building a portfolio

Hi,

I want to start a body of work thta involves portraits only. I don't want to
utilize models and such, just ordinary people. I assume I can just walk
around and ask people if they are interested, but what types of legal
worries would I have?

No nude, or news stuff, just head and shoulder to full length B&W portraits.
Do I need to have people sign a model release? I would probably never
publish or distribute the work.

Also, is it customary to offer prints to people, in exchange for the
sitting? My hope is that someday somebody might actually "PAY" me to have
their photos taken....

TIA

 > I want to start a body of work thta involves portraits only. I don't want
to
 > utilize models and such, just ordinary people. I assume I can just walk
 > around and ask people if they are interested, but what types of legal
 > worries would I have?
 >
 > No nude, or news stuff, just head and shoulder to full length B&W
portraits.
 > Do I need to have people sign a model release? I would probably never
 > publish or distribute the work.
 >
 > Also, is it customary to offer prints to people, in exchange for the
 > sitting? My hope is that someday somebody might actually "PAY" me to have
 > their photos taken....
 >

Model releases are required for commercial sales. for any other usage you
can pretty much get away with a hand shake, if anyone objects to their image
being hung as an example of your work in a studio, a coffee shop, etc, it
would be unlikely that civil damages would result even if by some bizarre
obnoxious person actually files a suit.

Here's what works for a lot of photographers, build a collection of images
on a theme. If you want to attract attention of potential patrons who can
afford the services of a artist like yourself then look for a theme that
interests those folks.

IE: people and their pets. Shoot a few and then start looking for some
sponsorship. The local shelter or rescue group. Get them to start making
contact with interesting or famous people in your area. Build up a couple
dozen, pick the best ones and put on a show somewhere. Now you're Joe Cool,
see you have photos of local weathercaster, police chief, former Miss State
pageant winner (in 1965)

Musicians, they make good subjects cause they have some kind of talent and
have a need for head shots but are usually as broke as other artists and
models, so they are grateful for the chance. Now if you work with
classical music folks with the town symphony you have a chance to network
around, this and the opera are two heavy in the 'a' list social circles.
However this is such an old path to the gates of old money heaven and neuvo
climbing that the fund raisers are now sinking their claws into the
photographic wannabees that try this time honored method. OTOH, if you are
just starting out, as in you don't squat about photography then stick with
rock and rap noise makers cause they seem to enjoy photos as undisciplined
as what they do. This becomes an avenue into the high school senior market
who like the model style shots (but the parents will order the standard
boring stuff so you will have to learn that anyway.)

see what local newspapers there are, most places have some kind of weekly
freebie, a music calendar, a police beat and real estate ads, they pay
nothing but if you volunteer you can often get a card that says press pass
on it. then you can wander the streets, again think about a theme or story,
go to some shopping district and talk to the merchants when they are not
busy, shoot a picture of them in the store, (wide angle, camera on a tripod,
slow shutter speed, bounce the flash or use window light) as you build a
couple dozen of these, (some which run the paper) you can approach the town
chamber to sponsor you, business person of the year award, then you can
start building a collection of the top folks in town.

to get a rep for really being joe cool, keep these shots a secret till you
get a show up. don't show the images to the subjects, which is hard,
especially if you need the income. print up a series in as large a size as
you can produce consistently, I'd try for 24x30, but hey, if you only have a
consumer digital then settle for 12x18's at costco, frame them simply.
also print some 8x10s or 11x14's and put them in nice albums. Now you have
your show, the chamber or some local charity sponsors it, there is an
opening where they sell tickets for their end of it, you send a packet of 6
or 12 tickets to each of your subjects, if they are the top folks in town
then they can afford it to bring their families down. so now you are almost
guaranteed a full house, (Border's Books, town libraries, a hospital, or
friendly real estate broker with an empty store front are good venues) and
all that generates buzz, see a whole bunch of the top folks are talking
about you, their photo. Now the charity auctions off the album (the best
kind is one that binds them like a coffee table book like top wedding albums
are these days, it'll cost a couple hundred but worth it) so if you have a
couple top lawyers, doctors etc the bidding just might get up to a grand.

now you can answer the question, how much is that puppy in the window and
being joe cool can answer, $1,000 or so. On average 1 to 2/3rds will buy
their portrait, and a few will think that having joe cool take their
portraits for that much is also cool.

Other themes of more power, emotion, pathos, recently there as showing of
portraits of people waiting for organ transplants.

years ago someone did a series of 'baseball cards' featuring other
photographers, there's a wild and wacky way of networking, they guy his name
out and known to dozens of other photogs in the fine art and landscape world
which I suppose got his foot in the door to lots of galleries, certainly
became a collectors item.

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