By TheEgg, 1726735383
Now I’m sure this has cropped up before so forgive me if I’m opening old wounds but, as anyone will see who reads my portfolio notes, I neither charge nor pay, ergo I work exclusively TF unless there is a commercial gain for any collaborators.
I appreciate there are many fantastic, professionals (in every sense of the word), who work exclusively for pay and I pay them the due courtesy of not offering them a collab, however there are both models and togs with basic skills who seem to think they can charge (this is mainly models but I have heard of togs with a point and shoot or even phone camera who think they are a resurrected Ansell Adams or David Bailey).
For the purpose of this exercise I’m going to discuss models who work for pay only. These fall into 2 distinct categories
1/. Vast experience or a unique aesthetic
2/. A little experience and an aesthetic unique to the but not massively different to the thousands of models offering their services.
Those in the first category generally know their strengths and marketability, whilst the second have been told they should be a model but haven’t a clue as to what their USP is often placing their value on what they’ve seen as the market rate and often are disillusioned when reality bites that you have to be special to be a top model getting regular paid work.
It is often the second category I have issue with when it comes to me being a TF photographer. In a previous life I did charge for weddings, baby/pet portraits, etc but use PP to escape the humdrum and just do something for the fun of it yet models often see those togs seeking to collab as cheapskates and timewasters and would rather get no work than compromise and collab, even route to experience is by working and gaining that experience. They’ll overlook our massive outlay on numerous items of equipment, backdrops, travel expenses eg that lens I invested in specifically for portraiture costing in excess of a grand or even the lens filters costing upwards of £50-£150, yet complain about how much they’ve spent on lingerie from Shein.
There are some great togs, far more talented than I, who can not only produce fabulous imagery for you but also give guidance, mentoring, etc as part of the package. Its a win win situation so many models are missing out on, not to mention the wonderful social interaction and bloody good fun that can be enjoyed.
Unfortunately there will always be the guys with cameras looking for cheap thrills and level pushing along the way but these can (and should) be avoided with due diligence like checking references and just seeing their work standards.
A little collab along the way can do wonders to increase anyone’s skill set and make you a more marketable proposition instead of allowing you to continue to produce the same pretty, but pretty unremarkable images.
Just for the record, when I started, I paid to work with models in order to gain experience in this specialist field.
There are some fantastic models working TF just for the fun of it. There’s no compromising, they’re having fun creating some great images as a result.
