Free from the Herd: On-Location Boudoir

Where to begin…where to begin….

You know when I sit down to write these blogs I don’t really have anything planned to say, I have never been one to write that way.  I sort of just put my fingers on the keyboard, think about the experience of the session and look at what the images evoke in me…and then I just type. I want this blog to be a place where we have a dialogue, where we can be real, where we can be un-ashamedly ourselves. So I don’t sit and over analyze. I just sort of let myself talk directly to you.

I find that doesn’t happen alot on our society.  People just talking to each other.  It is always shared memes, copied and pasted stories and articles, but so seldom anymore do I see real communication. Rarely do I even engage in it myself, and if we are going to keep rocking with this honesty thing… I miss it.

Our world right now is so saturated with politics and forcing ideas down each others throats that no one is even talking anymore.  Now these are important conversations to be had, the state of the Free World is literally on the line…but with so much being forced down our throat from the news, to social media, to commercials, and emails, I feel like we are becoming a society of sheep that are being herded. Every day we are being told what to think, how to act what to wear, who to like….IT IS OVERWHELMING!

Every day we are being told what to think, how to act what to wear, who to like….

I think that is what I love so much about this safe place we have created….this bubble of sorts where we are allowed to just be ourselves.  To be wild women, free women, to have the time to think an independent, un-provoked good thought about ourselves, is a rare commodity these days.

It didn’t occur to me at first, when Beth and I were out shooting….

 I like to go out and shoot for myself every once in a while.  While boudoir is my business, it is also my passion, and the desire to create for the soul has not yet escaped me. We finished at our first location and decided to just chase the sun and the light and drive until something inspired me to stop….that was when we saw the sheep farm.  We hooked a quick U-turn and asked a nice older man, checking his mail, if we could shoot on his property and then we were off.

I think I am going to let Beth take it from here:

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““I will not be another flower, picked for my beauty and left to die. I will be wild, difficult to find and impossible to forget.” –Erin Van Vuren

A few weeks ago, I received a text from Lindsay asking if I wanted to shoot in approximately two hours. She wanted bare. Natural. Messy hair. Well, that day I happened to be at work with no makeup and next day hair. Beautiful accident? I think so. Lindsay had a spot or two in mind for this session. We headed out, I stripped down and so it began. Little did we know the adventure that would ensue. I climbed into a field of tall wild grass and flowers on an abandoned farm with the beautiful fall sunset. It was pure, raw and so freeing.

After feeling we got the content Lindsay wanted, we asked ourselves “should we look for another spot?” With Lindsay, I’m always down for an experience. We wandered somewhat aimlessly for about ten minutes before coming upon an incredible farm. THIS is where Lindsay’s talented eye, creativity and imagination exploded and everything came together.

Lindsay captured me against the backdrop of a herd of sheep. The juxtaposition of my body in its most bare and free state, against these herded animals; all of whom were raised to follow the herd. The symbolism struck as we drove away. The next day I found myself pondering the night before and the meaning behind it. So often we as women, are pressured by the beauty norms and standards that society wants us to mold into. To follow the herd, so to speak.

Unfollow the herd.”

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