My advice for new photographers:

You DO NOT need tons of gear and the most expensive lens, camera bodies, etc. Get a good full frame camera and 1 lens that you can/will use for most things, and rent everything else when you need it. If you don’t live in a city with a photo rental store, rent online. It’s actually way less expensive than you think! My kit started this way, and although I have a backup body and a few other lenses now, I still mostly just use my main body (R5) and my 50mm 1.2.

Try new things – boudoir was the LAST genre of photography I tried – I was years into my studies at that point. Try everything and then consider what you want for your life. Your values. Your daily desires. Like really think about it. What are you passionate about outside of photography? Do you want to travel or are you a homebody? Do you jive well with people, do you not? Do you want to be more sedentary or more active? Do you want to work with big companies or one on one with private clients? These seem like simple questions, but they are hands down the only way to figure out where you fit in photography. There are soooooo many different types of work in this field. Personally I like a mix of mostly people work! You may not!

All of this advice comes from mistakes I made early on, investing too much in props and other costuming I thought I needed. Diving first (before boudoir) into the toxic world of advertising photography (which notably has gotten better over years, but 10 years ago it was not), meanwhile I had studied psych for years before with a focus on how the media affects body image. See the disconnect? I was miserable in that field of photography, but insanely happy in this one.

So take my advice, focus on the subject, focus on the work, focus on you and what makes you feel good. Running a business is like driving on a road with tons of potholes and forks in the road where you get stopped up and have to make constant fixes and redirects and that’s okay! It’s the nature of it. Go with the flow and just keep swimming. You will get there if you can persevere. There were soooooo many times in my first few years where I almost quit and I’m so so glad I didn’t. And even that doesn’t mean I don’t still fail. I still make bad business decisions and have to redirect. I am still learning and I fully embrace that. Never get stuck in the fixed mindset. Always seek to learn and discover new things about yourself. We are not set in stone creatures, we are a fluid as water, gender, sexuality, constantly shifting throughout our lives. Learn to love that.

Location: Out East in the Desert at Moses Lake Sand Dunes & Mudflats, Wild Horses Monument

Client: Ruby (insta: rubalicious007)