Case #2
At one point in my career, I was photographing approximately twenty
boudoir or glamour sessions a week. This is a much higher volume than I
want to do at this point in my career, so I’m more selective with my clients.
If you decide to do a high volume of sessions, you’ll find that you don’t
get the opportunity develop deep relationships with your clients. That’s
fine if you’ve marketed your business as high volume/low prices, but you
still need to make some sort of effort to find out some details using ques-
tionnaires, consultations, etc. As I’ve stressed in this book, developing a re-
lationship with your clients is very important to the boudoir photography
process. Getting to know as much as possible about your clients may help
you avoid the situation discussed in this case study. I’m not providing a
client name for this case (not even a fake one) due to the sensitive nature
of this case.
My studio, like most businesses, has a main entrance as well as a few
other doors that access the outside. These doors are usually off limits to my
clients, but I do let them use these doors if the situation is appropriate.
One client in particular had a boyfriend who certainly needed an alternate
way to leave the building. I had photographed a typical boudoir session and
had developed a little rapport with my client. Everything went well, and
she seemed excited to see her images. She asked if she could bring her
boyfriend to the studio so they could look over the images together. I told
her she was welcome to bring her boyfriend. I did mention that most
clients prefer to surprise their significant others with the finished prints,
but she insisted on having her boyfriend along with her.
I always make sure my clients book an appointment to order to ensure
that I have adequate staff and room available to provide the best customer
service possible. On the day of this particular client’s order, I reserved one
of my more private sales rooms so the couple could take their time re-
viewing her proofs and not be disturbed. My client showed up on time
and introduced her boyfriend to me and my front desk girl. I shook hands
and led my clients back to the sales room. After offering water or coffee,
we sat down to review the proofs. A few minutes later my front desk girl
knocked on the door. She came in addressed my client and said, “There’s
a man here to see you.”
“Who is it?” asked my client.
“He didn’t say, he just asked for you,” the employee said.
I had my receptionist go back to the lobby to get more information. I
was a little embarrassed that she didn’t know the guy’s name when she
came back to interrupt us. As I was thinking about that, the boyfriend got
up and starting looking around the room. He asked, “Does that door go
outside?” I told him that it did, and he took off without another word. I
114 ELLIE VAYO’S GUIDE TO BOUDOIR PHOTOGRAPHY
He asked, “Does that door
go outside?” I told him it
did, and he took off without
another word.