Be Your Own Beloved Photography
Portrait Sessions
BODY POSITIVE PORTRAIT SESSIONS
Empowering portraits celebrating YOU,
here and now.
Celebrating the body you are in and
the ways you’ve learned to embrace it.
Celebrating the path you’ve been on
and the path ahead.
Creating a sacred, safe space for you
to see yourself and feel seen.
BODY POSITIVE PORTRAITURE
Being able to see you through my lens is an absolute honour. Having focused my portrait and teaching work for the last 10+ years on body acceptance, I have a deeply rooted centred practice around making YOU feel safe and seen with compassion. With me, you don’t have to worry about comments about your body. You don’t have to worry about me trying to ‘hide your flaws’ because I don’t think you’re flawed at all. The system that tells that anything about your body is wrong, is flawed. But don’t worry, you don’t have to be at any certain place in your body acceptance path to work with me (because guess what, we’re all in the midst of figuring it all out)!
My portrait practice is rooted in embodied exploration, self-connection and curiosity. What drives me to take portraits is truly to help YOU see yourself with compassion too. For you to see your photos and see the radiant, incredible, vibrant person you are. For you to tap into the energy of being your own beloved.
Alongside my work helping people see themselves with love through self-portraiture, I am also deeply in love with the experience of helping people see their own magic, their own spark and yes, their own beauty through taking their portrait.
Whether your photos are for your new website, your author photo or to create space for self-discovery through a photo session, we can make that happen together.
Being in photos is vulnerable, I get that. Which is why I focus on this work of Empowered Portraiture in these sessions. Even as a self-portrait photographer, as soon as I get in front of someone else’s camera it is as though I become a turtle tucking into my shell and find myself feeling not present in my body. In taking self-portraits, I practice and teach tools for feeling embodied in our self-portraits and feeling in control the experience of being photographed which makes a portrait session with me a unique experience. That’s where this session is going to be unlike any other and we’ll use these tools to help you feel grounded, embodied and connected as we document the story of you through my lens.
YOUR SESSION
The Beloved Portrait Sessions take place in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia. I'm a natural light photographer so I'll bring you to some AMAZING locations that suit the energy of your website or business. We've got gorgeous urban brick walls, alley ways, murals, wide blue skies, beaches and old growth forests to make use of for your session.
We'll chat about a setting that feels most resonant to you and create a safe and comfortable space for you to feel seen through the lens.
YOUR INVESTMENT
The Beloved Photo Session will provide you with a supportive, inspiring and nourishing photo session as well as a collection of images that allow you to feel seen and empowered in the body you're in now. The Session is an investment of $600 CAD.
Your Beloved Portrait Session is a powerful 1-2 hour photo session designed to create a diversity of images that allow you to feel seen by you first and foremost as well as feeling empowered to share your images in the spaces you are seeking to feel seen.
As both a self-portrait teacher and body image activist, creating a body positive, empowering experience of being in front of the lens is my focus. In hour together we’ll go on a creative adventure in a location suited to your needs. My photo sessions have the kind of adventurous spirit you’d expect seeing my photos. You’ll find I’ll take a spot one might normally not even notice and turn it into an inspiring photo spot for your portrait session. There’s a magic and serendipity to our time together and we make creative magic together.
My style in our portrait sessions isn’t to pose you into uncomfortable poses designed to try and fit a visual norm. It isn’t to try to make you look like you are in a body other than your own. It’s to help you move your way, pose your way, radiate your unique energy and be seen as YOU. As a body positive photographer my focus is to create images that help you see the incredible, radiant, vibrant YOU that we all see in you!
YOU RECEIVE:
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A Pre-Session Zoom Call where we explore your relationship to being photographed, how you'd like to explore your own body acceptance in the photo session and I'll answer any questions you might have about the experience ahead!
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Your empowering photo session of 1-2 hours in one location. Changes in outfits welcome during your session.
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50+ JPG images from our photo session
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Post production editing (but being body positive portraiture I don’t retouch or alter your body in any way in your images…I simply help you shine and radiate in these photos naturally).
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Full Size Images in a beautiful gallery ready for you to download within 2 weeks
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An empowering photo experience I hope you’ll feel good about for years to come!
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An optional Post-Session Zoom Call to explore your experience of receiving the photos, to encourage photo resilience in witnessing yourself in images
OTHER PORTRAIT NEEDS?
Are you looking for a portrait session that isn't focused on body acceptance, that's okay too! Past sessions that were outside of that focus included author photo sessions, maternity sessions, elopements, product photography and more. Let me know what you're looking for. I'd love to connect.
“I think everyone needs to experience themselves through your eyes. You are so lovely and bring such confidence and ease to the people you photograph!"
— Chelsea Karcher
"Vivienne, I love them! I really do. Thank you so much for capturing my essence. These are gorgeous. I feel very grateful to have had this experience with you, Thank you, thank you again!"
— Andrea
QUESTIONS:
Can you come to me to do a Beloved Portrait Session?
At this point, the Beloved Body Positive Portrait Sessions are located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and the Westshore area (as I live out in Sooke). We will adapt the location to suit our needs but often sessions will in outdoor locations such as the gorgeous beaches of Metchosin, or the forests near Royal Roads or the magical Garry Oak Meadows in Summit Park or some of the unique alleyways, colourful buildings in Chinatown or Bastion Square. Also let me know if you're up island as I'm most definitely open to coming up Island for a session.
As a long-time Vancouver resident I do occasionally come over to the mainland so if it is not possible for you to come over to the Island for a session still do reach out to me.
If you're in Seattle, guess what...it's really easy to come here for a shoot. You can book the ferry directly from Downtown Seattle to Downtown Victoria and make it a day trip. I'll meet you at the ferry and we can have a wonderful time together creating images that help you feel empowered in your body!
What if I'm not interested in the body acceptance part of the photo session but still want to work with you?
Whether or not you relate to body acceptance, I think most of us are in need of shifting our relationship to photos from a place of critique to one of compassion. The pre-photo session call allows me to design the photo session experience specifically for you and help you go as much (or as little) outside your comfort zone as you're ready for right now. If you don't relate to body acceptance, that's okay...consider the extra elements outside of the photo session itself as pre and post photo shoot support.