Morgan Gracee wrote:
i'm trying to plan my first "tour", and i just wanted to know what are some good citys i need to go to and maybe if you have any tips? let me know. ♥ it's greatly appreciated.

If you'll search the forums, there's lots of info about touring. Good luck!

V Laroche wrote:
You don't sound ready.

i think i'm ready and i have absolutely no idea how you could judge that, but thanks for your input. (:

QuietAsKept wrote:

If you'll search the forums, there's lots of info about touring. Good luck!

thank you!

IDiivil wrote:
There should be more than enough work in Los Angeles if you network for it... no need to tour then. That's honestly a pretty good city for modeling - I always made bank when I worked out there, and I'm moving there in February with that being one of my main reasons why (the others being family and school and etc).

there's so many other photographers in different places i would love to work with though!

Garry k wrote:
Are you doing it for fun or expecting to pay or  to be paid ?

just curious

i'm doing to for fun, but if it's with a photographer who i feel will not benefit my portfolio i'll charge a super small fee. (:

Morgan Gracee wrote:
i'm trying to plan my first "tour", and i just wanted to know what are some good citys i need to go to and maybe if you have any tips? let me know. ♥ it's greatly appreciated.

You live in LA, you have no need to trade. There are literally thousands of good photographers there. If you're not sure where you'd go, you don't need to.
Do you have photographers in other cities wanting to pay to shoot you? If not, then don't bother.
Do you know that you will make enough to travel around on? It's not as easy as it sounds. It's hard for very experienced models in the first place.
As well as that, what are you advertising to them that they can't already get from their hometown models?

Think this through better.

Morgan Gracee wrote:

i'm doing to for fun, but if it's with a photographer who i feel will not benefit my portfolio i'll charge a super small fee. (:

you should try to make at least enough to cover your expenses

and you can probably cut your expenses down by networking with MMers regarding free accomodation and such

Strangekitty wrote:

You live in LA, you have no need to trade. There are literally thousands of good photographers there. If you're not sure where you'd go, you don't need to.
Do you have photographers in other cities wanting to pay to shoot you? If not, then don't bother.
Do you know that you will make enough to travel around on? It's not as easy as it sounds. It's hard for very experienced models in the first place.
As well as that, what are you advertising to them that they can't already get from their hometown models?

Think this through better.

oh i understand completely. there are a few photographers that are willing to pay and i have an account with money saved up. they say they like my look. i'm only bringing this up now because i've been approached by several photographers who are asking if i'm coming to their cities. i just want to make sure i hit the big ones as well. (:

ei Total Productions wrote:
How do you plan on traveling?  Are you going to fly, take the train, the bus, drive our car?  How long do you want to be gone?  How many cities do you want to hit per month?  Do you plan on staying in hotels or are you going to couch surf?

You have asked a good question, but truthfully, there are a lot of questions to ask to do it right.   It also has a lot to do with your own goals.

FYI, I think it is a great experience for someone your age to take a tour of the country.  There are a lot of great photographers out there and a lot of things to see in the process.  Answer the questions I have asked and it will be easier to give you meaningful answers.

Good luck to you ... and if you come to the Bay, let me know.

i plan on traveling by car and i know i want to make it to new york, i want to hit most of the big ones and maybe a few little ones on the way. i plan on staying in motels, and i want to hit a different city every week, as odd as that sounds. :p

Strangekitty wrote:

You live in LA, you have no need to trade. There are literally thousands of good photographers there. If you're not sure where you'd go, you don't need to.
Do you have photographers in other cities wanting to pay to shoot you? If not, then don't bother.
Do you know that you will make enough to travel around on? It's not as easy as it sounds. It's hard for very experienced models in the first place.
As well as that, what are you advertising to them that they can't already get from their hometown models?

Think this through better.

I think this is unnecessarily negative. I've known some models who have traveled like this when they were newer, not really expecting to get paid generally but hoping to build up their portfolio, and it worked out really well for them. As the OP said, there are some really great photographers in other cities besides LA and New York. And what they would get from the OP is a new face. As someone who's in a smallish market, I can tell you that working with traveling people helps me a lot. And while Portland isn't a hotbed for models, there are a handful at least of really good photographers here who could help someone's portfolio.

To the OP, you might consider a West Coast trip for starters: San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, maybe even Vancouver BC. Austin TX has some really great photographers, and there are a lot of people in Philadelphia for some reason that I don't understand.

If you are open to trading one thing you might consider is seeing if photographers will provide hosing for you. I will sometimes host models I want to work with who are either friends or people I would probably have to pay otherwise. Of course be careful if you do that, look for established people that you can check up on. If you shave a few days off of your motel bills it can help.

Rich Burroughs wrote:

I think this is unnecessarily negative. I've known some models who have traveled like this when they were newer, not really expecting to get paid generally but hoping to build up their portfolio, and it worked out really well for them. As the OP said, there are some really great photographers in other cities besides LA and New York. And what they would get from the OP is a new face. As someone who's in a smallish market, I can tell you that working with traveling people helps me a lot. And while Portland isn't a hotbed for models, there are a handful at least of really good photographers here who could help someone's portfolio.

To the OP, you might consider a West Coast trip for starters: San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, maybe even Vancouver BC. Austin TX has some really great photographers, and there are a lot of people in Philadelphia for some reason that I don't understand.

If you are open to trading one thing you might consider is seeing if photographers will provide hosing for you. I will sometimes host models I want to work with who are either friends or people I would probably have to pay otherwise. Of course be careful if you do that, look for established people that you can check up on. If you shave a few days off of your motel bills it can help.

this is so helpful! thank you so much for your help.

ei Total Productions wrote:
How do you plan on traveling?  Are you going to fly, take the train, the bus, drive our car?  How long do you want to be gone?  How many cities do you want to hit per month?  Do you plan on staying in hotels or are you going to couch surf?

You have asked a good question, but truthfully, there are a lot of questions to ask to do it right.   It also has a lot to do with your own goals.

FYI, I think it is a great experience for someone your age to take a tour of the country.  There are a lot of great photographers out there and a lot of things to see in the process.  Answer the questions I have asked and it will be easier to give you meaningful answers.

Good luck to you ... and if you come to the Bay, let me know.

Morgan Gracee wrote:
i plan on traveling by car and i know i want to make it to new york, i want to hit most of the big ones and maybe a few little ones on the way. i plan on staying in motels, and i want to hit a different city every week, as odd as that sounds. :p

OK, but how long do you want the trip to last?

Rebecca Lawrence wrote:
As someone who has been on tour for the last three months and is very eager to get home, and as someone who has put over 160,000 on my car spending the last six years doing this, practice with smaller trips before you travel cross-country.  Start with weekend trips, then see what a week on the road feels like, and build from there.  It is extremely challenging to budget and pull off if you plan do do cross-country and you will need a network in all of the cities you travel to.  Usually the first time I visit an area it doesn't go very well and I will have to try my luck again the next time.  Sometime backtracking makes sense.  Taking breaks makes sense sometimes.  You're going to need a network of friends in different cities that gradually grows over time.  Make sure you're absolutely ready for a national trip before you plan one.

thank you so much. (:

Snyder Studios wrote:
The West Coast Tour sounds like a good start.... walk before you run.  You nude flag says "Yes" but you don't have nudes in your port...

i have my nudes in a different port. (:

ei Total Productions wrote:

ei Total Productions wrote:
How do you plan on traveling?  Are you going to fly, take the train, the bus, drive our car?  How long do you want to be gone?  How many cities do you want to hit per month?  Do you plan on staying in hotels or are you going to couch surf?

You have asked a good question, but truthfully, there are a lot of questions to ask to do it right.   It also has a lot to do with your own goals.

FYI, I think it is a great experience for someone your age to take a tour of the country.  There are a lot of great photographers out there and a lot of things to see in the process.  Answer the questions I have asked and it will be easier to give you meaningful answers.

Good luck to you ... and if you come to the Bay, let me know.

OK, but how long do you want the trip to last?

i want to go for two months. (:

ei Total Productions wrote:
How do you plan on traveling?  Are you going to fly, take the train, the bus, drive our car?  How long do you want to be gone?  How many cities do you want to hit per month?  Do you plan on staying in hotels or are you going to couch surf?

You have asked a good question, but truthfully, there are a lot of questions to ask to do it right.   It also has a lot to do with your own goals.

FYI, I think it is a great experience for someone your age to take a tour of the country.  There are a lot of great photographers out there and a lot of things to see in the process.  Answer the questions I have asked and it will be easier to give you meaningful answers.

Good luck to you ... and if you come to the Bay, let me know.

ei Total Productions wrote:
OK, but how long do you want the trip to last?

Morgan Gracee wrote:
i want to go for two months. (:

That is a very short trip to try to do the country and a city per week.   I think without networking, you will have a tough time covering your cost for the first trip.  It takes some learning to make these trips effective.

I think it is a good idea to try the West Coast first.  Go to San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland and Seattle.  All are viable to make a bit of money and get some experience one the road.

If you are going to traverse the country in two months, good places to stop are Dallas, Nashville/Memphis, Atlanta, Raleigh, Washington, New York, Chicago and Denver.  Those are not necessarily the best or the worst cities, but they get you where you want to go, hitting major metropolitan areas.  The problem is that this route doesn't do well in winter.  That is a spring/summer, summer or summer/fall trip.  If you plan it right, you should be able to make money or at least break even.

Good luck to you.

Snyder Studios wrote:
The West Coast Tour sounds like a good start.... walk before you run.  You nude flag says "Yes" but you don't have nudes in your port...

Morgan Gracee wrote:
i have my nudes in a different port. (:

Then I suggest that you start doing all of your MM posting using the other account.  To make a trip successful, you need to network and make contacts.  You will need those nudes to get you work.

Participating in the forums helps you make friends and contacts that are essential to a successful trip.  The people who are going to want to hire you will want to see those nudes.  They want to get to know that person, not the one who doesn't want to display them.

So, in all seriousness, you should start getting people to know the girl with the nude profile, not the girl without.

ei Total Productions wrote:

Snyder Studios wrote:
The West Coast Tour sounds like a good start.... walk before you run.  You nude flag says "Yes" but you don't have nudes in your port...

Then I suggest that you start doing all of your MM posting using the other account.  To make a trip successful, you need to network and make contacts.  You will need those nudes to get you work.

Participating in the forums helps you make friends and contacts that are essential to a successful trip.  The people who are going to want to hire you will want to see those nudes.  They want to get to know that person, not the one who doesn't want to display them.

So, in all seriousness, you should start getting people to know the girl with the nude profile, not the girl without.

i do somewhat agree. i'm waiting for things with this person from my past to die down first, but they're available upon request for the time being. :p but soon i'll merge them together.

Rich Burroughs wrote:
I think this is unnecessarily negative. I've known some llamas who have traveled like this when they were newer, not really expecting to get paid generally but hoping to build up their portfolio, and it worked out really well for them. As the OP said, there are some really great photographers in other cities besides LA and New York. And what they would get from the OP is a new face. As someone who's in a smallish market, I can tell you that working with traveling people helps me a lot. And while Portland isn't a hotbed for llamas, there are a handful at least of really good photographers here who could help someone's portfolio.

To the OP, you might consider a West Coast trip for starters: San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, maybe even Vancouver BC. Austin TX has some really great photographers, and there are a lot of people in Philadelphia for some reason that I don't understand.

If you are open to trading one thing you might consider is seeing if photographers will provide hosing for you. I will sometimes host llamas I want to work with who are either friends or people I would probably have to pay otherwise. Of course be careful if you do that, look for established people that you can check up on. If you shave a few days off of your motel bills it can help.

This is great advice from Rich ^^^^^
If you want to plan a tour, don't let others deter you.  Even if you don't make a lot (or any) money, you'll be able to build your port, gain valuable experience, and hopefully have a lot of fun.  LA is great, but there are so many talented photographers in other states, and I would highly recommend traveling to Portland, Seattle, and/or Vancouver BC, as Rich mentioned.  Best of luck!

Morgan Gracee wrote:

i plan on traveling by car and i know i want to make it to new york, i want to hit most of the big ones and maybe a few little ones on the way. i plan on staying in motels, and i want to hit a different city every week, as odd as that sounds. :p

I'd recommend doing a west coast trip then and waiting to do the big cross country trip to NYC. Tons of talent along the west coast There's otherwise a lot of nothingness between LA and NYC (I've made a similar drive 3-4 times now just to get to LA and back for family) and the drive itself can be incredibly exhausting to get out of said nothingness.

Morgan Gracee wrote:
i'm trying to plan my first "tour", and i just wanted to know what are some good citys i need to go to and maybe if you have any tips? let me know. ♥ it's greatly appreciated.

good city:
san francisco bay area.
like others said, do the west coast thing for starters.

tips:
stay with me (i have hosting references)
i would love to shoot with you.

if you want, i can suggest some models ive hosted who can give you advice on what photogs in this area regularily hire.

Camerosity wrote:
Example: There were at least 11 traveling models who had announced travel plans to St. Louis between mid-August and the end of September. The first one was here a week and did very well. The others, not so much. The majority of them ended up canceling. While some models have had great success in St. Louis, the city doesn’t have enough photographers who shoot with traveling models to feed 11 models over a six-week period. A local can sometimes suggest photographers for you to notify before your trip.

Check the travel notices for a city before you decide to go there. You don’t want to get lost in a crowd of models who are there around the same time you are.

Many traveling models fly from city to city and use public transit. But that cuts out of the potential market photographers like me in smaller towns. Models who are driving can pick up that work but they have to work very hard to contact the photographers along the route well in advance.

There is a mostly untapped market outside major metro areas but it is more work to find it and more time will be spent in the logistics of getting from shoot to shoot. It is a lot easier to fit multiple shoots into a day when you only have to get across town. But when there are 11 models in a few weeks, how many of them got multi shoots per day anyway?

IDiivil wrote:
There should be more than enough work in Los Angeles if you network for it... no need to tour then. That's honestly a pretty good city for modeling - I always made bank when I worked out there, and I'm moving there in February with that being one of my main reasons why (the others being family and school and etc).

Yes and no. Generally after youve been a local somewhere for too long, people have either forgotten about you or are in a constant state of "I have my pick between a model whos here all the time, or this traveling model who will only be here once this year and who knows if she'll ever come back!" they pick the traveling model, and then see option A..they forget to book you later.

The minute you LEAVE, theres a surge of "oh my god but we never got to shoot come back!"

So even in places that have a ton of work for other girls, if you live there you arent necessarily always open to that same work.


OP: As its been said, theres a WHOLE LOT OF NOTHING between LA and NYC. There are some great people in little towns along the way but they are very spaced out and you may not be able to book a whole week, let alone even a weekends worth of work in those towns. Im not saying dont make the drive, but also dont expect every where you stop to be a money making venture.

Youd do better to make your first trip a west coast one. Ive personally gone from San Diego to Sacramento twice, and portland once. I was able to book work well in San Diego, San Fran, Sacramento, and Portland. You can even continue on to Seattle (I never got that far).

Keep in mind that people have day jobs, so youll want to spend several days in each big city to give people a chance to work with you. Unfortunately youd have to make a humongously long trip out of it to do a weekend in each city, so pick the one(s) you think will have the MOST interest in you, book those as weekends, and then figure out where the other stops fit in and how many days each place will get.

Figure in travel time. If you have a shoot at 9am in portland you cannot book a shoot in sacramento that ends at 10pm, you will not make it to portland the next day in time, or you wont sleep, or both. Give yourself at least one day to get from point A to point B so you dont have to rush and if something goes wrong (flat tire?) you arent screwed.

Get/use a GPS so you can get around strange cities. Get a map book for when that fails you.

keep at least 10 bucks in small bills and change in your cup holder for tolls or whatever may come up.

Keep in mind that people tend to list themselves as being in their nearest big city, but may actually be quite a way away from it (youve probably experienced this plenty with LA) so when someone writes you from san jose, dont assume theyre in downtown san jose, CLARIFY where exactly they are so you know how long you need to get to them.

In that same vein, be prepared for people between point A and point B to want you to stop over and work with them. (there seems to be a lot of people between sacramento and portland that dont get models coming through often).

Figure in traffic and try, if you book more than one shoot in a day, to not book shoots that are complete opposite sides of town from each other. Let your second shoot know that youre coming from another shoot, you cant end shoot 1 at 12 and start shoot 2 at 12:30, you WILL be late

Schedule this EARLY EARLY EARLY with LOTS of notice, so any changes you need to make to the schedule dont completely screw anyone over.

Rich Burroughs wrote:
I think this is unnecessarily negative. I've known some models who have traveled like this when they were newer, not really expecting to get paid generally but hoping to build up their portfolio, and it worked out really well for them. As the OP said, there are some really great photographers in other cities besides LA and New York. And what they would get from the OP is a new face. As someone who's in a smallish market, I can tell you that working with traveling people helps me a lot. And while Portland isn't a hotbed for models, there are a handful at least of really good photographers here who could help someone's portfolio.

To the OP, you might consider a West Coast trip for starters: San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, maybe even Vancouver BC. Austin TX has some really great photographers, and there are a lot of people in Philadelphia for some reason that I don't understand.

If you are open to trading one thing you might consider is seeing if photographers will provide hosing for you. I will sometimes host models I want to work with who are either friends or people I would probably have to pay otherwise. Of course be careful if you do that, look for established people that you can check up on. If you shave a few days off of your motel bills it can help.

MelissaAnn  wrote:
This is great advice from Rich ^^^^^
If you want to plan a tour, don't let others deter you.  Even if you don't make a lot (or any) money, you'll be able to build your port, gain valuable experience, and hopefully have a lot of fun.  LA is great, but there are so many talented photographers in other states, and I would highly recommend traveling to Portland, Seattle, and/or Vancouver BC, as Rich mentioned.  Best of luck!

I would agree with doing a West Coast tour for starters.  Seattle seems to be a good area for the traveling nude model.  Even models that "travel" to Seattle from nearby WA towns do pretty well.  A respectable port that includes nudes will be essential, however.

RenatoJr - RJ wrote:
I think someone already mentioned it, but as a suggestion, since this is yor first one, I would start with a westcoast tour.
Hit cities like:
San Jose
San Framcisco
Sacramento
Portland
Seattle
Boise
Phoenix
Las Vegas,
etc...

Just a suggestion...

thank you.

Camerosity wrote:
I’d go to cities you know, in your region, or where you know people for the first couple of trips.

You might consider traveling with another model who knows the ropes the first time or two.

Don't start with a marathon. Allow a little time between your first trips to digest what you learned and make adjustments.

Get to know a model or photographer in each city you plan to visit. There’s a list of people who provide accommodatons, etc., for traveling models in the forums. They can help you with other things, such as information.

https://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=376963

https://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=843347

Example: There were at least 11 traveling models who had announced travel plans to St. Louis between mid-August and the end of September. The first one was here a week and did very well. The others, not so much. The majority of them ended up canceling. While some models have had great success in St. Louis, the city doesn’t have enough photographers who shoot with traveling models to feed 11 models over a six-week period. A local can sometimes suggest photographers for you to notify before your trip.

Check the travel notices for a city before you decide to go there. You don’t want to get lost in a crowd of models who are there around the same time you are.

Trading notes with other models can be helpful, but don’t rely too much on one model’s experience. Some models do very well in some markets, while others don’t – but do well in other markets.

If you do well in a city, go back – and contact the people you worked with the previous time(s). Many models develop a regular following in certain cities over time. For example, there’s at least one model who visits St. Louis about three times a year – and is always booked solid.

thanks for the help.

MelissaAnn  wrote:

This is great advice from Rich ^^^^^
If you want to plan a tour, don't let others deter you.  Even if you don't make a lot (or any) money, you'll be able to build your port, gain valuable experience, and hopefully have a lot of fun.  LA is great, but there are so many talented photographers in other states, and I would highly recommend traveling to Portland, Seattle, and/or Vancouver BC, as Rich mentioned.  Best of luck!

thank you! that means a lot to me.

Paolo Diavolo wrote:

good city:
san francisco bay area.
like others said, do the west coast thing for starters.

tips:
stay with me (i have hosting references)
i would love to shoot with you.

if you want, i can suggest some models ive hosted who can give you advice on what photogs in this area regularily hire.

thanks! (: