Hi everyone,

I have been getting some interest in shoots, but from talking to the last wonderful photographer I worked with last week, he made some comments about my profile and pictures. The issue he presented with the photos were that he could not tell if I were comfortable doing the kind of work he hired me for (looking at my other sites proved that I would be, so I got the $ gig). Now I have the pictures of the kind of work he and other art-photogs look for in models' portfolios. So I think that is covered...

But how would I make myself more approachable, and convey who I am in my profile body? As per some previous advice, I had my boyfriend re-measure me. All my measurements are back, and have been for a week or so now. My weight is up to date, and I'm holding steady. (Trying to lose a few more pounds by cutting out sugars - they make my body ache anyways.)

Could a few of you please read my profile? I am hoping to get at least 5 people to give me feedback, the more feedback I have the better in this case, as everyone has different opinions of what is, and is not okay to put on a profile.
I recently changed my profile after seeing some other models' profiles of which I felt were inviting and clear about goals etc.

And if anyone has any advice on scoring more trade/collaborative shoots, or how to lure out MUAs to help build everyone's portfolio, that would be icing on the cake!

Thank you for the time and for giving me honest feedback. (IF you could give me some links to well written profiles, or examples of how I may word things better, please do!)

-Stephanie

P.S
I am looking to gear myself up as an artist, member of the local community, and hobbyist model. I am not looking to get into agencies or travel overseas. Semi-professional might be the term? (That doesn't mean I do not interact with other people professionally...)

I think your profile reads well, the only thing I'd alter is the "What I want in my portfolio" area to include specific-general ideas , i.e. fine art nude paintings and photographs, fantasy body paint, wood nymph/woodland creatures, fantasy book cover, romantic book cover art, etc. What you have currently listed is generally already assumed but these more specific ideas relate your artistic vision and enjoyment with theirs. Make sense?

As for collaborations, I see you have an availability notice so that covers base 1. Apply to all the casting calls that are available to the type of work you wish to do as well as make yourself available for testing with photographers and MUAH's. You might want to consider paying a makeup artist and photographer to do a first-solid shoot to show that you are the right candidate for the job instead of relying on TF and possibly getting something portfolio worthy to entice more TF. You could do the same for fine art nude photography. Fleshing out your portfolio with solid work will entice TF collaborators.

Also look at local art colleges and classrooms and volunteer to be a figure model. That will help make yourself available to the art community.

You are what I refer to as a full figured model. That is where you fit. Those who seek that particular type of model, will be interested, and those who don't.....won't.

Your profile is interesting, informative, and thorough, but it needs to be more concise in order to evoke a more professional tone.

I suggest you revise it to convey all the same information in no more than ten clear, direct sentences, and go easy on the lists.

Keep the tone formal, and stress economy in your words; less is indeed more.

PS: That said, personally, I don't decide to send an initial availability inquiry to a model based on her written profile; instead, I make my inital cut based almost completely on her look, as gleaned from her portfolio, and on the statistics and other information contained in her profile sidebar (age, measurements, body mods, genres, etc.) The written text of the profile is secondary; it's where I look for "dealbreakers", i.e., the overt or implied clues that suggest I shouldn't look into hiring her. These may include poor diction/grammar indicating a lack of seriousness and professionalism, rants/admonishments that hint at a poor attitude, exorbitant requested rates, specific prohibitions against genres/styles of interest to me, or anything else weird or off-putting that tells me to skip this model no matter how good she looks in her port. If you want to be the one choosing from a broad base of offers, you might keep such considerations in mind when composing your profile text.

I really appreciate the feedback! This is very helpful, and I will begin to revise. I will also say that I am open to further feedback about my profile as I revise it. Having more detailed explanation of what I might change for what I want to convey is best. I really found the first bit of feedback the most helpful. So I appreciate you, dear forum guide, to take the time to tell me exactly what might be changed, and how.

I did not find the full figured comment to be at all helpful, because I already know that if someone is interested in me, they will inquire. Being full figured doesn't have much to do with it, at least, in my opinion. If you could however explain to me how and why being full figured matters in this case (and how to convey that in my profile/how to edit my profile in relation to that), I would find that much more serious of a critique, therefore being much more helpful.

It is nice to read what photographers are and are not looking for, so I appreciate the final bit of advice I have received thus far. Thank you for taking the time to write a response, and then to follow up with more information! That was helpful.

I have revised my profile per the few critiques I received. (wasn't 5, but hey, 2 helpful souls out of a hope of 3 ain't bad!)

I would like further critique on this new revision.
What changed?

I changed my tone to be more formal.
I deleted some unnecessary sentences.
I seem to have increased the size of my profile, rather than cut it down - but I feel as though I have made it more concise.
I have included links to photo references and explained how my list "Things I want to try" is being used. I think this will be helpful to photographers who don't want to approach me because they think I do not have concrete ideas. I will also be working on getting more stuff about my ideas up, besides keeping a notebook.

So please let me know what you think. This is all very helpful and your time is appreciated.

-Stephanie

It is much improved; I think your revisions were successful, even if you chose to make your text more focused at the expense of being less concise.

If I had any further critique, it would only be to encourage you to keep moving in the same direction to create an even leaner, meaner profile...

* I would delete the section on body mods; since you can hide them, let the profile sidebar do its job.
* I would remove the paragraph following the list in the "What I Want" section.
* I would delete everything after the "Rates" section except for the URLs.

As it stands, though, nice job.

Thank you 2A! I will review my profile body.
could you explain leaner and meaner portfolio? I'm struggling with what images to keep as I can't quite seem to see what others want to see in a great modeling candidate...