We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emily Steele a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Emily thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

My hope for my legacy is that I will have been able to help more people become better versions of themselves after they’ve left one of my photo sessions. I want to help them feel confidence in ways maybe they haven’t felt in a while. Help them relieve some stress by laughter during their sessions. Or help them work through some mental thoughts that are blocking them from being the best version they want to be.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been a photographer for a long time. Currently 18 years but in reality I have always been fascinated with freezing moments of time since I was a child. I’ll date myself a bit here. I was the kid running around with the Crayola camera snagging a million photos of absolutely everything I could.

It was in my late 20s that I modeled for a boudoir session that I felt confidence for the first time. It was mind blowing to me that I thought I was fairly confident however had never felt it until after leaving that session. I knew I wasn’t alone in this after talking to my friends and decided it was time to start researching and venturing into boudoir photography as weddings were my main focus at the time.

This catapulted me into a world that I could not love more. My sessions are more similar to a slight therapy session but with amazing images to document the day. I focus on confident and empowering poses. My goal is to get the body into confident poses so it can ‘feel’ what confidence is and then the mind will start to believe it. I want to help people become a better version of themselves than who they walk in as, however they see fit.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

There is no perfect pose or photo. I’m a recovering perfectionist and I strived to have the ‘perfect’ photo based on the rules that I was taught about photography. The more I ventured outside those rules the more emotions I found and joy from creating heartfelt images that didn’t fit the rules someone decided a long time ago.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Be yourself and put yourself out there. People want to see who you are in an authentic way. Don’t fake anything, people can see that. Show the mess, open up about things, and share your story. (Always do this within your comfort level)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://emilysteelestudios.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilysteelestudios/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emilysteelestudios

Image Credits
All photos take by me. Emily Steele Studios