The Essence Campaign is a special photography project by Cory Powell Photography. Our mission is to empower women through creating beautiful portraits showcasing their true essence of strength and beauty while reminding them how extraordinary they are. There is nothing more beautiful and powerful than celebrating your true, authentic self. More than ever, right now the world needs us all to allow our light to shine through – that’s why I’m so passionate about this project – the Essence Campaign.

This is an invitation to YOU to celebrate who you are and be a part of the Essence Campaign. Real transformation comes from investing in yourself, from filling yourself up first and allowing it to overflow. The true power of this and success of this project is that it invites women to value themselves.

If you’re ready to shine and want to experience this for yourself, I would love to photograph you! You can contact me from my main website.

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Each woman selected for the project gets to experience her very own luxury portrait session and share her story and perspective on beauty and strength. This is Kameryn's feature:

Tell us more about you!

I am 46 years old with 2 daughters - 27 and 11 - and a grandson that is 1.5 years old. In the last year, I have been raising my grandson, got divorced after 10 years, and lost about 25 pounds. I generally put everyone before myself and have let the "girly" side of me slip into oblivion somewhere along the way. I recently shaved my head to support my mom who lost her hair during chemo, so that doesn't help me feel beautiful on the outside.

Why did you want to book a boudoir shoot?

I wanted to do something for myself to remind me that I am beautiful and strong as well as bring back a little of the "girly" part I have lost. I also wanted to surprise my boyfriend - I dislike pictures of myself, so I thought he'd love to have some.

Were you nervous about anything before your session? How was your experience?

I was nervous about everything before my session. Even though we talked about it, and the outfits were approved and so on. There are a lot of things I don't particularly like about my body, and I just didn't know what to think. When I arrived, I was "whatever you think," "you pick it out and I'll put it on," just not really wanting to be decisive or involved. Once I started to get my makeup done, we were just talking about normal, everyday things and that made me a lot more comfortable. The focus was just having a fun and relaxing time. I was nervous when we started shooting because I have no clue what I'm doing, but after the first few pictures and pose changes, it was so much fun and I was able to be me without any judgement. Cory and I laughed a lot. He's amazing.

What is your definition of beauty?

My definition of beauty is all within. Kindness, love, self love, acceptance, and patience comes from within and shows on the outside.

Before your session did you feel beautiful? What about this experience helped you challenge that view and/or embrace your beauty?

I would feel beautiful some days, but hardly ever in pictures which made me feel like what I saw was what everyone else saw. Cory's words of encouragement, his humor, his love of women and his job made it easy to not only think I was beautiful, but KNOW it!!

What makes you uniquely powerful?

I am uniquely powerful because I can learn and grow from my mistakes, misconceptions, and faults.

If you’re ready to shine and want to experience this for yourself, I would love to photograph you! You can contact me from my main website.

LEARN MORE