Haute Mama Photography

Think of boudoir photography outfits and you probably think of lingerie. And though there are plenty of black lace corsets and fishnet stockings on display in the Haute Mama Photography gallery, there are also less conventional choices: a loose men's dress shirt and tie, an off-the-shoulders motorcycle jacket, even a strategically placed basketball that serves as a sort of top. It's partly a reflection of the diversity of the photos' subjects, whose figures range from slender to voluptuous, and partly a testament to the creativity of studio owner Leah Severson, who has designed it so that even the studio's most basic package allows for multiple outfit changes. Severson has so thoroughly mastered the boudoir photo business that she holds both group workshops and one-on-one mentoring sessions, during which she shares with other photographers tips for posing subjects, establishing the right mood for shoots, and getting their work to appear on the first page of Google results without taping anything to their monitors.