I think we all remember the first time, as little girls, when we tried on high heels. We stumbled like baby giraffes, trying to emulate the way we saw our mothers walk. And later, as teens, it was runway models we had in mind as we slipped on strappy stilettos.

And, of course, there is a reason for this. When we saw our mothers walk in high heels, we admired her stature and her grace as our first role models. And then super models became our idols with their smirking, pouty lips and quick and confident strut.

Ever since we were dreamy young women, heels have been a symbol of power and adulthood. And for good reason! We now know that when we put on high heels, they lift us above our normal height; in the workplace they lift us above men and above the glass ceiling; and when we down the street (whether it be to the office or to the club) the smart noise the heels make against the concrete assures of our womanly strength. When we wear a pair of heels, we keep our head high and our hopes higher. We are the beautiful and accomplished women who our mothers wanted us to be; and we are equal (or better than) the models we once revered.

Truly, high heels have so many proven benefits. Yes, they add height. But they also improve our posture, making us throw our shoulders back and keep our head up -- a proven powerhouse stance. And, in terms of sex appeal, heels lengthen our legs and push up our cute booty. No wonder models looked so good walking down that runway! Their legs looked sky-high, their behinds looks perfectly perky, and they looked down from a great height with their hooded eyes at the lowly audience. Impossible to resist.

You know you are impossible to resist in high heels! And can you imagine how super sexy you would be in a steamy boudoir photoshoot, with just some lingerie and strappy heels on? No need to imagine any longer, friends! As the #1 boudoir photography studio in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, The Boudoir Cafe encourages all of our clients to wear heels during their photoshoot. The Boudoir Cafe believes (and it's true!) that there is something unbelievably enchanting about a boudoir photograph in which a woman in lace is standing, sitting or lying down with her long legs elongated and her behind round and perky with a pair of high heels. And your face in a Boudoir Cafe boudoir shoot as you do this shows that you know how good you look with those heels on. Head to heeled-toe, you give off a total come-hither vibe.

At The Boudoir Cafe, we even have heels we can provide for you, if you don't ave any ones of your own that you think will foot the bill! Because we are one of the most famous boudoir photographers in the Los Angeles and Las Vegas area, we have the great honor of being the owners of a high-heel collection (see pics in this post!!) that you are completely welcome to choose from at the time of your shoot as a part of your pampering hair and makeup session. Because, really, what's a queen without some high heels? You should be able to sit on your thrown higher than everyone, and you should be able to look down on everyone not as gorgeous as you (the same way those models did), and you should rule with grace and confidence (the same way your mother did).

After all, it was the great and fabulous Marilyn Monroe who said, "I don't know who invented high heels. But whoever he was, all women owe him a lot!"

We sure do!!

Xoxo,

Cherie

Exciting news, boudoir fans!!

The Boudoir Café was featured on the popular current news website, The Daily Beast! :

Journalist Samantha Allen was kind enough to contact me and The Boudoir Café team as prime contributors to her article, “How Boudoir Photos Are Redefining Sexy.” The article itself is lovely, and has a lot of good words to say about boudoir by those who have participated and been changed by it; and by boudoir photographers (including Hedley and myself!) who have found a great passion and art in capturing such intimate and beautiful moments.

Do yourself a favor and read it! Just like a boudoir photoshoot experience itself, it promises not to disappoint.

Xoxo.

Cherie

Calling all Photographers!!!!

As we begin October, I have a very exciting announcement to make… Hedley and I will be speaking at Mystic Seminars in Portland, Oregon in January!! We are so so so excited to be a part of this wonderful selection of very talented photographers.

We are teaching a seminar on, specifically, boudoir photography. Because boudoir is a rising trend, and The Boudoir Café is the best of the best in the Cali area, we have been selected as the speakers for the event. Not only do we feel very honored, but we are very proud to share our knowledge of boudoir photography so photographers everywhere can start spreading this amazing, inspiring, special brand of photography to lucky people everywhere.

Hedley and I will be speaking on Saturday, January 16.

Award winning Boudoir photographers from Beverly Hills, CA  Cherie Steinberg & Hedley Jones are very excited to offer a 1 day seminar  full of their techniques and a live shoot at an amazing Hotel in Portland walking distance from the Hilton…..

Will include the following:

THIS $599.00 BOUDOIR 1 DAY SEMINAR TOPICS INCLUDE: HOW TO GET THAT AMAZING LOOK AND STYLE•

• How to stand out in a big sea of other good photographers…

• How to make an amazing portfolio and website that people will love….

• How to do repeat business and lots of referrals…..

• Makeup and styling how to create a team for yourself…

• PLANNING SESSION AND MAKING THE CLIENT READY FOR THE BOUDOIR SESSION•

• Have a getting ready document for your clients from what to eat before the shoot to cutting the tags out of the clothes

• How to get the client to feel totally amazing and comfortable with 5 minutes of coming into studio

• How to connect with all clients for a very strong bond while planning everything!!

AMAZING TECHNIQUES & IDEAS FOR POSING•

• Working with Women: How to work with non models and nervous clients to bring out their best.

• Posing: How to flatter curvy girls and every body type with simple posing principles.

• The poses you need to know and master that work for every woman

LIGHTING + GEAR•

•Lets use and learn some studio lighting!!!

• Using the light that is in the room and how to do that, so you can shoot everywhere!! • Working with simple yet effective lighting sources including natural light, shadows and simple one light set ups that can be done anywhere.

• Gear that is suited to boudoir specifically in the lighting and the lenses that are chosen to shoot with and why A FULL ON BOUDOIR SHOOT WITH LIVE MODEL•

• Storyboards: Using storyboards to build a must-have shot list of 35 shots that sell.

•The top 5 shots that every girl wants of themselves and the 5 their men want

•Shooting for artwork that for sure can be made into a very large framed image.

• How to create a system for shooting all girls to make an amazing product for them in the end.

ALL PRE AND POST PRODUCTION•

• Making everything camera ready and post production ready and how I do that.

• Looking at before and after to discuss the retouching phase of the process.

• Working with IView Media Pro or Lightroom

• Why I outsource as much as possible and how I did it.

MARKETING •

• How to have the studio filled with very happy girls who will be writing you on review forums and referring everyone they know.

****BONUS • Tips on increasing all your sales and booked the boudoir clients for their wedding and trash the dress and family portraits!!!

SPONSORED BY… Nikon and The Boudoir Cafe!!

We are obviously covering a lot of important information for photographers working in the industry, and we think it is especially essential to anyone who is even interested in the boudoir photography trend. Again, this session is completely hands-on and so-so informative!

WOW. We are obviously covering a lot of important information for photographers working in the industry, and we think it is especially essential to anyone who is even interested in the boudoir photography trend. Again, this seminar is completely hands-on! You're essentially working in the field with us! Hedley and I are sharing all of our top secrets!! You won’t want to miss this!! 

Send me an email at info@theboudoircafe.com and I will send you back all the info you need to sign up and pay!!!

We are also only inviting 12 photographers to be apart of this day…..

We look forward to sharing our techniques and info to help everyone make a very successful and very lucrative business….We know exactly how to do that!!!!

Psstt... We also heard through the grapevine a Nikon Big Wig will maybe be at this seminar!!!

Hello world!

Today I want to give a special shout-out to one of my pride and joys: boudour photography at The Boudoir Cafe.

A boudoir photoshoot can have some amazing effects on a woman. (See The Boudoir Cafe blog for more about this...) But what about a significant other she is sharing the photos with? What are their reactions, before, during, and after the process?

I spoke with the greatest hubby ever, Tim, to see what he has to say about boudoir photography, The Boudoir Cafe, and our wonderful team. Tim had a lot to say about how it felt to be there during the whole process, as well as some helpful advice to guys considering boudoir!

Q:  How did you find boudoir? What did you think about it at first?

A: Honestly, I think that the first time I heard about boudoir photography was through a social media advertisement for a wedding photography business that offered this option for brides to consider for their husbands as a wedding gift.  First and foremost, as a guy, I was intrigued from the beginning and saw this as a quite creative, sexy, and edgy gift idea.  I immediately asked myself how I could get my wife to do the same for me.  However, my wife and I had long since tied the knot, so a wedding gift was out for us.  But that didn’t mean that an anniversary or birthday gift would one day be out of the question.  And for that matter, we really did not even need a specific milestone day…just a fun and unique experience, something out of the ordinary, unique, and special…just for us.  The sensual side of it and maybe a small part of the edginess of this type of art was something that was attractive to me from the start.  And it did not take much research to sell me on the process, the experience, and the end results.

Q: Were you able to become comfortable with the idea of your wife behind the camera? What made you comfortable after specifically talking to The Boudoir Cafe?

A: At first thought, I could see where it may seem a little odd, but there was never any overwhelming feeling of being uncomfortable during this whole process, even in the beginning.  Besides, she’ll take the shoot where she wants to take it and what she’s comfortable with.  I’m fortunate in that my wife has no real reservations about her body and is completely confident and comfortable in her own skin, so overall, if anyone was going to be uncomfortable here, it was going to be me.  And IF I was uncomfortable, she would have sensed it and that may have influenced her decision in a different manner.  So, for me to feel at ease, I did what anyone in my position would do…I did my research and I asked questions for both of us, a lot of them.  To her credit, Cherie was very supportive, encouraging, and always available.  It became clear to me very early that Cherie was the absolute best in the business, the consummate professional.  Her credentials and awards speak for themselves, but her candor and ability to communicate and relate to clients is phenomenal.  I’m sure that it would have been easy for her to focus her attention on my strictly my wife’s questions as she was the one in front of the camera, but she stuck it out with me as well.  We discussed the shoot so much via phone and email, that by the day of the shoot, I had no concerns whatsoever.  My wife and I both knew that she was in good hands and in for quite an experience.  Later, with the success of the first shoot in one of The Boudoir Cafe studios, we planned a second shoot at one of Cherie's different locations.  The planning involved in both shoots and the complete cooperation and constant communication from Cherie had long erased any doubts that I ever had.  And my wife had an absolute blast.  You could see it was very empowering for her during the shoot and the end results were far beyond anything that we expected.  Just an unbelievable experience for everyone involved.  The level to which Cherie and Hedley will go ensure a fantastic time for her clients is remarkable.

Q: How did you and your wife discuss this awesome decision? What were her thoughts

A: Well, I was approaching a milestone birthday and I knew that she was considering a number of options to surprise me with.  But I brought this up in conversation one time on a date night and she was open to the idea, but wanted more information about what I was thinking and then more info on The Boudoir Café.  A couple of weeks later, we looked over the website and looked at some of the gallery pictures.  I got the feeling that if she had any reservations at all, the quality of the work found on the website in addition to online reviews squashed those.  It was like we were dealing with the Super Bowl of boudoir photographers.  Best in the world.  From that point, it was fairly straightforward and simple.  She told me to set it up for a certain timeframe and see if it could fit into her schedule.  One specific characteristic that stood out early on was that Cherie was not just a photographer.  She’s an artist and knows that her work tells a story that she’s responsible for communicating and she takes that very seriously.  Anyone can take a picture.  Not everyone is an artist.  And even fewer are capable of producing the moments that she can.

Q: How would you describe the outcome?

A: In two words…Absolutely Stunning!  I look at the outcome in two ways…first, how did my wife feel during and after the shoot and then second, what did we get to remember the moments caught on camera.  And to both of these, I simply say, absolutely stunning.  We both felt like our expectations going in and far been exceeded.  And Cherie has such a catalog of options for how to preserve those moments from photobooks to a variety of canvas prints, the list is just too long to print here.  Just talk with her and look over what she offers.  If you don’t see what you like, just tell her what you are envisioning and if it’s possible, she’ll make it happen.  It may be that you don’t know what you are looking for…she can help you with that too.  But again…the end products were more than just what I received later.  Just knowing that my wife was having a blast…from the make-up and hair prior to the shoot, to picking out the lingerie, to working it in front of the camera…all of that is what makes the experience.  Don’t get me wrong; I thoroughly enjoy the take-aways daily.  But the entire package is the REAL deal and it’s exactly why I brought this up with my wife in the first place.  In the end, it was more than just about what I wanted.  I knew that there was going to be a great end result for her as well.  And from her perspective, she’s absolutely thrilled with the experience and what we have preserved through keepsakes.

Q: What do you recommend to other men who are considering, or maybe have just found, boudoir?

A: I would honestly say that if their curiosity has piqued and they are considering it, then they should definitely follow up on it.  If you are like me, you would not be able to erase it from your thoughts.  Trust your intuition.  My intuition said that my wife would not only gladly do this for me but that she’d be comfortable with it once all of her questions were answered.  I was right.  But I doubt that she would have done it without me bringing it up.  I had to be the one to take the initiative for her to see how much I really wanted her to do it.  But obviously, discuss it with her, do the research with her…don’t be shy.  There will be a point in which she can take over the planning and keep you guessing or perhaps she’ll let you do all the planning yourself which is just as fun.  That’s the way my wife preferred it, but wanted me to keep her in the loop.  Take a look around…look at other photography studios that offer boudoir photos.  Do the comparisons.  But don’t underestimate the need for wives/girlfriends/significant others to feel at ease and in an environment that is supportive, encouraging, and high energy and that captures what they want to portray.  You simply need to look no further than the great folks at The Boudoir Café.

Q: Anything else you can say about The Boudoir Cafe!! 

A: You establish a real relationship with Cherie and Hedley.  They are great people, very trustworthy and supportive, and truly want you to get the best out of the experience.  For some folks, this may be a once in a lifetime type shoot, so why not go all out?  For others, the first time alone may fuel the desire to do it again….and maybe again.  There are a lot of boudoir studios out there, but I am convinced that there is only one Boudoir Café.  Why settle for anything less than the best?  We are so comfortable with the process and those involved that we will do it again, but we’ll only go with Cherie and Hedley.  They are great visionaries and really are able to create exactly the look and experience that is desired.  They’ve done it twice for us and we would not hesitate for a third shoot…we even have a few ideas in mind now.