Savannah Boudoir Photography // Strength & a Sense of Humor featuring Megan

I am SO thrilled to feature Megan on the blog today! I’ve been excited about photographing her session since the day she booked it.

Megan and I go back a long way. My favorite thing about Megan is how she has always been able to make me laugh, no matter the situation. (You can trust that there was SO much laughter during this session!) She’s always been such an amazingly strong person too, and I really wanted to capture that strength in her portraits. Megan also wanted to portray a laid back sense of humor and "just a chill vibe." “The crew definitely achieved the vibe I had hoped for!” she says.

I am totally thrilled with the outcome of this session, and I’m happy to report that Megan was too!

"I was so nervous at first, and the energy changed as soon as I walked in. Emily and her crew made the experience fun for me and I didn't feel uncomfortable at all."

Savannah Boudoir Photography // ...and a little whiskey, too, featuring Becca

Becca has been one of my best friends since I was in the 7th grade. When I called her up a couple of months ago and asked if I could use her gorgeous downtown apartment as a backdrop for this big, crazy, busy marathon, I knew that she’d say yes without hesitation. Even though she asked nothing in return (being my best friend and all!), I wanted her to have the experience of a boudoir session.

I knew we’d have fun with her session! We had so many things going for us—best friends (no embarrassment or nervousness here!), her own space that she’s comfortable with, and, hello, she’s gorgeous! We had time to play with themes (note the bottle of Jack, which was a totally impromptu prop!) and outfits and the session was super relaxed.

"I had a blast doing something I wasn't sure I would be good at!” says Becca. And her advice to other ladies who would like to have boudoir photos done? "Have fun with it! You’re in good hands, so don't be nervous."

Mothers: Tell your daughter you're pretty.

My one-year-old daughter is in that stage where she attempts to repeat everything I say. The other day, I was thumbing through a catalog and she heard me exclaim, "Ooh, pretty!" She grinned and repeated—“Ooh, pri-iy!" It just tickles me to death to hear her repeat words back to me with such clarity and conviction, so I couldn't help but encourage her over the next few days. "Bug, can you tell the doggy she's pretty?" "Gee! Gee pri-iy!"

In our culture, we put a whole lot of emphasis on pretty. Because of this, as mothers, we want our daughters to feel pretty. When my little bug gets out of the bathtub and sees herself in the mirror, I always catch myself saying, "Who is that pretty girl? It's you! You're such a pretty girl, Liv!" Until recently, the impact of those words never really occurred to me. I just felt that I was encouraging my daughter because, after all, don't we all want to feel and believe that we're pretty?

My sweet little Liv. She's very "pri-iy!"

This morning, an interesting TED Talk came across my news feed. It was titled, "Why thinking you're ugly is bad for you." Bad for you? I thought. Well it's not a good thing, but is it really bad for you?

In the 12 minute lecture, Meaghan Ramsey discusses how feeling ugly negatively effects all of us, right down to test scores and job placement. The truth of it is, because our culture puts so much emphasis and effort into aesthetics, when we feel ugly, we feel less valuable, and so we don't perform as well. As I watched the video, I thought about my little girl. Of course I want to change the world; of course I want pretty to mean less, or at least something different. But for the next twenty years, as she's growing up and she's impressionable to her peers and how they see her, what can I do to prove to her that she's worthy—or, in modern words, "pretty?"

All of my parenting books tell me that my daughter is a sponge. That she will observe the world around her and what she absorbs will form her personality. And, above all, she will mimic how my husband and I live our lives and see and treat ourselves. So, if I don't think I'm pretty, will my little girl believe me when I say she's pretty?

"Mom, stop it, you're embarrassing me with all this talk about how pretty I am."

One thing I love about working with mothers on boudoir sessions is that giving them a confidence boost, showing them how incredibly beautiful they are, will spill over into their everyday lives. When I was growing up, I never heard my mother compliment herself. She would always agonize over being fat, wrinkly, or some other aspect of herself that she hated. And so, though I was always thin and "pretty," like most girls, I still nit-picked at myself. I still hated my tummy and my crooked teeth and when I looked in the mirror, those were the first things I saw. I have to wonder—if my mother had told me she was beautiful, would I have had a different idea of beauty?

Food for thought, ladies. Happy Monday! Do something awesome this week!