Boudoir Photo Session with an athlete | Powerful and Feminine

There is a common desire for all of us to want to express ourselves and be heard and understood. This often times is put into physical form such as: the clothing we wear, paintings, the way we decorate our homes, or something as simple as a printed diploma to show our hard work and interest. And then there are our bodies.

Body building has become a common feat today for those who work to become stronger and capable of lifting heavier and accomplishing new goals. Yet this has always been present in our history with sporting events that revolve around pushing ourselves to achieve incredible tasks. I worked on a boudoir session with a client who is a body builder and wanted to showcase her strength and accomplishment.

The idea was to capture images that would serve as a testament of her hard work and dedication and the beauty of the power we have within ourselves to meet our goals while also highlighting her femininity.

While my photo sessions are always planned in advance, there are times when we decide to go with the flow and explore different routes while in the studio. The reason being that sometimes clients feel more comfortable when we are shooting and they want to try different styles of photography. My client originally planned for a bikini shoot but decided to also shoot artistic boudoir. Since she is a body builder my goal was to capture her strength and body composition.

Lighting is key to highlighting muscles and showing how toned the body is, thus focusing on the play of shadows and light is essential. Everything in the studio, including the body, will cast shadows, ensuring that the client is posed in a way that caters for this is very important. Notice in the images that every part of the body is visible.

The feets, legs, and arms sometimes need another extra light focused on them to ensure that they aren’t lost in shadow. And while lighting is an asset, proper posing is a must for capturing the best body building photos. I made sure that my client did poses where the body naturally flexed and the muscles were shown.

Adding a chair or posing tubes are great furniture pieces to create poses that engage the body, though the same results can be achieved sitting on the floor with more elaborate poses.

A great example is having one leg crossed lower towards the ground while the other is crossed higher with the knee pointed towards the ceiling and the toes in ballerina form towards the ground. Holding this pose engages the legs but also the core as it has to work to keep the balance and back straight.

Boudoir is an intimate form of art but not because of the bareness of the body but rather what the subject is representing. In this case my client wanted to gift an album to her husband where she felt not only beautiful but strong and powerful as well. Her husband is a relationship therapist and understands the importance of not only supporting his wife but also doing things that make one feel beautiful and proud of themselves. There is the phrase “body and soul” that reminds me that the two often go together and being strong physically strengthens the mind as well and establishes the concept that we are capable of achieving whatever we set our minds to

Boudoir Photography Master Course

Photography: Yuliya Panchenko

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