Jodi W. {Fab@40+Project} | Sherry Penner

Jodi came to this project through her friend Karen. Karen was our very first session in this project you can read her story here: Karen U Fab@40+ Project

So as I don’t personally know Jodi well, what I have to say in this post is more of an observation of my own point of view and not necessarily Jodi’s own. Jodi is turning 45 this year, she really is such a natural beauty, she hardly wears makeup and says she rarely gets dressed up. Her journey in life is taking her down a new road, she is moving to Cochrane with her hubby soon, and just finished up her job in Lacombe and getting ready to list her house. Here is to new adventures!

When Jodi came to her viewing appointment to see her pictures she confessed to me that she has a hard time actually “seeing” herself all done up. It took a couple times going through the pictures before she could start to see what I see, what the world probably sees when they look at her at first glance and that is what has brought me to my post story today. Self-esteem! Oh man if this is a gift I could give every woman I would, myself included. Why oh why can we be so hard on ourselves and unable to see our own beauty? And why can’t we celebrate it?

I come from a line of women who think admiring yourself is vanity. And vanity is a dirty word (and not the good kind of dirty words). I don’t know what leads other women to have low self-esteem but we have all suffered from it in one way or another. Media, society, bad relationships, upbringing, there are so many factors that lead us all in some way to think we are not good enough, not pretty enough, not slim enough, not sexy enough. SO many ugly untruths.

I want to share a story of why I feel portraits are so important to us women and why every woman deserves to have at least one gorgeous picture of herself hanging on the wall so she can appreciate herself, and why I truly believe a picture can change the way your inner voice talks to you. I have already shared this with many of you, this is why I do what I do and I share this story often with my female clients.

When I was just starting out as a photographer I had the opportunity to have a gallery showing at a boutique in my city. I didn’t have enough portraits to do a whole showing so I had to ask my friends to pose, boudoir style, for me and they graciously did but said I would have to as well. I had just had a baby, I was not feeling or looking my best, but I agreed because fair is fair. So I had Josh take a picture of me and it was technically not good, bad lighting, bad pose, bad angle but what I did love was my face. Now remember I just had a baby, my boobs were huge, my mommy body was not familiar to me, these were days when looking in the mirror showed me a sleep deprived woman who had lost her own identity and probably hadn’t showered in 3 days. But in this image, this poorly shot image I loved my face and it made me feel good to see myself that way.

After the gallery showing was over that image hung on my side of the bedroom for 5 years before I replaced it with one that is technically much better. WHY? because seeing the portrait, whether I paused to actually admire it or just glanced in passing started changing how my inner voice spoke to me. And I truly believe because of that image I started to build my internal self confidence.

Every time I have a client who has a hard time seeing their own beauty I share that story and its a very true story, and it’s why I do this…why I want to celebrate women with hopes that I can help them also see their true beauty and build their inner confidence.

Jodi still wasn’t totally convinced when she left here, but she did promise me she would display her images and look at them. And I will be following up to make sure she is, lol. “Hello Jodi, this is Sherry. It’s Monday have you looked at your pictures today? You did, great. Talk to you tomorrow.” Kidding or maybe not :)…….But the best thing happened after I posted her sneak peak in our Fab@40+ group, she message me saying this. “So I opened up my FB and those pics popped up and my first thought was who is that pretty girl? LMAO. So like you said the more I see them the more I love!!! I am a work in progress and working everyday to love myself! Thanks for the eye opener and experience!!!” We are all in that boat, are we not, just working every day to love ourselves. Jodi, your message made my heart very happy thank you for that.

Hair and Make up: Robyn Langevin {Robyn Lynn Makeup Artistry}

Here is the Gorgeous Jodi.