The beauty of a broad brief
My client came to me with a number of different ideas for her shoot. Nothing was too set, they were just some things that she was interested to explore. She wanted a makeup aesthetic that was really fun and experimental. She was much more interested in doing something different than being fixed to a specific idea. We had a few mood boards, colours and rough aesthetics to start with, and then we finalised an approach on the day.
The creative process means you don’t always have a fixed idea of how something will look. It is more about broad strokes. Every time a client walks into my little north west Adelaide studio, I have a rough idea of what we are aiming to create. But until we actually start working together and see where the session takes us, I never know exactly what the final results will look like. That is the point. Collaboration means an openness to discovery, and that is where you truly find the gold.
The thread that leads back to you
When my client told me she wanted to explore the ‘red thread‘ theory in her shoot, my heart leapt. It’s the beautiful idea that we are connected to those we are destined to meet by an invisible, unbreakable cord – our one true love. In my mind, it interwove with what we aim to do here at Velvet Thyme. We want to create photography that enables you to reconnect with yourself, to find your way back and deeply love the person you are in this moment.
We were left with the challenge of how to visually represent that concept in the studio. If you know me a little, you will know that I am a huge fan of layers, and the idea of creating a spider web like backdrop seemed like the most fun solution. For these photos we used some washi tape to stick up single pieces of textured red wool. This created the most fun infrastructure to light and shoot amongst.
Rock album energy and those boots
Fierce makeup paired with some stunning outfits could only mean one thing: experimental lighting. We moved into using strong blue and red lights, shifting from warm and soft glows to something much more vivid. By the end of it, I feel like we embodied many iconic rock album covers!
And of course, the boots were a must. There is something about the right pair of shoes that changes the way you stand and the way you feel in your own skin.
Pushing the boundaries of comfort
Beyond the creative concepts, this session was also a personal challenge for my client. She used these photos to intentionally lean into parts of herself that she had previously felt uncomfortable with. It takes a massive amount of courage to stand in front of a lens and choose to embrace the things we’ve often been taught to hide.
These shoots are about challenging old, negative self-beliefs in real time. These sessions are often a quiet act of bravery and a way to reclaim your body on your own terms.
Shedding skins and finding the single self
We all embody so many roles, from home to work and everything in between. These parts of us can get very intermeshed, but they can also feel disconnected at times. I often feel like one of the roles of these photo shoots is to provide a cathartic way to blend these parts together so we can be the embodiment of our single self.
In simple terms, when you walk through the door to your job, you slip into a version of yourself most attuned with that environment and those expectations. When you hit the pub that night with your bff, that can all fall away and a different version of you emerges. Walk through your own front door and another self is shed like the skin of a snake.
It is the same throughout our lives, from our private selves to our public selves. This shifting of roles, like the gears in a car, can be tiring and confusing. We spend so many hours as a certain version of ourselves that our other selves become quietened and sometimes drift away. Session are often about marrying some of those facets of self. These photos were the embodiment of a powerful, fun, accomplished, creative and sensual self.
Why choose Velvet Thyme for your photoshoot
You have probably been considering a boudoir shoot in Adelaide or something in the ballpark for quite some time but you haven’t quite found the right fit. This is a space where there is no one size fits all, because we don’t believe in it.
We are all beautifully different, and we all embody many different versions of ourselves. This is truly a safe and inclusive space to let your flag fly and to figure out what makes your heart sing. Whether you are coming to us for body acceptance, to document a journey like a mastectomy, or just to celebrate who you are, we are here for it. Feeling centered in yourself is a powerful place to be and that is what we aspire to offer to our clients.
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