Male Boudoir Photographer in a Small Town

They told him it couldn't be done. A 24 yr old male boudoir photographer in Kirksville Missouri, a small church town, only 18000. Josh Hettinger did make the city roll over a few times by his shooting style, but that's another story. Before he knew it, something happened, and it was happening fast.

Back in 2010 Josh made the transition into boudoir photography. With the help of a girl, that was a "friend". She wanted some smoking, out of the box sexy photos of herself to look back on when she turns 40. The first thing Josh did was research, study, and more research. He knew going into boudoir there would be a lot of work, so he didn't think much of it, but things would soon change.

After booking a hotel room and doing the shoot he could NEVER expect what was going to happen next. The same client contacted him back after a month with two of her close friends that wanted a boudoir session. So what did he do, rinse and repeat by booking a hotel, shooting the clients, and watching the two friends bring in more customers.

So, let us do a little recap, it is now 2015 (five years have passed). Josh doubled his clients every year for the past five years in a small Missouri town. How did he do this?

1. Word of mouth - let the clients advertise for you. (We will write a blog soon about how this works)

2. Pricing - Don't set your prices in the middle of every other photographer. You will drown there. Either be the cheapest or the most expensive.

3. Social Media - If you don't know how to do this. You need to learn or hire someone.

4. Have two websites - One for boudoir one for everything else.

Let's sum everything up. Josh Hettinger is now one of the Missouris top boudoir photographers. He has clients driving many hours away to see him. You know you have made it when customers are leaving St. Louis, Kansas City, or even Chicago to drive to a little farm town to do a boudoir session.

We will leave you with one big tip to help you out with your boudoir photogrpahy career. Do it and do it 100%, no half donkey stuff. Be creative, make your style and run with it.