The beauty of a mother rivals the beauty of mother nature. I love photographing mothers, especially when their little one is still safely harbored within their womb. The love, joy and connection a woman feels with the child in her womb is undeniable and undeniably beautiful. It brings a glow to every woman I've known while she was pregnant. To be able to photograph a woman while she's busy creating life is a complete honor. I was able to do that recently with a gorgeous woman I have had the pleasure of knowing now for about 5 years. I've watched her grow into a gorgeous, strong woman, who will be an amazing mother to the son she's currently carrying. I look forward to meeting him in a couple of months! I was able to do this session on A's land that she and her partner recently purchased. What an amazing backdrop to help create gorgeous portraits!

Thank you A for entrusting me with such an amazing moment in your life. Much love!

Celebrating a Woman's Beauty and Power with a Gorgeous Blonde

She sent me a message asking "Should I keep my hair natural and wild or tame it?" My answer was natural and wild, of course! We get wrapped up everyday in what is ideal for everyone else, but forget to consider what is ideal for us? What makes YOU feel beautiful, what makes YOU feel powerful? The sexiness that will shine from every pore of your being comes from those two feelings. A woman empowered by her own beauty and power will empower those around her, she does not need to be told she is 'sexy' by anyone else or on anyone else's terms. My goal with every one of my sessions is to help each woman realize her beauty, her power and to leave her session with those feelings. I want every woman to know those feelings and carry them with her out into the world.

This woman? She came to me already there, already full of her own power and beauty. It was a complete pleasure working with her. I fed off her energy and she off mine. There is nothing like it in the world: two creative souls working together to create magic. Miss Fredua was a natural, wild beauty and it was my pleasure creating gorgeous images with her!

What makes you feel beautiful, powerful and sexy? A session at Ciao Bella Boudoir may be just what you need. ;)

Maleficent: Queen of beauty, power and sex appeal.

I adore Maleficent. She's my favorite fairytale queen. Seeing the movie trailers has inspired me to want to do a shoot for quite some time. I had a wonderful model in mind, Harsiese. She was in the process of taking her hair to a lovely shade of silver, so we waited until that was done. I needed a dress worthy of Maleficent, Khaos By Design had the perfect dress for me, along with gorgeous necklaces. Valerie Schaubroeck created the gorgeous hair design and Nicole Barry did Maleficent's makeup. Michael Hanlon, my partner in crime, was my lighting assistant and master of the smoke. It was amazing collaborating with such a fantastic team! I only have one teaser for you for now. The rest will come soon. Thank you to my inspired team for helping me see this vision come to life!

Celebrating Beauty...

I'm a day late on National Women's Day, but this image is one I adore. It's from a recent shoot with one of my favorite models, Marie Vaccarello. She is absolutely gorgeous, inside and out. She represents a strong woman, a woman with confidence and beauty, a woman with intelligence and kindness. She represents everything a woman should be. There are more images from this session to follow, but I wanted to post one to celebrate all women. We as women need to learn to celebrate ourselves, our very essence, every day. You, yes you, are beautiful, powerful and sexy! Embrace it. Makeup for this shoot was by Ashley Luna. Copyright of all images are expressly those of Teri Fiske of Hanlon-Fiske Studios, INC.

Now for something a little different. ;)

You know that I get to shoot gorgeous women, beautiful babies and stunning weddings, but this week I had the pleasure of working with a lovely male model (and one of my favorite muses, Miss Bonnie). This was a blast! So here's a little bit of eye candy for all of you gorgeous women. Enjoy!

Alex was a blast to work with and quite a natural model. I'm looking forward to working more with him in the future.

All images copyright of Teri Fiske, Hanlon-Fiske Studios, INC, Ciao Bella Boudoir

Beauty in mommas, babies and gorgeous beauties who graced my studio...

I have had the pleasure of photographing amazing mommas, babies and beauties of late. I am always honored that such beautiful people trust me both for themselves, and their babies. Remember to celebrate your beauty and all the beauty that surrounds you every day.

We'll start with beautiful Miss K and her happy baby. Miss K has found the beauty in life and has learned to celebrate it with her daughter every day. She is making her family incredibly proud.

Then Mr. O and his family came in to see me in his first week. He was so serene the entire session. What a gorgeous boy!

And finally, a little sex power to round out my month! Goodness Miss J is a stunner! She is 5'11" and wore 4 inch heels. I love this girl! She exemplifies my tag line of 'Beautiful, Powerful AND Sexy! She embraces how amazing she is and it's palpable! I'm looking forward to more shoots like these.

My absolute favorite, seriously, this is so gorgeous, so mysterious, love everything about this. :)

Visit us at Hanlon-Fiske Studios, INC

Stretch Your Wings. A Little Fun in the Studio

As an owner of a photography business, 95% of what we do is running our business, 5% is shooting. And of that 5% we are almost 100% shooting for clients. So once in a blue moon, we like to have some fun and shoot just for ourselves. This last shoot involved our lovely and talented model: Kimberly Anne, the always amazing makeup artist Nicole Barry, my partner in crime, best friend and co-owner of Hanlon-Fiske Studios: Michael Hanlon and last but certainly not least, our fantastic, talented and always lovely friend Tomas Flint of Tomas Flint Photographers. We had a blast, we played with lights, we got our creative on!

I hope you enjoy checking these out as much as we enjoyed creating them!

Copyright Teri Fiske of Hanlon-Fiske Studios Inc

Copyright Teri Fiske of Hanlon-Fiske Studios Inc

Copyright Teri Fiske of Hanlon-Fiske Studios Inc

Copyright Tomas Flint

Copyright Teri Fiske of Hanlon-Fiske Studios Inc

Copyright Michael Hanlon of Hanlon-Fiske Studios Inc

YES! Oh YES! ;)

OK, I know it's not pc to toot one's own horn, but I feel good! As a matter of fact, I feel GREAT! This month is my birthday month. My 43rd birthday month, to be exact. I've known people who freaked out when they turned 30, I didn't. I thoroughly enjoyed it, honestly. I've known people who REALLY freaked out at 40. Again, didn't really bother me. 43? That one seemed a little rougher. Maybe it's the increased frequency with which I have to visit my favorite stylist: Valerie Schaubroeck to get my white stripe back to my 'natural' shades of red and violet ;). Maybe it's the weather. But at the beginning of birthday month (yes, I celebrate birthday month!) I was, for a lack of better terms, 'feeling my age'. So I'm doing a few things to remedy that. I'm drinking more...water, that is. I love coffee, I love to run around like mad, I love staying busy. Combine all those things and one forgets to hydrate. So now I have a lovely pitcher of water with cucumber and lemon to drink all day. It's pretty and it makes me feel better.

The other thing I did? Well, if you're going to talk the talk, you damn well best walk that walk! I'm constantly telling women that they need to do a Boudoir session for themselves! I have had many clients come to me to do a session for their significant other. By the time they leave the studio, they are feeling EMPOWERED! They feel strong, they feel beautiful, and they definitely feel sexy! They now realize the importance of that session for THEM. The opportunity came for me to do that for myself when Troy Smith from Subculture Magazine asked me to submit photos and a quick blurb. Being a Boudoir photographer, I could not simply send in a nice head shot. So, Michael Hanlon (my consummate partner in crime, business, life and love) helped me out a bit. Aaaannnnnddd, we submitted this:

OH YES! Take THAT 43! ;) That felt GOOD! Seriously ladies, I am not superficial, I don't walk around thinking 'Shit, I'm hot', but that photo? Oh yes. I feel it! I needed that little boost. I deserved that little boost! We all do!

So what exactly are you waiting for? Permission? Here it is, I give you permission to celebrate YOU! Do it! A Ciao Bella Boudoir session is exactly what the doctor ordered. ;) YES! Oh YES!

Manifesto for a Boudoir, Wedding, Portrait Photographer

Hmmm, a manifesto? Yup, a manifesto. I'm not great at writing. Nope, not at all. I'm one of those people who tend to write in a train of thought, throw it all on the page, kind of fashion. Not the easiest to read. Freud would most likely LOVE to read my writings and dissect my psyche, but for everyone else, it's hard to muddle through (lost yet?) my writing. To that end I'm trying out a writing course of sorts from Kristen at Brand Camp. I love the way Kristen writes. I love that I get such a sense of who she is from her writing. My first assignment from her 'Circus Circus' was to write a manifesto, 3 times.

So, here are my first 3.

1. I want you to see how beautiful you are. I see people every day and see how beautifully stunning they are. I also see how few of them realize this fact. I want to show you that beauty. From the way you look at the camera when I talk about the things you love, to the way you look at each other when I cover you with her veil. When you forget that your supposed to be 'on' and can just be is when your beauty shines through.

2. You only get to experience this life once. Even if you do the same task over and over, each experience with it will have something different about it. It's all those differences that make like beautiful, exciting, momentous. I love seeing those moments, being part of them with you. I love that I get to use my art to show you just how beautiful those moments are.

3. Photography reminds me to see things differently. To notice the details and remember how the moment felt. It reminds me of the beauty in a look, a hand held, a shift of the hips, a tear, a smile, a frosting covered face, of newborn skin held by work worn hands, a kiss. It reminds me that beauty is everywhere, if we only take the time to see it.

I love what I do. I am passionate about my job, my art and you. :)