Emily was one of our most fun Boudoir Photoshoots. She arrived with absolutely the right attitude for a Madison Bou Experience. To have fun and enjoy every second and of course the result will be the most beautiful images you could imagine. We chose to shoot in Elderflower Suite at Hazlewood Castle for this shoot and also create some wonderful dress shots downstairs in the Great Hall as well.

Choosing the final images is always the hardest part since there are so many good shots.

Finally Emily chose what she wanted for the book as well as an acrylic cover and a super cool silhouette for some magical Alumini wall art.

“Highly recommend this experience to everyone! I really enjoyed every moment because the team made me feel so special from start to finish.

Loved the photographs…they have helped make me less critical of my body, so big thank you xx” … Rachel

A Maternity Session is the perfect way to document the most monumental moment in your life.

I speak from experience. After 2 children, nothing beats the moment of birth. It’s an incredible time. Guess what? The teeny weeny baby you get to hold in one hand doesn’t stay like that for long.

In the blink of an eye, your little bundle of joy is off to Primary School and then a teenager and then …. Well, what happened to those early months and years?

10 TOP POSES FOR BOUDOIR ANYBODY CAN DO

The best boudoir poses have one thing in common - They can be done by any woman, any shape, any age, any size!

No matter what the pose, we will help you every step of the way and pose you from your fingertips to your tippy tippy toes.

The poses below work fro pretty much everyone with any body shape but there are a whole load more that work better with certain body shapes more than others. We will pay careful attention to your unique curveswe pay careful attention to your unique curves and work with your natural mobility and flexibility and pose you accordingly. Rest assured you will always be posed to perfection.

Modest Boudoir is a type of photography that celebrates a woman's femininity and sensuality without being overtly sexual.

It's about capturing the beauty and grace of a woman's body without showing too much skin.

Modest boudoir is all about celebrating the woman herself, rather than her body. In truth we photograph all our clients in the style of ‘modest boudoir’ for at least part of the session, often at the start to help ease the initial nerves and sometimes at the end of a Boudoir Session, we might venture outside and wear dresses or get some thing away from the traditional bedroom environment.

How much do you love yourself.?

Specifically the way you look in the mirror?

Do you feel proud and have complete confidence?

Most women we meet don’t have confidence at all. In fact, one of our leading questions is “what do you love about yourself?” and while we may get plenty of personality traits “I’m kind, generous a good mum`” etc, we rarely get our clients loving physical attributes. “ I love my legs” “breasts” etc.

When I compliment Jayne and say how beautiful she is (Which is everyday) she almost laughs it off and changes the subject. Why do women do this?

Women find it very difficult accepting compliments. The negative stuff in their head is so much easier to believe.

Our Mission is to make you feel like a true Goddess

When you step into our space and in front of our camera, there is no negativity allowed.

Everything we do and say is about encouraging a positive attitude. No more dismissing the compliments you receive, no more being tough on yourself and we allow you to be the centre of attention for once without having to feel guilty about it. It’s a powerful thing, this positivity and soon, you’ll be swept up in it.

Without a doubt, posing for a boudoir session can be a little intimidating!

Most of us are not natural-born models.

99% of clients start out the session by telling us they don’t know how to pose! They often say – “What do I do with my hands?”

Hands can look awkward and make you look nervous but with a little gentle direction we can make sure your hands look wonderful and help you radiate a feeling of confidence.

Most people worry about smiling and expression in front of the camera but pay little regard to their hands.

One of the most important things we do is to get you to relax those hands. Shake out all the stiffness. Create shapes like ‘ballet hands’ – Part and bend the fingers. No clenched, closed fists or straight, regimental hands. Just softe and gentle hands. Like a ballet dancer.

Here’s a surprising fact we’ve learned from 20 years photographing women.

When we first started out, we found willing subjects everywhere. Few people objected to having their picture taken.

Fast forward through a generation of rapidly increasing Social Media and things have changed.

Many people have fears about having their picture taken, in fact even the thought of having a photographic session is enough to drive some people to a panic attack.

The irony is that we all have so many pictures of ourselves out there now, on mobile phones, taken by friends with little or no photographic experience on wide angle lenses and we see so many bad pictures of ourselves that our anxiety has naturally increased. Bad pictures on social media and mobile phones are the reason we have so much fear about being photographed. Plus, of course, we see so many ‘beautiful’ people setting the standards of beauty that we can never aspire to that we always seem to come up short somehow. Of course, nobody is perfect and no one wakes up up in perfect makeup with perfect hair, but that’s the story that social media sends us.

Overcoming the fear of being photographed can be a challenge, but That, in a nutshell, is the point of a Boudoir Experience and in this article we give you our 5 step plan…

We know boudoir isn’t for everyone—and that’s okay.

But here’s the thing… if we were to ask you what you love about yourself, what would you say? (be honest)

It’s highly likely, based on our experience, that you will find it difficult listing anything you love about yourself that’s a physical attribute.

You’ll list things like you’re kind and generous, hard working, a pretty good mum and friend, but how far down the list will it be before you praise any aspect of the body or physical looks. Of, course, it’s true that looks aren’t everything but if you hate the way you look when you stand in front of the mirror each morning, well’ that feeling can be pretty debilitating.

Every woman we meet needs a little more ‘self love’ and this is the power of a Boudoir Photoshoot.

There is a certain freedom that comes with vulnerability—with being able to express your sexuality and finding comfort in the skin you are in. An experience that can unlock those kind of doors for you can be life changing—which is exactly what you deserve. We know because we hear it from so many of our clients.

The women we work with are brave, strong, yet oftentimes terrified to be vulnerable in front of the camera.

All of these women leave their photoshoot feeling empowered, literally giddy with excitement from their own bravery, and dying to see the final images.

Boudoir isn’t the only style we do. A few years ago we started a Mum and Daughter Experience at Hazlewood Castle we have great pleasure in announcing we have just relaunched our Mum and Daughter Photoshoot Experience for Spring and for those who are not familiar with this, it’s a perfect excuse to spend some quality time together and create some lasting heirloom memories.

Hair and Makeup is provided and extra family members can join the shoot as well. Much of the shoot takes place outdoors if the weather is kind and we even provide a light lunch. Every Mum and Daughter Experience is customised completely around you and there’s no limit to your number of outfits. It’s a guaranteed fun day. Have a look at some of our past clients and their experiences below in this article.

we believe every woman deserves to feel confident - no matter what her age, shape or size

Boost your confidence.

The beautiful women you see on our website and social media aren’t models - they are our amazing clients.

From 21 to 74 years old, from dress size 6 to 34, every one of them had fears and insecurities, but found the courage to book a photoshoot and discovered their confidence in our studio.

So can you!

Can you relate to the feeling of ‘Mum guilt’?

(i.e feeling bad when you spend money on yourself, not your children)

Over the years we have photographed hundreds of Mums.

Many of these Mums would often tell us that it would be hard to justify spending so much money just on themselves. They needed a better excuse than simple self indulgence. (Maybe they could justify it as a present for Dad )

These Mums constantly put themselves after their kids and after their partners.

In other words, these women accept themselves as third class citizens in their own household.

This is far more common than you might think.

It’s hard to spend money on yourself when you need to think of the family too! It feels selfish somehow. After all, every Mum wants the best for their kids and loves to treat the kids. The thought of prioritising themselves doesn’t seem right, somehow.

However, if you consistently neglect your own needs and wants, the impact it has on you can be dramatic and be negative for the whole family.

Pretty soon you will lose touch of who your really are and of of course, who you used to be. Our clients often tell us they feel like they’ve lost their identity and become a slave to the family.

Yet, Imagine what a powerful statement it will make to the kids if you come across as being happy with the way you look and being confident in your own skin. Some of that positivity about yourself will inspire them to be positive about themselves.

We hear all the time from women who tell us they can’t do this experience because they’ll never be able to look as good as the women on our website and that is the greatest lie you can tell yourself. It’s not us that your lying to either, it’s you!

Effectively, you’re telling yourself, you’re not good enough, not worthy of something like this, not confident enough and yes, we understand how people can feel like they’ve lost the confidence to do something out of their comfort zone but thinking you’re not good enough is something that needs to be addressed.

Anxiety needs work to overcome but simply, not feeling ‘good enough’ is the lamest excuse of all. I’m here to tell you that we are all ‘good enough’. Everyone is beautiful and if you don’t feel it then you need this more than anyone else.

Since becoming a Mum have you been suffering from a serious case of lost identity?

Or maybe it’s a midlife crisis? Or a little Postnatal depression?

Maybe you’re feeling tired, like, all the time! You look in the mirror and feel like you’ve let yourself go a little. That Mummy tummy just won’t go away. Everyday you feel like you can’t finish the laundry or squeeze your butt into your jeans and you feel that all you are is ‘just a Mum’. You like you’re disappearing into nothing…

You used to care about how you looked. You ate well, exercised regularly, showered every day and put makeup on. You’d look at hashtags on Instagram like ‘outfits for Summer’ and pin cute outfits. Now, though, you wear hoodies and oversized sweaters and black and grey t-shirts. You grab your clothes off of the floor every morning and wear them again.

Does this sound like you?

It’s completely normal to be nervous as the days draw nearer to your boudoir shoot. A Boudoir Photoshoot is not something you do every day. I fact, this may well be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Being nervous is to be expected.

At Madison Bou, we’ve been photographing boudoir style for 20 years. In that time, we’ve learned how to relax you, no matter how anxious you may be. we’ve also learned what needs to be done to prepare for an experience like this. In fact, you more organised and prepared you are, the more smoothly your photoshoot will go and the better the results will be.

You want to be relaxed and ready to go when the day arrives, so we’ve put together this little checklist to make things a little easier.

Make sure you check off all of these helpful tips and you’ll be all set. We’ll take care of everything else.

A lot has changed for women over the last twenty years or so.

More women than ever before are being portrayed in a more powerful way than ever before in the media.

I remember being enthralled and excited by Thelma and Louise rediscovering their freedom, I remember the first femme fatale’s in ‘The Last Seduction’ and ‘Long Kiss Goodnight’ (A kind of ‘Bourne Again’ for women). Now the movies have many more powerful women and now a new generation of girls are growing up with powerful female role models.

I remember how Dita Von Teese shifted boundaries and pop icons like Beyonce and Rhianna changed the rules regarding control of their lives in male dominated industries. (Of course, with the bar set by Madonna who beat almost every man at his own game )

We read that more women are making films, music, writing best sellers, than ever before. (Does anyone outsell J K Rowling?)

Even pornography, statistics tell us, is watched and made by more women than ever before, and is on the rise significantly.

I just wanted to say thank you for the amazing experience I had on my photo shoot. From start to finish the whole day was full of fun and laughter and even before I had even had my make up done, Kym had made me feel at ease. They both made me feel confident enough to do the shots I wanted to and even looking back at the photos from the start of the day to the end, Dave had already taught me so much on how to get the best shots for me and have lots of variety in my poses. He gave plenty of advice and direction which was the main thing I worried about as I’m not a natural selfie taker or poser by any means! I can’t recommend it enough. I really think that everyone should do one in their lifetime and be made to feel special for the day. 😊 Thank you for helping me get my self confidence back

When you look at yourself in the mirror, do you love what you see?

The aim of an experience such as this is to empower you. To give you more confidence about who you are and to be totally accepting of how you look. If you don’t gain confidence in yourself then we have failed in what we set out to do.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you started out thinking you have to layer up and by the end of the day, your confidence was so high that we would be capable of walking home, naked, in the rain, with a big smile on your face?

In this article, we aim to tackle the issue of how much is ‘revealing’ because it’s very different for everyone.