Ron Daniel is internationally known as one of a handful of photographers who specialize in a unique subject: the great white shark. His Instagram page, @greatwhitedivers, has nearly 70,000 followers.

When international travel became near-impossible in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he began exploring other outlets for photography.

First expanding to other above-water wildlife such as wolves and bald eagles, he soon branched out to shooting cosplayers. It was then he discovered a love for photographing people.

“When shooting sharks, I spend countless hours underwater in mute silence, waiting for the sharks to be in just the right place doing just the right thing,” Ron says. “On the other hand, photo sessions with people are conversational, fun, and interactive. Plus, instead of just waiting and hoping for everything to fall together to make the perfect image, my model and I work together to create works of art that we both love!”

Most of the models Ron was working with wanted to shoot boudoir. While studying up on the style, he read about the empowerment that women receive when they embrace themselves and who they are in the present. “I had been thinking of boudoir as just another style, another opportunity to collaborate with another person to create art. Don’t get me wrong – it’s super-fulfilling as a creative human being to do that. But I realized boudoir carried with it an even deeper dimension.”

From childhood, women are inundated with impossible standards of beauty. This common experience resulted in several strangely similar conversations: “She feels she can't ever measure up to that standard, so there’s this constant weight – deep down, this underlying uneasiness which feels like inadequacy.” He started shooting boudoir and saw the empowerment he’d been reading about be manifested time and time again. “The photography is my ability to give her my eyes, to show her what can be seen without those inadequacy-tinted glasses she always has on. It’s just amazing to hear how renewed and powerful it makes them feel. They look at these pictures – and for some of them, it’s the first time ever – they say, 'Damn! I am sexy as hell! I am perfect exactly the way I am!' Having the ability to give someone a whole new self-vision like that... it just amazes me how powerful it is.”

Ron still dives with sharks, and he still photographs wildlife and cosplayers. But it's those who gather enough courage to take that first tentative step into boudoir who command his respect. And it is they who can expect their boudoir session will come with an amazing parting gift: a huge dose of real confidence and genuine empowerment.

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