Posing Guide for Models and Photographers. Volume 7 - Featuring Ying

74 Pages·2012·5.771 MB·English

by  Paul Moore

Decades ago when I was a young fellow just starting to
develop a passion for photography, I used to spend all of my
free time shooting landscapes and just about any creature that
would stay still long enough for me to squeeze the shutter.
However, being of normal male constitution, it wasn’t
long before I wanted to start taking photographs of lovely
young ladies. After all, they were definitely more interesting
than the beetle I was trying to creep up upon. After a bit of
research, remember this was long before the Internet, I found
that the local camera club held a model shoot once a month
and it only cost $5.00 to participate as a photographer. At last,
interesting subjects!
Of course, it wasn’t too long before I got tired of
sharing my model with eight or more other photographers. It
seemed that whenever I was just ready to squeeze the shutter
button someone would shout at the model to get her attention
and she would turn her head just as the shutter released. It
didn’t ruin my image but it was not what I was after. I
resolved to hire a model that I could shoot and not be
interrupted during my creative process – after all – I was
ready now.
I had not realized that I had been conditioned to just
follow the crowd. The model had her own set of ‘standard’
poses and simply turned to whom-ever got her attention. It
was more like a red carpet celebrity shoot than a model –
photographer collaboration. When I hired my first model I had
a thousand poses all locked safely in my mind that I was
going to shoot. I was more worried about the time I had –
would it be sufficient to allow me to capture all the images
that I had envisioned?
Well, as you might imagine, things didn’t go quite the
way I had envisioned. First, I was nervous as hell, second the
model was nervous as hell, and third, I had forgotten every
pose I thought I had tucked away in my memory. In addition,
this was the model’s first solo shoot as well! When she first
asked me. “What do you want me to do?” I couldn’t
remember a thing! So I stalled. I tried my best to look
professional and asked her a few questions just to break the
ice and try to get us both comfortable and relaxed. I knew that
it was important for the photography for both of us to be
confident with each other.
Well, the shoot went about as well as could be
expected. It was not a total loss and I did end up with some
acceptable images. Although, not nearly as many as I had
envisioned before the shoot. For quite some time thereafter I
always brought along a ‘posing guide’ should my mind lock
up. It was a ‘real’ book and festooned with book-markers. It
was quite inconvenient and difficult to thumb through. At
least I could show the model what I was looking for, or nearly
so. We could start with the illustrated pose as a starting point
and modify it from there.
Which brings us to the reason for these Kindle books. I
wanted to produce a short, and to the point, and very
inexpensive posing guide for new photographers and models.
Something that is easy to carry and easy to refer to, that each
could show to the other. You will find this book long on
images and short on verbiage, just the way I would like it if I
were to start over again. I hope you enjoy the book and find it
useful.