tasteful. artistic. sexy.

"Wow! It just hit me - last year, almost 50% of my sales came from my glamour and boudoir portraits, a huge increase from previous years!

"My name is Robin Hickman, owner of Robin Hickman Photography.

"For several years I’ve thought that I would do a seminar on glamour photography to share some of the hard earned secrets that I've used to build my glamour and boudoir business! When I saw how fast that line is growing in my onwn studio I know the time had come."

Even in this tough economy, there is a rapidly growing demand for “Sexy” portraits, and a critical SHORTAGE of qualified photographers in our area to fill the need. In our studio in the last three years, glamour sessions went from something we did occasionally to the number one selling product line. No one was more shocked than I was when our profits exploded with this exciting new line, and of course I wanted to find out why! One of the answers I've found is best illustrated by telling this story.

We were ten minutes into the consultation and the young woman sitting across from me hadn’t made eye contact yet.  Her head down and her voice subdued, I had to strain to hear what she was saying. I couldn’t help wondering how we were going to get from this point to actually shooting the glamour session that she had booked.

From zero self-esteem to confident model in one session

She had booked the consultation via email in response to an ad I was running on Facebook. Before she came in I looked up her Facebook page to see what I could learn about her. Her profile image was a photo of her (although I had to ask her later to be sure it was actually her.) It was so dark I could barely make out an outline of someone’s head and shoulders, but absolutely no details were visible.  She had 20 or so images in her albums but not a single one of her. It was almost like she didn’t exist on her own page!

After opening the consultation with some basic “break the ice” type questions, I asked her why she wanted to do a glamour session. At this point she began to open up, even glancing up at me occasionally.  She was obviously uncomfortable, but determined. She told me that growing up, her mother had constantly told her she was ugly, and her father hadn’t been around. Her self-esteem was at rock bottom.  She was now in a relationship with a man who constantly told her that she was beautiful and sexy, but she simply couldn’t accept it. Her low self esteem was affecting their relationship, and when her boyfriend saw my ad, he convinced her to do a session with me in the hopes that as a result she could see what he saw.

The session took place the next week. Of course she was extremely nervous at first, but as the session went on she grew more comfortable. She really was sexy and beautiful, the challenge was drawing her out of her emotional hiding place enough to capture her beauty.  She was very photogenic and we ended up with some stunning images.

She brought her boyfriend to the viewing and she seemed even more nervous than at the beginning of the session. She was so stunned by the images that she cried. She kept saying, “Is that really me?” Her boyfriend kept telling her, “I told you so!” He was so pleased at how things turned out that he thanked me over and over.

A few weeks later I visited her Facebook page once again and the transformation was dramatic.  The black image of her was gone. She had posted some of her images from the session and was using one as her profile image. But the amazing thing was the rest of her images. She had posted several albums of photos of herself, snapshots of her life dating back into high school. It was like watching someone that barely existed come to life! It was then that I realized what a difference our work could really make in someone’s life.

Women are SEARCHING for photographers that can create classy and tasteful, but yet hot and seductive images for their husbands, boyfriends and often just for themselves.  Just a few minutes ago I got a phone call from a professional woman here in Bozeman who had searched the internet hoping to find someone who could create sexy images for her husband. She was excited and surprised to find someone local and booked an appointment right away.

Another local client was asked by her fiancé to do a boudoir session for him.  She told him she would probably have to go out of state to find a photographer.  But she was literally shocked to find someone local that had the skill and experience to create what they were looking for. A couple of weeks and a $1500 order later, they were BOTH thrilled.

Here’s a few places that women have traveled from to Bozeman in recent months to hire me to create sexy images of them: Billings, MT (multiple clients), Helena, MT (multiple clients), Dillon, MT (multiple clients), Townsend, Kalispell, Wyoming and many others.  There’s even one client on the schedule next week (as I write this) from Phoenix, AZ! Why do women make these trips? Because they can’t find anyone in their town who has the experience and training to create what they are looking for.

I love what I do, but I’m not even making a dent in the demand that’s out there. So for the first time ever, I am offering a two day seminar to teach other photographers how to do cash in on this boom for themselves!

In Two Action Packed  Days You Will Learn To Photograph Women Beautifully – And How To Earn up to $1500 Or More For A Single Fun, Creative Photo Session in the Fastest Growing Photography Market

Whether you are a seasoned pro or a beginner with basic skills, you will to learn how to create artistic glamour, boudoir and fine art nude photography – and create high demand for your work! You don’t want to miss this very special two day seminar in Bozeman, MT!

July 10-12, 2011

 

(Note: This seminar is not for everyone! Only you can decide if you are ready for a potentially life changing challenge)

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not always easy to create sexy, seductive photographs of many of the women that are looking for them. Your clients won’t be professional models, they will be mothers, doctors, architects, the “woman next door.” They will have stretch marks, cellulite, scars, a few wrinkles and gray hairs. They will be nervous and insecure in front of the camera, and will need lots of positive, encouraging feedback.

Above all else, no matter who walks on your studio, you have to DELIVER! When a woman hires you to create these portraits of her, she is taking an emotional risk.  Her mind is full of insecurities and fears about what she looks like. She is trusting you to prove her wrong, to create the image of her that she sees in her fantasy, the one she desperately wants to believe is really who she is! 

Succeed, and you will be a rock star celebrity!  Fail and you will crush her. These may sound like exaggerations but believe me neither one is an overstatement.

If you want to EXCEL at glamour and boudoir photography it's not enough to master the posing and lighting skills (although that is important.)

The single most critical element you have to master is the art of creating a mental and emotional state in each of your clients that guarantees amazing images and THRILLED clients - EVERY SINGLE TIME session!

To my knowledge this is the ONLY seminar offered anywhere where you will learn exactly how to create this critical emotional mind-set in every client. We will cover each key step in detail:

  1. You must have total confidence in your ability to create stunning images of any client who walks in your door. In this seminar you will learn all the posing, lighting and retouching techniques to do make your confidence soar!
  2. Your clients must have total trust in you as a person and in your abilities as a photographer. In this seminar you will learn how to build that trust and to totally break down each woman's deepest insecurities and fears.
  3. The women you photograph must truly believe that they are beautiful, sexy and glamorous while they are posing for you. I will teach you to make that happen.
  4. You have to DELIVER. Every time. The final product must exceed their expectations. I will show you how we make that happen.

I just got this email today in response to a thank you note I sent a client for referring yet another one of her friends (this one makes a total of six great referrals!):

"You have an uncanny way of relaxing people, and it’s very trusting.  It’s like we’re putty in your hands.  You can mold us…twist us..tell us to smile, and we’ll do whatever you want!  And it’s all because we know we’ll look fabulous!!! 

Most of these women I seriously bet, rarely let their men see them with as little on as they’ve let you see them in.  But you capture us in the moment…see past our flaws, and give us the boost of the “oh sooooo needed” self-confidence that we miss so badly!!!  So thank you!  Now THAT is cool!"

The TRUTH? These art of relaxing clients, creating trust, and inspiring killer confidence are not "uncanny" or mystical, they just seem that way when you don't know the secrets. In this seminar I will break those down into a series of SIMPLE, EASY TO LEARN STEPS that anyone can master.

These secrets are the key to an inbox full of comments like these actual quotes from my clients:

“I never used to feel beautiful or really good about how I looked and this whole experience made me realize that I am beautiful and worth taking notice of.”

“Having done the shoot with you has changed me. I find myself taking better care of me. I am more likely to paint toe nails, wear sunscreen, and curl hair ( you know more of those girly things) than I ever have in the past.”

“I never thought, in a million years, that I could look as sexy as I was in the photos!”

“I was amazed when I finally saw the photos.  I couldn’t believe the woman in the picture was actually me!  This experience has given me more confidence and self esteem than I ever thought I could have.”

 “I’ve been a different person since the session, Robin, you brought back my mojo! ... I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!”

“… I have been insecure. After I saw the photos Robin took, I was like WOW! I never in my wildest dreams thought I could look so good.”

“ I think I am still prancing around like I am the hottest thing around. :) This whole experience really did have a huge impact on my self esteem.”

“You probably hear this a lot, but I will tell you anyway...I think you are amazing! I could seriously start my own fan page of you. haha!... It really has done wonders for my self esteem, especially since I have been really down lately. Oh, and my husband liked them way more than I thought he would. :)”

“When I saw the pictures, I really saw myself differently and realized that despite having two kids, saggy, stretchy areas and extra pounds, I was still a beautiful, sexy, and powerful woman.” 

“Before even seeing the pictures I felt really amazing after the shoot. I had never felt so completely amazing in front of a camera!…When I finally got to see the pictures I couldn't believe the woman I was staring at was me! It did amazing things for my self image! I look at myself in a completely different way.”

I get comments like these in some from nearly everyone I photograph! (Much more here) NOT because I'm such an amazing photographer, but because I learned the secrets of the psychology of photographing women.


But before I learned these secrets I learned a VERY painful lesson, one that I hope you never have to endure!

One of my first glamour clients was a woman who was recently divorced and was looking for something to change her perspective, make her feel good a about herself again.  She was an attractive woman. I thought this would be easy.  I made the HUGE MISTAKE of assuming my portrait skills were all I needed to create the amazing glamour images she wanted! I simply didn't understand then all the other factors necessary to be successful.

I thought I did a great job, but I knew I had failed terribly the moment she saw the images.  She had trusted me, opened up and let herself be vulnerable at a time in her life when she was emotionally fragile. In my ignorance, I failed completely. Yes, they were technically good portraits, and the outfits and poses were sexy. I thought I did pretty good. But I knew I was wrong the second she saw them! I could see the terrible disappointment in her face and her body language. She didn’t say anything, and she even purchased a couple of 5x7s, but I never heard from her again.

I was devastated.  At first couldn't understand. I had been pretty proud of what I had done. AT first I thought she was just totally unrealistic. At least that's what my pride wanted me to believe.  But after some time I went back and looked at the images, trying to really see them from her perspective. Yes, I could have improved the poses and the lighting. There's always room for improvement.

But that was not the problem. When I looked closer I saw an attractive woman, in sexy outfits and poses. But the images were cold. They had no feeling. There was a wall between the woman in the images and me as the viewer. I began to realize that my real failure had little to do with any technical photography skill. My real failure was much deeper than that.

I had failed to build trust. I had failed to create a positive, fun, exciting experience. I had failed to connect to her emotional state, to see her fears and insecurities and help her let her guard down and put them aside. Fears and insecurities led her to do this session, hoping that I could help her defeat them. Instead, of defeating them, of exposing them as the frauds they were, I empowered them and made them bigger. They were in her eyes staring back at me.

I had created some technically solid images, but in the process I permanently captured the very things she hired me to help her banish from her life!

I realized I had a lot to learn about truly photographing women - and I went to work on it.  I studied the work of Peter Gowland. Peter understood the principles that I had missed, and devoted a chapter in one of his books to the psychology of glamour photography. That opened my eyes to a whole new dimension in portraiture.

I also rediscovered the work of Gil Elvgren, who I consider the greatest pinup artist of all time. His work was a wealth of knowledge about posing and lighting.  He only painted one or two images a month, so he made sure every detail was perfect.  But there was something else that made his work stand out. His models seemed to have a confidence about them, an attitude about them. And they always look like they were having fun. I knew I had to learn to do whatever I had to do for my clients to have that same confidence and attitude.

I started finding answers in unexpected places. The movie "What Women Want" held some nuggets of information (as well as being quite entertaining!) Articles in women's magazines were enlightening.

But my best resource turned out to be the clients that I already had.

My wife and I built up our studio in the traditional family, children babies and seniors markets. But the biggest single product line was our baby plan (3, 6, 9 and 12 month sessions and a panel at the end). We've had over 600 babies in the baby plan. That's a lot of babies! And a lot of moms. And because we scheduled frequent sessions, I got to know these moms well enough to ask them questions.

Some of these moms really opened up to me. They told me how insecure they felt about their bodies about after having babies (even the moms that still looked amazing still felt this way!) They told me that they loved having a family, but they felt like they had lost a part of themselves in the process. They told me how much they loved the idea of doing something that was just about them, but how much they were afraid to take a chance that they couldn't still be sexy and glamorous. And a few of them told me they wanted to give it a try and we started scheduling sessions. I learned to the value of trust. I learned to help my clients to be candid and open about the things that they are most insecure about so that we could eliminate those insecurities from the session. I learned to build their confidence so that instead of being cold and closed off, the images were warm and open.

I've never had to see that look of disappointment in a client's eyes again!

What I learned are the hard earned secrets lessons that I will share with you at this seminar so you don't have to spend years learning the hard way. So you never have to feel like you have failed your clients!



At this action packed two day seminar held in our 3200 square foot commercial studio, you will learn by listening, watching and by doing it yourself!

Here are some more things we will cover in the 2 days:

 

Take everything you need home with you! You will not only take home all the information you need to get started, but you will create lots of great images of up to six models (with full rights released to you) that you can use to jumpstart your own portfolio of images to advertise your work. ONE SESSION can easily bring you in more than the $345 cost of the seminar, but we aren't stopping there!

YOU WILL ALSO RECEIVE these valuable bonuses that normally sell for $391 - that's MORE than the cost of the seminar. It's like getting the seminar for FREE!

I only have openings for twelve photographers total (and word has gotten out, I started getting requests for information before I even advertised it!) If you want to cash in on this exciting trend, book your spot before it's too late!

Don't miss out on something that can change your life, create an exciting new career, and make you famous in your community, all for less than the profit you can receive from a single session! Click the Buy Now to register!

tasteful. artistic. sexy.