C'mon! Sell it, Baby! Sell it!

When it's comes to pretty girl shooting, the words above are every model's #1 job while in front of the camera. They have one job to do and one job only: To sell it!

Sell what? Tell me you're not asking that! You know perfectly well what the model is selling, especially in glamour pics: She's selling herself!

That's right. She's selling all she is: Beautiful, glamourous, sexy, alluring, playful, and so much more. That's her job, man. To sell it. To sell whatever it is that gives her the right to be in front of the camera. I'm not talking about snapshots, I'm talking about the right to sell herself as a glam-goddess and a dream maker.

Unfortunately, some novice models, however pretty they may be, don't have a clue how to sell themselves or anything else. When they arrive in front of the camera, they're like deer caught in the headlights. They're nervous. They're jittery. They're awkward and they're insecure. On the other hand, there are models--even when it's their first time--who have a natural ability to express themselves to the camera. They simply and instinctively know all the right moves and expressions. They project their charisma in such simple yet powerful ways, it's almost scary to behold.

And then there are the experienced models who strut their stuff out in front the lens and work it like the pros they are. When I work with models of this caliber, I find myself feeling like I'm only along for the ride. I'm simply a passenger taken on an incredible, sexy, visually-exciting journey. I love working with models who have "it" and know how to sell it. And they're easy to spot: The moment they hit their marks, they show it to you. And it's all their's.

Many shooters find the hardest thing to accomplish during a shoot is getting "it" out of novice models, i.e., knowing how to get them to sell it... to sell it so well it's impossible not to buy. I wish I could share a few of DaVinci Code-like, Secrets of the Pros, that some pros claim are guaranteed to work. But there are no guaranteed secrets when it comes to this stuff. There's only you and the model. Every model is different. Every one of them has a different button that needs pushing to get that special "it" out of her. That "it" that is all their's. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to find that button and to push it... and to push it hard! (This blog update will self-destruct in thirty seconds... Sorry, just kidding, I'm such a dork.)

When you figure out those buttons and learn how to push them, your going to get some great, pretty girl pics! I wish I could always be successful finding the right way to get "it" out of each and every model. I can't. Neither can you. All we can do is call on all our mad skills as photographers and, more importantly, as communicators and motivators to help each would-be model find their inner goddess.

The pretty girl in the pics above is Daisy. (Aren't you glad I didn't post more pics of me?) Anyway, Daisy's not only an eye-candy/dream-girl, she's a dream to work with. The images are from a shoot a couple of weeks ago. Daisy most definitely knows how to sell it and, because she does, she made my job easy as pie.