“The girls working at strip clubs already get naked or semi-naked for a living and therefore should not be offended by your suggestion that they pose for nude photographs.”“The girls working at strip clubs already get naked or semi-naked for a living and therefore should not be offended by your suggestion that they pose for nude photographs.”

This article is for anyone considering producing their own content who would like some information from someone already doing it. It is full of my personal opinions as well as undisputed facts and tips that I have learned after shooting my own content for two years.

Models
Obviously you will need models if you plan to produce content for your sites. Where you find models is going to depend on what state / city / country you are in and how far you are willing to go in your search.

The best place to start, in my opinion, is your local strip club. The girls working at strip clubs already get naked or semi-naked for a living and therefore should not be offended by your suggestion that they pose for nude photographs. Before you head on over to the club ask your wife/girlfriend/female friend to join you, as the dancers will most likely feel more comfortable with you right away if you have another woman with you. It is even better if you let HER do the talking to the dancers.

Printing simple business cards with your company name, phone number, and a simple “Models 18 and over wanted” with the phrase “erotic photography” somewhere on the card is a good idea. You can have your wife leave them in the restroom at clubs for other female visitors, and you can pass them out to the dancers. Be sure to buy them a drink before you hand over your card 🙂

Tip: Be prepared for jealous and angry husbands/boyfriends to phone you regarding the business cards that their wives have brought home. I have had this occur on more than one occasion, and while my husband putting ME on the phone seemed to calm them a little, a few were almost in a rage; good thing my address and real name weren’t on them!

Tip: While dancers are good place to start, it has been my experience that they are very unreliable and for the most part are only useful for one time shoots.

Of course you can also run ads on your websites, in local papers (assuming they will allow this type of ad), swingers and fetish magazines, and perhaps put up “Now Hiring” notices at your local college (get permission for this first, and make sure its not a Christian college!). I have also found some websites where models and photographers can post their availability and current openings; a quick search at one of the search engines should yield a few of these sites.

Tip: If you are in Indiana and at least 3 hours in any direction from Marion, send me your contact info. I own ‘hoosiergirls.com’ and have quite a few girls from all over Indiana who email me wanting to model. Some of them are too far away, and if they are near you, I’ll refer them over 🙂

Legal Documents
Now that you are on the look-out for models, you will need all the required legal documents. You can find my model release and title 18 information to copy and/or modify for your own use here.

Equipment
In this new age of digital photography it is perfectly ok to use a digital camera and I actually recommend it. You can now purchase digital camera that will give you the same high quality as 35mm slides and save all the time, money, and trouble of developing and scanning your work. Most of the photographers that I work with use digital cameras.

Tip: I got my first camera brand new from e-bay and got a GREAT deal on it.

Once you have a camera you will need a well lit location in which to take your photographs. I do most of mine in my home re-arranging furniture, painting rooms, purchasing new bedspreads, etc. in order to change the scenery around. A futon mattress and several sets of satin sheets in different colors come in handy. You can hang the non-fitted sheet on the wall, and stretch the fitted sheet over the mattress on the floor in front of it. This creates an instant ‘set’ and is relatively cheap. Suites in hotel rooms are nice locations for shoots, and make a  relaxing tax deductible weekend when the shoot is over 🙂 Now, for the well lit part… light makes your photos come out better, so you will need plenty of it! I let my husband buy himself a new work light for the garage, and  it doubles as lighting for me; it only cost about $40 at Lowes.

Tip: Make sure to remove all family photos from walls around the area you plan on shooting in!

Another useful item to have is a good capture card and camcorder. I recommend an ATI All In Wonder Pro capture card. You can video tape your photo shoots and then play your tape into the computer to get AVIs. If you have a good digital camcorder, the All In Wonder Pro capture card allows you to grab good quality stills from your video. If you prefer mpeg’s to AVI’s you can use Avi2Mpg software to easily convert your Avi files to mpegs.