When Ila contacted me asking if I was open to doing a boudoir shoot outdoors, I was so excited by the idea! I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to shoot this genre outside, and it is something I have been wanting to explore. Beyond the label of “boudoir”, this was more of an epic nude in nature shoot – raw, real, and surrounded by Nevada landscape.
Ila has lived in Northern Nevada for all of her life and she has known for years that as a gift to herself before turning 40, she wanted to do this. For her this was a bucket list once in a lifetime experience and a way for her to exercise pride and gratitude to her body. I was honored to be the one to do this for her through one of our boudoir photoshoots in Reno.
She gave me full creative freedom, and only shared her vision of being nude in a location that represented Nevada in one of our boudoir photoshoots in reno. We played with the idea of a forest shoot in Tahoe as well as a dry lake bed at the Black Rock. We decided on the Winnemucca Sand Dunes – thanks to Scotti’s local expertise of the area.
In many of the photos, Ila dressed in a Native American headdress with her grandmother’s jewelry, and nothing else – representing her Navajo family origins. She also gave Kristina with Kiss and Makeup free reins of creativity to compliment the theme with gorgeous dramatic makeup.
I could not be more proud and thrilled by how this session turned out. It is creatively invigorating to try new things and stretch out pushing beyond my comfort zone. I am so proud and excited to share these photos and hope to have more opportunities to do shoots such as this one.