Zannah

This is Susannah (known as Zannah) posing on some crumbling steps in the garden of a well known Hampshire hotel. I took this during a fashion shoot last Sunday, not a fashion show which is something different. Although she's not a model by either profession or inclination (she's actually a stage actress) I thought she was one of the best models I have worked with over the past nine months, where her lack of modelling experience did show it was easily corrected.

I was talking with an experienced model recently during a shoot about the increasing number of young(ish) girls who are registering themselves on model sites yet who seem to be getting a growing reputation for 'no-shows' or poor communication skills. Some of the photographs that are appearing as introduction shots are also pretty awful. I'm sure this has something to do with the perception that modelling and fame are an easy career option, young women are exposed to thousands of glamorous images every week and see the finished product and not the hard work that goes into it. There is one young lady in the Bournemouth area who is a full time model and when you hire her she brings her own MUA (make-up artists) and PA with her - now that's what I call dedication and commitment, I'm sure it's not a coincidence that she also has the most recommendations from photographers.

What I have found strange, for want of a better word, is my relationship with the models. For me this is a hobby, for the amateur models it is by definition a hobby, for the professional models it clearly isn't. Being in a situation where my hobby is another persons career is different, after all if I go to a Premiership match there is little or no interaction with the players, and takes a little getting used to. Professional models need very little instruction and the first time I was in a studio with one I found myself doing nothing for the first ten minutes of the shoot as she went through a series of well-worn and well-rehearsed moves. I've also decided that it's pointless trying to be analytical about the whole thing, just go with the flow. I'm not an arty person by nature, not in a creative way, and spend my whole life analysing figures looking for patterns and trends, with photography I'm using the other side of my brain and as Mr Gumby found out using your brain often hurts.