How to Prepare for Your Empowerment Photoshoot (Mind, Body, and Wardrobe)

How to prepare for a photoshoot: Preparing to Be Seen

Every portrait session begins long before the camera clicks. The real preparation isn’t about makeup or outfits — it’s about opening to be seen.

An Empowerment Photoshoot isn’t about performing; it’s about remembering, not just in your mind, but in your body. When you take time to prepare your mind, body, and environment, the experience becomes something deeper — a ritual of self-connection.

Over the years, I’ve learned that the most powerful photos come from sessions where the model and the photographer take this time to drop in — to meet themselves and set intentions before the shoot even begins.”

1. Preparing the Mind: Grounded Confidence

A photoshoot can stir vulnerability. You’re meeting yourself through another’s eyes.

Set an intention. Ask: What part of me wants to be seen? Write it down. Speak it aloud. Let that energy guide you instead of “how do I look?”

“During our Visioning Call Session Pre-shoot, Jamie spoke some powerful intentions that guided us deep into her journey to discover her inner Priestess: ‘I want to remember the power I used to feel and discover who I've become after all the changes in the last 10 years.’ That became our compass.”

Release comparison. The goal isn’t to look like anyone else. The goal is to see yourself clearly.

Ritual suggestion: Light a candle, meditate, take a bubble bath, pull a card, or spend a few quiet minutes journaling on your archetype. Arrive at your shoot with your inner world attuned to your outer expression.

🌸 2. Preparing the Body: Energy Over Aesthetics

Forget diets, workouts, or overthinking your shape — this isn’t about “fixing” your body. It’s about reconnecting with how she feels and how uniquely beautiful you are right now.

• Move: The morning of your shoot, take a walk, stretch, or dance.

• Hydrate: Water helps you feel glowy and flowy.

• Rest: If possible, give yourself a slow morning. Avoid rushing straight from errands. Book extra time before and after your shoot for decompression, integration, and self-celebration.

"I always tell clients: come as if you were meeting your best friend, not performing for a camera.”

Optional grounding ritual: Before you leave home, place a hand on your heart and belly. Breathe. Tell yourself, I am safe to be seen.

👗 3. Preparing the Wardrobe: Symbolic, Not Just Stylish

Clothing becomes part of the story — a layer of language.

Choose pieces that feel like extensions of your archetype:

• Flowing fabrics for softness

• Structured shapes for strength

• Natural tones for grounding

• Jewel or metallic accents for radiance

In Jeanie's session, a flowing grey wrap dress honored the part of her who wanted to cover up and be held and safe. Later when she unwrapped revealing a lacy black bodysuit, it automatically evoked her inner Fierce Jaguar who was ready to prowl the scene and be seen in her sensuality”

Bring options. Textures photograph beautifully — linen, lace, silk, velvet. Avoid loud patterns or logos that distract from your energy (unless that specifically aligns with the energy of your archetype)

Don’t forget the barefoot option. There’s something primal about connecting skin to earth or wood floors — a quiet remembering of your origins, your power and your connection to collective wisdom.

🕯️ 4. Preparing the Space: Atmosphere Matters

If you’re shooting outdoors, I’ll handle scouting and timing for best light — usually golden hour early morning or evening. On overcast days, anytime of the day provides diffused light good for portraiture. If in-home, tidy lightly but don’t stress about it. Your books, candles, plants, etc are part of your magic. Locat the areas of your home that have nice natural light streaming in big windows.

"I recommend choosing a playlist and scents that evoke the energy you're bringing forth to help the environment shift from everyday space to sacred space.”

💫 5. The Emotional Layer: Surrendering to Presence

Jamie having an emotional release and feeling self-acceptance during a somatic prompt I gave her mid-photoshoot

The best preparation of all is letting go of preparation.

Show up as you are — open, curious, real. You don’t need to “perform” empowerment. You simply need to trust yourself in the moment.

There will be laughter, awkwardness, maybe tears. That’s all part of it. The truth always photographs beautifully.

"Every time I witness a woman exhale, drop into a somatic prompt I offer, and stop ‘posing,’ something sacred happens — her true light emerges and the tender parts of her that needed to be known in that moment.”

Closing: Your Embodied Arrival

Preparing for your empowerment photoshoot isn’t about perfection. It’s about presence and radical self-acceptance.

When you care for your mind, body, wardrobe, and space with intention, you walk into the session already connected to yourself — and that radiance is unmistakable in every frame.

✨ Begin Your Archetype Portrait Journey →