It took my really getting started in model photography to learn that what I was doing for general portraits wasn’t working. This Dilbert comic is VERY true of a lot of photographers, model and general portrait photographers, that I know.

Are you wasting away money and time doing marketing you know isn’t working? Are you not focusing on valuable market avenues because your not seeing a valuable and quick return of investment? At my Meeting of the Masters event in 2010, one of the featured speakers said something that I’ve since applied; “WIIFM” phonetically sounded out says “WIF-UM” or “Whats in it for me?” EVERY where I go, I use this philosophy every place I go. I’ve cut back on making the same mistakes twice as well as spending more time in places that counts.

How are you avoiding the Dilbert?

“Hay Jay!

XXXX here I wanted to thank you for always donating to my site! It means a lot to me and I don’t think a lot of people know how much it means to even get 5.00 from them. It’s not about the money, its about them saying “Thank you” in more than just a simple email”

I was thrown off by it as I thought it was common sense that if I am taking something, at some point in time I needed to say thank you in more than just an email. I always use links on these guys sites to purchase equipment as they get a referral fee or affiliate fee. I responded to the photographer telling her that I was under the auspices that EVERYONE donated SOMETHING to sites where they learned from? She replied and told me I was one of the regular doners to her site.  I couldn’t believe it! Her site is VERY popular and VERY well known, yet no one donated to keep it going? I wrote her back and told her I was surprised that no one did as I have my own server and hosting bills and couldn’t imagine not donating. She asked me how I got people to donate to my site and it hit me! I actually don’t!

What hit me the hardest was the fact that I get about 15 emails per week from photographers across the world who thank me for my honest and open discussions on my successes and failures as well as ideas and business training and no one has donated! I get about five emails per week from people asking me to review their images and asking how they can improve and I direct them to my one on one page. Most of those who want the image review never take the one on ones so I assume they’re not really serious about their career, so I move on. When I explained that to her, she told me that I shouldn’t assume everyone does what I do and that I was missing out as well. I agreed with her and thought on it some more.

I came up with the fact that we should be supporting each other! If you come to my blog or go to another photographers blog that has links to other companies, please show your support and purchase through them! You’re going to buy the stuff anyway, why not thank your frequent bloggers by clicking on their link and buying? You pay no more or less when you do it, they get a VERY small kick back from the company. Or you can even use their donation links!  Even if you don’t have a lot, 5.00 here or 20.00 there will help pay for server, additions and abilities for them to get new things to review and show you how it works!

Go and support your educators and those who inspire you! It will mean more to them than you’ll know and

Black and white images tells a story. It’s reserved for images that makes you take a second look, that draws you in. Not for images that are half assed and wants to be “cool”

Meet Gabby. She was a friend on facebook that contacted me when I posted that I was working with a new MUA that needed test faces. The first shoot we had, she was super shy and reserved.  She was a cutie that had something not so deep down. I walked her to her car and she said she had fun and wanted to shoot with just us two (there was another model there and two more on the way). I set up a shoot for the next weekend and she showed up EARLY! Wow, right? We shot and she came out of her shell and was awesome. I told her I knew she was a tigress waiting to get out and she laughed at me. The third shoot, she wanted to do something more expressive, so I suggested some art nudes. I explained that I saw a lot of shadows and contrast on the ball chair.

The lighting was simple, beauty dish up high pointing down. I wanted bright highlights and dark shadows. The power of one light should never be underestimated, although it always is. Included is the diagram photo.

I can’t began to stress how important it is to have your best foot forward in ANY situation! The model/photography world is one that is built off of looks and first impressions. When I’m using these sites, I’m looking for images that blow me away. I’m looking at a thumbnail about 150×150 and have three seconds to make up my mind if I want to contact you. There are 148,587,335,114,1578,2 portfolios to look through and don’t want to look at anyone who isn’t serious about their career. If you don’t have an amazing image as your key, then you’re missing out! Also, another annoying thing that I’m noticing is people using fake age as well as measurements. Their reasoning is honest; they don’t want the “GwC” to find them and try to work with them, that being said, I know several “GWC” that are better than many “professionals” in regards to work ethic, image production and business skills. By hiding your profile you’re losing out on potential jobs.

When I’m searching for models, I’m searching for specific things:

Age: 21-35.

Why? Simple, in my experience, most “models” 18-20 are doing it because it’s “cool”, they haven’t gotten serious about it but do it because of the title. Now of course there are exceptions, I can think of about four young women who have and are rocking the industry in areas I populate. Working as a model requires a level of maturity that most young people aren’t ready to display. I avoid this by looking for 21+ as they have a bit better idea of themselves and a realistic outlook on their lives. It also cuts down on the posing regrets we’ve discussed previously.

Stats:

I work with designers and other clients that need to have a specific type and look for their product. Nothing worse than looking at a model and scheduling a shoot with her based off her stats, only to find she either lied or hasn’t been forthcoming with her info, correct info. That’s a waste of my, my client, designer and models time as I have to turn her down and try to save the shoot. Now I know some of you may say “That’s what an agency is for” but lets face it, unless you live on a coast, you won’t find good or legit agencies to get your models from.

Looks:

If a client wants blonde hair, blue eyes model, then that’s what the client wants. If they want green hair and green eyes, so be it. If you have these features flaunt it! Again, this is what I look for when looking for specific things-any hair/eye combo not just green hair and green eyes- so put it down. Have images that are up to date and current at all times. Even if it’s just a self shot camera. Nothing worse than seeing and falling in love with a look, only to find out the model has dyed her hair from blonde to pink with orange stripes.  As a model, unless your an Alternative model, your hair and body modifications should be kept slight or easily concealable to suit client needs.

While this post has been targeted to models, Photographers the same rules apply to us! When clients are looking at us, they are looking for professionalism and maturity. They have about the same amount of time as we do, often times less time, we need to make sure our best image is forward at all times as well! A few years ago I was talking to an old time photographer and he told me I had to maintain an air of professionalism at all times on Facebook for the simple fact that our clients are on our facebook page. I told him I do business from my facebook business page and my personal page was for just that, personal. He digressed and said it was silly, that everyone friends the personal page. I looked at his stats and he had 500 friends on his personal page and 200 on his business page. I am the opposite, I have 1500 on the business and 1200 on personal. He should spend more time growing his page vs working from his personal page.

You are only as good as the last image you post/share/upload for the world to see. Would you work with someone that created the image on the left? or right?

A problem found (most often) with newer or those who want to be models is what I call “Posing regret” As it turns out, I live and work out of Glamour states and as a result, I don’t tell a 5’6″ girl that I want to shoot “fashion” I am honest with them and tell them either, “We can shoot a fashion inspired theme” or “I don’t shoot fashion, I’m the glamour guy!” as a way of skirting around the fact they’re too short. Every once in a while, I will run across a young lady that wants to submit to a glamour magazine or website, then totally freak out and change her mind.

As I stated before, I got into model photography from shooting paysite girls. My first successful one was Diddylicious. After that site I ran several other successful sites and provided technical/lighting support on sites like TiffanyTeen.com (funny fact? I owned the domain for about six months before selling it to him!) Because I stated this in my blog profile, from time to time I get young ladies who want to do their own site, but more on that later.

Posing regret is where the wannabe model is so excited to be “modeling” that she is open to shooting anything. She’s seen Maxim, Playboy and the likes and wants to be in those magazines. She decides to come in and shoot it all, most times it’s her idea to do it, then gets home and decides to find religion again. At that point because they are “her” photos (shes the wannabe so in her mind because they are photos of her, she owns them) that she wants down because she’s changed her mind. One of the reasons I tell photographers they need to charge all the time is for situations like these. If the client is a paying client, on their paperwork there is a spot for them to check off if you can use the images for promotion, business or self. If they check the no box and they decide they don’t want you to, your stuck. If it’s a free shoot and they don’t want you to, that’s when it becomes murky as your time is worth something.

The way I handle posing regret is simple; if it’s a paying client, I don’t do anything with the photos. I provide her the agreed upon images and move on. If it was a free shoot because the wannabe showed promise, then I evaluate the situation. If there was a lot of work into it, I will let the wannabe know that I won’t link her and change her name, but I can’t be out the time and money of the shoot. Usually in that situation, the wannabe says my favorite thing “I am underage” which is why it’s important to cover yourself.

The young lady that inspired this post, had decided she wanted to do a paysite. So I found a webmaster and went to work. The webmaster and her decided what she was going to shoot. Once the site was up and live, she decided that she didn’t want to do it anymore. To her credit she didn’t play the “I’m underaged” thing, but she did claim to have a mental breakdown. I worked with the webmaster (he fought me tooth and nail) to get it down because I felt bad for her and I did have a connection with her. I recently saw her on fb and chose to friend request her. She wrote me something along the lines of not forgiving me until hell freezes over. I was dumbfounded! I worked my tail off to get her site down as well as paid money out of pocket and this is what she says to me? I wrote her a nice email explaining all that went down, the facts, not what she now believes to be facts. And I questioned; if she was so scarred by the shoot she had with me, why does she have far worse photos in her book today?

When dealing with the inexperienced, you would be remiss to let them know EVERYTHING that happens before, during and after a shoot. Save yourself some time and only deal with the serious. Make them work for your shoot so you know you’re not wasting your time!

I have made my feelings known regarding hotshoe flashes being used as “strobes”, Nothing more than a gimmick, oops… But I did take a portable strobe and beauty dish out for some shots!

Kabulie is the model And the gear is simple:

Photogenic AKC320B strobe

Photogenic Portable battery

24″ Silver beauty dish

The rare times I shoot with lights when shooting outdoors, my goal is to use the strobe strictly for ambient fill! Lots of people will over power the sun and for me personally, that takes away from the photo. Makes it look more manufactured and thus, eliminates the reason for being outdoors. The sun is a perfect light source and works amazingly to give awesome light, why ruin it? The setup was simple; Strobe on top of model set to f/2.8 and able to keep colors and life in the photos.

Now for all of you who are freaking out because I have my sweater over the strobe fan, it was raining out and although it was a little mist, I still didn’t want enough rain to get in the fan and blow up the strobe. I made sure more than enough space existed to allow the fan to work and not over heat.

I find it almost as fun as shooting with studio strobes. For me when I shoot outdoors, my lighting is FAR simpler; just the camera.

I’ve seen guys shooting that had tons of hotshoe flashes through a bunch of cool things like octaboxes and small softboxes. I often wonder if they’re doing that for attention? Or because they really need those things? Again, I’m simple and MAYBE use one reflector. Here are a few images of Audrey shot outside:

This was at a workshopI had taught last July. The sun was out shining bright, so we found a little waterfall that I love to shoot at. Brought in a reflector from camera right and filled it in. One main reason I dislike lugging a lot of gear around is I feel it takes away from the connection between you and the client. When they have lights on them, they’ll feel as if they need to pose or “work it” sometimes, I just want them being them.

I replied; ” Its about the connection first! Lights second!”

She replied: ” I could take a person off the street and not say a word to them…..and get an outstanding pix if i have the right light.  Connection is only a necessity for portrait biz….i am talking u and being one with your camera.
Repeat after me…..i can see the light!!!!!!”

What an incredulous statement! Connection is only a necessity for portrait biz? Now lets review; She’s a great photog who had problems in the portrait business and took several years from shooting. She went to nature and only recently got into shooting models and recently had a post on facebook looking for models to shoot. She asked me for referrals. If photography is about light first, why the break?

IMHO, what makes an outstanding pic isn’t lighting, it’s the connection the photog has with the client. If you have 30,000.00 worth of equipment and no connection with the client, then you have 30k worth of nothing. Getting great looks require the person trusting you. Photographers care about equipment, customers don’t.

She would do well to remember that and won’t need to look for people, they would come to her. I don’t need to repeat after her that “I can see light!!!!!!” I have 47 people in her market that are begging me to go back and shoot them.

It’s that time of year again, Spring Cleaning!

About once a year I go through my equipment and sell some things I don’t need or use as much. I got crap last year because I only offered to select people, so here I am offering it to everyone who visits my blog. On my first run, here’s what I have:   -Updated and current as of 4/28- will change the date when something else sells.

	Photogenic PL600Has flash tube no model lamp Works 100% Price: 170.00 600ws strobe. WORKHORSE!
	Photogenic PLR2500DRHas flash tube no model lamp Works 100% Price 750.00 1000ws + built in pocket wizard
	MicroSync I transmitter and recPrice: 70.00 First generation, used a few times.

Of course after he said that, I went out and tried to shoot white on white. It was then that I found it to be more difficult than just throwing light everywhere like I always say. I had to pay attention to what I was doing and it was then that I discovered if I make the backdrop lights lower power than the key, I have more flexibility! Now when I teach workshops or even mention this here on my blog people think I’ve lost my mind. Trust me, I haven’t.

Give it a try! These photos were set to the following: Backdrop lights @ f/8 and key at f/11. This works because light is reflective meaning the backdrop lights will take care of what they do but won’t really reach up front to the subject depending how far away from the drop they are.

I’ve included a photo of the images in their RAW status so you can see what they look light right out of the camera. It has been years since I’ve touched a white backdrop to specifically get it white. This is one of those “get it right in camera” things I agree with.

The model is Alyssa and she’s a dancer. The thing I LOVE about shooting dancers? I don’t talk during the shoot. I often say “Good thing the music is up loud! Why? cause if it wasn’t, with as many flashes as I’ve taken, it’d be weird hearing *heavy breathing/panting/*click*/heavy breathing/panting/*click*” Works great and gets them to relax.