St. Louis Photographer » A Journal by Holly McCaig

I’m pretty wiped out. It was a long weekend with so much of me shooting. I’m now doing what I love and that’s editing and proofing images. This always makes me happy. Lots of emails to catch up too. It’s all good. I’m starting to visualize how my work week schedules and processes should be before it gets busy again this summer. These are the things that make me smile and drive me to wanting to do so much more.

This Saturday, I teamed up with the ever adorable, Elisabeth Cutshall – Makeup Extraordinaire! – and we did three boudoir shoots. We LOVED IT! It was a great learning experience when you try to figure out the best way to schedule these and not let our creative minds take over and take longer than we should. We are starting to prepare for our Christmas Boudoir Marathon and it will happen some time in the Fall. Keep watching for dates. We won’t schedule more than five ladies in one day, so spots will be limited if you’re interested!

I captured some images of Elisabeth putting on makeup on our clients. There may be some sneaks of the boudoir images to come later. Our clients have to give permission for this to be on the blog and tell us which image they don’t mind. We keep this very private for them so they always remain comfortable with the nature of their images. Go check out Elisabeth’s new website too!

Elisabeth and I are so excited to announce the winners of our contest for the Boudoir Marathon Photoshoot. We decided that we couldn’t pick just one, so we decided to offer a bigger discount to our second and third place winners.

First Place – Free is Sarah Scott:

I know that you are supposed to have someone nominate you but my special someone is far away. My husband is in the Navy and currently in the Persian Gulf. I think that it would be wonderful to be able to give him this for Valentine’s Day. I haven’t seen my husband since the end of August and is not expected back until mid April. To win this would be the best gift for both of us!

Second Place – 50% off is Maria:

I have been obsessed with pin-up style photos since i was a kid and have been looking for a photographer to take pin-up photos for me for a few years now. When i found the post on craigslist i was so excited but the price is a little out of my budget and its something i couldn’t afford to do on my own. I recently found out that my boyfriend is going to be gone this valentines day because he will be on tour with his band. I would love to be able to have this photoshoot and give him the pictures and him open them on valentines day so i will still be with him in a way. please pick me!!! thanks!

Third Place – 25% off is Kristin Pribyla:

Ok…I know the rules stated that someone needs to enter this for me, but I am entering myself. Probably because I think it would be totally cool to do this for my husband. After having 3 boys…yes, I said 3 boys (ages 5, 3 and 6 months), I think my husband would think I would never do something like this. I think he would be totally shocked out of his gourd. He usually only sees me in my PJ pants, sweat pants and his old college t-shirts, so I think he would absolutely faint if I presented him with something like this. Now, I do live in MS, but would honestly drive up to you to do this if I won.

Ladies, on January 16th, we’re hosting this Boudoir Marathon Day! We are excited to have you be a part of this. We’ll email you this post information and you can communicate with us this way. The day will start at 10 a.m. and we’ll continue booking clients as we fill up our spots. If you received a discount and can’t use it, please consider gifting it to a friend of yours! All sessions for this must take place this day and session fees and a signed contract are required prior to January 16th.

Remember, you can still book a session for our Boudoir Marathon Day, even if you didn’t win! It’s just $499 – normally $650! You get full makeup and hair by Makeup by Elisabeth as well as two outfit changes, 20 fully retouched prints and a small, 5 x 5 little black book of your 20 prints.

Just use this form to get in touch!

I’m wrapping up the last of my boudoir sessions and wanted to share my favorite from Shelia’s! Now that these are complete I will be putting together an entire website dedicated to boudoir photography services in St. Louis complete with information on how it works, packages and much more. And, without further ado, here’s my favorite!

Isn’t she just adorable! I really can’t wait to show off all the photos from the Boudoir sessions I did on Sunday. Meaghan was a willing volunteer model for me and I couldn’t be more pleased. People ask me since showing some of my boudoir shots if I do retouching. The answer is, YES! It’s a given. However, I only retouch on the images that are purchased from the sessions. It’s a time-consuming process that doesn’t take place on my every day portrait sessions. I want to make a woman feel beautiful and look like their photo can be seen in a magazine. And, let’s face it…even if the men don’t want to hear it…they are all retouched in the mags! I work to even out skin tones, smooth the skin, enhance the eyes and makeup and even do a little “plastic surgery” if you will to make you look your absolute best!

Stay tuned for my website featuring more about Boudoir Photography and rates and packages available!

Here’s a sneak of Meaghan’s experience…love it!

This pas weekend, I photographed three, beautiful women for my boudoir portfolio. All a part of my greater plan! And, I loved every minute of it. I love helping people feel like a model and comfortable with these type of sessions. We’re still a pretty conservative state – so helping people “see” the point of these types of photos is a challenge. I think they are a great way to surprise your significant other, or even do something nice for yourself.

We photographed at the Robert Mayfair hotel in downtown St. Louis. The suites are newly remodeled in this historic hotel. I am over the whole “traditional” hotel/suite feel. I’m always open for something modern, sleek, swanky, and stylish. This is pretty close. If you know of some  amazing hotels in the area that are fitting of this, please let me know!

Here is a peek for Iris – I’ve known her for a long time now, but we hardly get to see each other. I think this one turned out great. It’s my favorite from her session! Stay tuned down the road to see this whole project come together and lots more from her session!