2024 Book Projects - Half-Time Review Part 1
Blog post

As previously discussed I decided that I needed to challenge myself in terms of my photography during 2024. I needed to move away from the random model shoot philosophy that had endured in previous years and the “shoot to order” nature of seeking to win the club Photographer of the Year title. Model photography will always be my first love,although it comes with satisfaction and frustration in equal amounts it seems.

There are a number of ways to find models to work with and two of the main avenues of communication are via various groups on Facebook and via a commercial website known as Purpleport. I have for many years subscribed to both and have worked with many models who are active both on Purpleport and within Facebook groups.

Project Preparation

The first thing to do when setting up any kind of project is to scope it and decide upon the goals and objectives you are looking to hit/achieve. I very much wanted to return to the concept of the previously abandoned project and work regularly with a single model over a number of themes to produce a book which would only ever have 2 copies - one for each of us. Having decided what the broad theme of the project was and the end goal being sought, the next task was to go about finding a suitable model.

There are basically 3 types of arrangements you can enter into with a model for a photoshoot. You can engage the services of a full-time or part-time model on a paid basis, you can agree to pay a lower rate and provide the model with a number of edited images which can be used for their own ends, or you can work on what is known as a “TF” basis.

This simply means that models give their “time for” the photographer giving them full access to all of the images from any shoot. Good models don’t come cheap and nor should they when it is how they make their living but with hourly rates running between £30 and £60 or more, shoots can be costly. In addition to hourly rates for models, travel expenses both for the model and the photographer have to be factored in as well as other things such as studio hire which can also vary from £12 an hour to £50 per hour and beyond. If you need a MUA (Make-Up Artist)then factor in at least another £60 per shoot). As you can see model shoots can quickly rack up cost.

As a hobbyist photographer I don’t have a huge amount of cash to throw at shoots so I decided to seek models who were either willing to work on a “PP” (part-paid) basis or fully “TF” and I uploaded “castings” to Purpleport and various Facebook groups. Castings are what they sound like and they set out the requirements that a photographer is looking for from a model, what the shoot or shoots will entail and what the remuneration arrangements will be.