![]() ![]() ![]() I am currently based in ' state your location' and I am a five minute walk from the nearest train station if that helps you plan your travel arrangements.Ī lot of my test shoots tend to be shot here in my home studio. Please let me know what dates you have available. I normally recommend starting at around 12 noon and finishing up around 6pm if that helps you with travel times but like I mentioned, I'm flexible on this if this doesn't work for you. I was looking to arrange this shoot sometime towards the end of this month. Do you work during the week or only on the weekends as I'd prefer one day during the week if that's possible. I know you're based quite far from me so I'm pretty flexible on a start time. If you don't mind I'd just like to check your availability and if you'd consider working with me on this project. I am in the process of organising a test shoot and I am reaching out to you as a model because I came across your portfolio online and loved your work. They're looking at diaries and accounts, juggling traveling expenses and traveling times so please think twice about contacting a professional model in the same way you would organise a night out with the lads. So if you are a photographer shooting for fun, remember that the person you're contacting is at work when you get in touch with them. According to my questionnaire, 53% of the models I asked were booking between 5 - 20 shoots per month. They are busy people. Nearly every model I've ever worked with is incredibly dedicated and hardworking and they take their job very seriously. ![]() The reason I mention this is to highlight the fact that whether or not you're shooting commercially or for fun, the model you're most likely contacting is trying to make a living from it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, some of the best photographers I know don't shoot professionally and enjoy the act of taking pictures in their spare time simply to enjoy taking pictures. The photographic industry has never had so many people taking pictures as it does now and it has to be said that most of those photographers are not relying on taking pictures to feed their families. To me this is the most important message and getting this right or wrong can determine a huge amount about how the shoot evolves into actually happening or not. No matter what you're planning to shoot, there will always be a first message. Over 40 models kindly gave their time and feedback in the questionnaire and the foundation of this article is built on their responses and what they want to see in the messages they receive from us. So to further cement my initial ideas on best practices for contacting models, I asked them.Ī few weeks ago I put together a simple and straight forward questionnaire and asked all of the models I knew to take five minutes to give me their opinions on how best to get in touch with them when booking a photoshoot. ![]() But don't take my word for it, after all I'm just a photographer. A professional sounding message can reassure models that you know what you're doing and considering that out of the models I've personally booked I have never had a 'no-show' and only three or four cancellations (all for seemingly legitimate reasons) over the years I'd like to think I'm doing something right. But I do believe that a properly constructed message that contains some of the following key information can go a long way to ensuring a shoot goes ahead as planned. It's also worth noting that there is no one perfect way of doing this, we all prefer to be contacted in different ways and we all consider certain shoot information to be more important over others. I'll start by saying that I'm no self proclaimed expert on contacting models, but I'd like to think that based on the huge number of shoots I've booked and planned over the years that I have a fairly solid understanding of what's important information when it comes to organising shoots and what's not. ![]()
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