Welcome to Hansen Boudoir!
Hi, I’m Scott Hansen, owner and photographer for Hansen Boudoir, while I am new to writing blogs, I am not new to having a camera in my hands, thankfully. I would like to take a moment to introduce myself and share a little about me and what brought me into the world of boudoir photography.
First, I am a husband to the most caring and wonderful woman in the world and a father to two teenagers. My son is about to head off to college in the Fall to study engineering and would like to focus on designing cars. My daughter is about to finish her first year at college studying Photography for Fashion and Advertising. It is her that I need to thank for bringing me back into the art of photography. I have always had a passion for capturing moments whether it was planned or not :). I would often try to get photos of my family when they least expected it, but that is what made it real. I spent a lot of time developing my own photos in the dark room, yes, I was shooting with film.
As I mentioned already, I have my daughter to thank for bringing me back into the art of photography. My wife (girl friend at the time) had given me a real film camera, which I brought everywhere for many years. Once our family started to grow, finances become tough and my passion for photography was put away. When my daughter was fifteen, she came to me expressing an interest in taking a photography class in high school and wanted to learn more about it. Needless to say, that was all I needed to hear, that Christmas she got her first dSLR (yes, she got one before I did). We spent hours together just shooting and playing around, I got to show her the basics of capturing an image, while she brought the passion back out in me.
So, how did I end up in boudoir? Well, I was in NYC doing a shoot for a woman that wanted to update her portfolio and submit some images to a couple of dance studio’s and magazines. I took some photos of her in a dress, she went to change outfits and came out in lingerie. Needless to say, I was surprised to say the least. Once I got over the shock of a woman standing in front of me wearing lingerie that was not my wife, we started shooting. What really hooked me was hearing her comments when I showed her the back of my camera so that she could get a quick look at the photos. Hearing her say:
Are you serious?
Is that really me?
I can’t believe how amazing these are!
Can I take a picture of the back of your camera, I need to have that photo right now!
The shoot continued for an hour or more (you can see some of the images in my ‘Diaries’ section of my website). As I continued to shoot, I was completely connected to my camera and what to do for posing, lighting etc. It just hit me square in the face as they say. Totally unexpected, but there I was shooting a woman in lingerie totally unfazed by it and thinking nothing but how can we make this image even better, how can I capture more emotion and make her walk out on cloud nine.
I did a couple more shoots and the photos just kept getting better and better, with similar comments from everyone involved. Each time the person I was photographing simply loved their photos, but most importantly they left feeling so much better about themselves, they were holding their head higher, they had that extra bounce in their step and I felt that I was part of helping them leave with more confidence than they had when we got started. This feeling was totally new for me, I mean people liked my photos in the past, but this was overwhelming for me to hear how much they loved the images, but to see the smiles and the glow on their face is what got me hooked. Knowing that I impacted someone in such an incredible way brought joy to my heart and fueled my passion for photography even more.
I started researching boudoir photography more and more to learn what it really meant. Clearly it was a lot more than someone having there photo taken in lingerie. In fact, I don’t believe that you even need to be in lingerie in order to accomplish the true meaning of boudoir. For me, a boudoir session is about making you feel amazing, beautiful, self-confident, but most important it is about accepting where you are on your journey through life. It is about being comfortable in your own skin and not caring what society wants us to think about how we should look, how much we should weigh or what size clothes we wear. We don’t need society to tell us what beautiful is, that comes from what you feel and think about yourself.
As a photographer in this genre it is important to know your ‘WHY?’ While this might change over time, I doubt it will for me but stay tuned for more on my ‘Why’.