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| City-feet members' message board > To walk or not to walk? > Refused? |
| Posted by: Dipshit Dynamo Dec 4 2015, 06:05 PM |
| Hal, Feetosopher, I'm curious... do you guys ever get turned down when you ask a barefoot girl to do a photo shoot? If so, how often? |
| Posted by: Feetosopher Dec 4 2015, 10:36 PM | ||
Well sir.. I am human, and shit happens.. luckily for me (and for BAREFOOT URBAN GIRLS subscribers), it does not happen too often..  |
| Posted by: Hal Heaven Dec 23 2015, 05:25 PM |
| Many of the women on my website are barefooters I approached on the street and I was fortunate enough for them to agree to work with me. The rest of the girls are usually friends-of-a-friend --- for example Celeste was a friend of Katja --- when she heard I was looking for true barefooters she suggested her to me. I have been very fortunate the last 13 years but I have noticed that it is becoming more difficult to approach girls on the street. When I was young & good looking (and SLR digital cameras were new & exciting) basically every woman I talked to agreed to a session. Now I am an old guy and that doesn't really help when approaching young girls  Many barefoot girls are very young (around 18-22 years) and seem to automatically be intimidated when talking to an older guy/stranger. And many hippie-type women are becoming more critical towards appearing on the internet ("I don't want any photos showing my face published on the internet!" is what I heard quite often last summer). It is good that they are critical about their anonymity, but for my website it is a drawback. Unfortunately there are also not many (if any!) women around my age who are true barefooters --- it seems to be a thing that only/mostly young women do. I have hardly ever seen any women above 30 years of age who are true barefooters, let alone above 40 years.To sum it up: I am still able to chat up new true barefooters on the street but last summer my success rate was not as high as the years before. Maybe 2016 will be amazing again. Let's keep our fingers crossed -Hal- |
| Posted by: Feetosopher Dec 23 2015, 09:42 PM |
| Just let me add something on this interesting topic (I was a bit in a hurry when I posted my first reply). Differently from Hal, my recruiting is based for around 80% on models who introduce friends of theirs.. it is really difficult to approach girls in public places in Italy, especially if you are a dude in his late 40s.. they basically think that you are looking for an excuse to talk to them. Besides this, Hal has the luck of living in a city where real-life barefoot beauties are abundant. In Italy, I have to call myself lucky if I can get to pose for me girls who walk around barefooted frequently or even occasionally.. true 24/7 barefooters basically do not exist in Italy (RED-X being the only exception I have come to know). @ Hal: dude, if you are an old guy, I am afraid that I have to call myself a foot perv geezer..  |
| Posted by: Southerncrossfire44 Dec 24 2015, 04:24 PM |
| No one wants to become the "creepy old guy," but it gets harder to avoid when you're old enough to be the girl's father. I find myself watching what I say and how I act around younger women just to avoid awkwardness, and I'm not even trying to ask them to pose barefoot for me! |
| Posted by: Feetosopher Dec 24 2015, 10:09 PM | ||
You have definitely grasped the very essence of Hal's, and even more my own.. "operational issues in model recruiting", amico.. |
| Posted by: DBF Aug 4 2016, 07:54 PM |
| What helps is to have a small tablet such as an iPad mini or large smart phone . Have a gallery prepared , black and white seem to have have more legitimatacy as far as art is concerned. Offer prints videos or videos of their performances if the are dancers or other kinds of performers. If you have a woman who doesn't want her face online than don't put it there, ask if you can photograph her feet though. The main thing is collaborating and sharing. An exchange between artists rather than one person trying to take advantage of the others. Think of the spirit of the 60's when everybody wanted to be an artist of some kind and it was all about sharing, collaborating and being open and free. |
| Posted by: Feetosopher Aug 5 2016, 01:29 PM | ||
My modest opinion is that this approach can work if you want to run a FREE website / blog / whatever. The spirit of the 60s may have been a great thing (I really cannot tell, I was born in 1968).. but nothing like City Feet, Toes-In-Action or (on a much more modest scale) my own BAREFOOT URBAN GIRLS could have been created and kept running by simply playing the oh-so-nice-hippie-artist, sir. As for your "one person trying to take advantage of the others".. I cannot speak about Paul (I don't know him personally), but you can stay 100% assured that I and Hal are pretty far from being greedy capitalists exploiting masses of poor and innocent barefooting beauties to accumulate great fortunes through our "porn" paysites.. |
| Posted by: DBF Oct 30 2016, 11:03 AM |
| I'm aware of your position. I'm talking about what has worked for me in terms of approaching women who are younger than me. Having images and approaching them as an artist works for me and I imagine it would work for you and Paul. Being quick- I'm an artist this what I do if we work together this is what I can give you and then giving them my card and perhaps asking ther name and giving them a compliment-You're beautiful, you'd be fantastic or we could do some really beautiful images and then leave. This interaction can take as little time as it takes for you to read this paragraph or longer if she starts asking you questions. Although we may be worried about being old guys, girls are worried about their looks and beauty,especially ones who rebel against conventional standards- hippies, punks. You as a photographer are validating their beauty. This is a very powerful thing as they are often subtly put down by advertisering ,social media FB ect. If anything you are someone who has made their day rather than just being an old guy. |