Can You Be Too Old for a Boudoir Session
Spoiler – It’s a Myth! There is no age when you are too old for a boudoir session.
Here are some stories to my point.
First, on her 70th birthday, Verona came in for her first boudoir session. I have photographed Verona and her family for decades. When we first met, she and her boys were planning to celebrate a remarkable anniversary. She had been looking for a photographer who grasped how emotionally important this was to them. She picked me.
Over the years, I kept asking her to come in for a boudoir session. She looked terrific, and her eyes always sparkled mischievously. But it was always a no.
Then, out of the blue, she called. She was turning 70 in 365 days, she explained. Would I do a boudoir session with her on her birthday? My assistant Fran took the session information. I was expecting it to be pretty modest and fairly quick. She was always a busy lady.
Come session day, Fran pointed out she was looking for an adventure. She was going to go bold. Verona had bought custom corsets and planned a fun, expressive day.
As makeup was applied, she explained that she did not want any “old lady glamour.” She had brought her corsets, sheer robes, and heels. For some, she whispered, “I just want to wear my smile!”
It was uninhibited, expressive fun. Verona outdid herself.
At any age, the magic of our sessions is empowering, and confidence floods in, not that she needed more! When she left, on a spur-of-the-moment thing, she went to the Calgary Sun to post an ad. “Seventyish woman looking for like-aged man for mutual spoiling.”
Her bold personal ad was a success. Of the several men she dated, one she connected wonderfully with. He, too, was divorced.
At the Valentine’s rendezvous in a mountain chalet, she showed him her book for the first time. It triggered a marriage proposal. They both insisted I do their wedding photos since I clearly was the lynchpin of the proposal.
It was a fantastic wedding.
Little side note: 30 clients have gotten proposals directly triggered by gifts or showing off their boudoir/nude images. That will be another blog.
My next story starts with a young 20-something woman. During her planning session, I asked Eve why she was booking a boudoir/nude session. “Ah,” she said, “it’s because all this (she motioned up and down her body) is looking pretty good. But it could fade away at any time.”
The next week, an older woman came in. During her planning session, the same question came up: Why? “Well,” Heather said, “I am looking pretty good right now, but this could change quickly!” I chuckled at how the thought seemed ageless. And, yes, both have their remarkable figures immortalized.
For Stacy, it was an unexpected twist. She explained she was way past that sort of thing. She was a widow with no men in her life. She had gotten a gorgeous gown that begged for a glamour shoot. After makeup, she showed me her dresses on the hanger. Then Stacy opened a small case and pulled out skimpy lingerie and sheer scarves. “I packed them on impulse,” she vaguely explained, “I have no idea why. . . perhaps, if I look good, I could try some.”
Stacy smiled sheepishly, “After you asked about it, I could not stop thinking about it. This sort of thing was frowned upon when I was young.” We did the glamour with the dresses but spent way more time with the lingerie and nudes. She got bolder, had more fun, and played up her mischievousness.
Stacy grinned as she was leaving, sharing how she felt, “I feel so much younger now. I will have to do this whenever I feel my age!”
At any age, we want to feel good about ourselves, feel sexy, and, of course, have fun. No matter who you are, a little more confidence and feeling your power are always good.
I do adapt my lighting and posing. We are not as bendy as we were in our youth, but I have so many posing suggestions that work for any age.
Frankie’s story is best expressed in her own words. Frankie loves her sessions so much that she has had three so far. The last was outdoors; she is very much an outdoor woman, but rarely with no clothes on. That day, even the mosquitoes were mindful. She is a fearless woman.
Frankie is a rare person with a traumatic back story (you can hear about that and her healing in her http://FascinatingWomen.ca podcast with me). She goes deep into self-healing and sharing.
She was not expecting to be so bold, but she just embraced it once she started.
Here is Frankie sharing her experience:
“In July, I experienced Mark’s artistry with his Her Body Speaks project. It was scary and empowering at the same time.
I have been like a giddy little girl ever since – so not like me!! I get excited about showing my photos to others, with pride. I see my healing and beauty, within.
It has been a long process of taking off the armour to be able to release this sensual side of me. Every step outside my comfort zone, such as this, empowers me and helps shed another layer.
As a 70-year-old woman, one has no idea how exciting it is to feel free and beautiful and sexy in love with yourself.
Another bold moment, with Mark’s artistry, would be amazing.”
She has two books created for each of her personal sessions. The body painting really touched her soul. Going outdoors for the second session was exhilarating for her. Many images had deep emotional connections to her that the casual viewer would not connect with.
Which is okay and fairly common in all my work.
I have been photographing boudoir, nudes, and glamour of women for nearly 45 years. We now have women I photographed in the 80s when they were in their twenties and thirties chatting about a new session.
They trust we will still find their beauty and their essence. They believe I can work with what they see as the challenges of their bodies. Of course, I can.
This is the difference in our studio. What sets us apart from other boudoir studios. We have always photographed boudoir and nudes of all ages and shapes. You might not get a sense of their age in all our images because of my lighting and posing.
Beauty is ageless. So, yes, a woman can have a nude or boudoir photography session at any age. What a woman gets out of these sessions is also ageless. The confidence, the sense they are still sexy and attractive, the empowerment, plus the pure fun of it.
Older women have more personality to bring to sessions like mine. Living longer does that.
One thing most mentioned was that they all wished they had done this when they were younger.
Is a woman ever too old for a boudoir or nude photography session?
Never, as you can see by the women I talked about here.
In the words of one husband giving his wife a perspective to book her session, “You will never be as young as you are today again!”