New Photos

An, you may notice the new haircut, as well. The first three photos are courtesy of JD Mitchell Studios, and the fourth, the black&white, is from Ellis McKay. To see more, check out my Facebook fanpage https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Jocelyn-Jae-Tanis/199260820127141

Positive Experience

As someone looking to get into a new business, I did a some looking into the whole modeling game before I decided to use it as a stepping stone into acting. Now, there are plenty of stories about perfectly normal experiences with very normal people and few to no major problems... Then, there are the horror stories of models being taken advantage of by absolute creeps, photographers pushing for shots the model isn't comfortable with (or photoshopping them when he can't get them naked enough), photographers telling a model they will never get anywhere in the industry unless they will pose nude. Honestly, the horror stories are enough to put anyone off the idea of even trying it.

But I tried. And guess what? In a two month period, I have had five fantastic experiences with phototgraphers.

Tonight, my good friend traded work shifts with me so that I could go to a photo shoot. I was called at the last minute (on the recommendation of a photographer I met a few weeks ago) to replace a model who dropped out on short notice. This photo shoot was actually a workshop-type deal, with one experienced photographer teaching a small group of amateur photographers how to work with indoor studio lighting.

I had three outfit changes in front of a variety of backdrops, and six photographers playing with various lighting techniques and posing me (or letting me choose poses). One other model was also there (with her mother - she was underage), and between the two of us, we kept the photographers in a constant rotation around the studio. It was a lot of fun, and a nice confidence booster.

The best bonus of the night (besides the fact that it was a paid gig and I get copies of the top ten photos from each of the six photographers) was that three of the photographers asked to shoot with me again. Much as I'm looking forward to the day when a guy asks me for a shoot and he means "at a range with guns and ammo," I'll certainly take shoots with cameras for the moment  :)

Same as last time, I'll post at least a few of the pictures when I get them back.

My First Real Foray into Modeling

Moday, I did a photo shoot with a local photographer in Reynoldsburg, Digital Grace Photography (check out his facebook, he does good stuff). This photographer has done mostly weddings and senior pictures in his career, but recently decided to get into more model photography. Since we're both trying to build our portfolios, the shoot was done in trade (TFP).

The cool part is that he does body painting. I was painted like something between a ninja and a comic book heroine with a samurai sword. It was actually pretty cool, there's one shot in particular I can't wait to get back from him (a week or so from now - I will post it as soon as I get it). It was a fun shoot, I would definitely work with him again. He still does senior pictures and weddings (which is almost a specialty after 20 years), and his rates are reasonable. He also does videography for weddings, and he has shot music videos for local artists. Being in Reynoldsburg, you can imagine that most of the music has been r-rated rap and not at all family friendly and he hasn't posted any of it on his site for that reason. But I'm hoping he'll have something to show off pretty soon, as I've been talking for a while about filming a music video of just me and my guitar. It'll be something I can show to filmmakers I'm trying to work with, and it'll be something he can feel safe putting on his website.

I appreciate when local artists are able to help each other out. Any branch of the performing arts industries can be extremely cutthroat, but I feel better about getting into the industry when I meet such wonderful people who are coming up at the same time as me. I have two friends who are very capable screenwriters who both helped teach me how to write screenplays; not threatened by potential competition, just willing to share what knowledge they have.

I know that not everyone I meet on this road will be as good as the people I've met so far, but this is my foundation. If my foundation in this industry is solid and is layered with the memories of people who were good to me when I was nothing, then I can whether anything... and that's not true of just my road into performing, it's true of my whole life; if my foundation is solid, I can whether anything.