The Session You've Been Putting Off: Why There's No Perfect Time for Your Boudoir Session

I ask every client the same question at some point during their session. What made you decide to do this?

The answers are always different. A milestone birthday. A divorce. A friend who did it and wouldn't stop talking about it. Sometimes just a feeling that it was time.

One client stopped and thought about it for a second and then said her family member told her to do it. Not for anyone else. Just so she'd have it someday. So she could look back.

I haven't stopped thinking about that answer.

Because that family member understood something that a lot of women don't give themselves permission to believe. That you are worth documenting right now. Not when you're thinner or older or further along or more ready. Right now. So that someday future you can look back and see exactly who you were at this moment in your life.

There Is No Perfect Time

My wife and I never waited for the perfect time for anything. We had kids when the timing wasn't ideal. We built a life together without waiting for everything to line up exactly right. Looking back the decisions we made without overthinking them are the ones we're most grateful for.

The women who book sessions without waiting for the perfect body or the perfect moment tell me the same thing every single time. They're glad they did it now. The ones who keep waiting reach out years later and say I wish I hadn't waited so long.

There is no perfect time. There is just now.

The Goalpost That Keeps Moving

I'll do it when I lose the last fifteen pounds. Then it becomes ten. Then five. Then there's something else. The goalpost keeps moving and the session keeps not happening and another year goes by.

I understand it. The camera feels unforgiving. You have a version of yourself in your head that you're waiting to inhabit before you let someone photograph you. But here's what I've learned shooting women in Los Angeles for years. The version of you that you're waiting for? She's not more photogenic than the version of you that exists right now. She's just an idea. The woman in front of my camera is real. And real is what photographs beautifully.

The images we create together don't lie. But they also don't see what you see when you're being hard on yourself. They see what your family member sees. What the people who love you see. What you deserve to see.

Every Woman. Every Body. Every Reason.

The women who come to Black Kat Studios are not a type.

They're mothers who have spent years taking care of everyone else and finally decided to do something entirely for themselves. Executives who are always in control and want to feel something different for one afternoon. Nurses and teachers and attorneys and artists and women who work at coffee shops and women who run companies. Women who train six days a week and women who haven't been to a gym in years. Women turning 30 and women turning 50 and women who stopped counting.

Some of them come in because they're celebrating something. A milestone birthday, a divorce finalized, a chapter ending or beginning. Some of them come in because someone who loves them told them they should. Some of them come in because they've been thinking about it for three years and finally stopped finding reasons not to.

All of them leave with something they didn't expect. Not just images. A memory of the afternoon they decided they were worth it.

What You'll Have

Someday you will look back at photographs of yourself taken right now and you will feel something. Maybe gratitude that you did it. Maybe disbelief at how good you looked. Maybe both.

The women who waited tell me they wish they hadn't. The women who didn't wait tell me it was one of the best decisions they ever made.

You don't have to feel ready. You don't have to have it all figured out. At some point you just have to tell yourself you're worth it. Because you are. You always were.

And someday, looking at those images, you'll say one of two things.

I was hot.

Or better yet, looking at them right now: I am.

If you want to know what a session actually costs before you ever pick up the phone, we publish all of our pricing openly with no contact form required. If you want to know what to expect from start to finish, the prepare for your session guide covers everything. If you want to know what to wear, the what to wear guide has you covered. And if you want to see the locations we work with throughout Los Angeles those are on the locations page.

When you're ready to stop waiting, book your complimentary Vision Call at blackkatstudios.com/schedule or text me directly at 909-234-2711.

Rick Black Kat Studios Los Angeles