We recently connected with Jaimi Bailey and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jaimi, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later?

I started being a full time boudoir photographer in 2020 (Middle of covid, oddly enough). After seeing how much Boudoir has changed my life, I definitely wish I had started sooner.

Before shooting just boudoir I was shooting anything and everything. My income has always been to aide in my families extra curricular’s, but was hard to balance my family time with my business. When I was shooting everything, it meant I was gone evenings and most weekends. It was what lead me to burning out and really considering quitting photography all together.

So I had finally realized I needed to niche down hard, and when I knew that, Boudoir was the first thing that came to mind. My business was fine before, I stayed somewhat consistent in booking, but I was losing the joy of it. Once I niched down to Boudoir, it was like a light switched on. Bookings rolled in, lead me down my own self love journey, provided work life balance in a way I desperately needed, and the connections I was making with the community of women who started to follow me, was breathtaking!

I knew this was the path for me. I don’t just take sexy photos, I empower women to start loving their own bodies, reaffirming that all shapes and sizes are worthy of love.

So yes, I do very much wish I had started my Boudoir career much sooner.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Jaimi Bailey, I’m a wife and mother to 3 children. I’m also a business owner, who shoots boudoir photography. I’ve been in love with photography since my days in a dark room, developing film in high school. Once I started having children I quickly realized the 9-5 corporate life wasn’t for me at all, and I wanted to be home with my family. So I started in family photography, shooting friends and family. After 5 years and a move from Richmond VA to Raleigh NC, I added in wedding photography. This was something I quickly grew to realize wasn’t a great fit for me or my family. In 2020 I made the decision to niche down to shooting just Boudoir, and life hasn’t been the same since.

I offer an all inclusive Boudoir experience, meaning that all of your Boudoir needs are provided for. This includes hair and makeup upon arrival, access to my luxury lingerie, and all of your images from the shoot! My services are unlike most Boudoir Photographers in this way, which really sets me apart. I believe women deserve to be pampered and not stressed with the burden of having to manage figuring out what to where and then scheduling hair and makeup on their own, on top of being overwhelmed by having to choose which images they want out of a whole session.

My job/passion, is to empower women to love their bodies and embrace their femininity! Being a woman, I can relate to the negative self talk, and the almost impossible standards that society has put on us. On my social media I not only share my clients images, but my own fears and body insecurities. It’s important to me that my clients see that I’m just like them and go through the same emotions.

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

It took me longer than necessary to start shooting boudoir in my home studio. I felt that I had to have a commercial space, I had to have a ton of the perfect furniture, and a client closet filled with all the expensive lingerie. I let comparison steel time from me.

Before I went full time into boudoir, I was renting space from a wedding venue, to shoot my sessions. This venue was beautiful and grand, but was also almost an hour from my home and not cheap. I was losing money and therefore my joy of doing boudoir.

So I finally got over myself and prepped my home to start doing my sessions there. After several sessions, I was so overwhelmed with happiness and aggravation, because I wish I had done it sooner. Not a single client cares that it’s in my home, not a single one cares that it’s not some super fancy commercial space.

I have to and even still, work on reminding myself that I don’t have to be perfect. I don’t need all the things that I see other Boudoir photographers have. I’m on my own career journey and I’m at the beginning still. I have plenty of time to keep learning and growing.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

I have two “employee’s”, Carrie whom has been my best friend since 6th grade, just joined a year ago. She manages my client correspondence as well as invoices. She’s honestly is the reason everything flows so smoothly and keeps this business running. I don’t know how I managed before her.

Krista is my main hair and makeup artist. I met her through my first artist Alexis. Up until this past January , both worked with me for each session. One doing hair while the other did makeup (we like to keep things fancy over here). Unfortunately Alexis moved in the beginning of 2023, we miss her so much!

Krista is now does it all, and I mean ALL! She has been in the industry for 20 plus years and her expertise shows in multitude of ways. She has such a loving, loyal personality and all my clients just love her, and actually continue to use her for other events.

My team truly envelopes my brand, they give each of our clients so much love and attention. I couldn’t have picked better women to work with.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.JaimiBaileyPhotography.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jaimibaileyboudoir
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/jaimibaileyboudoir

Image Credits
Krista Massey- Hair and makeup