Twenty years. That is still an absolutely insane thing for me to type.
My Gen-X and millennial friends – do you ever feel like you’re still 22, then you hang out with a 22-year-old and you’re like WHOA, I am definitely not 22 anymore?
This summer marked twenty years since I officially started my photography business, which means I have now spent two decades with a camera in my hands, through multiple studios, questionable fashion choices, technology that is now laughably obsolete, thousands upon thousands of photographs, and more stories than I could ever count. HELLO 1MB MEMORY STICK – if you know, you know.
For seventeen of those years, I have specialized in boudoir photography, and somewhere along the way I realized that this work was about so much more than taking beautiful photographs. I have spent an enormous amount of time listening to women while they’re sitting in my hair and makeup chair, nervously changing into lingerie, looking at the back of my camera and saying, “WAIT, THAT’S ME?” or sitting next to me during their reveal and ordering appointment.
I’ve heard about marriages and divorces, babies and infertility, careers and layoffs, cancer and surgeries, grief and celebrations. I’ve photographed bodies that changed and women whose entire lives changed. I’ve heard about the dreams they were chasing, the things they wished they’d done differently, and the experiences they’d been putting off for years because the timing wasn’t right yet.
After twenty years of those conversations, there is one word I have heard in a thousand different forms:
Someday.
I’ll do it someday when I lose the weight. Someday when I feel more confident. Someday when the kids are older. Someday when I have more money, work settles down, my body looks different, life isn’t quite so fucking busy, or I finally feel ready.
Except someday is really fucking sneaky, because there will almost always be another reason to wait.
I’ve been thinking about that a LOT as I’ve looked back over twenty years in business. I recently wrote about the Wall of Stories in my studio and the women whose stories I still remember years later. I wrote about what photographing more than a thousand women has taught me about confidence, and how I no longer think confidence is some magical destination we finally reach before we’re allowed to live our lives.
Those posts started as reflections on twenty years in business, but they kept bringing me back to the same conclusion.
FUCK SOMEDAY.
I don’t want to spend my life waiting for it. I don’t want that for my daughter, and after twenty years of photographing women who have trusted me with pieces of their lives, I sure as hell don’t want it for them either.
Wear the dress you’ve been saving. Get in the photograph instead of always being the person taking it. Take the trip. Celebrate the birthday. Use the expensive perfume instead of saving it for an occasion important enough to deserve it. Go swimming instead of sitting on the edge because you hate how you look in a swimsuit. Order dessert. Say the thing. Take up space. Book the fucking boudoir session.
Not because every day needs to become YOLO chaos and we should all abandon our responsibilities and move to Sicily tomorrow. Although listen, I could make a compelling argument for Sicily and I did find a house that would be PERFECT for my family, just sayin’.
YOUR LIFE IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.
Whether you like it or not – you are the youngest you will ever be RIGHT NOW.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have goals or want things to change. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t save money, work toward something, improve our health, build a business, raise our kids, or make plans for the future. It means the life we’re building toward cannot be the only life we’re willing to live.
There will always be another ten pounds. Another goal. Another bill. Another busy season. Another reason that right now isn’t quite the perfect time.
At some point, we have to decide that the person we are today gets to live too.
And THAT is how I want to celebrate twenty years in business.
20 Years. 20 Sessions.
I knew I wanted to do something special for this anniversary, but I didn’t want it to be a generic sale slapped onto a milestone. I wanted the celebration to actually reflect what these twenty years have taught me, and what I want the next twenty to stand for.
So if you’ve been telling yourself “someday,” I’m giving you a pretty damn good reason to make someday now.
For October, I have four appointments available. I even opened up extra dates on my calendar to make sure that you could get in NOW.
The individual session fee is $20, the couples session fee is $75, and October clients will receive 20% off their collection.
Why only four October sessions? Because I technically could squeeze in five, but after twenty years I have apparently also learned that doing so would kick my ass.
We call this growth. 😂
For sessions photographed November 1 through January 31, the individual session fee is $99, the couples session fee is $149, and you’ll receive a $200 credit toward your collection.
The anniversary benefits can also be combined with eligible returning-client credits, referral credits, and my 5% cash bonus. Collection prepayment is required before your session, and sessions must take place by January 31, 2027 to receive the anniversary benefits. If your session is rescheduled beyond January 31, the anniversary benefits are forfeited and standard pricing applies.
Booking is open through October 12.
There are twenty anniversary sessions available, and when they’re gone, they’re gone. Only four of those sessions are available in October.
Maybe you’ve wanted to book a boudoir session for ten years. Maybe you’ve been quietly following my work for three. Maybe you almost booked once and talked yourself out of it. Maybe you’ve done this before, but you’re a completely different person now.
Or maybe nothing monumental is happening in your life whatsoever and you simply fucking want to.
That is enough.
You don’t need a milestone or a smaller body. You don’t need a partner to give the photographs to. You don’t need permission from anyone else to spend money on yourself, celebrate yourself, document yourself, or have an experience simply because it sounds fun. And as we’ve already established, you definitely don’t have to wait until you’re confident.
Twenty years of doing this has made me painfully aware of how quickly chapters change. Bodies change. Relationships change. Kids grow up. People move. We lose people we thought we’d have forever. Sometimes the things we thought we’d get around to “someday” don’t wait for us.
I don’t say that to make life feel scary or urgent. I say it because being here is worth celebrating while we’re actually here.
This anniversary started as a celebration of twenty years in business, but somewhere in the process of looking backward, I realized I care much more about what we do with the years in front of us.
So yes, we’re celebrating twenty years.
Yes, there are twenty sessions.
Yes, there are some pretty fucking great anniversary perks.
But more than anything, this is your invitation to stop waiting for some imaginary future version of yourself to finally have permission to live your life the way you want to live it.
FUCK SOMEDAY.
Do the thing.
