Photographing, like any activity, needs training. It is easy to train with tomatoes, coffee or, for example, roses. You can take hundreds of shots, you can spend hours studying composition and the best light conditions. And “no one” of your “model” will complain.

But one day you can disclose that the best images are with a human element. A soup lying on a bamboo background is great, and yet it is even better when a beautiful female hand hold it. Many clients will (almost instinctively) prefer this image to the one without human hand. In this moment, you will make the second step to your success – making photos containing a part of human body. I love this kind of photos. Female hands, beautiful eyes, red lips... the human body offer you a lot of beauty and inspiration for photos. On this level, your training starts to be slightly more difficult. You must have a patient person who will understand that photographing requests training. Look around you – some of your friends (even with faces that you wouldn´t consider exactly beautiful) might have elegant legs or very beautiful lips. Explain them the situation, make them a huge compliment about the beautiful part you need to photograph and award their patient with a nice gift (this is valuable even if you take photos of your pretty wife who must, instead of watching her popular TV show, stand patient and keep a rose for hours). Don´t be upset when your model will start stretch his/her back or hands. Recall, they aren´t tomatoes!

But one day you can again disclose that it isn´t enough to photograph a part of body because all the figure makes photos more successful, more interesting. And now you come to the harder part of your training. Why? Because of Model Release. In the beginning you can use your beautiful wife, your pretty children and your elegant grandfather or grandmother. They will sign you MR without hesitation (buy them a gift, they deserve it!) Before you pass to professional models, you can train also with friends. While a model from an agency will sign you MR, friends can start to hesitate. I have an experience of this kind. One of my friend started to ask me if I can assure her that her photos won´t finish, for example, on an erotic web or with an article she didn´t like. Honestly, I couldn´t do that. When we have planned some nice images, she told me: “We can make photos, but I won´t sign you MR.” I have given up, of course. It is totally useless to take photos of people who refuse you signing MR. You can object: “Hey, but I will train photographing and that´s what matter.” Yes, you will train photographing, but be sure of one thing: you will be sorry watching some great photos knowing that you can´t send them to any agency.

Train, train and train, but when you pass from tomatoes to people, assure yourself that your model will sign you a MR document.