Distance is a relative thing; it needs context to set it.
Stephanie’s airplane touched down Friday noon. She was through customs and hailing her Uber driver 90 minutes later. She had never been to Canada.
She strolled into my studio the next day, refreshed, no makeup, big smile; excited to start her session.
She settled into the makeup chair. After a bit our artist asked, “How did you find Mark?”
“Oh,” Stephanie replied, “I did a Google search for a photographer near me.”
Our artist paused her eyeliner brush mid-air. “But you came from another country? Google said Mark was the closest, no one else?”
Stephani laughed. “It was when I refined the question. I was very clear on the experience I wanted, and I am very particular with who I’m going to photograph me nude!”
Our makeup artist shared her laugh, “Of course!”
So distance is relative when you get clear with what you fully want.
For most women, the request for a boudoir photographer near to me has been limited to Calgary and the surrounding area.
Some women are less concerned with “how close is a boudoir or nude photographer to me” and more with the creativity, quality and adventure experience they want
For others, the distance in the question is not how far they have to go but rather how far will it go to them. It could be me going to their home, a cool location like the mountains or badlands or a cabin on the lake.
For some, it is a country away. My answer has been and remains, yes, we can go there.
So far, I have booked sessions at 16 different countries, all of Canada except for the Northwest Territories and Newfoundland. I do love to travel!
For those women, I guess their question would be what boudoir photographer would like to travel to be near me.
We had one inquiry from a couple in New York. They had come across our ad in the Robb Report, a very high-end car and exotic toys magazine. We talked for a bit; they were very excited about what I could create for them. It turned out, they did not have a real grasp of the size of Canada.
They were visiting friends just across the border and thought while they were there, they would pop over to my studio for a day’s session adventure. She asked if it would be one or two hours to get to me, they were driving.
More likely it would be 4 to 6 days depending on how hard you drove, I explained. She was surprised at the distances. She shifted her plans for a session several months later and flew in.
Trish was a former Texas beauty queen, a crown earned years back. She was stunning and very clever. She flew up for one session had so much fun she booked a second session for the following week. She had a limo drop her off, then be on call because she was not sure when she would be done.
Trish flew in for the viewing, upon seeing her images she decided her husband should help make the choices. He was flying back to North America from a business trip so she called, asking him to detour to Calgary so she could show him a surprise.
It was as casual as asking your partner to pick up ice cream on the way home from work.
He was curious about the gift so adjusted his route for a Calgary stopover. He was delighted with his gift. They had 5 homes to fill walls with images plus they ordered several books. I was delighted too!
On the other end of the scale, we have clients who take transit. Their question of being near is really how close are we to a transit route. We are very close to the Heritage LRT Station. While we are a 5 to 6 min walk from there, I usually pick our clients up. Yup, a Google search for a “boudoir photographer close to me.” Is a relative thing. I am surprised and pleased with the 5,215 women over the years who searched and found us “close” to them.