Shannon Hemauer Women’s Portrait Photographer

For the rest of 2014, I was busy learning-learning-learning. Learning more about lighting, about posing, about connecting with clients. I was learning what my “voice” is in photographs—bright and airy comes naturally to me, although I love the look of dark and moody. I was learning my “why”—why do I want to shoot boudoir, why are women booking me, why do I want to be the best boudoir photographer? And I think those answers are still the same a decade later: I want to shoot boudoir to create art and empower women of all shapes, sizes, and beliefs; women book me because I can relate to their struggles, I see them, I hear them, and they feel safe with me; I want to be the best boudoir photographer because I am competitive and I want to be THE leading authority in this genre.

When you think boudoir, I want you to think of Shannon Hemauer Photography. 

It’s finally complete! My new home studio in Dillsburg is officially opening on January 10th, but before I can photograph clients, I needed to play around with the lighting and see what worked the best in the space—strobe or constant. Take a look at today’s blog post and see if you can determine what lighting setup I used in the images. Plus, you’ll get a preview of the studio!

Now that I’m settled into the new house, I took a moment and reviewed my collections and this put me on a path of reflection: What do women want when looking for a boudoir photographer? I started thinking about the women who book me and how they aren’t looking for the cheapest deal—they want a boudoir photographer who offers an amazing EXPERIENCE. This made me ponder how I could enhance my clients’ experience with my services and products. I decided to create a collection that includes a 2024 session and a FREE 2025 session, along with a bunch of images and other goodies that are not available in the other collections or à la carte. This collection is the bee’s knees.

I love-love-love boudoir shower scenes! The images tend to have a dark & moody vibe, it’s easy to diminish the midsection (most women’s main concern), and let’s just admit it—the images are sensual!

I started shooting shower scenes in 2021 in my Carlisle studio, and at that time (because I didn’t have a real shower to use), to achieve the wet look, I’d spray your body with a combination of water and glycerin to help the water stay beaded on your skin. I had a plexiglass “door,” but I struggled getting water droplets to show up on the actual image.