Be wise - Scrutinize

Christo - I never said "Don't look both ways before crossing the road" - if you are gonna look for shit, don't complain when you are getting it.

But I'm not gonna be looking for a red under every bed - that's simply no way to live. I'm gonna be extra carful when I shoot in the street in Hillbrow, but I'm not gonna worry too much about my gear being stolen when I'm shooting at a house in Houghton.

Zack Araias wrote a brilliant article once about "choosing your risk" - and the principle applies: if you take a high risk, you need to be more careful, but its hardly worth life-time to being extra careful in low risk situations.

Sorry if this upsets anyone, please ridicule me all you want, but I won't keep quiet,
You think it only happens to models?
How many togs have been stolen from on shoots, never mind the stories of blackmail, where the "models" threaten to run to the police saying you raped them unless you pay XYZ?

Name & shame -

I only put down a first name, there could be a million other people out there with the same name, I did it just in case there were girls on here that might have had the same experience,

asking so much info from him, is not my norm, but honestly, if I don't know anything about you except your "name" and I cant find anything on the web and you don't feel like sharing it with me, we'll then I'd rather not work with you anyway...
A police matter you say, the police won't even bother looking into it until someone opens an official case, which will only happen if someone gets hurt in some way or another, to me that just seems a bit late...

"choosing your risk"

How is choosing not to shoot with a guy that sounds dodgy not choosing your risk?

Let's recap. Guy from Jozi, choosing to shoot in a hotel room in Jozi. No problem with that so far.

"He was looking for models to do a body paint shoot" in a hotel room? Really? That is some awesome conceptualisation right there.

"when I starting suggesting Studio's, asking questions and wanting info, the guy fell from the face of earth" Typical photographer behaviour. I do this all the time. Dont you DARE ask me for information about a shoot in a hotel room where you have to get your kitt off.

No I would not give a model a copy of my ID either but then I would give her enough information so she would not need to ask in the first place.

Scuze my "I want to protect my own arse" mentality but i think Michelle acted properly here.

but its hardly worth life-time to being extra careful in low risk situations.

Low risk can turn into high risk very quickly as i found out after i fell down the stairs twice.

I suggest asking other togs (in private) that you know, trust and have worked with before about any future togs you are not sure about.

Ask other models that the said photographer has worked with just to be safe, if you are getting mixed feelings.

And in all safety get a female tog ;)

And in all safety get a female tog

Shameless self-promotion not to mention gender discrimination :P

Carla, I agree female togs it is! :P

It's good advice but I had nothing to work from,

no website,
no modelbase,
no company name,
not even an official email address,

And lets face it there are new models every day, that unfortunately have not learnt the harshness of life, I'd feel sick if i heard a horror story that began the same as mine, and i didn't say anything soon enough,

and in all honesty I've seen some worse name and shame on here from togs...

[quote=] Shameless self-promotion not to mention gender discrimination :P [/quote]

Lol Christo :P just having some fun at the expense of your gender

Another thread gone awry and pulled out of context.

Michelle, I don't think you did anything wrong. you only used a 1st name, which is fairly common (unlike, say... "Gerry"), but I was trying to make a point of principle in this. As a rule: don;t put people on the spot who isn;t here to defend themselves, and when they don, don;t be surprised if they become antagonistic and drag your name through the mud.

A few eyars ago there was a classic name-and-shame here on MB with the model making the tog out to be the Antichrist, and once the tog responded, his side was told, the model had a lot of egg left on her face - he is still around, she is long gone. All I'm saying is be careful when naming someone, the BEST that can happen is you are made a fool of on MB, worst case... you can find yourself in some deep legal (and sometimes illegal) poop.

...don't know anything about you except your "name" and I cant find anything on the web and you don't feel like sharing it with me, we'll then I'd rather not work with you anyway...

Then yes, err on the side of caution. As was said a million times - in this industry, your name is everything - if you dont have one, its still kinda okay. If you have one and fuck it up... you may just never get it back.

This industry is self-regulating, I've noticed, we don't generally tolrate assholes.

And in all safety get a female tog

Shameless self-promotion not to mention gender discrimination :P

Tsk Tsk !!

[quote=]And in all safety get a female tog ;)[/quote]

That is like saying if you want good pictures, get a male tog, but that would a gross generalisation and gender discrimination and we wouldn't want the now would we LOL

Yeah its like saying if you want to be portrayed as a cheap whore get a male tog but that would be a wide generalization and gender discrimination as well and we wouldn't want that either :P

honestly guys, if anyone is taking that seriously I don't know how many more smileys I should put on a forum post for it to taken as a joke

Silence

Yeah its like saying if you want to be portrayed as a cheap whore get a male tog

HEY!!! You may look like a cheap whore but you will be a cheap whore in awesome lighting lol

HEY!!! You may look like a cheap whore but you will be a cheap whore in awesome lighting lol

Amateur! You know you need to make them look like expensive whores.