Hi I'm Neryssa Gladden I'm a new model in Oregon. The first month was great I got a lot of jobs really quickly but now I'm getting fewer. What are good ways to get jobs? What should I say to get jobs? How do I start working for boutiques, fashion shows? How dose the industry work?

Hi.  Welcome to MM. 

There are several features that help you get your name out.  Travel notices and casting calls (and casting alerts).  It is good to use them to let people know of your availability.  I think that travel alerts automatically become bulletins.  People on your friends lists then receive the bulletins.  Which means that there is some value in accepting and seeking friend requests.  Then you need to consider traveling a bit to other areas.

You can also enter shots into the POTD contest and the POTF 18+ female contest.  Images in the contest generate a lot of hits to your portfolio.  Also, careful participation in the forums will help people to get to know you.  Read them and get a feel for the tenor.  You will also note common themes where people have problems and that will hero you to avoid them.  Just don't make inflammatory or controversial statements right off the bat.

I have never had anything to do with the "industry."  People often chime in that a person who is 5'3" is going to have a hard time doing fashion shows and runways outside of of local events.  Maybe someone will provide more insight on this.   You are, however, well suited for art poses.  It may be that you would be best off to pursue  that kind of work, which you are more likely to find on MM.  To encourage that, I would suggest having at least a couple of nudes in your port.  What you look like does have some impact.   I understand your reason for saying that you only shoot nudes with people you have worked with before.  There are some draw backs to that if you are seriously trying to get paid work.  If I need a model, I am likely to want to shoot at least a couple of concepts at one time.  The concepts might be non-nudes, they might be a combination of non-nudes and nudes.  If I only need a short shoot, and you need a little longer of a shoot to make it worth your while, I would want to finish a non-nude shoot with nudes, just because they are versatile.   But, because I have to hire you and work with you before you will shoot nudes, it is easier for me to just look elsewhere, unless I have something that can fill an entire shoot without nudes.   I also think that your premise gives you a false sense of security.  Sociopaths will be wonderful the first time you shoot with them, to earn your trust.  I am not saying it is always safe out there.  Be diligent in checking references.  Walk away if you get red flags.


Good luck

Hi, Neryssa!

Although I might see the portfolio of a new model I’d like to shoot with, I don’t contact her for about a month. Many models get a flurry of activity in the first few weeks. For most, it doesn’t even last a month.

Here are a few suggestions:

1) Log into MM at least once a day. When people browse (search for other members) on MM, many (including me) have the results sorted by “Last Activity.” That means that the latest model to log in to MM appears at the top of the list.

About five years ago, a magazine editor contacted me to see if I could provide a cover photo for a fitness issue within four days. The planned cover photo had to be pulled at the last minute, when they learned that one of the models had not signed her legal name to the model release.

I suggested a photo of a model running with her dog by a local lake. (I was using a rental studio at the time, and I couldn’t reserve a studio on four days’ notice). The editor loved it.

So I put up a casting call – and PM’d about 30 models in the general vicinity of St. Louis who listed Fitness as an interest – and actually had fitness photos in their portfolios. This was late on a Tuesday afternoon. The editor said she had to have the photo no later than Friday and, because of the short notice, it had to already be retouched.

I also called a couple of local agencies to see if they had any models who were into fitness – and had a fairly large dog. (A dog who was the size of the model’s foot would barely be visible in the photo.) They checked, and they didn’t.

In the next three days, beginning on Wednesday, I got 10 responses. One model suggested a yoga shoot instead. For one reason or another, only two of other the models could shoot when I could. I was still getting responses to the emails and casting call eight months later.

One of them had a dog who had been injured, and its leg was bandaged.

I set up a shoot with the other model on Thursday. Then she asked to reschedule for Friday. We were en route to the lake, which was in a suburban park, from opposite directions Friday evening. It was raining. Before she got to the lake, the model got a phone call from her boyfriend. Her 13-year-old (this is NOT a typo) daughter was involved in a car accident – as the driver.

The shoot never took place. Fortunately, the editor had contacted three other photographers at the same time.

When a photographer is trying to set up a shoot on short notice, most likely he/she will not contact a model who hasn’t signed on in the past week or two. If the model hasn’t signed on for three months, the question of whether the model will ever be back arises. After six months, it’s assumed that she won’t be back.

2) Use casting calls (preferably NOT on ultra-short notice). State what you want to shoot (or that you just want to update your portfolio, and you’re looking for ideas) and when you’re usually available. If the casting call expires a year from now, you might get half a dozen shoots from the same casting call.

Check the casting calls in your area regularly.

3) Find photographers whose work you like, and contact them directly.

I currently have a wait list of 71 models who want to shoot (not all nudes – I have other MM accounts and shoot most genres), and more of half of them contacted me. (I don’t have a studio at present. In early October, my wife was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer – with complications.

After radiation shrunk the (five) tumors in various parts of her body, she had a double mastectomy several weeks ago. Since the painkillers keep her drowsy and limit what she can do (including going up and down the stairs), I didn’t renew my studio lease.

Eighteen of those shoots were already on the calendar, when this began, and another 15-16 were in the planning stage. The list has continued to grow over the past few months.

Once she’s able to go back to work (if she is), or once she’s able to function normally without having me around, I’ll start looking for a new studio. Since most of the models live nowhere St. Louis (23 states, Canada, Germany and Peru), it will probably be months before I’m anywhere close to being fully booked again, so I’ll be working with more local models for a while.

4) Use announcements on the front page of MM. I believe free accounts get one a day. (VIP accounts can list one every 5 minutes.) Be sure to include which state you’re in.

5) Get as much shooting time, with photographers whose work you like, as you can – even if you have to shoot for trade. Learn from them. Many photographers are looking for versatile models, who are willing to experiment, with whom they can shoot on a regular basis. Be that model, if you can.

6) Learn the principles of posing – and learn to express. For every 20 models who are pretty good at posing, there’s about one who is also good at expressing. If you’re interested in where to learn about posing (without spending any money), PM me.

7) Participate in the MM forums and the forum contests. I always get more PMs from models, when I’m more active in the forums.

8) Build the strongest portfolio you can. Favor quality over quantity. Don’t use several photos that were obviously from the same shoot. (With nudes, this isn’t always necessary. Every photographer has black, white and gray backgrounds – and there’s no wardrobe to give it away.)

Use only the best photos. As you grow and get better photos, be ruthless about weeding out the lesser ones. Try to get at least a couple of great photos for every genre you’re interested in shooting.

Just because you do a shoot, that doesn’t mean that you have to post a photo(s) in your portfolio. If you don’t get anything that would improve your portfolio, just chalk it up to experience.

If you have 50 images, most people aren’t going to look at every photo, when they’re looking for a model. (If you one of the final 2-3 models who are in the running, MAYBE someone will.)

Photographers aren’t going to book you based on the thumbnails. The decision will be based on the full-size photos they look at. You can’t always tell which photos are the best from the thumbnails. If the photographer randomly looks at six of your 50 images at full size, be sure that each of those photos provides a reason for him/her to book you.

While I try to separate the model’s contribution to a photo from the photographer’s, I’ve heard enough photographers talk about model portfolios to know that most of them ask, “Do I want photos LIKE THIS in my portfolio?” rather than “Do I want THIS MODEL in my portfolio?” or “Are this model’s look and/or skills better than her portfolio represents them to be?” (because of the photography) or “How much potential does this model have?”

Btw, I tend to favor vertical photos over horizontals for MM. The maximum width of a photo is about 800-850 pixels. An uncropped vertical photo that’s 800 pixels wide is about 2.5x as large as a horizontal that’s 800 pixels wide. Depending on how they’re cropped, the difference in size can be even greater.

Larger photos have more impact. (Very small photos make people wonder whether someone’s trying to hide something, such as a flaw or an out-of-focus photo.)

On a horizontal monitor, you can have a larger horizontal photo – but with MM, the photo has to be squeezed into a web page, which favors verticals.

Be sure that your face can clearly be seen (in a flattering view) in thumbnail size of several of your photos (if not your avatar).

The first newspaper where I worked had banned all group photos in which every person’s face wouldn’t be at least the size of a dime. If your face is the size of a dime in your avatar (when browsing photos, without opening your profile, and then opening the photo up to see it in full size) and several of the thumbnails on your portfolio page, that’s good

Or, if you decide to go with something else as your avatar, make sure it’s flattering and well-lit. An artsy photo of you, lit by red and blue lights (or wearing a Venetian ball mask), or a shot with Day of the Dead makeup, won’t get nearly as many people to stop and look at your profile.