In a cul de sac.
70 sessions a year.
We were really concerned about.
Yeah.
Did anybody.
No one ever complain you hadnice neighbors.
That's good.
That's good.
But we sort of had anawareness, I think quick enough that
we acted.
And Joe really wanted to getout of the house and into a studio.

(42:24):
And we were walking aroundAmerica Square one day and.
And we saw this for rent signand it was just kind of serendipity.
And that happened and we justrelocated from the house to Mary
to Square for a year and a half.
Yeah.
Now, Jill said what gave her,like, the really big spark of like,
yeah, this is what I want to shoot.

(42:45):
When did you, David, go, oh,yeah, no, you're right.
Like, I love this type of work.
Well, I mean, that's.
It was just an extension ofthe editorial photography that I
was doing in the studio at home.
One of the things that I liked about.
About going into boudoir andearly on it was all about just photographing

(43:07):
women.
We weren't really focused onour view now, which we'll talk about
later, but.
So I had just been focused onshooting women and.
But when I would bring someoneinto the house to do a shoot, I was
kind of shooting it from theperspective of a guy.
So very.
I called it the Maxim shoot.
Okay.
Very, you know, very gratuitous.

(43:29):
You know, cheeky, sexy, allthat stuff.
Sexy to you.
And when I really wanted.
And I was so.
And I was really aware of that.
You know, I really.
And I.
And I'm so I really wanted.
And I also looked down my noseat photographers who would just go
out and get, you know, prettyyoung things and shoot them.
Like look, dude, you're.

(43:49):
You're not a great photographer.
She's just pretty.
Ah.
You know.
And people can't tell thedifference between great photography
and a pretty subject.
Yeah.
And so you get cred for.
Maybe cred isn't due.
So I really wanted to be.
Be much better than I reallywanted to be creative and I wanted
to be accomplished at what I'mdoing and not caring about who's

(44:11):
in front of the camera.
Anybody that walks in front ofthe camera, we can make them look
like a million bucks.
And I get gratificationknowing that we created something
that's artistic.
Yes.
So shooting through all theeditorial stuff.
Hated all my.
Everything I'd ever shot.
Hate all of it.
It was never anywhere nearwhere I wanted to be.
Bringing Jill in.
Jill.

(44:32):
Then I looked at her as theperson who could bring that feminine
touch, that feminine view,that feminine perspective into a
photos until I learned thatJill's likes all the detail stuff
and the butts and all that.
And so.
But genuinely she is reallyfantastic at capturing these absolutely

(44:53):
elegantly feminine portraits.
And I'm learning from her.
She's capturing the soul, I think.
Yeah.
I feel and what most important.
And what David said it wasreally important as you know, I mean
you can put any so calledmodel in front of any photographer
and you know the model looksgreat because that's what she does

(45:14):
that she's learned to pose theway she does.
But if you take any woman offthe street, she's not gonna know
how to pose, how to style.
Is she smiling?
Maybe she's awkward in frontof the camera.
And now you have.
As a photographer you have toknow how to pose, how to light.
Because not everybody's a sizedouble zero.
And it's important toappreciate all women of all sizes.

(45:38):
Yeah.
Because everybody can look good.
Yeah.
I've really appreciated that.
And honestly.
So just for the listener'ssake, they have.
They're.
How many square feet would yousay this?
3,000 square feet.
I would say like half of it atleast is where they do the shooting.
And it's a big like open spacewith lots of different props and
stuff.

(45:58):
But when you first walk in,it's a gallery of beautiful women.
And I will tell you it's art.
Yeah.
And they.
Not all the women are thatsize 00.
They're beautiful and they'redifferent and it's A whole spectrum.
They're moms, they're seniors.
One of the ladies in theentryway is a senior citizen.
She's a widow.

(46:20):
Most of them have more thanone kid.
Yeah.
Stretch marks.
All of it.
Yeah, all of it.
So I really appreciate yousaying, like, beauty.
It doesn't have to be thatsocial construct or tied to it.
Yeah.
And it doesn't even have tobe, like, boudoir on the feminine
side.
You can do boudoir and be edgy.

(46:43):
You can do edgy and moody.
You can even be more masculineon what you're wearing.
And, you know, we talk aboutthat all during a consultation.
We go anything from.
We have a Cloud nine set to ared room, a rain room, you know,
portrait walls.
So it really just depends on,like, what you're looking for.
We're not telling you whatyou're looking for.
Right.
But we will guide you.

(47:04):
We'll guide you in saying,like, we think that this would be
great for you.
Or when you're like, I don'tlike yellow, and be like, I think
yellow.
Would actually look reallygreat on you.
You guys put me in blue, andit did look so good.
So you might be surprised.
David, how did you get out ofthat mindset?
I, like, I really appreciatethat you were, like, able to be aware
of.

(47:24):
Yeah, I was shooting for,like, my own, like, what I thought
was beautiful or ideal.
But how did you get out ofthat mind frame and start shooting
for the client?
And what makes them feel allthe feels?
Probably it's through.
It's a.
It's a seismic shift that happens.

(47:45):
It's like an earthquake in my.
In my journey.
And the tectonic plates movereally, you know, dramatically, and.
And things get hurt and all that.
And I.
And my first challenge was tofigure out how to use lighting and
all that stuff.
I had a client in front of me,a client as my daughter's.

(48:07):
One of my daughter's bestfriends, and she had her in studio
standing in front of me.
And I'm sitting here trying tofigure out my camera.
And this is leading up to theanswer to your question, by the way.
And I'm snapping, snapping,snapping, snapping, trying to figure
out how to use my stupidcamera and how to try to get these
lights and the camera to giveme the image that I've got in my
head, and it's not working,and I'm getting frustrated, and.

(48:28):
And after she was standingthere for 15 or 20 minutes, she finally
says, what am I supposed to do?
And my ears got hot, my faceturned Red.
And I said, I'll never letthis happen to me again.
Is this before weddings orafter weddings?
This is like, this is before Iwas shooting a wedding here and there.
Okay, so fast forward a bit.

(48:50):
I've shot quite a few weddings.
I'm, I'm working moreeditorial, trying to, to just learn
more about lighting and all that.
And I had a client, a bridalclient who came in and she was a
plus size woman and she wantedto boudoir session.
And I had never worked with aplus size woman.

(49:10):
And I literally did not knowwhat to do.
I was nervous, I was scared.
I didn't, I didn't want tohurt her feelings.
I just knew I was going toscrew this up.
And what I ended up shootingwas a bunch of headshots because
I didn't know what to do withher curves.
I didn't know how to pose them.
And I thought, oh my God, I'm,I felt about this big and I'm putting
little fingers together forthe radio listeners.

(49:33):
And I just, I said I'm nevergoing to let that happen to me again,
and I'm never going to do that.
And I set out to learn how to,how to pose people who are curvy
and who are tall and skinnyand who don't have any curves.
Okay.
I just, this is me wondering,did you ever get the chance to shoot
with her again?
No.
Oh, no.

(49:54):
And that's, that's, that's thesad thing is, you know, and I practice
on a lot of people.
One of the ladies that we'veused for hairstyling here a bit,
I actually, she moved toAtlanta and I found her on Model
Mayhem and got her to modelfor me.
And then you fast forwardyears later, 10 years, 15 years later,

(50:14):
she's big in the Arctic community.
She's got, she's got, she's all.
Her name's Serpentine.
Serpentine.
She's on Facebook.
She's got all this fantasticcosplay stuff and she's big in the
cosplay community.
But, and so she's someone thatI did get to come back and shoot
again.
Okay.
She was working with me andJill and I got her to model for a

(50:35):
concept that, that we had.
Yeah, but, yeah, but generallyspeaking, no, you, you learn a lesson
and you.
Know, so we have how, likewhat brought you guys into photography
and what brought you guystogether and how one soul was created?
What really fueled.
It's really obvious, like whenyou come in and meet you guys and
you do the intake, that thisis Personal.

(50:57):
This isn't just a photo shoot.
Right.
What brought that concept towhere now it's not just photos and
it's not just shooting beauty.
This is like soul.
Like soul work.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a great question.
It's.
It's a lot more than just photography.
It's a lot more than justtaking sexy pictures.
I have to throw out one thing.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Ifeel like you had that in you all

(51:20):
along.
Just being able to see that.
Yeah.
I don't think I ever, like, gointo a shoot and being like, yes,
we're going to get sexy pictures.
That's never on my mind.
We're going to get that.
We're going to get that moodysexiness, that beautiful whatever
that you're trying to pull.
But for me, it's so muchdeeper as far as.

(51:43):
I just know that you're goingto be surprised.
And we like to say you arenever going to be prepared for what
we show you.
And we tell everybody that,because no matter if you are come
in, even if you're coming inconfident, being like, I know I'm
sexy, when you see yourphotos, you're going to be like,
oh, my God, that's me.
You know?
And when you see yourself inthat reveal room for the first time,

(52:07):
it just is like you're eitherspeechless, grabbing a tissue, or
you're just, like, laughing.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
It's a shock moment.
And that's the moment.
What I love.
I love creating the art in thestudio with women, but it's really

(52:27):
the afternoon what I reallylove, because that's when you get
to have more respect for yourself.
That's when you love yourself more.
Yeah.
It's fun in the studio.
It's really great.
But what's really important ishow you feel about yourself after
the session.
Yeah.
So is after seeing reactionsseveral times, is that when you're

(52:49):
like, whoa, well, what's thestory behind these emotions?
Like, when.
When did that come in?
Because you guys ask, whatdoes your past look like?
Like, what kind of struggleshave you had?
They have.
I'll just say, for those whodon't know, they have a really good
intake system where you comein and they want to know what are
the things that you havestruggled with?
What are the things that youlike about yourself?
What are the things you have ahard time looking at in the mirror

(53:11):
or that you like to look at?
Like, so you have, like, areally good intake system.
How did.
Is that.
What kind of.
You're Wondering.
Yeah.
They ask that get developed.
They ask you your story, andso then it's not just like, oh, you
just booked us to take photos.
Like, they're, like, actuallycaring about, well, who are you?
Yeah.
We want to know the backstoryof why you're here.
And if it's.
Even if it's.

(53:32):
Maybe you went through adivorce and you need this for that
personal pick me up.
Yeah.
That confidence.
If you're here to do somethingfor your spouse because there's an
anniversary.
If you're here maybe becauseyou are doing a pre and post because
you're going through breastcancer and you're going to.
You have breasts now, andyou're not going to in a month.

(53:54):
You know, like, there's.
Oh, my gosh.
I'm getting like, yeah, buteveryone has a story.
And like you said, like, we'renot here just to take pictures.
You know, we want to know why.
Because we want to get to knowyou as a personal level, to create
that art with you.
It's so much more than justtaking pictures.
So, yeah, I think it's all this.

(54:15):
And I know what you're tryingto get at.
How did.
How did we go from being like,for me, a guy with a camera to someone
who cared about the people?
Okay.
I'm not.
No, no, no, no.
To be clear, that is not worth.
I mean, a little bit.
I mean.
No, but anyone can be aphotographer, and anyone can be like,

(54:37):
hey, okay, you hired me.
Here's a contract.
All right, let's take pictures.
But you guys sit us on the couch.
It's deeper.
It is.
So how do you get from.
It's unique.
Okay.
You use the word contract.
So how do you get from thecontract to the emotion to the underlying
need to the therapy?
Therapeutic.
Yes.
Because obviously it wasn'tjust overnight where you're like,
oh, we're going to have aboudoir studio, and I want to know

(54:59):
your whole life story.
It built.
There's a.
So practically speaking, theway it happened was we're sitting
around wanting to get business.
Right.
We wanted to get more.
More sessions.
How do we get more sessions?
We hired a guy who could helpus do some marketing on Facebook
to attract a lot of.

(55:20):
A lot of business.
And so through this.
This model that he presentedto us, that put us.
We were do.
We did a promotion.
And part of the promotion, theentrance had to complete a questionnaire
and talk about themselves.
This may sound familiar.
Yep.
And we were stunned at howopen everybody was with the questionnaire

(55:46):
that we provided.
And then we follow thatquestionnaire with a 15 minute phone
interview.
And then we, all the seriouspeople that were genuine about wanting
to win, blah, blah, blah, theygo into a pot and we pull winners
out.
And then there we go when wehave sessions.
And you still do that today from.
That when we initially didthat promotion years ago.

(56:09):
And we continue to do that isbecause we get to know the women
by those four simple questions.
And you wouldn't believe like,it's like they haven't talked to
someone and they're opening upto us and they've never met us before
and they're telling us theirstory and hoping that they can just
get some light and someone tolisten to them.

(56:31):
Yes.
To be seen.
Yeah.
I can't tell you.
I was so shocked and I waslike, why am I crying?
You guys asked and it's likeI, like, I don't know why I'm crying,
but it's because.
Oh, did I just tell you guys that?
I haven't told anyone that.
Okay, that's interesting.
And the thing is, is that welisten and we don't just.
You don't just answer thequestions and they just go off to
nowhere.
We get those and we actuallytalk to you and we get to know you

(56:55):
on a personal level.
You may never have done asession with us.
We've talked to hundreds ofladies that have still not done sessions
with us.
And that's not the point.
Obviously we're a business,but the point is for them to be seen,
to be heard, that weappreciate them taking the time to
want to be self respected.
And when they come into thestudio for their session, all that,

(57:17):
all that lead up is, is, is,is present.
Even ladies that come to us,not through a promotion, but just
find us or they're referred by friend.
They still, we still gothrough this whole getting to know
you.
So what's your.
Why.
Why are you here today?
I wanted to bring that up.
What do you really.

(57:38):
What are you looking for?
We've got this one slide inour deck.
That's good.
Just got a bunch of words.
It's got, you know, it's gotconfidence, sexy, edgy, so on and
so forth.
And we ask you to choose whichof these words resonate with you
when you think about the wayyou want to feel after a session.

(57:58):
And what do you want yourportraits to communicate.
Yeah.
And so, and that kind of getsinto what's going on under the hood.
Not just.
I just wanted to take somesexy pictures for my, for my love,
for my special Summer, right?
Yeah.
Well, how does that make you feel?
Like, I know that I feltreally awkward maybe looking at those

(58:21):
words because I was like,okay, never do I look at myself and
be like, oh, okay, be sexy.
And then, like, be sexy.
And so I'm picking out playful.
I'm picking out cute.
I'm picking out, like, youknow, just fun.
But you guys were still ableto make it into something that.
That did have a sex appeal to it.
I mean, it wasn't.
Maybe it wasn't intentional,but I think that's the point, is

(58:41):
to make you see yourself in adifferent way.
It depends on how.
If that slide, for instance,is the only thing that.
That we are getting data fromwhen you walk in, Jill and I are
still going to Daring hair makeup.
We're gonna.
We're gonna dig in a littlebit more and ask more questions.

(59:02):
That's true.
I just recently had someone infor hair and makeup, and I had read
all of her stuff on theconsultation deck that Kelsey had
pulled together, and I'mreading through the conversation
thing, and I'm like, okay, so she.
One of the hordes is sexy thatshe wanted to.
She wanted to be.
She wanted to feel sexy.
And that's not.
I don't think it's one of theparts on the screen, but it's.
It's.

(59:23):
Anyway, so I said, so I.
So I asked her, so what doessexy mean to you?
And, man, she just startedtalking and it just.
It was so illuminating to hearwhat her idea of sexy was and why
she wanted to feel sexy.
Because she doesn't.
She doesn't feel that way, andshe's got, like, this divided life,
you know, and she's.

(59:43):
She's expected to be this, andshe never gets to experience and
explore that.
Right.
And that's what sexy meant toher, was just this hidden whole thing.
And so that.
That really informs us when weget ready to come out here in the
set space and shoot.
Yeah, yeah.
Because I do think that itmeans so many different things.
It does.
So we did dig a little deeper.

(01:00:05):
If you choose that word.
We're still going to askquestions about what.
What does sexy mean to you?
It could be that cute, playfulside sexy, or it could be that, you
know, naughty, red room, 50Shades Sexy.
And we know about.
We ask about your home life.
We ask, are you happy?
Are you.
Does your.
Does your work.

(01:00:26):
Is your work fulfilling or isit draining your significant other
if you got one at home?
Do they like what they do oris it draining for them fulfilling?
How does that affect your relationship.
You guys ask if there wasanything traumatic because you want
to make sure you don't doanything triggering, like if someone.
If someone lived a sexuallyabusive life.

(01:00:51):
I think that you guys aren'tgoing to push like, oh, let's do
body skate, because we thinkthat you'd look really good.
Like, you guys kind of feelthat out and you don't want to push
anyone to do something.
Yeah.
We like to know the backstoryof if there's any traumas or something
that.
Because obviously we don'twant to be doing something that,
you know, we want you to havea good experience.
So we don't want to pullanything from wardrobe or, you know,

(01:01:17):
provide any sets that mightnot be a good experience.
Yeah.
So, yeah, let's just to diginto that a little bit.
If we have a client who's had.
Who has an assault in theirpast, who.
Anything.
Anything remotely related tothat, we.

(01:01:38):
If it doesn't come up, it willbefore the shoot's over.
And it will be.
It will be a safe conversation.
And generally there's not anytears when it's.
When we discuss it.
And it's just a kind of a.
Because we're a super safespace here.
You can come in here with.
With whatever you think might be.

(01:01:58):
Well, you're afraid that theworld will think your idea or your
desire or your need or yourphobia is crazy here.
Yeah.
And you.
And it's.
I think very quickly youfigure out that you can say what
you want to say and.
And you'll be safe.
And that's really importantfor us to have you in that head space.

(01:02:21):
Because if you're in thatheadspace and you're feeling comfortable,
you're feeling safe, thenyou're going to be relaxed.
Yeah.
And when you're relaxed,you're going to have fun in front
of the camera.
We're going to show you theback of the camera.
We're going to show you thatyou're doing a great job and you're
going to be so fun and so fantastic.
And when you see your photos,it's largely because you felt comfortable

(01:02:44):
with us.
Yeah.
You got the emotionalvulnerability out.
And once you get emotionalvulnerability out, we cut.
We cut through all the socialnorms, like, right away.
Right.
We.
I will jokingly say, I.
I don't want to, like, that's a.
I don't want to, like, youknow, give my secret away.

(01:03:06):
But you're in hair and makeupand you're all done, and you.
You come in nervous as Nervousas can be.
And you've kind of relaxed a bit.
You've had a mimosa orwhatever, and.
And you've had girl time foran hour and a half, and.
And you're feeling pretty confident.
You're looking pretty and all this.
And then now it's time to comein the studio set space, and all
of a sudden, your.
Your heart's in your throat again.
And that's why I might clap myhands, say, okay, let.

(01:03:28):
Yeah.
And I did.
I trembled the whole time orthe whole first little bit.
Yeah.
And I think just saying stufflike that.
But you did not.
You do not.
Yeah.
Just to be clear, everybody,he did not make any.
You ain't get naked.
It was a joke.
It was a joke.
Yeah, we never start there.
Yeah, we'll go.
We'll do whatever you want to do.

(01:03:49):
Yeah.
And it really is, you know,with the comfort level, I always
like to joke and say, bringyour snowsuit.
We'll make you look sexy.
Yeah, you did say that.
Yeah.
So when people are reallynervous, like, you know, coming in
here, I like to correct that joke.
Because sometimes it's notabout what you're.
What you're wearing.
This goes back to, like, whatis sexy, because it could be the

(01:04:10):
lighting.
It could be the.
The mood and the expressionand how you're just holding yourself
against the wall and.
And add a snow suit to that.
You can literally look sexy ina snowsuit.
Because it's not about justwearing lingerie.
You can be wearing your bossbabe outfit.
You can be wearing grunge clothes.
Yeah.
And looking bomb.
So it's not necessarily aboutwearing lingerie to be doing a boudoir

(01:04:34):
session.
It's not about.
It's not.
Yeah.
It's not about what you'rewearing, how much or how little.
It's how you're looking at the camera.
Yeah.
And I think that that is whatI needed from my session.
It wasn't.
I needed to feel comfortablein my everyday clothes, which is
why we were like, okay, well,let's do it.
What's your favorite outfit?
And, like, that was, like,really important to me because I've

(01:04:55):
never worn.
I have never worn normalclothes and been like, I look good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Starting with sweats and a teeor whatever.
Yeah.
Yes.
And when you see yourselflooking pretty great in stuff that
you wear into Publix, that isvery impactful.
That's the empowerment stuff.

(01:05:16):
And then the other stuff isjust a bonus.
Right.
And I feel like you guys arereally good at understanding your
audience and who it is thatyou're shooting and their why.
Their why.
Because it's clear you guyshave your why.
Like empowerment and justshare the love, but understanding
the person who walks in.
Here's why.
So, like, for me, I rememberwhen I walked in, and I was like,

(01:05:37):
I don't really want.
I want to look cute and sexy,but I don't want, like, that sexy.
Like, everything's black and red.
And I was like, I don't know.
I had this thing in my mind ofwhat a boudoir shoot was supposed
to look like.
Chains.
And, you know.
Really?
Oh, yeah.
And I was like, that's notwhat I want.
And they're like, okay, well, that's.
That's.
Don't bring your chains.
Yeah.
And then she basically waslike, yeah, so you bring your snowsuit

(01:06:00):
then?
Or.
And then David started tellingdad jokes, something about an aunt.
I'll never remember.
But there's an aunt joke thatyou have?
Yes, there is.
We can't say it.
Okay, we won't say it.
You don't want to ruin it.
But I will say, though, hisdad jokes.
There's two very specificphotos where he makes his dad jokes,
and I just give him that lookof like, are you.
Who are you talking to right now?

(01:06:21):
For me, it just made me loosenup, be like, oh, my gosh, he's a
dork, too.
And I loved it, because then Icould just, like, laugh and be myself.
And that's where, like, youwere able to capture who I am.
Yeah, I think.
I think part of cuttingthrough all the.
You know, as you're.
When you're coming into thestudio, if you're coming in the studio

(01:06:42):
as a woman working with acouple or a guy, you've got all these
societal things in your headthat you're concerned about.
Yes.
And I used the expression guywith camera earlier.
That's one of the.
That's one of the things thata woman coming in to shoot with a
guy might worry about.
So what's he thinking?

(01:07:03):
You know, is he checking me out?
All this kind.
That was definitely my initialthought is.
I couldn't grasp, like, okay,how is a husband and wife comfortable
with this?
How am I supposed to becomfortable in front of me?
Because this is before thetalks that we had the last time.
This is pre.
Getting all into differentaspects of life.
And so, yeah, that was areally hard concept.
Is like, a man is not, like,casually, like, you know, looking

(01:07:27):
at me like this.
He's doing that.
He's, like, actually focusingon me and Pointing a camera at me.
And his wife is standing there.
How does that.
Are they getting off on this?
Yeah, no, I know you're not.
The funny thing.
So there's a photographer inanother state.
On her website, she talksabout this whole thing, about the
photographer's, you know, perspective.

(01:07:49):
And.
And in her faq, she says, so Iget asked a lot, am I checking you
out?
No, I am not checking you out.
I'm checking the lights.
I'm checking.
I'm checking the way thelights, the shadows falling across
your nose and all this kind of stuff.
That's what I was thinkingabout David for in particular, like.
And you're very detailoriented, but, like, you even.
I feel like you're in anotherworld and you're, like, worried about

(01:08:11):
all the technical stuff.
And it's awesome because itmakes me know, okay, I just gotta
be me.
And he's not, like, focusing,you guys.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So in a session with us, like,he focuses.
He focuses more on, like, thelighting and the tech issues and
the gear.
And I'm focusing on, like, ifyour strap is twisted or if you're.
If there's, like, a hairthat's all going haywire.

(01:08:33):
Yeah.
So between the two of us, Imean, you just get amazing shots
with that.
But we do get, you know,people asking, well, is there a man?
Is your husband gonna be there?
And it's like, well, we preferto shoot together.
You know, there are times thatDavid needs to shoot by himself or
myself due to, you know, ifsomeone is ill or family issues or,

(01:08:55):
you know, scheduling conflict.
Scheduling.
Maybe someone's at an expo or something.
And we're both professional inthe concept of we can handle wardrobe,
studio lights, and we're respectful.
And if we're not shootingtogether, we still have an assistant
here with us to help shoot.

(01:09:15):
So that's just to help keepthe comfort level where it needs
to be.
And honestly, I'm not a lone wolf.
I like having someone aroundto help with things and be a second
set of eyes for me.
Yeah.
And for us, it goes back to.
Again, we're not just, like,taking pictures and sexy pictures
and be like, oh, yeah, babe,go look sexy.

(01:09:35):
Right?
And that's one thing we'llnever say is go be sexy.
Because God knows, like, Imean, we all have it in us, but what
does that even look like whenwe try to do it ourselves?
Right.
But really we're looking atthe art behind it and not just taking,
like, oh, that's a pretty picture.
There's so much more of, like,like, oh, my gosh.
Did you see that lighting?

(01:09:55):
Or did you see how it hitsyour hips?
Yeah, like, that's what I hearMelissa will say.
Sometimes I can hear thingsthat aren't said is I can hear you
guys going, okay, we know the backstory.
We know, like, you know, this,and this has happened to them and
what they're, like, hoping for.
And, like, you guys werethinking, like, I want.
Let's.
Are you comfortable with the shot?

(01:10:16):
Let's do this shot.
Because you guys know thatonce we see them, we're gonna be
like.
Like, oh, yeah, that's.
That was what I needed to feel.
X, Y, Z.
I think you guys are thinkingabout the backstory and knowing what.
Knowing their audience, whatthe person needs to feel good.
I think so, too.
Yeah.
And you.
It's apparent.
Sorry, I didn't mean to.

(01:10:37):
It's very apparent when we'rein here.
Like, I was.
I was comfortable.
Like, okay, I was nervous.
Yeah.
But you guys knew how to,like, hey, this is.
And I think it's normal to benervous and excited.
You have those mixed emotionscoming through here.
Because boudoir is a veryvulnerable type of photography.
Right.
You're like, oh, my gosh, I'mgoing to this place with people that

(01:11:01):
I know who do great work, but,oh, my gosh, I think I've never met
them before.
And I'm going to be taking myclothes off.
Do you remember what I said atthe very end of my shoot?
You were like, it's okay ifyou don't, do you?
No.
Okay.
You were so funny.
You were like, I've neverheard anyone say that.
You said, I did it.
I got naked.

(01:11:22):
Yeah.
And I said, oh, my gosh, Ihave to make a T shirt.
And I said, maybe we shouldn'tmake a T shirt.
You should absolutely make a T shirt.
Because I was so empowering.
I didn't think I could.
I like to joke because itliterally happened.
So, Jill.
So I'm like, you know, I'm inmy own little world, and you can
come here and be free as abird and run around the place naked.

(01:11:45):
And I'm busy doing my thing,and I'm, like, thinking about the
next shot and thinking abouthow I'm going to light it and thinking
about what we're going to becovering so that it's not, like,
all out there and all that I'mkind of creating.
I'm trying to create somethingyou would.
That you would hopefully seein the Uffizi gallery one day.
And.
And Jill is always Aware of propriety.

(01:12:06):
And.
And she's always worryingabout, you know, she's a pleaser.
And so we've got.
We had this one client.
She came in nervous, nervous, nervous.
And I don't know, within ahalf an hour.
So she's running around thestudio naked.
And Jill's literally.
No, it was not.
And.
But Jill's literally runningafter her with robe, saying, here,

(01:12:28):
put this on.
And that's really what it's like.
You just get so comfortable,you lose yourself.
And that's what we want.
We want you to come here andjust feel, like.
Feel free to be you.
And I love that Jill wasfollowing her with the robe and not
judgmental in any way.
It was just, here, let me takecare of you.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Because you forgot.

(01:12:49):
And there are times, you know,like, you have your own changing
room.
And we'll say, you know, like,hey, are you dressed?
And some ladies are like, no,come on in.
And I'm just like, oh, I'lljust wait a minute.
And they're like, oh, no, come on.
So.
And everyone is different.
You know, we give the privacyand, you know, the modesty.
You can be as modest andconservative with wearing turtlenecks

(01:13:10):
if you want to, and that's upto you.
We're not like, you have to do.
A, B, or C.
You need to see cleavage or.
Yeah, like, you feel it out.
I remember you guys weretelling me, stop it with the cleavage.
We're worried, you guys.
I can't remember what yousaid, but something like, okay, let's

(01:13:31):
just get a normal shot of yousmiling, like.
And you guys kept telling meto stop smiling.
I was like, but wait, I was.
Pushing my boobs up.
All right, I have a closing question.
Okay.
Yeah.
Who are we talking to?
Who's like, who are wespeaking to?
Who's listening to this episode?
Like, who are you talking to?

(01:13:51):
Saying, like, this is for you.
This is what you need to hearand commit us.
Oh, that's easy.
It's everybody.
Yeah.
So men, women, couples, samesex, anybody, whoever wants to be
in front of the camera, to seethemselves in a whole different light
were for you.

(01:14:11):
And I will say that.
And to say.
To use the phrase in front ofthe camera, Not a lot of people want
to be in front of the camera.
I think that everybody wantsto feel better about themselves.
Yeah.
And if you're willing to takea chance and come put yourself in
front of the camera, come justspend a day with us and don't.

(01:14:33):
And forget about the camera,you're going to just.
You're going to discover thiswhole side of you that you had always
wished was there.
Yeah.
And you'll be pleasantlysurprised to know that the.
That self confident personthat you always wanted to be and
you feel like you're not orthat self confident person is right

(01:14:53):
in there just waiting to be seen.
And when we show you aportrait of yourself looking dead
into the camera, you're justgoing to be going, holy smokes.
And we like to say that peopleleave here wondering where the red
carpet is.
And, and I, and Jill and I,we, we joked about that for long
enough that we actually boughta red carpet, but then we got it

(01:15:15):
really dirty and we tossed it.
Oh, no, we get another one.
Yeah, but.
Yeah, but.
And that just goes back to thepoint that every person, when you
see your photos, that's.
You're never going to beprepared for what we show you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's honestly a perfect noteto end on because.
David, what did you say?

(01:15:35):
Everyone just wants to be seen.
Is that what I heard?
And I feel like that's a bigtopic of what you guys are going
to be hearing in May.
And that's just a really bigsubject of what this season is about
is ways to be seen and ways to.
Feel comfortable and ways toeven see yourself in a weird way,

(01:15:56):
if I can say it that way, notsee yourself in a weird way.
Okay, we need like punctuationin there.
I meant in a weird way.
It's almost as if we're sayingsee yourself.
There we go.
Yeah.
I was like, no, we're notbeing weird.
Cut that.
No, but yes.
Any final words?

(01:16:17):
No.
We thank you guys for comingto our studio.
Yeah.
I think we covered everything that's.
That's important.
You know that, that boudoir isreally all about discovering who
you are and celebrating whoyou are.
Yeah.
And taking a chance withyourself and seeing that.
That you really are abeautiful soul and you got your own

(01:16:37):
kind of beauty.
Yeah.
Thank you.
One soul.
One soul.
So, ladies, take a chance on yourselves.
Did you like the episode thatyou heard today?
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