We were lucky to catch up with Kira Wood recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kira, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The most meaningful projects for me are the women that choose to do a boudoir shoot right before their double mastectomy. I’ve worked with a lot of women post breast cancer, but the ones that are currently undergoing cancer are in a different emotional space. This is the most frightening time in their lives and having a piece of their body changed permanently is huge. The session is usually very emotional and not as light hearted as a typical session. I try to be my usual self and keep them talking about anything not related to what they are going through. At the end of the session, they ask to take tasteful photos of their breasts and this is the most tearful part. I end up crying right along with them. These sessions are the most moving.
Kira, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a boudoir photographer, mother, a wife and woman, living in North Carolina. I began my photography career around 2002, while learning film photography with my dad’s 35mm camera. I quickly fell in love with portrait photography and started working for a company taking family portraits and headshots. From there, I assisted wedding photographers and even started taking on my own wedding clients. For many years I photographed weddings, families and children until around 2016 when I shot my very last wedding. While I was photographing weddings, I started dabbling in boudoir photography as a recommendation from a friend. Some of my brides hired me as their boudoir photographer too. I continued to work hard on learning everything about boudoir photography by attending workshops and hiring models to pose for me. I quickly fell in love with boudoir photography and wanted to do nothing else. After I shot my last wedding, I focused solely on boudoir photography and made it my niche. In 2018 I hired a business coach to really help me focus on the business side of things to get everything in order and understand how to make a profit. This is when I noticed the biggest difference in the growth of my business. Not only did I have the photography skill, but also the business knowledge to know how to run a successful business all while raising my two children with my husband. It’s not worth it, if you’re not going to do it right.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I think I’ve built a great reputation by being an honest and transparent person with my business. What you see is what you get. Women want to feel connected to the business and the brand. I continually put myself out there on social media, in my marketing emails and in my work. I am my business and you can see that in my work. I genuinely form connections with my clients. You aren’t a dollar sign with me. Yes, I do have bills to pay and I have a system I follow with boundaries, but I speak to you like a human and not a machine. During your shoot, we talk about real life. We talk about the good, the bad, the struggles women face. Human connection is everything and it’s lacking these days in a digital everything world.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
I wish I knew more about business coaches or mentors. Sometimes the photography world can be so competitive that I think I was afraid to ask for help when I needed it. I was afraid it made me look small. I also think a lot of newer photographers have such an advantage these days. There are so many resources at your finger tips that weren’t available when I was starting out. There are so many photographers that have put together contracts, posing guides, templates, presets, youtube tutorials. You name it, it’s out there. When I started, there was very little of that. There were a few workshops here and there plus Creative Live. Now, there is stuff everywhere. It’s so much easier to get started.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jolieboudoir.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/jolieboudoirnc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jolieboudoir