Working for free... TFCD and my shit experiences!

“Looking for photographers/makeup artists looking to expand
their portfolios and get great exposure… for xyz publication”

This has to be one of the most frustrating things as a
makeup artist and photographer, although I’m learning it is a big part of the
business and a big reason why the “business” is not a majorly profitable one,
or a get rich quick job as a lot of people seem to think it is.

I have even fallen for certain advertisements like this, to
work for free in order for exposure, but in reality, I know that deep down
inside, I just shouldn’t be doing it, at all. And as such, I have now  become extremely picky about “working for
free” or as people like sugar coat it “TFCD”. I am sick to death of delivering
top quality work and never getting anything in return. I have agreed to work
for exposure on my makeup once more at the end of this month and that will
surely be my last month of working for free. Exposure, my friends, will not pay
the bills, however good, hard cash in your bank account will definitely pay one
or two bills, or Edgars store accounts from the latest shopping spree at MAC.

For example, sometime in October, one of South Africa’s
extremely talented photographers (in my opinion) asked me to come and do a TFCD
with three very credible models that are all signed to great agencies and have
done a lot of high quality work. After the shoot, I emailed him and thanked him
for such a great opportunity and to no avail, had absolutely no response, I tried
sms’s, emails, messages on Facebook but to no avail and I left it for a while. In
the past 3 weeks or so, I sent him an email asking why I hadn’t heard back from
him as it felt like he was avoiding me. I know the crap that comes with doing
TFCD shoots as a photographer, and I understand, he may not have even opened
the RAW files on his pc, but I just wanted to be informed about what was
actually going on with these said images that I had given my time, kit and
petrol to work on.

He did reply, I was shocked, and said that all the images he
had edited were on his facebook page. I didn’t respond to this as I thought
that was shocking, that he couldn’t take 2 minutes out of his day to email them
to me before uploading them to a social network and secondly if he could only
upload them and for whatever reason had forgotten  my email address, why the hell did he not tag
me in the said images that he had uploaded on facebook? It takes about 2
seconds per photograph, and I spend at least three hours doing the three models
makeup. Frustrating ethics indeed, for someone who is so good at their craft. Writing
this now, I think I may just go and tag myself in these images and then at
least I have some sort of “credit”.

Working for free for publications – free publications and
why I think its bullshit. Once I had bought my new set of lights last year, I decided
I needed to test these bad boys out, and as it was towards the end of the year
all my general culprits and guinea pigs were busy with exams, on holiday, or
for whatever reason unavailable at that moment in time. I had received an email
from the acting “manager” of photography of LT Mag and asked me if I’d be
interested in shooting a band from Edenvale for their publication. I agreed,
and I continued chatting to this guy about the what the publication would like
from this particular shoot and he told me not to worry, as he would tag along
and make sure we got the desired shots.

Anyway, long story short, the band had arrived at the said
time that they were meant to be at my studio, along with their own manager. They
were just as clueless as me as to what the publication wanted out of the
magazine, and they thought I was already briefed, and I thought that they would
have already been briefed, but neither of us were briefed about this shoot as
the acting “manager” of the publication was absent, nowhere to be seen and had
somewhat vanished off the face of the earth, and had not given us any contact
details for himself other than… an email address.

This was on a Sunday afternoon, so I wanted to get out of
the studio and back to my life as soon as possible. Did a couple of happy
snappies in the studio, played outside with some natural light and voila we were
done.

Then it came to be new year, and I had still NOT heard from
the acting “manager” of photography of the magazine, so I still hadn’t bothered
to edit these images. And the second week in January, this guy emails me saying
he needs the images urgently as the publication requires them. I then informed
him of how upset I was with the unprofessionalism he had shown by saying he would
have been there and for whatever reason didn’t have the decency to at least
phone/email/sms/send a carrier pidgin to explain that he would not attend, and
then brief me on what was required. So on this email, I asked him what format
does he require the edited images in, what size does he require the edited
images to be, what method must I get these images to him and lastly – how many
images of the band does he require.

He replied and told me, but I in the mean time had 7 paid
model portfolios, all were my gold and platinum packages which require at least
more than 20 edited images to be sent to the client within 3 weeks of the
shoot, obviously, you can image what my priority was, and as such it upset the
magazine staff even more to which the editor emailed me and asked me what was
going on, she was under the impression that the acting “manager” had taken the
photographs and somehow I’d taken them off him and she wanted to know what the
story was. It turned out that he wanted to use MY images and have himself credited
as the photographer of the images. In all honesty, the images were terrible,
and I’m rather embarrassed about the quality of them and would prefer them to
not be published under my name but, yes, they are MY images and not this acting
“manager” of photography at said publication of the time.

After I had explained the situation to the editor, who is
such a darling, and has to deal with this crap all the time *takes hat off to
Roz!*, he proceeded to delete me off Facebook, as his ego must have been bruised
somewhat by the fact that his stupid scheme had come out that he is actually
such a shit photographer he has to use someone elses images to credit himself
in a free publication.

What I learnt from that drama was that firstly, if someone
is working under an editor for a free publication and do I happen to offer my
services I will make sure that I speak to the editor before, and after the
shoot to confirm this person “working” under them is actually doing their job
correctly and not just trying to get their grubby little paws on my RAW images.

The world is going crazy for “free” work, but then again, so
is the gold price. Work for gold, it will put lots of food on your table.

Until then, don’t work for too much exposure!

Flea

oooh busy-ness!!!!! -.-

February came around in no time, and has flown before my eyes. Yes, I am aware it is the shortest month of them all, but seriously!? I've had absolutely no time for myself! ha ha I am exhausted as I type this little blog post, because I feel like I have been neglecting my online prescense recently, and thought I better mark my territory online, especially in honour of finally buying my own domain and domain email addresses this week! And a wee little break to Cape Town on Sunday for some chill time! Wohoo!

From starting filming of Jozi's Next Super Model with Model TV, to my personal projects, learning how to airbrush and body paint and makeup for other fabulous people like Graphic Art Photography, NGD Photography & Turtlephin Photography. WHERE HAS MY "ME" TIME DISAPPEARED TO?!

I cannot complain really, I've had a great month. I kicked off my "Beauty Files" project and have had a couple of paid shoots in between, always nice to have paid shoots, it makes me feel like I'm doing something right :)

Sooo, since I have been neglecting my blog the priveledge of having images up... here is some recent work from the past 2 months!

Would love to hear all your thoughts :)

Caylin Anderson - "Beauty Files"

Makeup & Photography by missfitz

Stacey Lee - "Beauty Files"

Makeup & Photography by missfitz

Leigh - "Beauty Files"

Makeup & Photography by missfitz

Maxine - "Beauty Files"

Makeup & Photography by missfitz

That's all for now, once I'm back from Cape Town next Wednesday I have Beauty Files shoots coming out my ears, so I will keep the web posted with my latest work!!

And one updated picture of me :O only taken cos they needed it for some work I've done for an online magazine! ha ha...

Peace, love & Cupcakes

Flea

xxx 

2011 is rocking!

I ended off the year last year with my makeup work at an awesome little spot doing makeup for 2 girls and 1 guy which was to be shot by the awesome Mo from SAMOKA Photography. We had a seriously grunge feel to what we shot, so it was hectic makeup for both the girls and boy - which was an experience for this guy... Never having worn makeup before!
I laugh so hard everytime I steal a guys makeup virginity... Its the most amusing thing putting brushes to their faces, when that doesn't phase the girls much at all, it really bothers and tickles their faces. Very cute, but very sadistic of me in a sick way, but it is amusing to watch... Look out for it next time, the faces they pull are rather hilarious!
I then hung up my brushes for a small break, as I did work my butt off with my makeup and photography last year - amongst all the other things I have on my plate. I had a small 10 day break in Cape Town with my gorgeous boyfriend and one of our friends George. Was an absolutely fabulous holiday... We arrived back in Johannesburg at about 5:30pm after leaving Cape Town at 3am in the morning and having, as Jamiroquai would call it... a white knuckle ride. We dodged a few bullets because my Brett's car is a little bit sick - actually its in need of triple bypass but she did us well to get us back home safely.
Cape Town was absolutely beautiful weather, we were super spoilt! If I could pack Brett up with me, I would move down there in a heartbeat... I mean I've even got my accomodation and work sorted down there!
Back to business now though, lots of great and exciting projects lined up. And I am pretty fully booked until March with makeup jobs as well the odd photography job/ model portfolio in the studio here.
So stoked for all the possibilites that are lined up my way this year, not to even mention how excited I get whenever I think about doing the makeup for Jozi's Next Top Model - starting sometime in February.

Gotta get back to this workload, as soon as I figure it out I need to spam my own blog with some updated images of EVERYTHING I've been busy with - but since upgrading to IE9 I have no idea how to!
Peace, love & cupcakes
Flea

Makeup for Fashion Show - Check!

This past weekend was hectic but one of the best so far all year for me!

Jozi's Next Top Model had their official launch party for the top 10 finalists on Saturday night at Jet Nightclub. I did the makeup for 3 of the models and the one woman who organised the show, Hannah Young. I also did some last minute touch ups on the presenter who mainly did her makeup for herself but wasnt told that there was going to be makeup artists present. She is on etv, and I also got some stunning photographs of her. There were two other makeup artists present for the preparation stage, but left after they had finished - I stayed for the whole show for those last minute hiccups to keep everyone calm and just to experience working at my first ever fashion show.

Stunning and beautiful top 10 models strutted their stuff in 3 different outfits, one of their own choice of outfit, another gorgeous dress by two very talented young ladies and stunning bikinis made by another talented young designer.

We worked hard, and it was quite hectic but the show was a complete success and I think that the organisers did so well to get it off the ground.

The model that sold the most tickets won immunity for the first round, and the model who is definately through to the next round is Samantha Stephenson - I have some stunning photographs of her but since updating my web browser to IE 9 - I can't upload pictures to my blog - I dunno why... Having technical issues.

That's all for now, need to start prepping for my shoot tonight with the gorgeous Veronique Norman. Which I cannot wait for! Watch my facebook fan page for some results until I manage to fix my technical issue!

Busy Busy Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Can't believe what happens when you market yourself and work your ass off. People start to know who you are and request to work with you - instead of the other way round.
I got my brand new studio lights and backdrops 2 weekends ago... and I've only done three proper shoots with them and I've been itching to just shoot more.
My first official shoot with them was with my 6 month old nephew and his friends with Santa Clause, which was on the past weekend on the Saturday, the lights worked well and I'm still learning my way around them properly but were a success nonetheless and I have already finished editing all 3 families Christmas photos so that they can have them to enjoy for the month of December.
I then did two shoots on the Sunday with them. I shot a portrait session for a stunning young lady called Des and did her makeup and then after her I shot my first band, 11th Hour.
This week I've found out that I will be doing makeup for Jozi's Next Top Model - a show that is set to start in February but the launch party is this weekend coming up on Saturday at Jet and I'm doing 3 models makeup for the event - excitement is! I'm contemplating getting my makeup done as the event will be widely marketed and I want to make a great impression of my makeup skills too!!
I'm taking half day tomorrow so that I can do makeup for Graphic Art at lunch time and then have a wee bit of a breather before my weekend takes a hold of me. Saturday I am doing makeup for the stunning Dominique Spruch and her friend at Odendaals at 9:30am, then onward to my studio and I'm shooting two teenagers portfolios with very basic and minimal makeup and then its the launch party at 6pm at Jet next to the Dome to do 3 girls makeup and possibly one of the organisers makeup for the show.
I'm holding thumbs for Lauren Weeks to win this show! So if you wish to join, please contact me and I will make sure you get your ticket from Lauren - as the girl that sells the most tickets to the launch party wins immunity for the first challenge.
Peace, love & cupckaes,
Flea

Sticky situations!

So, had quite an experience lately with a photographer and a model.

I was booked to go and do makeup for a model who was doing a shoot just for fun, I have worked with the photographer on the odd occassion before and had very good experiences with her. Before the shoot, I was under the impression only one look would be done but when I got there I was told there will be a total of four different looks and I'd only quoted for one face.

It was a fun shoot so I didn't even bother asking for more money... but waited a couple of weeks to get paid, and I generally work on a strict cash on delivery system or an EFT before the time of the shoot - just to make sure I'm not messed around, but I hardly ever enforce this when I worked with either of the parties involved as I probably trust people too easily.

Anyway, after two weeks I was getting a little frustrated as all my calls, emails, and sms's were going unanswered, and suddenly my blackberry beeped to say that I had a message on facebook. It was from the model from the shoot asking if the photographer had paid me, and I told no because I hadn't heard from the photographer since the shoot. The model replied and told me the same, and that she had been promised images a week ago and all the sms's, calls, and emails were going unanswered.

Long story short, I finally got paid and it was just a complicated situation as to why I had not been paid, but I got paid a little bit extra by the photographer as I did 3 more looks than I had quoted, but once the model received the images from the photographer she had said that she is not going to pay for them as she doesn't believe they have been edited extensively enough, nor did the photographer do the promised editing that was spoken about while she was shooting, such as enhancing colours, removing pimples, etc etc.

Now the model had paid the deposit for the shoot, which was my money for the first look - minus the extra bit of money the photographer gave me. I don't know if I'd be compelled to give this money back to the photographer to make sure that the photographer is not totally out of pocket, but I feel like the fact that I was not told I was going to be there for 3 + hours, I should have in all honesty been paid a little bit more, if not triple what I had quoted...

Aye, the party never stops and the drama never ends in this industry. If only everyone would communicate correctly before and after a shoot there would be no drama whatsoever and everyone could build a bridge and get over it... If anything monumental happens in the mean time, I will keep this here blog posted, but I don't know anymore... It's a lot of fuss over an extra R50... What can you buy for R50 nowadays anyway... Not even a new MAC lipgloss! The tradgedy! :)

Until then,

Peace, love & Cupcakes

Flea

Is Fashion The Fickle-ist Industry Of Them All?

Aaah, so an overly discussed topic in the makeup/modelling/photography world, is going to be just an even more so overly discussed topic on my blog, but hey, its my blog, I can say what I please. I'm speaking from my experiences in the industry with the numerous amount of people that I've worked with in my short career in this field.

I read on a forum the other day, something along the lines of - "models have feelings too..." and the model went to discuss how it hurts to be rejected time and time again after attending every casting that becomes known to them, only to be rejected for another girl with the same dreams as said rejected model. Sad fact of reality, no matter how in shape, and well groomed the 'models' keep themselves, unless they are that small percent that manage to get a big break, the rest of them can enjoy modelling for ammateur photographers, and have pretty photos for facebook as payment, the good old TFCD, unless if they start doing promotions, but at the end of the day, the promotion lifestyle is not going to be glamourous as everyone thinks the modelling world is.

A lot of the models that I've either photographed or made up, have literally been doing the photo session as a means of a confidence builder in their lives, not many had admitted it but when I think about these girls, their confidence and self esteem was low at the point before the shoot where makeup and discussions of the shoot expections were being spoken about, but once that shoot is finished, they have a run of confidence and finally start feeling better about themselves and then their "professional photographs" are then plastered over Facebook and all their friends will comment and tell them how fabulous, amazing, draw-droppingly-sexy that they are.

I can't speak as though I know why all these girls and boys model, but that is the impression I get based on the experiences with many of the people that I've worked with. What grills with the generalised persons that I've mentioned above is that they do not actually take into account how much work goes into preparing for that shoot on the photographers part, as well as the makeup artists part sometimes. Yes, neither photography nor makeup artistry is rocket science, in fact its quite the opposite it is an art, and so is modelling, I am not taking that away from the models. Photography = light + time, and getting that right all the time is not easy, and what is makeup when it comes to photography shoots? Understanding the concept and vision that both the model and photographer have in mind and being able to bridge the gap, contour, highlight and emphasize as well as paint and create something that is not so everyday normal than what the model looks at in the mirror.

Its not only the models and makeup artists that suffer the rejection that the models deal with from not getting work from castings. Photographers and makeup artists are in some instances represented by agencies. Agencies that if you get into the correct and right one that they can make killer livings, however, they stil suffer the same rejection, humiliation, and constant being told that their work is not good enough... The problem, may be just that, the work is crap or the problem may be that the market for that particular area of talent may be saturated and monopolised by individuals with completely different ideas than the person looking to be represented, to make a living, ad that there may be NO WORK in that particular field that the individual is looking for work in.

Another problem, in South Africa is that our industry is actually rather small and that in fact, everyone in this business knows everyone, maybe not personally, but everyone knows of each others work and opinions on certain matters, thanks to modelbase and all those lovely networking tools that photographers exploit to market to the general public masses, such as facebook, twitter, myspace, etc etc. I think all photographers, makeup artists and models have the most friends possible on facebook, because they want to market their talent to the general public, who in fact couldn't give two hoots about whether I photographed a model with the correct lighting and contoured her face correctly in right spots to make her look even more beautiful. I fear that this industry may actually be pushing themselves onto everyone on the social networks in the hope that they get a paying customer, so they can get paid for the talents that they have instilled in themselves and the artistic eyes that they were born with in order to make a living.

Thats my little bitch and moan for today on my wonderful blog.

xo
flea

Recent June/ July Photography

I shot late one Friday evening with Mirinda Liza, at my little home studio in Bedfordview, as a part of my makeup (MissFitz Make-up) portfolio. I've seen many images recently, while searching various sources, such as model mayhem, of make-up of masks on the face. This was a complete experiment on my part, and I think that the image speaks for itself on the part that It really does have a dramatic effect. She was an awesome model to work with, and I would gladly reccommend her to any photographer, because she was so patient with me while I was sticking a rhinestone mask to her face! :)

One of my oldest friends, Shelly and I did our makeup course together in April. She has not had time to practice any of her new found skills on new faces since we completed the course, and I had been pestering her for a while to let me shoot the jewellry that she makes, she brought her friend Lauren Strachan to practice her make-up application on and get some free advertising for her jewellry which I think she will eventually make a facebook group to advertise both her make-up skills and her beautiful range of jewellry that she has for sale.

Lauren Weeks and Greg Dennis... aaah these photographs make my knees weak. I know I am blowing my own horn here, but the whole collection of pictures from this particula shoot with the old school, somewhat vintage, meets Pearl Harbour meets Twilight look, was an absolute blast to be Lauren's chosen photographer for her idea. We shot on location, at Gillooly's Farm and I'm so happy I got to shoot Lauren again before she moved to New Zealand, South Africa has lost a top class model.

Something a little more crazy, modern, and more fun than the outdoor vintage look, Lauren and Greg have fabulous chemistry to work with, and it was so much getting to shoot too old friends. Still bummed Lauren has flown far far away!

Kerri Rudolph, wow! One of the most fabulous models I've had the pleasure of working with and doing make-up on. We had originally decided to go and shoot also at Gillooly's, but due to it being winter and it was possibly one of the coldest days of the year, we did makeup at my studio and just played around a bit. I wasn't properly set up so the images are not my best, but Kerri made them look good.

Let me give this another try!

So I randomly stumbled across this blog and was totally mortified of my behaviour as a 17 year old and what I published online. Those posts were deleted after much laughter of reading them. I even said in one of them I'm writing this blog to remind myself of how stupid I am/was. I suppose I at least knew something then. So much has changed since then, from me being totally and completely stalker-ish to Brett, and now he's been in my life for longer than I ever imaged... ha ha bet anyone that ever read this NEVER saw that coming... I sure as hell didn't! :]

I will keep this updated, I have no choice... it was too brilliant to read what I had posted here before and I hope to continue and in another two years look back and wonder what the hell was I thinking!

One more exam left on Friday at 1pm... been invited out already by some friends but I'm gonna spend some time with my man, after Season's Wither this last weekend, I need a chilled and relaxed weekend... even though I have a shoot on Sunday with Kirsten which I'm looking forward to. I haven't done a proper photoshoot in a while. I did the Image Direct, part of Dance Direct Productions mini shoot at Edenglen Highschool with Amber and Michael, which was only 5 photos each once they'd had their makeovers, and one before photo, but thats hardly a challeging photoshoot, even though I think the images came out great!

Amber's Transformation from school girl to glamour girl, courtesy of Image Direct, a part of Dance Direct Productions. And Below, is Michaels transformation from school boy, to gorgeous guy, courtesy of Image Direct, a part of Dance Direct Productions.

Also, recently I've done a puppy shoot for a model that I have had the pleasure of working with before, El. She is starting to breed Yorkshire Terriers and asked me to do some photos of her gorgeous puppies for her new website, which will be going live soon http://www.a2z-yorkies.co.za/ and I will upload some of the images once the website is live, so not to spoil the suprise of the gorgeous doggies and of course, if anyone is looking for a yorkie puppy, have a look at the website! :)

In the month of may, those are the only 2 photoshoots that I've done... I have done 9 faces of makeup for other photoshoots by Digi Dot Lee & Martinhus Odendaal, his wife and Allan Riedel (all of which are avaiable for shoots on Vivid Training). My makeup kit is slowly expanding and now I am able to do any skin colour as I have finally got the correct foundation for any skin colour... I am still learning with every face I paint, but I am really enjoying it as well. I hopefully will get quicker as I go along... Practice makes perfect, right?

Thats all for now, this is one super long blog post, compared to the ones I kept ;)

Peace, love & cupcakes
xo

Flea