yaggy wrote:
I'll be the first one to point out that I'm far from being a pro.

But I've managed to be taken under the wings of some excellent experienced comrades who believe in me and have established some model contacts who are all eager to shoot with me again.

That said, it's been a hellish uphill battle cold-contacting new talent I want to work with that will respond.  Should I rely even more on my photog friends to recommend me to those they know?  I realize the need for a better port, my own website perhaps (almost there... www.yaggyphoto.com), but where else am I lost?  The nibbles I get, I relay my ideas to them, in some detail, and mention how I'm also open to suggestion. Then there's dead silence, too. It seems to be in networking, though, because I've had a few models ignore me, but then they see I've shot a friend of theirs and suddenly I'm getting unsolicited offers.

Everyone is different and operates on their own beliefs, but aside from already having a body of amazing work, i'm in the catch-22 area of needing to amass good material but not having enough now to attract participation.

I bet this is the 10,000th post of this nature, but I'm not much of a forum-goer and didn't see anything up. Please pardon.

Thanks,
Gary H.

I've given this advice before and it worked out so I'll give it again:

Pay. Yes, I know it's not the ideal solution, but look at it like this. If you pay top notch talent and get a series of great images, you now have a better leg to stand on when offering TFP/CD services. Think of it as an investment, and then later on even pay for yourself.

You use the pay shoot to show as examples of what you're capable of with good talent, and then just use those great shots to snowball into working with even better talent.

Garald
Archinofsky Gallery
http://www.archinofsky.com

Garald Todd wrote:
I've given this advice before and it worked out so I'll give it again:

Pay. Yes, I know it's not the ideal solution, but look at it like this. If you pay top notch talent and get a series of great images, you now have a better leg to stand on when offering TFP/CD services. Think of it as an investment, and then later on even pay for yourself.

You use the pay shoot to show as examples of what you're capable of with good talent, and then just use those great shots to snowball into working with even better talent.

Garald
Archinofsky Gallery
http://www.archinofsky.com

Very good advise....


BTW Yaggy great Port..if I were near to u I would shoot with you..

TXPhotog wrote:
Consider why someone would want to work with you.  At least three possibilities come to mind:

1.  Pictures you take are likely to be of the kind and quality to get them additional work.

2.  Pictures you take are of sufficient merit or interest that models would want to have them for their own sake.

3.  The money you offer them is sufficient to induce them to shoot with you even though the first two do not apply.

So, you need at least one of those to be true.

Exactly...

Chris Ambler wrote:
The best advice I could ever give on this topic:

Find something that models want and put yourself in a position to give it to them.

Excellent business advice!

yaggy wrote:
Okay, already I can see this is a good idea, hiring experienced models.  I certainly have no problem with that. But I am a little weary because so far, the good models I've worked with refuse the money, yet the ones I worked with for pay were lousy, mean and just overly a pain to even work with.  Perhaps I've just had a run of bad luck?

Honestly, I've never had anyone refuse money before . I have negotiated a lower fee after the fact when the model requested to use the images in their book, however.

But with your experience with the diva's - That's just bad luck. It also has to do with how you set the shoot up with them. Interview your models before agreeing to pay them. If they say they are "too busy" for a pre-shoot interview, move on.

Seriously, when agreeing to pay for talent, it does you no good if you aren't going to work well with them so you have to find out before you commit to spending money on them.

Pre-shoot interviews won't happen often in the commercial photography world, unless you're meeting them at calls, but when you're shooting for your book, you're looking for talent you connect with, or at the very least, will be easy to work with. This makes the pre-shoot meeting vital.

On commercial shoots, I've let talent go due to "diva'esque" behavior. I'll pay them a portion of their fee and release them from the shoot and contact the agency immediately about it.

Just remember that when you're paying, you're the client.

-G

WG Rowland wrote:
Respect is overrated..

Bribe them with cookies..

Hmm, never thought of that.  I make a pretty good chocolate chip....

VirtuaMike wrote:
Figure out what you want to do, and keep doing it until you get good. Work with models that'd go with your look. If they won't work for free then pay. You're the photographer so it's your vision that you're trying to sell.

yep totally, you don't get respect by playin' it safe.  you're gonna have to put yourself out there.

Sita Mae Edwards wrote:
Is it necessary that the people you shoot always be models?  In order to get models interested in me I have spent a lot of time shooting my friends, my friends' friends, my friends' housemates, my co-workers, you name it.  A lot of those shots are still in my portfolio, and several of them have been the reason that models agree to work with me.  Go figure.  Never underestimate the power of the lowbrow approach.

You have lucky friends.. I hope they know that..