I shadowed Laura Bravo Mertz who's a photographer for career day. She specializes in boudoir and her business is called Solifoto. Laura put a lot of thought into this name. Soli means life in Italian and foto means photo. Here are the answers to some questions I asked her.
1. How do you interact with other people during your work day?
Shooting boudoir is a very intimate process and I have to really gain my clients' trust. I shoot women almost exclusively and over the past 10 years I've gotten to the point where it's very natural for me to interact with them and get them comfortable in front of the camera.
2. What is your typical work day like?
I have a lot of shoots on Saturday's and certain days in the middle of the week, depending on when a client wants to schedule. Sunday is always a family day for me. I spend most time editing. Over the years I've really developed my editing style and found that the more you do inside the camera the less you have to do in Photoshop or Lightroom. I used to use a lot of heavy editing but I found that leaving the photos more natural looks a lot better. I first got into photography from my mother in law, who is a professional photographer. She lent me one of her cameras because she saw that I had an eye for it and I fell in love. The only previous experience I had was when I modeled in the 90's I would always take photos of my friends. I had a sign painting business before this.
3. What is your favorite thing about photography?
I love making women feel beautiful. I've always been really into female empowerment and seeing the look on their faces when I show them the raw images on my camera always makes my day.
4. To what extent do you find your work interesting and fulfilling and why?
I find my job to interest me every shoot. People themselves are very interesting so shooting a new person everytime produces extremely interesting results. I love my job and I can't see myself doing any other work.
1. How do you interact with other people during your work day?
Shooting boudoir is a very intimate process and I have to really gain my clients' trust. I shoot women almost exclusively and over the past 10 years I've gotten to the point where it's very natural for me to interact with them and get them comfortable in front of the camera.
2. What is your typical work day like?
I have a lot of shoots on Saturday's and certain days in the middle of the week, depending on when a client wants to schedule. Sunday is always a family day for me. I spend most time editing. Over the years I've really developed my editing style and found that the more you do inside the camera the less you have to do in Photoshop or Lightroom. I used to use a lot of heavy editing but I found that leaving the photos more natural looks a lot better. I first got into photography from my mother in law, who is a professional photographer. She lent me one of her cameras because she saw that I had an eye for it and I fell in love. The only previous experience I had was when I modeled in the 90's I would always take photos of my friends. I had a sign painting business before this.
3. What is your favorite thing about photography?
I love making women feel beautiful. I've always been really into female empowerment and seeing the look on their faces when I show them the raw images on my camera always makes my day.
4. To what extent do you find your work interesting and fulfilling and why?
I find my job to interest me every shoot. People themselves are very interesting so shooting a new person everytime produces extremely interesting results. I love my job and I can't see myself doing any other work.