Symply Boudoir

07/09/2026

One of my most favourite reactions ever
Watch here :-

“I can’t believe how glamorous I look.”These are the words of a w...

10/08/2026

Your moment is waiting for you…

I think most women reach a point in their lives where they suddenly realise they’ve spent an awful lot of time looking after everyone else.

You build a career, raise children, look after your family, organise the holidays, remember the birthdays, ferry people around, keep the house vaguely functioning and somehow manage to know where everyone’s shoes are, even when they’re 25 and perfectly capable of finding them themselves.

And you do it because you love them. It’s not a hardship, and for a lot of us, being needed becomes such a normal part of life that we don’t even notice how far down the list we’ve put ourselves.

Then, somewhere around our 40s, 50s or 60s, things start to change. The children grow up, relationships change, careers change, our bodies certainly change, and sometimes life throws something at us that we didn’t see coming. A divorce, an empty nest, a health scare, or simply a birthday that makes you stop and think "How on earth did I get to this age?"

And suddenly there’s a little more space.

Which sounds wonderful, until you realise you’re not entirely sure what you want to put in it.

This is the bit I see over and over again in my studio, particularly with the women who nearly didn’t come.

They arrive telling me they’re not photogenic, that they’ve never liked having their photograph taken, that their body isn’t what it used to be and that they’re really not sure this sort of thing is for them. Some of them have spent years putting themselves off until they lose weight, their hair grows back, they feel better about themselves or life becomes a little less complicated.

And then we take the photographs.

Not to make them look like somebody else, but to show them what I can already see when they walk through my door.

A woman who has lived a life. A woman who has loved, worked, raised children, survived things, changed, grown and probably spent a ridiculous amount of time worrying about whether everyone else is alright.

And then she sees herself on the screen.

Really sees herself.

And that moment gets me every single time, because sometimes she goes completely quiet. Sometimes she laughs. Sometimes there are tears. For both of us. And quite often she looks at me and says, “Is that really me?”

Yes my lovely - It bloody well is.

And that’s the thing I wish more women understood. You don’t have to wait until you are thinner, younger, fitter, more confident or somehow more deserving of being photographed.

You don’t have to become somebody else first.

You are already the woman in those photographs.

My job is simply to help you see her.

So if you’ve been thinking about doing something for yourself and then finding approximately 47 perfectly sensible reasons why you shouldn’t, perhaps it’s worth asking yourself a different question.

Not “Why would I do this?”

But “What if I did?”

Because your moment doesn’t have to be some mythical point in the future when everything is finally sorted and you’re completely happy with every inch of yourself.

It can be now.

And perhaps, after all those years of putting everyone else first, you’re allowed to have a little bit of the spotlight

https://symplybo***ir.com/nearly-didnt/

07/08/2026

Meet the dream team behind Symply Bo***ir. 😂

This is me and Katie Calo Make-up Artist

Otherwise known as Ant & Dec.
Laurel & Hardy.
Thelma & Louise… although neither of us is driving anywhere near a cliff. 😂

We’ve worked together for so long that we’ve reached that slightly unnerving stage where we can communicate without actually speaking.

A look across the room and we both know exactly what the other one is thinking.
No words required.

Which is probably just as well because we’re usually laughing too much to speak anyway. 😂 A tiny nod = “Get the hairspray.”

And apparently, we’ve also reached the stage where we turn up dressed like we’ve deliberately coordinated our outfits.

We haven’t.

We’re just weirdly in sync. 🤷‍♀️

But honestly, this is the bit I wish more women knew before they come through my studio door.

We’re not scary.

There’s no judgement. No posing around trying to make you feel like you’re on a catwalk. No expectation that you’ll arrive knowing what the hell you’re doing.

There’s usually quite a lot of laughing, quite a lot of “Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m doing this”, and quite often me and Katie behaving like a pair of idiots.

And somewhere amongst all of that, we take some bloody gorgeous photographs.

We are the heart of Symply Bo***ir. ❤️

And yes… we clearly need to sort our leopard print fe**sh out . 😂

05/08/2026

Watch Bev's reaction to viewing her bo***ir photos - a woman who had so much doubt in herself she nearly didnt book

15/07/2026

“I’d love to… but…”

In nearly every enquiry I receive, those three words appear somewhere.

💭 I’d love to… but I need to lose a stone.

💭 I’d love to… but I’m too old.

💭 I’d love to… but I hate having my photograph taken.

💭 I’d love to… but I’m not confident enough.

💭 I’d love to… but I couldn’t possibly spend that much on myself.

💭 I’d love to… but what would people think?

Can I tell you a little secret?

Literally every woman who has walked through my door has said one of those things.

Some have cried before we’d even picked up the camera.

Some arrived convinced they’d never like a single photograph.

Some had spent years waiting for the “right time”…

…until they realised the right time never arrives on its own.

The weight doesn’t magically disappear.

Confidence doesn’t suddenly appear one Tuesday afternoon.

Life doesn’t stop throwing bills, children, ageing parents, work or menopause at us.

Then at some point, you have a sod it moment and you simply decide finally you’re worth doing something for yourself.

And here’s what happens next…

Hair and makeup with Katie works its magic.

We chat.

We giggle. A lot. .

You relax.

You stop worrying about your tummy, your arms or your wrinkles because you’re too busy enjoying yourself.

Then I turn the back of the camera around…

“…Is that really me?”

Those are my favourite words.

Not because I’ve changed who you are.

Because, for the first time in a very long time, you’ve seen yourself the way everyone else already does.

If you’ve been waiting until you feel confident enough…

Maybe confidence isn’t something you find first.

Maybe it’s something you discover afterwards.

❤️ If this sounds like you, tell me…

Which “I’d love to… but…” has been holding you back?

No judgement. I’d genuinely love to kno

02/07/2026

“I’m not getting my bum out.”

If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard that, I’d probably have retired by now. 😊

It’s one of the biggest reasons women over 40 dismiss bo***ir before they’ve even found out what it really is.

Somewhere along the way, bo***ir became associated with being revealing, provocative and, for many women, just plain uncomfortable.

But that’s never been what I create.

If you’ve ever wondered whether bo***ir means wearing tiny bits of lace, showing more skin than you’d like, or doing anything that makes you cringe, I’ve written a blog especially for you.

We talk about what bo***ir actually means, why it’s different from a portrait session, what women really wear (hint: robes feature heavily!), and why tasteful, elegant bo***ir is very much alive and well.

You might even discover it’s nothing like you imagined.

📖 You can read it here:

Worried bo***ir photography is too revealing? Discover how tasteful, elegant bo***ir photography helps mature women over 40 feel confident without feeling exposed.

01/07/2026

Bo***ir.

Even the word makes some women cringe.

I don’t know what it conjures up for you, but somewhere along the way it’s been hijacked to mean something I’d never do.

Meet Sally.

She’s 66. She’d never had a beautiful photograph taken in her life and was convinced bo***ir wasn’t for women like her. In fact, she didn’t even pack any lingerie because she thought, “I’m not doing all that.”

And do you know what?

She didn’t need to.

Because it isn’t what most people imagine.

There’s no pressure to be “sexy”. No awkward poses that make you want the ground to swallow you up. No pretending to be someone you’re not.

It’s just me and Katie in my home studio near Sleaford. Music on. Coffee if you fancy one. Katie fussing over your hair and makeup while we chat about life, the grandkids, holidays… and usually laughing at ourselves before we’ve even picked up the camera. (We’re honestly more the female Ant and Dec than the dream team we like to think we are!)

Then, somewhere along the way, something changes.

You stop worrying about your tummy. Or your arms. Or whether you’re “photogenic”. Or whatever it is you think people will notice.

You just… relax.

These are Sally’s words, not mine:

“I nearly didn’t book because I hate having my photo taken. I’m far too self-conscious about the way I look.”

But she came anyway.

And this photograph?

This is the woman she almost talked herself out of seeing.

She’s absolutely thrilled with her photographs and has told me I can share any of them.

That’s a long way from the woman who used to hide whenever a camera appeared.

01/07/2026

If any of that landed a bit close to home, that’s usually the moment I get an enquiry . Not because anyone’s in crisis, just because they’ve noticed they’ve gone missing from their own life for a while.

“Can you show me I am still here” ?

A bo***ir session won’t fix all of that on its own. But it’s a good place to start remembering what you actually look like when someone’s paying proper attention.

Tell me you’re interested x ***irphotographer ***ir

23/06/2026

Before any woman books a session with me, we have a conversation.

Not a sales call. Not a list of questions ticked off a form. A proper chat, usually with a glass of wine on my end and a fair amount of "I don't know why I'm even considering this" on theirs.

That conversation is where the shoot actually begins.

Because when someone walks through my door already trusting me — trusting that I see them, that I'm not going to make them look ridiculous or airbrushed into someone else — everything changes. The nerves are still there, usually, but underneath them there's something steadier.

I need to know what they're carrying into that room. The bits of themselves they've stopped looking at. The birthday that felt like a full stop. The body that's been through something. I'm not being nosy for the sake of it — I need to know, because that's exactly what I'm photographing. Not just a woman sitting in nice light. Her.

99% of the women on my website are real clients. Not models. Not test shoots. Women who nearly didn't book, who weren't sure they were the "right type," who booked anyway and left with something they hadn't expected to feel.

That doesn't happen by accident. It starts with a conversation.

If you're curious, let's have one.
This is so much more than “just a pretty picture “