When Kelly became a young widow nine years ago she found herself on the edge of an abyss.
“I had to learn to release my expectations of what my life would look like and lean into the unknown, the discomfort, and the unpredictability of life. Since then I have learned to take each day one at a time, to heal and to live a little less afraid,” Kelly explained.
Part of that journey included finding out who she was without her husband and who she could be, especially after her son left for college. She knew this picture of herself needed to accept her body as it is today and that not only was she worthy, but that she was worthy of finding love again.
It was then that Kelly began thinking about doing her own boudoir session, as a way to not only celebrate her own self-worth, but as a way to embrace life itself.
“A friend first showed me Allebach Photography’s work because I had mentioned wanting to do a boudoir shoot. We happened to be spending a girl’s weekend in the Catskill’s surrounded by forests and I kept saying I wanted these images to be taken of me surrounded by lush greens, dappled sunlight and deep earth tones,” she said.
For Kelly, there was never a question that the great outdoors was where these photographs should be captured.
“You could say I’ve always been drawn to those elements since growing up in the country with vast acres of land as my playground. This thread can be woven throughout my life even with the quote I’d written for my husband’s funeral card – ‘A wild delight runs through the spirit in the presence of nature.’”
“I can sum up my love affair of the outdoors with these words I wrote after a trip to Labrynthe Vert Nebias in Southern France –
Let the forest winds sing in my ears
Let the forest branches brush against my soul
Let the forest rocks ground my spirit
Let the forest moss give me comfort”
She continued, “In my consultation with Mike, I discussed wanting to do the shoot outside, even including some water shots. When Mike said he was willing to shoot the session outdoors, which is my happy place, I gave a resounding yes! As much as I loved his studio work, I knew it wouldn’t represent the ‘me’ I wanted to portray. I wanted to work with a photographer who could capture my love of the outdoors and Mike was willing to give it a try and had shot outside before.”
The team traveled to a nearby park, which winded up being perfect since Kelly says she spends a lot of her time there.
Mike and Erika were able to capture all of the outdoor elements as they guided Kelly – lying on a log by a small pond, leaning up against a giant tree, lying amongst the stones, standing strong along the path or using a found leaf spray as coverage – finishing up with poses by and in the water. She also loved that as the session unfolded, she was able to provide her own input and suggestions on poses.
“I initially was very nervous about ‘exposing’ myself outdoors but once the session started, I felt at ease. No one cared about what we were doing and no one commented on there being a partially nude human in the park,” says Kelly, who added that it allowed her to shed a lot of notions of shame she had been carrying about her body.
“I let my inner goddess shine! Erika and Mike were amazing guides in revealing my power, strength and inner goddess in the images they captured. They are magicians!”
Kelly said there were two things that led her to booking with us. First, that we were so accommodating in our willingness to shoot outside of the studio and second, that we make it our goal to work with people of all body types.
“I loved the fact that they were very inclusive of every body type and size!” says Kelly.
Kelly left her session feeling not only like her true, every day self was captured, but also a side of her that she didn’t even know existed.
“Mike and Erika were able to capture the power of my spirit and the comfort in my soul with their images. Most importantly they allowed a piece of myself (that had been lost with the death of my husband) to find it’s way back to the surface.”
To book your own boudoir session with Allebach Photography call 610.539.6920 or visit http://allebachphotography.com/contact/.
Got questions? For more info schedule a phone call with us at http://meetme.so/allebachphone or join our facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/allebachboudoirvip