This is one of many articles I’ll post for those of you interested in producing your own content. My focus will be more on working with the models and equipment, than dealing with the legal (2257) stuff.

A lot of people like to produce because of the so-called fringe benefits. More bluntly put, they want a steady flow of cute boys to fool around with. I strongly discourage this conduct. It’s bad for business, both yours and other producers. The biggest fear these potential models have is that you are going to want more than pictures. Pushing yourself on a guy will at best get you one shoot, but you will never see him again. And if that guy turns out to be a real moneymaker, you just fucked yourself. On top of that, the model is going to tell others about his bad experience with you. Over time a bad reputation will make it difficult to recruit new models.

Keep it strictly business, and tell the model you expect the same from him. He will respect you for that and he will perform better. If you treat your models with respect, they will be happy to let you use them as a reference when recruiting new models. They may even bring you new models. Word of mouth goes both ways.

This is not to say you won’t end up having sex with some of the models, but it needs to be done with mutual consent. Don’t rationalize what that means. If the business side of it is in anyway connected to the sex, then you should not be doing it. Telling the model he will get more shoots if he keeps the photographer happy is not mutual consent. It’s pressuring the model into having sex if he wants the work. Don’t go there!