Insights

I spent much of the first half of this month in Bangkok shooting with professional models. Here are some things I've learned.

1. Pros can make some pretty serious money. Rates are, I'm sure, negotiable like everything else, but the standard fee for a two-hour shoot with an experienced model seems to range from 3,000 to 10,000 baht. The rate usually depends on the wardrobe and style, which ranges from fashion to swimwear to lingerie to topless to nude.

2. This is not easy money. Models often have to commute for several hours to the shoot location after doing their hair and makeup and packing a selection of outfits they hope will work for the shoot. Then they have to adapt to whatever crazy change of plan the photographer happened to have made in between communicating his—the photographer is almost always going to be male—initial idea to the model and her arrival at the shoot. All of this comes after the serious hustling models have to do to find work and then to try to confirm that the photographer isn't a creep.

3. Speaking of creeps. Photographers should definitely not feel free to put on a porno video during the shoot without first consulting with the model. I would have thought this one was obvious, but apparently it's not obvious to everyone.

4. Finding a space to shoot is a challenge for several reasons. Most hotels—and if you shoot boudoir, hotels are the obvious choice—have a pretty similar and generic feel. They also usually only have one natural light source. So creating images with a unique atmosphere is difficult.

And it's impossible to know from the photos online what the room is actually going to be like. This is how, for example, I wound up shooting with Niki in a tiny room at 41 Suite Bangkok on a day when what little natural light there was kept going in and out behind the clouds.

Timing is tricky too. Check-in time is usually 2pm. Check-out is at 12pm the next day. If you like to shoot at, say, 11am and you only want the room for one day, you will have to adapt. And putting off shooting until later in the day this time of year in Bangkok means that the chances of a thunderstorm increase and that natural light you worked so hard to get will be gone.

Upgrades are not always upgrades. For example, I booked the room in the Grand Asoke Suites Boutique Residence specifically for the sliding door between the bedroom and the rest of the suite. But when I checked into the hotel, the lovely lady at the desk informed me that she'd upgraded my room to a much larger executive suite. The room was indeed large. There was a dining table that sat twelve people. But there were no sliding doors and the room was utterly without vibe.

Speaking of size: It matters. And this doesn't just have to do with lens selection, etc. If you were foolish enough to shoot Niki in the tiny and spartan room at 41 Suite Bangkok and then you shoot her friend Rose in the much larger and nicer room at the Grand Osaka Suites, Niki will notice and you will hear about it. But she will only be kidding, of course. Niki's a total sweetheart . . . with fierce, penetrating eyes.

5. There are not all that many freelance models in Thailand. At least, not that I've been able to discover. I think this is a relatively untapped market for Thai women. There are, I assume, lots of Western photographers who would be more than happy to shoot Thai women for free to help them build their portfolios (or "port," as they say here). And Model Mayhem is totally free to use for finding jobs. And the look that many Thai people think of as beautiful is not something Western photographers are usually interested in. Westerners like variety. This isn't to say that modeling isn't hard work or that establishing a name as a model isn't difficult. Of course it is. But given the fact that I live in Kanchanaburi and regularly see women who I think could easily be models pumping gas or working at 7, I think more Thai women should give it a try.

6. The final insight is that if you are a Westerner trying to photograph boudoir or artistic nudes or even portraiture in Kanchanaburi, you will undoubtedly become super frustrated and give up on the idea and relocate to Bangkok where you will shoot with phenomenal and super cool models like Nam and Niki and Rose and your satisfaction with your work will improve dramatically.