Boudoir in the Wild with Jasmin Jade

April 1, 2022 Artist Spotlight

Clubhouse Conversation: Jasmin Jade

We often think of boudoir as a genre that needs to be accomplished behind closed doors, but what happens when we take boudoir into the wild?

In the latest episode of the Portrait System Podcast: Clubhouse Edition, Kevin Conde and Ashleigh Taylor chat with Jasmin Jade, indoor and outdoor boudoir photographer and owner of Embrace Presets.

When Kevin and Ashleigh found out that Jasmin shoots boudoir outside, they just had to bring her on the Clubhouse to find out all about how she does it. Be sure to listen to the whole podcast to hear awesome logistical tips for shooting boudoir outside like:

  • how to pick great locations with plenty of different private settings,
  • shooting in permitted places vs shooting in places that require no permits,
  • how many wardrobe changes make sense and how to accomplish them outside,
  • different ways to provide hair and makeup for your clients,
  • what time of day is best,
  • what gear you really need and what is just extra weight to lug,
  • how does weather affect outdoor shoot scheduling,
  • and which passersby will likely ignore you and which ones just might give you a piece of their mind.

Jasmin also tells all on how she runs her marketing. This covers everything from branding, to using social media to find clients and build community, to how to get people to sign up to your email list, and what kinds of storytelling messages will build relationship and keep you top of mind.

In this blog, you’ll find some of  Jasmin’s gorgeous portraits, links to her websites, and answers to some bonus questions.

Here are links to some things mentioned in this conversation:

You might also enjoy these Portrait System courses on body image and boudoir:

Q: When did you first come across Sue Bryce Education, and how has it affected your career?

A: I came across Sue Bryce Education very early in my career, in 2013, as a newbie photographer. I realized that I had much more passion for photographing women and was already doing so through model calls. When I started with Sue Bryce Education (28 Days), I was mesmerized and hooked with photographing women. I immersed myself into the Sue Bryce posing education. Through the whole process, I was able to decide on a direction and open my first studio.

Q: When first starting out, many photographers hit roadblocks on their journey to start their business — whether they feel their equipment isn’t good enough or need a studio to start a business. What roadblocks did you encounter, and how did you get over them?

A: The main roadblock when starting my business was not knowing what I wanted and where my passion really laid.

I started off photographing all the kids and their families in the neighborhood and then went on to photographing maternity and newborns, but having a direction and passion was missing. As a matter of fact, it was when I took a newborn workshop by a local photographer that I was introduced to Sue Bryce. Once I did the inner work, I found my passion and niche.

Editing was also a major hurdle for me. Finding my editing style was important to me and a work in progress. With all the opinions out there about what is right and how you should do things, it is hard to sometimes focus on listening to your own voice and discovering your own unique style. I started hand editing each photo for hours because I thought that was the right way. It took me years to finally realize I can do anything I set my mind to and get over this hurdle.

Q: How do you feel about your current work/life balance?

A: I’m a mom of two boys and a serial entrepreneur.

I wish I could tell you all the best-kept secrets to achieving the perfect work-life balance, but the reality is for me, there is no balance. I am either working or being a mom and taking care of my kids and household. I am on all the time, and yes, sometimes this can feel like a lot, but I would not have it any other way! Balance is a work in progress, and I do have to force myself to take a break sometimes. Release and recharge. I read somewhere that we should remember to be like the trees and animals in the winter. Let go. Recharge to come back renewed.

Q: What (beyond money) has owning a business given you?

A: Before I started my photography business, I really did not have a direction in my life. I became a mom and moved halfway across the world from my home in Germany to Hawaii with my husband, who was in the US military at the time. Owning a business gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment, but not only that, I also discovered strengths inside me that I didn’t know existed prior. I discovered that I have an entrepreneurial spirit and that I can do anything I set my mind to. I learned a lot about myself, and that I can live the life of my dreams.

I learned that the possibilities are endless if you are open to them. Owning a business for me meant spiritual growth and really getting to know myself better.

Q: What is your favorite advice that you’ve been given along your journey that has helped you the most?

A: The best advice I’ve been given was very early on when I discovered Sue Bryce. Sue said, “When you want to change something, you just have to make the decision and go do it. Just do it,” and that’s exactly what I did.


Subscribe to The Podcast

ART19SpotifyStitcherTuneInRadioPublicApple Podcast


 

 

Jasmin Jade

Follow Jasmin: Website – InstagramFacebook

Embrace Presets: Website – Instagram


 

Transcript

Click Here to Read the Podcast Transcript

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Please note this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors.

00:00:00:21 – 00:00:37:09

Welcome to the Portrait System podcast. I’m your host, Nikki Closser, and this show is here to help you succeed in the world of photography and business, to help you learn to become financially free doing what you love and so much more. With over 1 million downloads, countless photographers have taken what they’ve learned from both our episodes and from theportraitsystem.com. And they have grown their businesses, quit their day jobs, and are designing a life of their dreams. We keep it real and share stories about the ups and downs that come with running a photography business. You’ll hear real-life stories of how other photographers run their business, and you’ll learn actionable steps that you can take to reach your own goals.

00:00:37:18 – 00:00:40:06

Thank you so much for being here. And let’s get started.

00:00:41:05 – 00:01:12:09

Hey, everyone, it’s Ashleigh Taylor, and I’m excited to introduce you to this week’s Clubhouse Edition of the podcast. This week, Kevin and I spoke with Jasmin Jade Boudoir, photographer and creator of Embrace Presets. You can even find some of her presets for sale in The Portrait Masters Store. In this chat, we talk to Jasmin about her unique outdoor boudoir sessions, which she branded into the Wild Sessions.

00:01:12:25 – 00:01:30:09

This is such a great idea for those who want to shoot Boudoir but don’t have a studio. We went deep on how to shoot, market, edit, and sell these sessions and it was such a great episode. We can’t wait for you to listen. So let’s get started.

00:01:30:27 – 00:02:01:04

Welcome, everyone, to the Portrait System Podcast Clubhouse Edition. My name is Kevin Conde and I’m here with my co-host, Ashleigh Taylor. If you are not familiar with The Portrait System, we are a portrait photography podcast that is powered by Sue Bryce. Nikki Closser hosts our Monday episodes and Ashleigh and I co-host our Clubhouse Edition, which is live here on the Clubhouse app every Friday at noon Pacific and sometimes at 1 p.m. So and then our episodes are released on Thursdays. You can tune in on your favorite podcast app by searching for The Portrait System.

00:02:01:18 – 00:02:03:04

Ashleigh, How are you doing today?

00:02:04:01 – 00:02:19:13

I’m great, Kevin. I’m excited to be here with you today on Clubhouse and YouTube Live and I’m so excited that our guest is Jasmin Jade because she’s an amazing photographer and I got to know her at The Portrait Masters Shootout this year. So welcome, Jasmin.

00:02:20:07 – 00:02:22:19

Hi. Happy to be here. Yay.

00:02:22:21 – 00:02:54:28

Well, before we jump into our interview with you, I just like to remind our clubhouse listeners that for the first 30 minutes, Kevin and I will interview Jasmin. And then at the halfway point, we’ll open it up to your questions. So if you have a question, and you’re listening in the clubhouse app, you just need to hit the hand icon in the lower right hand part of your screen. And then we can bring you up on stage to ask Jasmin your question. And if you think of your question too early, you can just write it down so you don’t forget.

00:02:55:25 – 00:03:00:02

There you go. Thank you. Welcome to the podcast, Jasmin.

00:03:00:29 – 00:03:01:14

Hi.

00:03:02:14 – 00:03:28:24

So we are excited to have you on. As Ashleigh said, we got the opportunity to meet you at the Portrait System Shootout. And since then, we’ve kind of we’ve kept up with you on Instagram, started seeing everything you were doing, and we noticed that you were focusing on outdoor boudoir, which is a little different than what you normally see boudoir sessions being in. So we wanted to have you on to talk about that.

00:03:30:12 – 00:03:38:15

So my first question is how did you decide to start focusing on boudoir outdoors?

00:03:39:08 – 00:04:11:00

So I kind of fell into it. I had a studio, a boudoir studio and I was also shooting freelance models and models, one agency outdoors that wasn’t boudoir. And then I lost my studio space 2016, and I had to find a way to keep my clients that I had already booked. And I didn’t want to go and find a studio space to work and stuff like that. No, of course my dog is barking.

00:04:11:17 – 00:04:27:26

Okay, so and so I had the idea. Why not go outside with my boudoir clients and do what I do with my models, but with my clients? And so outdoor boudoir was basically born for me.

00:04:29:11 – 00:04:59:28

I love that I’ve shot a couple outdoor boudoir sessions. They were in the beginning of my career typically when I didn’t have a studio. But then lately I’ve been noticing because I live in Santa Barbara, which is like a beautiful beach town that I have had some clients like want to do kind of swimsuit shots at the beach. So sometimes I even shoot outdoor boudoir still, even though I have a studio. So I love that you like innovated this concept and made it work for you when you didn’t have the studio. So I think sometimes.

00:05:00:00 – 00:05:12:17

People can just get so bogged down by the fact that they need a studio, they need to find someplace to rent, they need to cover that cost. And it shouldn’t stop you from getting started in your business or progressing in your business.

00:05:14:07 – 00:05:15:02

Yeah, right.

00:05:15:18 – 00:05:24:01

So can you tell us a little bit about what you feel like make the best locations for an outdoor boudoir shoot?

00:05:25:06 – 00:05:34:04

Yes. So I started when I started with my outdoor boudoir. I started to use parks. Yeah. Public parks. Parks.

00:05:35:25 – 00:05:36:10

Wow.

00:05:39:21 – 00:06:10:13

So it was. So what you need to know, I saw, like, other would were the people who were booking for it. They don’t they don’t mind going into a park. So I started with parks. I’m more much I think a beach is much better because on the beach, people are in a bikini or swimsuit anyways. So you’re not you know, you’re not, you know, doing anything weird when you get in a park, you have to find you have to find, like, a secluded area. Yeah.

00:06:10:15 – 00:06:11:17

Right. Don’t. Nobody. Yeah.

00:06:11:19 – 00:06:13:20

So the kiddie playground.

00:06:15:17 – 00:06:18:17

You would get dirty looks from mom.

00:06:20:07 – 00:06:20:22

Yeah.

00:06:22:15 – 00:06:45:08

Okay, so a secluded area and like when you say a park, because I guess that could mean a lot of things. You mean like a not a nature preserve type park, like a very like tall grass, like lots of secluded areas type place. Or do you just mean like a city park? Because I’m thinking about like urban area parks where there’s it’s sometimes they’re not very big even.

00:06:45:23 – 00:07:15:26

Yeah. No. So I don’t do urban area parks because most of the time you also need a permit for these parks. Oh, we’re just okay. Because you can put that in your it’s a business expense, you know, business permit. But most of the time parks, nature preserves nature parks with high grass, with little creeks where you can go in a creek and take pictures and lots of secluded area. You will have people walking by or people on a bicycle or something.

00:07:16:10 – 00:07:20:18

But, you know, most of the time you are alone. Yeah.

00:07:21:03 – 00:07:21:18

Okay.

00:07:22:01 – 00:07:32:14

In regards to other people being around, have you ever had instances where people just wanted to sit and watch and does that ever make the client nervous and how you handle that situation?

00:07:33:27 – 00:08:14:16

Yeah. So I had in I had so most of the time when you have somebody that is standing there in their underwear and they are like, let’s say a bunch of men walking by, they actually look away. So I’ve never had anybody standing there and staring at us. It’s just people are trying not to look, you know, they’re trying to not to look bad, like just walking, you know, and trying to ignore you and be like, okay, they’re not even looking. Okay, good. And but I had, for example, moms with kids, you know, that were like they got a little bit mad or or some, you know, like a wife with her husband.

00:08:14:18 – 00:08:17:18

And she we thought she saw us and she got mad.

00:08:18:03 – 00:08:19:01

Oh, that’s funny.

00:08:19:17 – 00:08:24:08

Like, but nothing serious. So it’s. Yeah, it’s doable.

00:08:25:17 – 00:08:52:18

One thing I was wondering is, like, if we could get into the logistics of it in the sense of, like, golden hour, does it have to be golden hour does. What if it’s like a really hot day or a really cold day or weather situations? And also like, where do the clients change their outfits? Just it feels like there’s a lot of logistics that probably go into planning an outdoor boudoir session. So you can touch on those points on the.

00:08:55:03 – 00:08:57:14

Yeah. So what was your first question?

00:08:58:08 – 00:09:13:02

Let’s go with inclement weather or just. Yeah, like because you’re in the D.C. metro area, right? Right. I know it can get real hot and muggy in the summer because once I was there in the summer and almost divorced my husband cause he made me walk way to far to see the Lincoln Memorial.

00:09:20:27 – 00:09:22:25

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

00:09:22:27 – 00:09:24:12

So how do you deal with that?

00:09:25:18 – 00:09:49:21

So the humidity in this area, I totally I hate it. I totally agree. But I’ve been different places I’ve been ever since I started. I started in Indiana, which is just muggy and almost. Yeah. When I was in Arizona, well, actually great outdoor there would work because there’s so much space and you don’t need a park. You just go.

00:09:50:29 – 00:09:54:13

And really hot in Arizona in the summertime, obviously.

00:09:54:15 – 00:10:22:24

And you’ll be hot. Yeah, it’s different heat. So once the sun goes down, it’s, it’s it’s a dry heat, so you don’t sweat at all. So that’s perfect. But, you know, in the Midwest and here, when you have like the weather, you of course, you cannot predict the weather. So I do it like when like any outdoor session when there is just rain, we just have to reschedule. You know, and I don’t reschedule for heat. Just fine.

00:10:23:11 – 00:10:23:26

Okay.

00:10:24:03 – 00:10:33:22

Yeah. And. But most of the time it’s for golden hour. So if you go and during the day, the pictures won’t turn out. I don’t I don’t like I mean, I do a short shot in harsh light, but it’s not my favorite.

00:10:34:07 – 00:10:34:22

Yeah.

00:10:35:01 – 00:10:38:06

Yeah, I do like the soft golden hour, golden hour light.

00:10:38:26 – 00:10:42:00

So that really means you can only take one client per day.

00:10:42:10 – 00:10:42:25

Yes.

00:10:42:29 – 00:10:51:24

And then the shoot has to be pretty much like an hour or 90 minutes long because you’re really trying to concentrate the shoot around that perfect golden hour light.

00:10:52:11 – 00:10:55:06

Yes. Most of the time I start like 2 hours before.

00:10:55:17 – 00:11:11:12

Okay. Yeah. And there you. Do you provide, like, hair and makeup when you’re shooting outdoors or, you know, like, is that something that you do, like, somewhere like at the client’s house or do you not even worry about that? They just turn up how they turn up or how does that work?

00:11:12:02 – 00:11:36:10

So hand makeup, I’ve done a few depending on my location. I’ve done it a few different ways. I’ve had a makeup artist come to location and we start we start early enough so we can do hair and makeup like in the car, like on the car. And I’ve had clients go to a makeup artist that I know or two in our finest, the hair salon that I know. And I meet them there. And then we drive to a location together.

00:11:36:21 – 00:11:37:06

Okay.

00:11:37:16 – 00:11:38:01

Yeah.

00:11:39:06 – 00:12:01:21

So basically it can like a photographer who wants to shoot outdoor boudoir can be as creative as they want with how they want to deal with hair and makeup. Provide it, not provide it. If the client should have it done at the shoot, or if they can just go to the makeup artist place to get it done, that doesn’t even have to be a part of the time that you put into the photo shoot.

00:12:01:24 – 00:12:30:07

Exactly. It doesn’t have to be. And also, you can just tell them, get your own makeup done. Like don’t even put that into any packages. Just have them do it themselves. Clients do that, you know? Yeah. And also outdoor boudoir for me is all more natural. So makeup and the hair will be more natural. Mm hmm. And so it fits into the nature more and not really like a face full of makeup. Yeah, exactly. And I’m gonna destroy the hair anyways.

00:12:31:01 – 00:12:33:14

Oh, you’re going to have them, like, tossing it and everything.

00:12:35:25 – 00:12:39:14

Yeah. Yeah. I always say I’m gonna destroy your hair

00:12:42:06 – 00:12:43:01

That’s hilarious.

00:12:43:03 – 00:13:09:29

Okay. And then the last question in that series of, like, logistical questions was about like, changing outfits, because at least when I do boudoir in my studio, I include four wardrobe changes and when we do go on location, it’s obviously very hard to change outfits. You either have to have like hold up a towel and they have to be brave enough to change behind that or you just don’t change outfits, so how do you handle that?

00:13:11:02 – 00:13:42:00

So my experience with that was, so I do tell everybody you will be seen. So if you have to change clothes, bring like a big cardigan or something to throw over, like in summertime, like a nice long, flowy dress or something that you can walk around with, that you can just change your, you know, your lingerie or your swimsuits or something. And I know they are tents. I know they have tents nowadays. But you can take them to a location with you, like. Yeah, those pop up ones.

00:13:42:02 – 00:13:42:17

Yeah.

00:13:42:28 – 00:13:51:02

Yeah. But in my experience, most of the clients are booking for like a boudoir boudoir outdoors. They don’t. They don’t really.

00:13:51:12 – 00:13:52:13

They’re not shy.

00:13:54:09 – 00:14:06:26

About about that. You know, they’re not concerned about being seen. It’s really enough when you when like you said, when you have like a towel. I do that towel because I don’t want any moms with their kids walking by and then, oh, my God. Yeah, yeah,

00:14:08:17 – 00:14:20:17

I do that. And and then also what I do a lot is bring a dress. I’m like a like a nice, flowy dress or something to shoot them,

00:14:22:21 – 00:14:27:06

because I just love it and they love it. Women love dresses, you know?

00:14:27:09 – 00:14:27:24

Yeah.

00:14:27:28 – 00:14:40:12

Yeah. And that gives for another look. So you have like like a boudoir look and you have, like, a more of a portrait or outdoors look. Mm hmm. Yeah. So.

00:14:40:23 – 00:14:44:07

So how many outfits would you say they normally, like, go through in a photoshoot.

00:14:44:25 – 00:14:47:10

Two, not more than two. Just two.

00:14:48:14 – 00:14:49:02

Oh, wow.

00:14:49:04 – 00:14:49:21

Oh, okay.

00:14:50:09 – 00:14:58:17

Yeah. That’s what you got to do. A bunch of outfits. That’s too complicated. So two different looks. So. And sometimes I even forget to change.

00:14:58:19 – 00:14:59:17

The second look.

00:15:00:02 – 00:15:02:29

Yeah. And then I’m going to be like, Oh, we forgot. Yeah.

00:15:03:29 – 00:15:15:27

I am. So and also this is, I assume goes without saying, but you can’t do like a fine art nude shot really outdoors unless you are truly in like a secluded, super secluded area.

00:15:16:08 – 00:15:22:12

Yeah. That, that you can’t do. I mean, you could, but it comes with the risk. Yeah.

00:15:22:14 – 00:15:22:29

Yeah.

00:15:24:04 – 00:15:25:15

Angry moms all around you.

00:15:27:17 – 00:15:36:29

You think I’ve done it once in Hawaii and I didn’t know that you can’t do topless in on American beaches. You know, I’m from Germany and.

00:15:37:19 – 00:15:41:03

You know, nude beaches. There are nude beaches.

00:15:41:20 – 00:15:42:05

Yeah.

00:15:42:07 – 00:15:43:13

in California, at least. Yeah.

00:15:43:15 – 00:15:54:15

Oh, okay. Yeah. So I didn’t know that you you know, I thought you can’t just as I’ve done it once you do it, you know. But then later, my husband taught me you cannot do nude. It’s

00:15:56:12 – 00:15:57:24

like, okay, yeah.

00:15:57:26 – 00:16:08:09

In America, you have to find, like, a beach that’s designated a nude beach, like. Yeah, I mean, I know you would actually.

00:16:08:24 – 00:16:12:06

That would be a good place to shoot out of as well.

00:16:12:08 – 00:16:13:19

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

00:16:15:20 – 00:16:32:06

So when you’re going off to do one of these shoots, what equipment are you bringing along with you? Are you bringing I know you said you’re doing golden hour. So are you just shooting natural light, never bringing any form of lighting equipment with you? Is it just your camera? What are you taking with you?

00:16:33:04 – 00:17:05:03

So that also depends on my location. For example, in Arizona, the light was so harsh  that I had, I had a reflector with me to just reflect sunlight back to the person, you know. But most of the time. So here, for example, in DC, you know, most of the time I am just it’s just me and my camera. It’s me and my camera and maybe some fun stuff to play with, like a, like a prism or something. But I don’t want to carry anything around because it’s like a hike.

00:17:05:12 – 00:17:17:12

Sometimes you, you walk through a park, you go to a beach, and it’s like the camera and two lenses or something is already enough, you know, for you to and then maybe a dress or something. So it’s just me and my camera, basically.

00:17:18:28 – 00:17:24:04

So you’re never using an assistant because maybe for reflector, but I would think there’s not a need then.

00:17:25:07 – 00:17:56:08

No, I don’t need it. No, no you can you can you can have it, but it’s easier. So for me, it’s like boudoir as simple as possible. Right. No assistant, no light carrying around. Just you and your. You and your client or you and your model. And do you just create art together? So there’s nobody that sometimes, you know, they bring their friend friends. Of course. And that’s good, because then they can actually film you for reels and put. Yeah.

00:17:56:23 – 00:17:58:15

So they do that, you know. You can do that.

00:17:58:29 – 00:18:02:07

It’s a good offer free assistant if you see for your friend.

00:18:03:17 – 00:18:07:03

I was going to say, you just hand them your phone and like, here, give me some marketing material.

00:18:08:22 – 00:18:14:12

And actually an assistant would be good for that. I actually thought about that one. I should bring somebody along and always takes video of me.

00:18:15:22 – 00:18:16:07

Yeah.

00:18:16:09 – 00:18:19:03

You need all that stuff for Instagram nowadays.

00:18:20:06 – 00:18:37:12

So I know you said that you don’t really do urban parks, but and it sounds like you’ve lived in more kind of outdoor secluded areas in general. But have you ever done like Urban Cityscape, Outdoor Boudoir, or is that just too risque?

00:18:40:01 – 00:19:01:21

I don’t think I did because of there are always people around you and it’s yeah, yeah. And I mean, you could try to do it, but the police also are driving around. Yeah, that’s a good point. Yeah. And I don’t want to. I just don’t want to, you know, so no parks, nature it is.

00:19:02:25 – 00:19:05:02

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I’ve just seen like.

00:19:05:14 – 00:19:06:08

Cool.

00:19:06:10 – 00:19:21:24

Photos and I’m sure they have permits and all kinds of stuff because they’re usually done by like magazines or like a famous photographer like Peter Lindbergh. But there are that are like New York or Paris or like some really cool city where, you know, like a woman’s got a trench coat on and like lingerie

00:19:22:27 – 00:19:26:29

I want that look so badly. I’m like, I need somebody with a trench coat in lingerie.

00:19:27:27 – 00:19:28:12

I’ll do it.

00:19:28:14 – 00:19:28:29

Just get

00:19:31:15 – 00:19:32:00

to

00:19:33:07 – 00:19:34:12

meet Ashleigh.

00:19:34:26 – 00:19:36:01

I don’t do it,

00:19:38:13 – 00:20:00:01

but yeah, like, I think that was like, very so cool. But yeah, I could see how you could get in trouble pretty fast. Just from my days of shooting, like engagement shoots in cityscapes, I’ve been definitely, like, kicked out of spots where people were fully clothed just because of, like, location issues and permits and things like that. So I can’t imagine like adding in lingerie.

00:20:01:06 – 00:20:12:23

Yes, exactly. And I think if you want to do something like this in a city setting, you need like a model. Like I think a client that would be too intimidating. Yeah.

00:20:13:12 – 00:20:15:19

Yeah. Someone with high confidence.

00:20:17:25 – 00:20:20:00

Can be a model that makes it. Yeah.

00:20:21:03 – 00:20:28:27

I wanted to bring it back earlier. Did you say you are getting permits or in those particular parks you don’t need them.

00:20:30:14 – 00:21:03:10

You need, you have to before you go anywhere, you know, just to you have to check if you need a permit for this park or for the beach, for example. Almost all beaches in Hawaii, you need a permit. You can’t just go and shoot there. It’s it’s a business expense and a tax write up, you know, and you have a business. You you need a permit. So that’s why I try to go places where I mean, you know, not that I don’t want to not want to get a permit, but I try to go places where I know, okay.

00:21:03:12 – 00:21:05:16

That’s just like public place and I don’t need a permit.

00:21:08:12 – 00:21:23:27

I’ll go say whenever you do look at locations that might need a permit. Is there a price range that for people out there listening? Is there is it hundreds of dollars? Is there like a $50 kind of thing or what is that look like price wise?

00:21:24:18 – 00:21:44:01

It depends. It depends on what city you are in and where you live. So I’m I have not looked at permits here in the D.C. area, but I know you need one for every park issued in downtown, but I have no idea what it costs. It could be thousand dollars. It could be just $200. So it all depends.

00:21:44:27 – 00:22:11:03

Yeah. I mean, when I was a wedding photographer, I started in Los Angeles, which is where I’m originally from, and it could get very expensive depending on like also the location itself that you wanted to shoot at, like there were certain places where it’d be like 100 bucks to shoot at someplace and then there would be places where they film lots of commercials, lots of film industry, sort of like you cannot shoot on Rodeo Drive. I learned the very hard way.

00:22:14:03 – 00:22:15:24

Go into that. Go into that.

00:22:16:12 – 00:22:17:19

Tell us. Yeah.

00:22:18:09 – 00:22:22:15

Well, there are like some men in black suits, like like literally like the movie Men in.

00:22:22:17 – 00:22:23:11

Black I’m.

00:22:23:13 – 00:22:26:13

Talking about. And they were like, ma’am, you.

00:22:26:15 – 00:22:28:21

Need to leave. Oh, you’re not scared here.

00:22:28:29 – 00:22:39:00

And I was, like, young enough and naive enough to think about, like, it’s fine. I will just walk away, like, one block, and it will be fine. And they came back and.

00:22:39:02 – 00:22:40:09

They were like, Yeah.

00:22:40:17 – 00:22:41:29

Ma’am you were warned

00:22:42:01 – 00:22:43:03

we’re going to give you a fine of

00:22:43:05 – 00:22:47:16

$1,000 if you do not leave the premises right now. And I was like, Oh.

00:22:51:18 – 00:22:52:03

Yeah.

00:22:53:06 – 00:23:29:03

Yeah. Because I wanted to do this whole Breakfast at Tiffany’s thing with the couple. We wanted to do, like, on Rodeo Drive in front of the Tiffany’s, and, like, no, can’t do it. And then we tried to move to, like, other areas of Rodeo Drive and they know can’t do it. And yeah, I’ve heard from other photographers like they’re just super intense because if you think about it, there’s a lot of commercials. Like if you if you know what Rodeo Drive looks like and you see a lot of car commercials, especially like there’s a lot that films there and they probably get paid so much money, the city of Beverly Hills that they just can’t like they don’t allow any other like small.

00:23:29:08 – 00:23:43:05

I even pretended I was a student because I looked so young and because I’m so short. And I was like, I’m just a student. They were like, We do not care. You have to get out of here. Like, that is really intimidating. So you do need to be careful depending on where you shoot.

00:23:43:07 – 00:24:06:26

Yeah. I was going to say I’ve I’ve keeping up with what’s going on in photography. I think I, I learned like it’s been a while since I read this, but I think like places like Malibu or in those areas, does not matter. Could be a student. You could just be a random person with a DSLR. If they see you taking pictures, you have to have a permit. And if they if you don’t, they will find you.

00:24:07:13 – 00:24:08:21

So yeah, I just.

00:24:08:26 – 00:24:40:25

Yeah, it just depends. Like, I mean, I’ve done a lot of shoots in Malibu. No problem. It’s been a long time, so I can’t speak for that now. But you know, eight years ago, I ten years ago, shot in Malibu, a lot, certain beaches, no problem. There are some new beaches in Malibu. I used to do all my outdoor boudoir sessions that I shot at. I forgot the mall is called, but there’s like a mall over there and I had no problem. But it’s just LA’s really hit or miss because it’s so film industry like it’s such a film town.

00:24:41:07 – 00:25:06:14

So and I would assume that New York City is the same way and possibly Atlanta as well, cause there’s a lot of filming done in Atlanta. So I would think if you’re in a city that has like a big film industry presence, you’re going to have a harder time than like a smaller town or some more secluded place. But also like you were on Oahu, right in Hawaii, and that’s also a big filming area.

00:25:06:22 – 00:25:08:08

Yeah. So I think.

00:25:08:10 – 00:25:10:19

That’s part of what accounts for all the issues.

00:25:12:22 – 00:25:22:29

So going going back to the outdoor shoots. How how long are you spending out there? Whenever you take a client one location.

00:25:24:21 – 00:25:30:10

Probably 3 hours. I’m all together until sunset.

00:25:31:13 – 00:25:42:22

Okay. So with within that timeframe, are you looking at just one location? We’re going to stay here for the entire three. Are you hopping into the car? Going from spot to spot to spot?

00:25:43:21 – 00:26:09:02

Mm hmm. That’s a good question. I am only staying in one location, so we talk about location. We know before we know where we want to go. And we can just if you have, like, one location and you just walk around that one location, you find so many cool spots and different, you know, different areas that you don’t need to go anywhere else. It’s just to keep it simple, you know? Don’t go anywhere else. Just keep everything so tight.

00:26:10:21 – 00:26:29:06

Yeah, I agree that, like, if you can find a place where you can just hike around and not have to drive in between places because driving can eat up a lot of time, especially if you’re in a place like D.C.. More traffic, but there’s a lot of traffic. Yeah, I think that your whole shoot, especially around golden hour, which is usually rush hour, too.

00:26:29:12 – 00:26:29:27

Yeah.

00:26:31:08 – 00:26:31:23

Yeah.

00:26:32:20 – 00:26:34:11

Oh, yeah. What are you going to say? Jasmin. Sorry.

00:26:34:24 – 00:26:36:10

Oh, no, I just said not worth it.

00:26:37:26 – 00:27:04:10

Because I was going to pivot us to talk about marketing a little bit of these outdoor boudoir sessions, because I would think that you really have to have a clear marketing message to really talk up like the benefits to shooting outdoors. Since most people think about a studio when they think about or a hotel room or a bedroom environment when they think about a boudoir shoot. So what are your tips on marketing these sessions?

00:27:05:07 – 00:27:31:00

Yeah. So when I started with outdoor boudoir, it wasn’t really a thing. So nowadays I think it’s really like, you know, like a lot of people are doing it. But the way I marketed it when I started with it and it still works the same way if you just put it on your web page, you brand it like I branded my do sessions into the wild because those are really what we did go into the wild.

00:27:32:27 – 00:28:03:25

I even have a logo for it. And when people come on your web page, they can choose, Do you want to go into the wild or do you want to go into the studio? For example, if you have a studio, if you don’t have a studio, you just put your whole web page branded to you are able to access and you just make a thing out of it. This is what you do. And when people will book you, when they see when they see a web page and they want to do this, they will look for it. And and then, of course, you put that on it. Put it on your social media accounts and everywhere.

00:28:03:27 – 00:28:05:12

And yeah.

00:28:06:17 – 00:28:08:23

I so. Yeah, sorry. You go.

00:28:08:25 – 00:28:40:18

Kevin No, I was just going to point out, I think that’s an important the fact that you said that you brand it as such to the point where you even have a logo for it. That is super interesting to really point out. Hey, it’s it’s not. Something that has to be done indoors you and you’re showing. You’re taking it on location and everything about your brand that you have created. The involving boudoir is showing that you know.

00:28:40:27 – 00:28:54:12

Yes. Yes. It’s just like, you know, a family photographer to go outside. Their whole brand is outside family photography. So you can do the same thing with, of course, portraits outside, but you can do the same thing with boudoir outside, you know?

00:28:55:08 – 00:29:04:27

Yeah. So are you saying that most people will find you by just googling like boudoir photographer near me, boudoir photographer my area or do.

00:29:04:29 – 00:29:05:23

You.

00:29:06:02 – 00:29:14:19

Like, do any promotions, specials, Facebook ads, networking, all of the above for these types of sessions.

00:29:15:12 – 00:29:34:16

Yeah. So it, I do everything. So it’s all an accumulation of everything combined depending on my location where I’m at. People find me a lot, for example, in Arizona. So my web page in Indiana has a Web page here in D.C. not so much because there’s lots of lots of other boudoir photographers in D.C..

00:29:35:01 – 00:29:35:16

Oh.

00:29:36:12 – 00:30:02:02

But I have my social media following I book out of boudoir sessions or boudoir sessions or anything a lot of the times through social media. So Instagram, not Facebook, Instagram. And then also I have a system where I, you know, we get clients into my emails and I just email them regularly. Oh, potential clients, I should say. And I just build an email community

00:30:03:20 – 00:30:04:05

with.

00:30:04:15 – 00:30:17:00

An email list. So can you talk a little bit about growing your email list or are you using like a freebie or an opt in type thing to get people to join your list? Or how did you grow your list in the first place?

00:30:17:29 – 00:30:29:17

I started growing my list with actually with a giveaway, you know, so people have to punch in the email address and then you give away something, right? You can give anything. You can give away like a

00:30:31:28 – 00:31:07:10

session, a half price off or you can give away, you know, anything like that. And of course, you have to market this giveaway. And then I have a pop up on my web page. It’s not currently on if you go look, it’s a $400 gift certificate or was a few months ago and people go on a Web page. So it’s important you bring people on your Web page. Yeah. Yeah. Facebook ads, for example, Ashley and other ways. And then you have this pop up that comes up in the person that’s on your on your webpage already is interested in your in your photo session.

00:31:07:12 – 00:31:25:20

Right. So the pop up above is a 400 dollars. You get a  four hundered on a gift certificate. And then after they put in the email address, they get a whole bunch of emails, like a whole bunch like pre-written email automation for like weeks.

00:31:26:07 – 00:31:29:05

Yeah, like a welcome sequence is what it’s like.

00:31:29:07 – 00:31:32:26

It becomes like. Yeah, yeah. I keep them with me, you know, once they. They’re.

00:31:34:11 – 00:32:07:08

Okay. Because, yeah, I mean, like, basically what you’re saying is, honestly, just as consumers, we can all relate to this as like any e-commerce site that we’ve ever been on, like you go shopping online and you’re immediately going to be presented with a 10% off coupon, a 15% off coupon at $10 off coupon something. And then you always end drag because you’re like, I’m here to buy something from your site where you think you might be buying something from the site, and then you get that coupon. And sometimes we don’t follow through and buy the thing, but we’re always getting the emails.

00:32:07:10 – 00:32:25:27

I mean, I feel like every online clothing store I’m on their email list because I opted in for a coupon at some point, whether I used it or not. So it’s very similar and it’s like, sounds like you’re treating your boudoir business the way like Forever 21 or H&M would treat their business.

00:32:25:29 – 00:32:33:19

Yes, I think this is the way to go nowadays because you can’t reach people on social media anymore not like you used to.

00:32:34:15 – 00:32:51:18

Yeah. Like you’re talking about like the algorithm is harder to reach that engagement and reach. Yeah. So with email marketing, are you also running like a regular kind of like a newsletter and how often do you send it? What is like the line between being

00:32:53:05 – 00:32:59:25

in front of your audience and sort of annoying to the point that people are like, Oh my gosh, stop emailing me if you think.

00:33:00:06 – 00:33:26:06

Yes. So that is the difference from. E-commerce and, you know, just having the building building a relationship with your client. So. So I also run an e-commerce business, Embrace Presents and email a lot more there. Then I email clients. So claims get like email automation, work automation. Let’s say the first few emails come

00:33:28:02 – 00:33:36:18

after like an hour and after a day and a day and a day. Because I want to grab the attention because we get so many emails, you know, like everybody, my inbox is full of emails.

00:33:36:20 – 00:33:37:09

So yeah.

00:33:38:22 – 00:34:00:22

So I need them to see my email. So I’m like emailing more frequently, but then I leave, you know, I leave them alone. I do that like once a week for a while and then, you know, once every two weeks because it’s just, you know, photography. But for, of course, ecommerce, I do this every day. Every other day for a month.

00:34:03:08 – 00:34:03:28

Yeah. Yep.

00:34:04:15 – 00:34:21:29

Got it. So it’s. It’s the same process, but you just feel like you don’t need to be as bombarding the person or you need to get the attention. And is it like the subject line that you feel like gets the person to open the email? Or what do you think it is that really grabs people’s attention?

00:34:22:22 – 00:34:26:29

That also depends. So when you have when you do this for your boudoir business, or your photography business,

00:34:29:12 – 00:34:57:25

you they signed up for you because they’re interested in a photo session, right? So it it’ll be more personal, personalized to them. The subject line not as not as catchy as I would put as much. I mean, for e-commerce, like for e-commerce, you have to be really catchy for people to open. And it’s actually really interesting and it’s one of my favorite subjects to talk about is like the subject lines and the hook lines and everything. Yeah, yeah.

00:34:57:27 – 00:35:20:13

Yeah, for sure. Because yeah, definitely. If it’s like an e-commerce business, it’s always like leading with the discount or leading with like open this or this expires or something to really get people to stop what they’re doing and open that email. But I get what you’re saying that again, like as a boudoir photographer, you don’t necessarily want it to come off so pushy and salesy.

00:35:20:15 – 00:35:51:02

And yes, so everything is about telling your audience a story either through email, right, to connect with them. So you tell them what you are doing, you tell them what your business is about, and you tell them random stories like people are interested in your random stories. I will open emails with random stories like yesterday my dog ran away, but we found him and you know, for example this and you keep these stories up, you build a relationship with your future clients, but you do the same thing for you.

00:35:51:09 – 00:36:00:01

I of the same thing for ecommerce. I just build, I just set, you know, I story storytelling. Okay. Yeah.

00:36:00:26 – 00:36:14:24

So when you have a random story like that, do you circle back to like the photos you like? How do you get from your dog? Ran away, but you found him to book a photo shoot with me. Like, how does that do that? Or We need the brand.

00:36:15:18 – 00:36:17:13

This thing you don’t

00:36:19:00 – 00:36:48:23

I just tell the story and then maybe you can go to like on in your signature. You can be like, oh, and by the way, do you still have your 400 dollar certificate, click here to book or click here or or you can write me back if you’re if you interested, you have to book soon so you can always have it on the bottom of your emails and any story you want. But also if you I mean, maybe you want to come up with other stories that you can then relate to a photo shoot, you know. Mm. So.

00:36:49:06 – 00:37:07:15

So those emails are basically used as the story time emails are more meant for brand awareness. And hey, as a reminder that here, you know, I’m here still if you guys need me, it was never meant to be like, Hey, here’s a story now come book with me, you know.

00:37:07:23 – 00:37:22:21

Like it’s to be top of mind. So it’s just that you remind them every once in a while, I’m still here. So they won’t forget about you. And they think about a photographer. They’re like, Hey, I’m getting these emails from Jasmin, you know? So you’re always top of mind just with a few emails.

00:37:23:08 – 00:37:35:12

So at any point you ever focus on the emails that are, Hey, come book me now, or you try to keep it more of a top of mind

00:37:37:03 – 00:37:38:17

email list type of thing.

00:37:39:09 – 00:38:08:04

You know? No. So I do it like this. For example, Black Friday, this will be a book me now like get this deal you want. I always wanted to have a photo session. Now it’s the time, for example, but it’s like a whole set up. Or you run the specials during the year, let’s say you get like a, you have a new product or something and you give them like a percentage of that product. So you give. For them, like a reason to book you. So that’s how I do it.

00:38:08:23 – 00:38:18:04

But what about a VIP Facebook group? I know those are kind of like all the rage with so many photographers. Do you run one of those? Do you think it’s effective?

00:38:19:14 – 00:38:49:14

I think these Facebook groups, especially for boudoir, are super effective. So if you are doing boudoir or you want to ramp up your business, definitely do one. I don’t because I run two groups, you know, from my preset and then from my education site. And I just don’t have time to run another group and actually make it work in groups. You have to be in in order to make it work and actually have somebody, you know, blocking you from that group. So I don’t have time for this. But yeah, I think they’re super, super effective.

00:38:50:03 – 00:39:06:05

So not really a way to automate Facebook group, right, the way you can with an email like you can’t sit down and make all your posts and then schedule them out so much and have it really connect with people in Facebook can with an email. Is that like how you feel about it?

00:39:06:20 – 00:39:31:23

Yeah, you can just really post and then go because if you don’t immediately like engage with people who engage on your post, it’s like, Oh, it’s been 2 hours. And they said something, okay, so technically you could have an assistant posting for you for, for you in a group. Ask your assistant if you have an assistant. You know, you could do that. But a group is a commitment if you want it to work? So yeah.

00:39:32:18 – 00:39:56:13

Yeah. I was going to point out that with groups you can have automated posts. But as Jasmin said, it’s the it’s the engagement after that post has been made that is important. I mean, you can create all you want, but if you’re not there to answer the questions, it’s like, well, everyone who actually took the time to post into it all of a sudden left thinking, Well, where’s my answer? Where’s my response? You know?

00:39:57:00 – 00:39:57:15

Yeah.

00:39:59:19 – 00:40:19:21

So for you recommended you you said that you’re, you’re busy and that might not be the best idea for you, but for anyone that might have the time. What type of content would you then recommend that they put into a Facebook group that they create.

00:40:20:15 – 00:40:52:03

Mhm. So I have, I’m in a few Facebook groups actually do to Facebook groups for clients. Yeah. Mainly because I want to book other boudoir photographers and what works really, really good is just fun engagement. Those are not photographers, those are normal people. So it’s just fun to enter, interact, interact and like, what did you do today or this or that? You know, what would you rather where would you rather live? Mountain, you know, these kind of Facebook engagement posts. So this works best for these kind of groups.

00:40:52:05 – 00:41:16:04

So nothing like although I have seen also people putting their their products there and. And also like posting their sessions there. Most of the time it’s women only group. So maybe, you know, when you have your your clients posting their sessions, there sort of thing, all that. Groups are amazing. You know what? Now I want to make a group.

00:41:18:07 – 00:41:18:22

Oh.

00:41:20:24 – 00:41:45:12

Awesome. Well, I also wanted to talk to you about editing the outdoor boudoir photos in your process, because I know and Kevin knows and hopefully our listeners know that you were like the Queen of Presets and you actually have presets for sale in The Portrait Masters stores. So people haven’t checked them out. They should. I am. So I guess editing is probably one of your superpowers then.

00:41:47:01 – 00:41:56:20

And I’m wondering like how if at all, editing an outdoor session is different from editing studio photography boudoir session?

00:41:57:25 – 00:42:32:10

Oh yeah. I mean, it’s completely different because a studio would right is like so my studio boudoir is like dark and moody. So I’m, I’m shooting, you know, for the highlights and everything is dark. And I do have in our present collections for that in your store, but for outdoors it’s most of the time. So I love contrast and color. So when I’m outside and I see this beautiful light, like this sunset light, I love to just bring out these colors and love it.

00:42:32:12 – 00:42:39:27

Like I just love I love editing. I’m, like, more colorful than I do indoors. Indoors, I’m more muted and moody.

00:42:42:01 – 00:42:50:05

Got it. So in terms of like your editing, since you do presets, do you strictly stay in Lightroom?

00:42:51:10 – 00:43:09:09

No. Actually. I do. I am on in LightRoom for like my presets when I put a preset on. But when I am retouching, like sometimes you have to retouch stuff. I do that in Photoshop because it’s just better. I, I basically grew up with Photoshop, so budget was the first thing I learned.

00:43:09:22 – 00:43:10:07

Okay.

00:43:11:18 – 00:43:16:02

Before I ever touched Lightroom. I avoided Lightroom for years.

00:43:17:15 – 00:43:18:21

Why are you funny?

00:43:20:03 – 00:43:30:24

Lightroom is so complicated. It’s like, yes, I know, it’s super easy. I thought it was so complicated because I learn Photoshop first. But actually it’s the other way around. Yeah.

00:43:32:19 – 00:43:33:05

So.

00:43:33:09 – 00:43:49:20

So. But like for. So if someone asks you for an outdoor boudoir session, are you delivering like retouched Photoshop images or are you just doing like Lightroom edits and then they can pay extra for like what? What is the service that you offer the client.

00:43:50:15 – 00:44:02:19

Oh, I’m just editing in Lightroom and when I think I have to Photoshop something, I Photoshop something. So I, that’s something I do. My client has nothing to do with it, so they just do what I give them.

00:44:03:11 – 00:44:18:18

So it’s basically like on discretion. Like if you see like in the certain lighting set up or something, you really notice a blemish or something that you feel like needs to be removed. That’s when you will take it into Photoshop that you’re not necessarily like Photoshopping every single image that you deliver to them.

00:44:18:28 – 00:44:41:18

Yes. So what I do is as far as like retouching and stuff, I, I do not alter like your body type or whatever. I don’t make you a smaller than you are unless my photo made you bigger than you really are, you know. But sometimes, I mean, it depends sometimes to see a person in real life and then you have a photo of the person. And that’s not what they look like in real life. Yeah.

00:44:42:01 – 00:44:42:16

Yeah.

00:44:43:03 – 00:45:02:03

But I barely do that. Sometimes you have to Photoshop something here and there, remove a blemish or something, but it’s nothing I discuss really, because I don’t really change you, you know, I don’t really change alter anything on you. But yeah, it.

00:45:02:05 – 00:45:41:21

Feels like you’re editing is a lot more like, say how a person would do a wedding where you have the, the, the set of images where you’re putting the presets and any editing color correction there but only a touch here and there potential Photoshop work. Whereas in our community within the Sue Bryce community, it’s, we’re doing portraits, you’re doing 20 images. You know, let’s look at all blemishes, let’s do high-end retouching, push, pull, maybe a little tiny bit here and there to get the end result.

00:45:41:23 – 00:45:50:27

But no, it just seems like fortunately with that set up in Lightroom, it’s preset. So everything looks the same and you’re good to go.

00:45:51:27 – 00:46:31:24

Yeah. So I’ve set up my presets the way I want to edit. So basically when I put a preset on it’s already the skin smooth, you know, the colors are almost like I want them, you always have to treat them. But when I have, I have to tell you when I have like a close up, I do, it depends on the person. I do a Photoshop, right? So I do it the way I would want somebody to Photoshop me. If you have a close up of me and I’m 42 years old. Right. I don’t want to see everything because the camera brings out shows you things that you don’t see as a person when you talk to somebody, right? So I don’t want to see, you know, all that stuff.

00:46:31:26 – 00:46:39:25

So if I have a close up of somebody, I will retouch. But you will still you will still look the same, but you will look good. I mean, like, amazing, you know?

00:46:41:25 – 00:47:15:21

That’s funny. I love it. Being that I also help lead the 90 day challenge for the portraits system. There’s instances where I’ve gone live on Zoom. I’ll tether my camera into my computer, you know, and I’m showing everybody and I will zoom in and it’s just like any form of imperfections. Here you go, guys. And I’m thinking I’m all like, Oh, no, I need to pull back. I need to not show that. So I get what you’re saying and, you know, edit the way you would want to be edited, especially when you’re up close, you know?

00:47:16:05 – 00:47:18:20

Yeah, that’s what I do. Yes. Yeah. Mm hmm.

00:47:20:01 – 00:47:36:24

So you’re what are let me ask you, what are your thoughts on the idea of people strict? Are people strictly using presets? Should they is it just a slap it on and they’re done? Or is there anything that they should be doing afterwards once they use the presets?

00:47:38:29 – 00:47:44:20

Oh, yes, definitely preset is not all the time at one click. And even if it’s a one click,

00:47:46:27 – 00:47:49:08

you should always tweak your preset and make it better, right?

00:47:50:26 – 00:48:23:04

When I started photography in 2013, I bought a bunch of presets and put them on my photo and I told you I didn’t do Lightroom, but I used them on Lightroom with my photos, but I didn’t know how to work remotely and I was like, Oh my God, what is this? This doesn’t work really well. Because I didn’t know that you have to like make adjust them to your photo, adjust them to your light and to your work. So you definitely have to if you want a great outcome, you definitely have to do some tweaking. It could just take like 30 seconds or 2 minutes.

00:48:23:06 – 00:48:32:27

So depending on how you want your phone to look. So definitely yes, tweak. You get the tones with the preset, but you have to do the work to make your photo look amazing.

00:48:34:06 – 00:48:52:28

Are you doing like any of the like brushing in Lightroom or is that pure Photoshop? Like, will you ever just do like a brush over someone’s skin to like, increase the exposure or the brightness or like reduce the clarity? Or do you when you actually are getting into like that specific of work, you just go into Photoshop.

00:48:53:20 – 00:49:20:07

So I do that in Lightroom, too. I do. What I do in Photoshop is like, like, like getting rid of blemishes or clone stammping something, you know. But in Lightroom, I do have brushes. I brush over and you can make. You can adjust skin tone with brushes and all, kind of. But I don’t use brushes all the time, only when I have to, because my presets are already doing everything I want them to do, basically. But also.

00:49:22:27 – 00:49:34:01

Yeah, I feel like I outsource my editing. So Editing is still sort of like new to me. Like I’m always amazed at the things I can just very simply be done with the preset or

00:49:35:20 – 00:49:38:20

with Lightroom itself in terms of the brushes and everything.

00:49:39:00 – 00:49:39:15

Yeah.

00:49:40:21 – 00:49:55:04

Well, also, I wanted to talk to you about pricing. I will say that we’re in the last 10 minutes of our conversation. So if there was anyone listening in clubhouse who did want to ask Jasmin a question, your time is ticking, so raise your hand now.

00:49:57:04 – 00:50:18:29

But I wanted to talk with you about how you price these outdoor boudoir sessions and just see how if it’s different than, like, kind of how The Portrait System community is pricing studio sessions. So can you walk us through like what is your system? Are you doing package only? Are you doing a sitting fee? Are you doing in person reveal like what is your system for selling the outdoor boudoir sessions?

00:50:19:22 – 00:50:27:03

So first of all, I want to say when you’re running your business, you know you can run it however you want to. Yes. There are no rules.

00:50:27:05 – 00:50:27:20

And if you

00:50:29:18 – 00:51:00:22

feel like you’re good, you have if you have like a studio, I would not change a thing about I would keep it apps if you’re already doing all of this stuff. But what I do for outdoor is packages, pre-packages and prepaid as well. Right? So they choose what they want and then they pay the retainer, which is on top of everything. And then a week before they pay me or sometimes with a payment plan or something, but I don’t do IPS.

00:51:01:03 – 00:51:24:00

But you can, you can totally rock IPS with October to our sessions. You can, you can, you can make these sessions like really artsy with wings and stuff like that. And sell a huge canvas, you know, the woman on on the mountain with the wings and the sunset. So, yeah, totally. I mean, there is no difference actually between studio and outdoors if you, you know,

00:51:25:22 – 00:51:26:23

It’s the same work.

00:51:27:13 – 00:51:50:00

Do you focus then on when you’re selling to clients are you more selling folio boxes that you mentioned wall art? Are you selling them more along the lines of, say, a wedding where they buy a set number of images like? And if so, what number is that?

00:51:51:01 – 00:52:02:05

So no, when you get my package packages, when you get my lowest package, you only get like 20 photos, you get nothing else and I give them digital. It’s fine, it’s just what I do.

00:52:04:02 – 00:52:20:17

But that’s not what I want them to book. I want them to book something else with like I used to do, for example, a little black book. So you can do that for outdoor boudoir as well just to get them. So you get these photos and you get a little bit big book and then for the next one you get.

00:52:22:15 – 00:52:28:03

You know, it’s like 40 photos, a little black book and this canvas. Right.

00:52:28:16 – 00:52:30:07

So more for more, basically.

00:52:30:18 – 00:52:34:03

Yeah, exactly. You basically get nothing for the lowest.

00:52:34:05 – 00:52:34:26

The lowest one.

00:52:35:28 – 00:52:48:09

Yes. You do get the digitals. I know some people who have it don’t sell digital, but it’s easier for me. It just I want to keep it as simple as possible. Right now, with our wood wire. So it’s just simple. Okay. Yeah.

00:52:48:29 – 00:52:51:06

And you mentioned

00:52:53:02 – 00:52:56:01

You said there was one more potentially above that.

00:52:57:06 – 00:53:07:19

Um, I do have a package with all the digitals. That’s the most expensive package. Mhm. Yeah. But I.

00:53:07:21 – 00:53:11:00

Assume all the digital means like everything that you were happy.

00:53:11:02 – 00:53:15:01

With. Yeah. Everything that I want to give them. Yeah.

00:53:16:06 – 00:53:28:21

How how many pictures would you say you come up with on a typical outdoor boudoir shoot? Like if someone wants to get all the digitals, I know it’s approximate. It’s going to vary per client and everything, but like, what is that approximate number?

00:53:29:16 – 00:53:46:25

Um, I come up with a lot of decent photos in a session, so it could be 100, you know. But most of the time I show them like 50 or something. You cannot show them, like, you know, I’ll give them like I don’t want to give them a hundred photos, you know.

00:53:47:00 – 00:53:48:27

Yeah, it can get overwhelming for sure. Yeah.

00:53:48:29 – 00:53:51:28

I said you don’t know. Yeah, I’m going to.

00:53:52:00 – 00:54:01:28

Take a lot of time, I would assume, to edit. Even if you are mainly doing Lightroom editing it still, it’s like you said it, you’re not just one clicking each image, you’re still.

00:54:02:25 – 00:54:16:13

It does more. I mean, you can have like one photo and then have ten different, different versions of this photo, but just you choose like that photo. That’s the best of that. Yeah.

00:54:17:19 – 00:54:20:12

Totally. That totally makes sense. Um.

00:54:20:17 – 00:54:21:02

Yeah.

00:54:22:11 – 00:54:33:08

I was going to point out that I know in another interview I can’t remember the photographer at the moment. That interview with Nikki had basically pointed out they have two packages.

00:54:33:27 – 00:54:35:14

Oh, was Damaly was.

00:54:35:16 – 00:54:36:01

It the morning?

00:54:36:18 – 00:54:40:06

Yeah, the 6501. And then, like the 15,001.

00:54:41:08 – 00:54:43:27

Oh, wow. Okay. I don’t remember that number, but

00:54:45:18 – 00:55:06:01

just the idea of like, you get 25 images. I wasn’t I’m not sure if it was Damaly or not. I think it might have been a little bit earlier than that where it was like 25 images. All of the images. And, you know, both of them are priced well, but the all of the images are priced really well.

00:55:06:15 – 00:55:09:22

So 15,000 is good, right?

00:55:10:14 – 00:55:42:23

Well, yeah, I remember I listened to Damaly’s fairly recently. It wasn’t it didn’t even come out that long ago. And I do remember she had two packages and it was like a very similar concept because it was branding, it was digital only, and it was like, you’re going to get this amount of pictures in this one or you’re going to get this amount of pictures in this one. And it includes these things. And it was just I really admired it because it was so cut and dry what was offered. And it was either a fit for you or it wasn’t a fit for you. You could take it or leave it. There wasn’t all this like, you know, pick however many images you want and all that, which I love.

00:55:42:25 – 00:56:07:15

And that’s the way I run my business. But I can see the value and the benefit to just being like it is what it is. Take it or leave it. These are the amount of images they’re going to get, and it’s going to be awesome. You know, like I think at the end of the day, we all have to do what we can sell with confidence. But I certainly can admire other people’s business models and sort of can see the attraction to do, selling that way.

00:56:08:17 – 00:56:09:07

Exactly.

00:56:10:16 – 00:56:34:11

So, Jasmin, we are coming up on the one hour mark. So before we let you go and everything, can you give any advice to photographers that maybe are looking towards the opportunity of maybe they don’t have the studio space and they’re interested in how they can make boudoir work potentially going outside?

00:56:35:02 – 00:57:06:04

Mm hmm. Yeah. So if you want to start doing outdoor boudoir, I suggest you. You find some models online on Instagram, or maybe a friend that wants to have their pictures on the Internet. And then you start shooting for it and you start putting that out. First start putting it out on social media. You put that out on your on your Web page and and you brand it, and then you you will start booking it.

00:57:07:21 – 00:57:21:25

Yeah. I think that as you said, that branding it and making it part of your identity and not something that people should worry about, like, oh, I don’t have that studio space. Reframe it, reframe your position and you’re going to.

00:57:22:06 – 00:57:26:11

Make it a thing. Make it your thing. Call it Into the wild.

00:57:28:03 – 00:57:38:28

There you go. Well, thank you. Thank you very much, Jasmin. But before we let you go, I want to be sure that we have the opportunity to share where people can find you.

00:57:40:29 – 00:57:58:26

You can find me on JasminJ.com. No e just m, and you can find me on the JasminJade on Instagram. No e. And EmbracePresets.Com, of course. And, yeah, it’s it’s basically it.

00:57:59:07 – 00:58:02:15

Does Embrace Presets have its own Instagram as well that people should know?

00:58:02:17 – 00:58:05:24

They do. Yes, they do. It’s Embrace_Presets

00:58:07:23 – 00:58:09:24

for photographers.

00:58:09:26 – 00:58:40:07

Well, there you go. Well, thank you. And everyone, everyone, please be sure to go follow Jasmin everywhere she just mentioned, and also make sure to follow The Portrait System on Instagram and on Facebook as well. And also be sure to check out our blog posts that are associated with our interviews at SueBryceEducation.com/blog. You can follow Ashleigh at Ashleigh Taylor Portrait that is ASHLEIGH and you can find me there as PopLight_ photography.

00:58:41:00 – 00:59:05:27

If you are a member of The Portrait System and you have any more questions for Jasmin, myself or Ashleigh, go tag us in a post in The Portrait System Members Only Facebook Group, and if you are not a member of The Portrait System and you are interested in learning how it can help your business succeed, reach out to Ella on our support team by emailing support@SueBryceEducation.com. Thank you again for joining us, and we hope you can join us next week.

00:59:06:15 – 00:59:42:03

Thanks again for listening today. And don’t forget, you can listen to either me or our special guests every Friday on Club House at 11:00 a.m. Pacific. Thank you so much for listening to the Portrait System Podcast. Your five-star reviews really help us to continue what we do. So, if you like listening, would you mind giving us a review wherever you listen? I also encourage you to head over to SueBryceEducation.com, where you can find all of the education you need to be a successful photographer. There are over 1,000 on-demand educational videos on things like posing, lighting, styling, retouching, shooting, marketing, sales, business, and self-value

There’s also the 90 Day Startup Challenge, plus so many downloads showing hundreds of different poses. We have to-do checklists for your business, lighting PDFs, I mean truly everything to help make you a better photographer and to make you more money. Once again, that’s SueBryceEducation.com.