Whenever I hear or read “People always ask me…” the first thing I think is “No one has ever fucking asked you that, ever.”  Here’s your chance to turn that cynicism back towards me as I break the cardinal rule of blog douchery:

People Always Ask Me: Chris, Where Do You Find Your Models?

What a fantastic question!  I’d love to answer that for you.  When I first moved here I didn’t know anyone so there was definitely a quantity over quality kind of scenario where I was reaching out as much as possible, trying to connect with modeling agencies, ModelMayhem, etc.  It takes some time but eventually it hits a kind of stasis where you meet a few people you really like and they connect you with a few like minded people and so on.  You can ask to get on agency mailing lists and they’ll send you updates anytime they get in new faces or traveling models that need some local tests.  Meeting other photographers helps with this, too.  It’s good to alert a buddy if someone cool is in town or if you recently worked with someone amazing (or less than.)  These are all good ways to get your name out there and meet some people if you’re new or new in town.

(A side note.  I had to shoot a location today and upon entering I banged my head SO HARD that I am now bleeding as I write this.)

Eventually, though, I wanted to start forging more creative relationships with models and artists who think and create along the same veins that I do.  This can take a long time as you build trust in the relationship which, as you may already know, is tenuous when you’re dealing with two artist-creative-types who are hypersensitive and sort of mistrusting of the world in general.  The shoots that usually yield the best results for me are the 2nd, the 3rd, and on and on, as you get used to each other and can start to push each other to go further.

Tiffany Toto and I worked together for a commercial shoot a few Weeks Ago for Denim Refinery and we linked up again to make some photos later on.  This is another great way to meet people since you’re working together and can kind of gauge your chemistry on set.  This is no guarantee of course, and I get turned down to shoot after the fact all the time, but when it works it usually works well.

We hit up one of my favorite spots in the valley and hiked around in the woods for a couple hours.  The winter light in LA is really something fantastic.  In fact, I think I appreciate it more than the summer light.  There’s less of it and you have to work harder for it.  You can see the whole set on the Junnnktank site.  They featured us in an editorial a couple weeks ago.

Tiffany Toto can be found at @tifftoto on IG and at http://tiffanytoto.tumblr.com/.

Tagged: Art, Beauty photography, Chris Fitzgerald, editorial work, Fashion Photography, junnnktank, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Photography, Photography, tiffany toto