This has been photoshopped...

Recently I got into trying to figure out just how much photos I see have been photoshopped. I was inspired by a UK newspaper article (don't think I'm actually in tune with world news, someone forwarded it to me here is the article). It talks about the United Kingdom's "Self Esteem Act" that makes advertisements label when they've photoshopped images.  I did this partly so I could learn about photoshopping and mainly because I wanted to know how much of what I see is real. In doing so I came across a few photos that genuinely shocked me. Here they are:

These images frustrate me because I feel like the first image isn't bad looking! Well, I don't really believe Madonna should be strutting around in lingerie that doesn't really flatter her but that's beside the point! The point is, why can't Jessica Alba have hips? And why can't Kim Kardashian have a real woman's skin tone on her thighs and normal sized thighs for that matter? She's a real person, no?

I'm showing you these images in the hopes that you and I will be better able to recognize what is real and what has been altered. When I get behind the wheel of photoshop I admit I use things like skin smoothing and brightening eyes and such. But what makes my approach different than these advertisements is the recipient. I know that these photos are going to a woman who wants to feel good in her own skin (and who is already gorgeous), so why would I alter it to make her see something different than she sees every day in her own mirror? What does that tell her? I use photoshop to make you look like you would on your best day so that when you look at them you'll feel good about yourself, not worse.

Anyway, I know this was a bit long but in writing this I'm reinforcing my own ideas in my own brain that what you see isn't always what you started with. It makes me a little less hard on myself.

Have you seen any photos online or in a magazine that you could swear have been photoshopped? Link them in the comments section, let's compare notes. :)

Live, love, and take pictures!

Kirsten

Three Women I don't look like and don't want to...

I wanted to write this big grand post about society and their view of what a woman should look like but after writing and deleting several drafts I'm just going to show you some pictures:

These are three beautiful images. I love the expression, the gentility, the strength and the sexiness. I keep these images on my pinterest board so that I can look for these qualities in my photographs as I'm shooting. Sometimes I'll take a break in between outfits so I can peruse this board to get inspiration so I've seen them quite a bit. In looking at these photos over and over and over again I realize as a photographer than not everyone is going to be able to pull these poses off. Beyond that as a woman I realize I will never be able to pull these poses off. I was not born with the DNA of a small woman, I can be fit, healthy and lean and I will never look like this. It's the plain truth.

So, if I can't change these images and I can't change my DNA what can I change?

My perspective.

I can change the way I perceive my own beauty by looking at images and women whom I can be like, who I find sexy who look like me. Who have the same body type as I do, who are freaking ROCKING their bodies and then I can aspire to be like them. So here are three photos of women I find sexy and beautiful, confident and strong:

Jayne Mansfield, hands-down one of my favorite women. In her day and age this girl was drop-dead gorgeous, and who could argue with that? I just wish a little meat on our bones still made us as "sexy" as it did back in the day, but who doesn't?

Of course Marilyn Monroe. In this photo she isn't putting on a face, she isn't playing it up for the camera. She looks very introspective (which after reading about her I found out that she was very introspective, smart, AND well-spoken) but she looks like she's got my hips and she's wearing a bathing suit without fear. Granted there's no one on the beach behind her buuuut I'm willing to let that slide ;)

And this lady. I don't know who she is (I could probably find out if I were to read the fine print but...) she is making women look good not in spite of her curves, not because she's got "curves", she's not "sexy for a plus size model" she's freaking gorgeous for a woman plain and simple.

So after my search to find beautiful women and some beautiful photography of women who look more like my size that still look gorgeous and sexy I've added a few more photos to my pinboard. So if you want some beautiful, real, photography check out this board.

Who do you look up to as your healthy role model?

Live, love, and take LOTS of pictures!


Kirsten

Lies we tell the husbands:

A client today told her husband that he had to leave the house because a "lady doctor" was visiting her!

Four years ago these lovebirds were married and I began an adventure

Amber was my first friend at community college. We met in a speech class and hated everything about it but one another. Two years later (after complaining for months that she would never find a guy here and needed to move abroad to find someone who appreciated her Amber-ness) she met a guy from Britain and half jokingly planned to marry him so he could get his green card. Four years later and now she's happily married and living out her dream of being an artist. She was the first one to ask me to photograph her wedding and on a whim I said yes. So inspiring to think how love finds us. Who knows where you'll be?

Live, love, and take pictures!

Kirsten

Why I do what I do...

I love boudoir photography. Why? A lot of people ask me this, they think I shoot porn. I don’t. Nor will I ever. (Although when someone tells me their significant other stacks their boudoir album with his naughty magazines I consider that a win.) Because all women want to feel like their significant other desires them.  The difference between what I do and what pornography is, you guessed it, that beautiful four letter word: l-o-v-e.

Some women do these shoots for themselves but a lot of the time they're doing it for someone they love.  The people I shoot love the person they're doing it for so I’m not just photographing body parts, or a sexy pose, I’m photographing their love for one another, her desire to please her husband/wife.  When she looks into my camera and connects--really connects--I know she’s not seeing a lens, she’s letting her guard down, she’s being the person he/she wakes up to, falls asleep to, the person they fell in love with.  That’s what I’m photographing. Yeah, she might be in lingerie which is obviously a turn-on but what does a photo have if it turns you on but doesn’t connect with you?  That’s what ART is about right? Evoking an emotion, not just lust. I’m not against Gay Marriage but for this instance I’m going to use a man and wife. My goal (whether it's right after a shoot or years later) I want that husband who as gotten so used to his wife that he can't see her any other way to crack the spine of that album see her as the beautiful, sexy, vulnerable, strong woman that he sees in those photos. I want him to want her outside of the album. And because this shoot has allowed her to show off these parts of her he can and he will.

In both cases I get to do a rare thing. I strive and push and pray to be a good mirror for other women.  We all have this view of ourselves that sometimes isn’t accurate and is sometimes downright unhealthy.  I try to reverse that thinking by handing them a photo of themselves that shows them, right there, in ink and paper, that they are beautiful and worthy.  Boudoir is one of those great mediums that allows you to see yourself in a totally different light.  I get to show women what I see in them, what other people see in them. Sometimes words aren’t enough to make someone believe they are beautiful, sometimes you need to show them. I am lucky enough to get to do that.  I have the opportunity (and now the responsibility) to increase your self-esteem and create a healthy body image THROUGH WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE! I'm not doing anything different to you, this is you, this is who you are, and you are a BEAUTIFUL and LOVELY woman.

 I wanted to be a therapist for a large part of my life (sounds strange, I know) but I think it’s because I want to give back to people. I feel fulfilled when I can make someone stop and think about something.  One of my favorite parts about my job (I know, I have a lot of favorites) is showing a woman her photos and she does this double-take thing where she’s looking at the photo and then back at me and then at the photo again with this wide-eyed suspicion and she looks up at me and says, “Is that really me?” and I love that feeling of being able to hand them to themselves and say, “Yes, and you really are that gorgeous.”

I hope they put their photos in a place where they see them every day and are reminded of how strong, courageous, and beautiful they are everysingle day. I hope I can give their beauty back to them.

-Kirsten Filonczuk

Creator/Photographer

Pink Dahlia Photography