model now

This article is an extension my recent irritation with the crap portfolios I am seeing, and which I cannot in good conscience pass onto model representation.  Get your portfolio together, and get it done right.  It does not have to cost a fortune, and here is how you do it:

(If you don’t want the truth, then click out of this article)

• No web-cams pics.
• No self-taken pics in bathroom mirrors.
• No pics with your douchebag boyfriend.
• No pics with your wonderful boyfriend either – no one but you.  This portfolio is about you, the model.
• Go easy on the lingerie pix.  Make it tasteful.  If representation sees too much of this shit, their attention turns off like a light switch.  I’ve seen it happen.
• Get a variety of poses, settings, situations, clothes, etc.  All of one thing implies that you are one-dimensional.
• Get a professional or aspiring professional photographer to commit to a session with you.  How do you do this without paying a fortune?  Read on…
• The well-established local photographers will not do this, so find people who are learning the trade locally.
• IMPORTANT:  there are lots of horn-dogs and creeps who say they are professional photographers – beware.  Tell them you are coming with a “male friend.”  Just mentioning that is usually enough for the creeps to back out of the session.  Get any guy to go with you – he doesn’t have to be a hulking bodyguard.  Believe me, the horn-doggery does exist and it is out there, so protect yourself.
• Photographers learning the trade need to build up their own portfolio.  So, it’s “you scratch my back, I scratch yours.”
• Do not pay for this.  If they want money, go onto the next person.
• And the most important point:  Even a not-so-good professional is always better than any friend/relative/boyfriend you can get to get pix of you.