Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Ability is a wonderful thing, but its value is greatly enhanced by dependability.”—Robert A. Heinlein
The title of today’s post is a question that photographers often ask, so today I wanted to give you my thoughts on how I deal/dealt with this problem although you may not like my answer. Any photographer who’s ever worked with Internet models will tell you that no shows are a fact of life. Instead of showing up at the agreed-upon time, some models call requesting to reschedule. Other times and right around the time when they should be walking in the door, you may get a text or e-mail saying they can’t make it. But more often than not they just don’t show up. And it doesn’t seem to matter if the model is being paid or if it’s a TF shoot, the result is the same.
“Ghosting” is not a new problem and seems to be endemic in today’s society. Information on this trend can be found in articles from USA Today to a LinkedIn post where Amanda Bradford, CEO and founder of The League said, “Among younger generations, ghosting has become a new vocabulary in which “no response is a response.” This trend has been on going in the on-line modeling world for some time but now it’s being experienced in other kinds of work situations.
Scheduling models you’ve never worked with before increases the possibility of no-shows. One thing I tried was schedule a brief interview with new models at a nearby Starbucks before scheduling a shoot. But more than 30% of the models who made appointments for interviews never showed up No e-mail, no phone call, no text. And while it’s disappointing, at least I’m in a pleasant environment and can have a cup of Earl Grey tea.
So what do I do about no-shows? The sad but honest answer to the question is that after trying everything (and I mean everything) to eliminate no shows is nothing. After spending time charging camera batteries, assembling softboxes, installing backgrounds making my in-home studio ready-to-shoot and testing an initial lighting setup, I just sit and contemplate life, the universe and everything.
How I made this photograph: Since much like a Seinfeld episode, this post seems to be about nothing, I thought you might enjoy the background on how today’s image was made. When I first started photographing models, I had an arrangement with a local modeling agency to photograph some of their new clients who wanted experience along with some tear sheets from Shutterbug when it was a print magazine. None, I repeat none of these Agency models ever failed to show up for a shoot.
Kim Goetz was one of the first models I shot for the agency. She was photographed in my former home’s living room using a combination of window light (to her left is the same window/door where she was photographed in the linked post) and a off-camera, hand-held 550EX speedlite for fill and to create the shadow on the wall. Camera used was a Canon EOS 50D with EF 22-55mm f/4-5.6 USM EF lens set at 48mm. Manual exposure was 1/60 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 400. It was retouched with soft focus added from the Glamour Glow filter that’s part of Color Efex.
If you think today’s post title is click-bait, I apologize. That was not my intention. As I write this, I have not found a foolproof way of pre-qualifying a model’s dependability. Referrals don’t work and even having worked with a model before doesn’t seem to matter. If any photographer reading this has come up with a way to minimize or eliminate model no shows, please send me an e-mail via Contact. In return, I’ll send you a nice gift and may do a follow-up post to share your good idea.
PS: Just a reminder: Podcast #3 is live now on my YouTube channel, Joe Farace’s Videos, featuring a look at the Leica Z2X and my experiences shooting 22-year old Agfa color film in a 40-year old Canon SLR, plus some information on where I get my ideas for blog posts!
You can learn all of my tips, tools and techniques on shooting available light glamour photography in my book surprisingly titled “Available Light Glamour Photography”. New copies of the book are available from Amazon for $29.95 with used copies starting around twenty bucks, as I write this. The Kindle version is $28.45 for those preferring a digital format.