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.