I really don't have too much to write about this particular session, aside from the fact that whenever I get the chance to work with Raissa & Kelly, it always turns out like magic. These 2 babes helped make my little rave/fairy/70s shoot come to life with the epic hair, the styling, and of course the modeling! If you have ever desired to feel like a sparkly goddess, feel free to check out our specialty sessions!!
SHE BROUGHT ME OSTRICH FEATHERS ~ Winnipeg Boudoir Photography
One of my favorite parts about being a boudy photographer, is that I get to meet all sorts of women who are amazing at what they do. Miss Dakota Tramp (her stage name) is no exception to this and her and I just clicked, so I am certain you will be seeing a lot of her (she tells me she has a huge sparkly wardrobe!!!). When she sent me an email telling me that she had a handmade OSTRICH FEATHER, GLASS BEADED OUTFIT(!!) I did a little squeal! I have been wanting to shoot something epic like that since I feel in love with Ellen Von Unwerth! In addition to that outfit, she also had an ostrich feather hemmed robe given to her from one of her besties and she rocked it out in the studio! Take a look at some of the magic we made and read about her experience shooting with me! She describes her session as: Glorious, empowering, and wonderful 
Teri's fantastic direction and positive vibe made this more than a photo shoot, it was an empowering and incredibly positive experience. From our first email exchanges to the reveal of my final photos, my expectations were exceeded, when they were already high to begin with based on exceptional recommendations. Can't say enough about how much I loved our shoot and the finished photos. Posing and modelling does NOT come naturally! Teri's bubbly personality and easy to follow direction made me feel comfortable and confident, which lead to photos that make me look like a for real movie star. You deserve to feel like a goddess, and Teri can help bring that out for you.
Age is Only A Number ~ Winnipeg Boudoir Photography
I have been waiting on a pile of sessions to blog, waiting for questionnaires to roll in, so I am super excited to bring Miss A. to the blog today. This babe was one of the women who responded to my 45+ casting call to show that age is just a number and nothing a woman should fear. Miss A's story was incredibly awe-inspiring and she is one of the strongest women I know. While her story is hers to share, I just want you readers to know that our daily struggles are literally NOTHING. Without further adieu, here is the incredible Miss A, proving to us that age & adversity have no effect on a person's beauty, worth, and ability to succeed.
At 45years old I had emergency openheart surgery to repair my mitral valve, which suddenly failed and left me gasping for breath in the fall of 2014, I was hospitalized in isolation for 6 weeks after developing a hospital acquired infection post-op.
I was determined not to let it break my spirit and was occasionally found behind the curtain of my isolation room cracking dirty jokes and eating sushi with cousins and friends. At one point I was getting a big case of cabin fever and pondered if Pinterest had any ideas about how to remodel a wall curtain out of bendy straws.
I finally made it home and began to feel stronger each day. After about 6 months in the spring of 2015, I felt pretty good.
One day I even played with my fur baby Whitney in the yard of our secluded country home and waited for my sweet and medically fragile foster daughter's school van to bring her home at the end of her school day. When the van pulled into the drive I was well and happy. I opened the back door to the van and gave that beautiful smiling girl a kiss and asked if she had a good day. Then I went to open the front door and my right arm began to tingle, I couldn't reach for her bag on the floor. After 17 years of nursing experience under my belt, I knew exactly what was happening.
The van driver was a kindly older women. She asked me if I was ok as I grabbed my right arm and my response was "nanananana". I couldn't speak although I tried but my brain wouldn't make my mouth move either. I was having an acute stroke.
I lived in such an isolated area and only had a cell phone but couldn't speak and I had left it in the garden. The driver couldn't get a signal with hers.
Finally by doing some elaborate charades with my left side I was able to direct her to my phone. My right leg no longer worked. I needed to give medical info about my foster daughter but I couldn't write either. My brain forgot how words work or what letters looked like.
We were lucky that I had always kept a daily journal of her needs and was able to point to that.
Finally the ambulance arrived and I knew the attendants from the local hospital I had worked at.
I made charade jokes about being lame and going commando that day. After a 45 min ride to the city I was able to utter a single word once. It encompassed everything, it's a fine word, my favorite word in fact "Fuck".
I laughed with my droopy face, my wrinkles disappeared on that side of my face as though I'd been injected with extreme botox.
I understood everything but was locked in a language prison. Terrified that my little one wouldn't get the care she needed, I couldn't relate a single word to the emergency room social worker about her or even my own medical case or prescriptions to the team of doctors and nurses furiously working on all sides of me. I have allergies to meds but they never managed to guess which ones. I hoped for the best.
I struggled to recover my speech for several months. Words gradually returned but I had acquired some new strange accent that somewhat resembled a monotone Russian woman. I figued," hey, accents are sexy", I could work with it. It made my medical team laugh and I was determined not to prove that saying that nurses make the worst patients.
I worked hard at recovery in language, speech, smiling, moving. I've always been pretty competitive with myself.
I still struggled and wasn't really able to communicate to my husband that some things just wouldn't ever be the same with my brain. I was forgetful, couldn't do simple math or concentrate enough to read a full page. I was just learning what letter shapes made words again.
These things angered him, I had become a burden to him. I couldn't go back to my nursing career. To him I was lazy. I didn't try hard enough.
We put our house up for sale, moved to Gimli in March of 2016. My parents live there and our boys had flown the nest before I had medical issues and got jobs there. I was lonely, I had lost my beautiful sweet foster daughter back to the system after my stroke. Feeling as though I had failed her, I so wanted to be her forever home, her link to her bio family and Inuit culture, her last stop but alas I was nothing more than another placement in cycle of temporary homes. This is the only regret of all I have lost in the last 2 1/2 years.
I left my husband of 25 years shortly after moving here. I had no friends and didn't know the city at all. Leaving him wasn't smooth and I ended up in hiding for several months in Northern Ontario. I met some really great feminist strong women who helped me heal and allow myself to mourn what I'd lost but more importantly they reminded me of how strong and brave I was.
I moved to Winnipeg this past October and have made some truly amazing and supportive friends who welcomed me into their homes, lives and hearts.
I have speech therapy still and I struggle with memory issues and concentration but I defiantly don't struggle with the decisions I've made. I love this new city with all I have. It's my home where I grow stronger, more beautiful and worthy of happiness and love everyday.
This city loves me back by bringing all these loving souls into my life.
I'm a warrior, survivor, lover of life and "Hey, did you see my rockin' 48 year old ass?"
Miss A has been through more struggles than many of us and I truly believe it was her inner strength and ability to see humor and light in every experience that the universe dealt her. It's women like her that remind me every day, just how fragile our lives are and how we do the things we know in our hearts to do.
Girls Gone Floral {inspiration session} ~ Winnipeg Boudoir Photographer
winnipeg boudoir photographer
winnipeg boudoir photographer
winnipeg boudoir photographer
winnipeg boudoir photographer
In Losing Her Power, She Found Her Strength ~ Winnipeg Boudoir Photography
When Miss K contacted me about doing a maternity session that wasn't "traditional" and channeled her strength and power rather than the soft, dainty images we usually see with fields, flowers, and hearts on the belly, I said HELL YES!! (Not that there is anything wrong with those, we just wanted more strong & sexy vibe).... As long as she didn't go into labour during her makeup, like our last pregnant babe. There wasn't too much time between when she contacted me and doing her session, so upon meeting for her shoot, I found that Miss K was so sweet, soft spoken and had a beautiful aura about her. But I didn't really have time to hear her story until she sent me her testimonial (which is below)...upon reading her story, my heart broke in pieces, but then I realized that this woman had every reason to be negative, but instead worked her way through what she had to do and refound her inner strength and power to be able to be the loving momma and woman her and her baby needs. I shall let Miss K tell her story below:
I didn't actually research any other boudoir options in Winnipeg. I think the photos I saw of Teri's work before hand (from a mutual Facebook friend) spoke for themselves. On top of that I liked the message and body positivity that I saw once joining her page. Its the kind of thing you know before going into it that you are only going to feel uplifted and welcome.
I think the empowerment session I did was in some ways a culmination of struggle to regain strength over the last nine years and also really helpful in embracing my pregnancy and my future as a single mom.
In the fall of 2008 I was drugged in a guys house, I had gone there to end things with him and ended up two days later having to escape onto the roof with no idea of why I was still there and in a totally psychotic state. That led to a number of diagnoses (general anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, PTSD), and an extreme phobia of going new places (particularly peoples homes but not limited to), flashbacks, panic attacks and an avoidance of places that might trigger them. As cliche as it is I lost my power over my own life and its been a slow process back to strength.
Even my current pregnancy was a result of letting someone take advantage of me and not having my own voice in what I wanted. I feel that doing this shoot for myself was so important in having the strength to be alone right now and take care of myself and my baby and remind myself to have positive thought in regards to my mind and body.
There is a lot more to [an empowerment session] than just beautiful people and I think you should try it if you are curious when the time is right. Kind of like of going to therapy, you will go when you are ready.I couldn't agree more with Miss K. When people inquire about gift cards and the like for their partners, I appreciate the sentiment because yes I think it IS a wonderful gift, but for the woman to experience change and really get the full benefits out of what we do here, she has to be ready: ready to get vulnerable, ready to face herself, ready to invest, and ready to experience a possible change. I always say that absolutely the photos are fabulous (cocky much?) but will you be affected? I don't want to convince anyone this is for them, I don't want to coerce people into doing something they aren't fully invested in, and more importantly, I want people to come to me when they are ready to experience empowerment, strength, confidence, and a new outlook on themselves. Did I just give you an excuse not to do it? I can almost hear you saying "well...I'm so busy, maybe the time's not right, so I must not be ready..." THAT is bullshit because there is no right "time" ...just a right attitude. As humans we are great at being "busy" to distract us from seeking what we need most: to re-connect with ourselves. So, if you are curious about what a session for you would be like, feel free to shoot me an email! Just because you come in for a consultation doesn't mean you have to do the session tomorrow, you can find out more, see what we are about and we can determine if we are a good fit for each other!