Q: Who are you?
A: Here's a brief bio.
Q:
Where are you located?
A: Despite the domain name I'm actually located
in the east bay and usually shoot there. Specifically my studio is in San Leandro
near the Oakland border and very near the San Leandro BART station (I pick models
up there all the time).
Q: How long is a session?
A: Shoots
are usually 2-3 hours.
Q: Where would the session take place?
A: Usually I'll work in my home studio with people I haven't worked with before
but if the weather's good I might suggest outdoors to start (usually but not always
very early in the morning!). If we haven't worked together we'll want to meet
for coffee or something before doing an outdoor shoot.
Q: Do you only
do nude work?
A: No but that's mostly what I hire models for. Even if
I also am doing some clothed shots it's usually just easier to work with one model who
does both. That being said, I do occasionally do a clothed shoot purely on a TFP (time for prints) basis but only if you have some look I can use. I also do a lot of other things, like bird photography and travel photography,
but those are on another site for professional reasons.
Q: What are you
looking for in a model?
A: I'm not looking for any particular body type
- in fact I'm always trying to have more of a range in my portfolio - but I like
models to have attractive and interesting faces above all. Please be reliable
- I'm not big on second chances when it comes to reliability. Experience isn't
necessary - especially since I started portrait work I've gotten very used to
working with first timers. It takes longer but we'll definitely get some great
results in the end.
Q: What if I don't want my pictures on the Internet?
A: Since that's how I sell prints, that's a problem in terms of me hiring you.
However, it's not a problem in terms of you hiring me. Sometimes somebody just
wants a portrait, nude or implied nude, and that's fine - see my other website Honest Portraits for more details. I do not do shoots unless I either have the commercial rights or I'm getting paid - if I want to do a fun shoot with zero hope of commercial use I'll just ask a friend.
Q: What are you going to do with the pictures?
A: They'll go into
my portfolio (mostly this website although I'll sometimes bring a physical portfolio
to events) and I sell prints. But the model release I
use pretty much covers all the bases just in case. As an example when I brought
out my first book I didn't have to track everybody down
since my release already covers that. I also have some shots on book covers, in magazines, etc.
Q: What kind of compensation
do you offer?
A: It really depends on the details - factors include your
look (not just how pretty you are but do you look different than the folks already
in my portfolio), your experience level (I get more usable pictures per hour out
of more experienced models and the results are what I'm paying for, not how long
it took to get there) and generally how much I want to work with you. If you've
never done a nude shoot before I'll most likely suggest compensating you with
some free 8x10s and the use of web sized images for self promotion since I'll
spend a lot of time teaching you the basics and you'll get a great starter portfolio
out of it. If you've done at least a couple of nude shoots before I'll pay artist
rates.
Q: Anything else I should know?
A:You will be treated
in a highly professional manner. All models must be at least 18 and provide ID
and be willing to sign a model release.
If you're interested write to contact@san-francisco-nudes.com - let me know a little about yourself and what you're interested in (especially
if you're willing to work outdoors - it's fun but I understand not everybody's
comfortable with it), attach some pictures or give me a link to where I can see
them online (they don't absolutely have to be nude, I just need to get some idea of your
look although if you don't have at least nude snapshots I'll probably want to meet you
first) and I'll usually get back to you within a couple of days. Do feel free
to ask questions - I've helped a number of beginning models get their start.
If you found this page directly via a search engine you may want to take
a quick look at some samples of my work.