A Step Closer to Workshops

I drove down to Torrance, CA, this past Saturday to check out Moses Marquez's model showcase event and to meet with the man himself. You might want to check out Moses' (NSFW) port on Model Mayhem, especially if you have a yen for Asian chicks. (Pun intended.)

The event was great fun with plenty of friendly, smiling, gorgeous, scantly (but acceptably) clad models, many of them Asian glamour and/or "import models."

If you don't know what an "import model" is, I'll first tell you what they're not: They're not models who've been imported from Asia or some other faraway place. (Although, in some instances, I suppose they could be... imported, that is.) Here's what they are: They are models, many of them Asian, who often grace the pages of import car rags and websites and are regularly seen at import car trade-shows working as hostesses for participating vendors.

Back to Mo's model showcase: While the pretty girls were abundant, attendance by the public started out a bit slow. By afternoon, however, it gained quite a bit of momentum and plenty of guys crowded the room. For the most part, these guys seemed to mostly be pretty girl shooters themselves. It appeared to me that virtually all these guys were having an awesomely fun time interacting with the models. It was a place where eye-candy entertainment meets... Fuhgedabouitit! Let's call a spade a spade-- Purely and simply, it was a place where eye-candy entertainment meets the guys who thoroughly appreciate eye-candy entertainment. I believe it cost $20 to walk through the door and I didn't see or hear anyone who seemed to feel they're money was wasted. Just a sea of smiling faces-- On the models' faces as well as the guys who came out to the event.

For those of you who pursue pretty girl shooting as a hobby, let's face it, entertainment is a big reason you're doing this thing we do. Frowns and the disapproval of church ladies aside, jokes about GWCs notwithstanding, this genre of photography is all about the shooter having an entertaining experience, as well as a creatively fulfilling adventure, while photographing beautiful, sexy, chicks. In other words, it's a good time with a hot chick while not doing anything that puts you in danger of landing in divorce court or losing your girlfriend. What's better than that? Okay, maybe having that same great time in a way the might actually land you in divorce court could seem better but let's not go with that for now.

Back to what I intended to write about.

The biggest reason I drove to Torrance was to meet with Moses to discuss workshops. And that's what we did. Joining us in the meeting were the promoters of Glamourcon and a few other photographers.

Glamourcon has been around since the early 90s. They developed a nice relationship with Playboy when Hef happened to stop by one of their early events. Today, Glamourcon's events feature many, many Playboy Playmates--from back in the day to the present--as well as plenty of other models. Their events attract thousands of visitors. Glamourcon is celebrity-driven, featuring the best and most popular pin-up. glamour, and tease models.

Not to give anything away, but we spent quite a bit of time discussing workshops and how these workshops could fit in with both Moses's events as well as Glamourcon's events. Discussions continued into the evening at a very nice Italian restaurant. (I enjoyed a delicious plate of Chicken Fettucini, "Alfredo" style.) After dinner, we headed back to Moses's offices and talked some more. I think everyone left feeling good about the ideas we discussed. It looks like I'm a big step closer to realizing my hopes to begin promoting pretty girl shooting workshops.

The pretty girl at the top is Nautica from a few years ago. Although she's of Asian descent (leastwise, partially so) Nautica is not an import model. (Aside from the fact that she imported herself from her home, in Hawaii, to Los Angeles some time back.) It's not really a glamour image. I guess it's more a portrait of her in all her nakedness, albeit parts of that nakedness is hidden from view and... Forget it! I don't know what it is. It's just B&W image of the beautiful Nautica with a fair amount of shadows covering the goodies. Yeah. That's what it is.