Meet the Photographer - How I got into Boudoir Photography & Why I Love It!

Hello Muses! I wanted to more formally introduce myself in the blog space, tell you more about my story and how I got into the wonderful world of boudoir photography.

self portrait, 2021

So, hi! This is me, I’m Malina. I am 25 years old, a typical coffee-obsessed Pacific Northwestern, with two completely bonkers cats, Frida & Cleo, and two little guinea pigs, Marshmallow & Smore. I have always been creative, whether it be drawing, painting, play-doh sculpting, scrapbooking, you name it. Personality wise I’m an enneagram 9 & INFP (both called “The Mediator”), and a Gemini! I watch ASMR on youtube every single day, and I’m the listening ear friend. I have a sweet tooth, although nothing compared to my bf - see cute pic of us below. I’m extremely passionate about encouraging people, especially women, to be/do whatever they want to in the world. That may have had something to do with this whole boudoir thing.

My person, the love of my life, and best friend Nick and I live together in Vancouver, WA, where we each get the seasons we love. He likes chilly winter days, and I prefer 75 and sunny summer. We’ve been together for 8 or 9 years (we’ve kind of lost count at this point) and loving every day! He has been so supportive and encouraging of my artistic and entrepreneurial endeavors since day 1, I seriously got so lucky.

We both like playing video games, and we’re both introverted (he much more than I) so that works out well for us. We spend our time watching nature docs on the projector, laughing hysterically at years long inside jokes, doing artsy things, and picking up new shared interests (the most recent being anime!)

Pet photos below so you can get a full family picture 🥲

Nick + I, 2021 - Photo by Sarah Olivia Photo

Cleo + Frida, 2021, the day my heart exploded from how cute this snuggle was

Marshmallow + Smore, 2021

I’ve been doing photography for 10 years now! I started it in high school as a cool elective and completely fell in love with it. I was always drawn to portraiture, constantly taking pictures of my friends and sister (who at the time did not love being my go-to model, although her tune has changed over the years haha!) In junior and senior year, I was taking the AP photo classes, and discovered Jose Villa, a very successful wedding photographer. Once I had the idea in my head that photography could be a real career and not just a side hustle or hobby, it was on.

I applied to one college, Northwest College of Art and Design, and was accepted! I moved 3 hours from home to Poulsbo, WA and earned my Bachelor’s Degree of Visual Communication, with double majors in digital photography and motion design. In college, I actually had a close friend that wanted to do boudoir photography as a career. I modeled a bunch for her, but always said “I wouldn’t ever shoot this, this is totally not my speed, I need couples and weddings ONLY.”🙃lol

Fast forward, I moved back home to Vancouver and did everything I could to shoot couples and weddings, and the occasional high school senior. I learned that I was really pumped up at weddings, loved shooting with couples and capturing the emotion there, but after a while I really did miss solo portraiture, so I was still shooting fun creative stuff with local models, my friends, and my sister (more willingly this time.)

In 2019, one of my past brides-turned-bestie Hannah asked me if I would consider shooting a boudoir session for her. She said she already felt comfortable with me since I had photographed her engagement and wedding the year before, and wanted to hire me even with my warnings of “I’ve never done this before, I have no idea if these will even turn out.” She believed in me and my skill and took a chance. We had such a fun time shooting (for probably way too long, we passed out right after dinner lmao) and even when I was editing her session I was just still on this high. I knew I would be eating college-Malina’s words. Her session is still one of my absolute favorites to this day. After that I wanted to try it again and really test how I felt about boudoir, maybe it was a fluke, right? My hair and makeup artist (and sister-in-law’s sister!) Kelsee and I did a couple sessions together on International Women’s Day in 2020, and I knew that I had tapped into something I was really, really excited about!

I have thought a lot about why boudoir felt so right for me from the beginning, in a way that weddings never could, which was very hard to admit after working so hard to get into weddings since high school. I love photographing couples, but I really missed solo portraiture, and how it has a different level of flexibility and creativity that I hadn’t really gotten to explore much since school. With boudoir, not only do I get to try a ton of fun, creative things technically and artistically, I’m also directly impacting a person in a way that can be incredibly hard to do. Like I mentioned before, I’ve always been the friend with the listening ear, and I love encouraging my friends and family to be bold and not hold back in finding what makes them happy. It’s starting to piece together now right!? I get to do this with every Muse that I photograph, talking with them and hearing their story, listening to why they wanted to do a boudoir session in the first place, and then spending a day cheering them on! Boudoir photography lines up with my personality and everything I love so much more than any other type of photography. And I love that when I talk about boudoir, it sounds like I’m talking about a star-crossed, whirlwind lover of mine. It kind of is.

I’m so thankful that I was led to boudoir, it truly feels like my calling. I’m so thankful to all of my friends and family who have supported me along the way, realizing your original life’s dream is not actually what you want anymore is extremely weird and bittersweet and overall just a hard pill to swallow. I’m so thankful to all of my past, present and future clients for believing in me and my art and wanting to be a part of it, and choosing me to be a part of their self love journey. I’m so thankful I’m right where I’m supposed to be.