It's a very strange position to be in.
It's year 2002.
16 years in front of the camera and 16 years behind the camera.
Some of those years overlap. My past modeling career.
Was it a dream
or a nightmare?
What would I say to parents today?
Can you make money?
How does a model feel like working with photographers?
How does a photographer feels like working with models?
Can you trust agencies?
Should you do freelancing?
How about social media?
Will companies hire you if you have no followers?
Is international modeling safe?
Did my photography career damage my modeling career?
A topic I certainly don't talk much about.
I talk about it very rarely.
I only talk about it if somebody brings it up.
It's a topic I think about a lot of times
and I possibly wanted to discuss it on this channel, but at the same time,
I didn't want to discuss it on this channel until Zyro,
which is a sponsor of today's video, made a decision for me.
They picked the topic so there's no turning back from it now.
Was it a dream or a nightmare?
What would I say to parents today?
It was both.
100%.
I have so many amazing memories and moments
which I will carry with me till the rest of my life.
I never realized back then how privileged
I was to be able to even have a chance to experience it.
I regret not enjoying it, not being in the moment of it
every single second day.
The good stuff goes quick in life. It's over very fast
in seconds. The good memories were so amazing,
I should felt them,
I should lived through them.
I should realized every single moment of it a bit more.
On the other hand, I've experienced
the majority of every parent's nightmare. I've been through
80% of the bad stuff.
Everything
you read in the books, everything you read about. Was it their fault?
Was it my fault? Both.
I grew up in a tiny little village of 3000 people in Czech republic.
Back then, there was not really much crime.
There was no crime.
Everybody knew everybody.
We were like one big family.
We were trusting each other, I was trusting everybody.
So this little naive girl
coming from this small village living in this bubble
is trying to make it in the real world out there in a big city.
Yes, I was very naive.
I was trusting everybody way too much.
Now it's 2022.
I have a daughter on my own, which recently brought the idea
of doing modeling.
I do have also friends which posted a photo of their daughter on Facebook.
She's also stepping into the world of modeling.
What is my true feeling?
On the one hand, I am super excited for them because I know
that there might be these amazing opportunities coming at them.
On the
other side, I'm screaming inside with a panic.
All I want to do is talk to my daughter and talk to my friends.
My intention is not to scare them.
My intention is not to turn them away from this amazing opportunity.
My true intention is to share
everything I've been through, everything I've done.
So they are prepared what is out there so they know
who is out there and they know what will happen
because it's going to happen down the road.
What I would say to every single parent out
there is to make sure you have a
trustworthy relationship with your daughter or your son,
so you can open up and talk about absolutely anything.
And they trust you and they can talk to you about anything.
Even to topics which feel
uncomfortable or feel highly inappropriate.
Make sure that you are their friend and you can talk
because down the road when they will to be talking to you
and you might actually recognize signs of danger coming up,
you have enough time to stop it.
Age 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.
They look mature,
they do, but they are not.
They simply don't have the life experiences yet
and they will fall in a trap.
They might fall for a trap.
It all depends in which country you live.
Some countries are a little bit safer.
Others are not.
But I'll talk about it a little bit later in this video.
Can you make money?
Well, as I mentioned, I did it for 16 years, and in reality,
they were only two years in total when I could call it a full time job.
Majority of the girls, it's just a part time job.
Only few will really make it to the top.
I was freelancing.
I had an agency which was representing me, and I did some acting as well.
So when I combined all of it together,
that was creating my full time income.
We didn't have social media like Instagram back then.
And I know that these days, some of the models are doing
very well on social media like Instagram, and they were able to build
quite a good brand, actually.
They turn it into a successful business. Speaking of business,
every single business needs a very good website.
As of last week, my website is now being hosted by Zyro. I am super happy
I've made the switch for many reasons.
It's the most affordable option on the market right now
and it's a very simple to use.
Just drag and drop style.
There are hundreds of pre-designed templates to choose from.
You can also create your own if you prefer
and that's exactly what I did.
Blog posts are easy as well.
Now, when you need to see
a written version of my videos, you can find all that on my website.
Not the past videos, but I'll be doing this from now on
on the reviews and tutorials.
If you need help with anything, there is a 24/7 customer service
where you will be talking to an actual person, and I tested that too.
What is important for me, for example, is the fact
that the website is loading fast and they have an online store feature
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Thank you very much Zyro for making this video possible.
How does it photographer feel working with model?
How does a model feel like working with a photographer?
If they are both new, it's going to be exactly the same.
They're going to be nervous. They're going to be anxious.
They're going to be wondering how it's going to be, how it's going to feel.
There might be a little bit
even a problem
with communication probably. It's going to feel a little bit awkward.
If the model already does this for a while, she has her own poses.
She knows how to move.
It's just going to be very easy.
Every single person has a different personality.
Some photographers are funny.
Others are more serious.
I preferred the communication.
It's very helpful if as a photographer, you tell the model
what you are looking for to see throughout the photos.
What type of mood, what type of a poses the expressions?
What are you looking for in the photoshoot?
And it's also very helpful if you show some photos here and there
throughout the shoot to the model
because she will have a little bit more understanding what you're looking for
and she can really help you to get the results you want.
How does a photographer feel like working with models? Well,
everybody is different, so I'm just going to speak for myself.
When I have a model come in, I'm immediately watching the body movements.
How is she moving?
How is she talking? How is her personality?
Is she funny?
How is she? Because I need to find out the way
how I can communicate to that person to get what I need.
I really enjoy working with new models because they are fresh
and they kind of listen and they let you do whatever you want.
I don't like working with models which have their 15 poses
baked into their brain and they won't let you to do anything else.
This is very difficult to work
when you have a person like that.
So all I'm thinking when the person comes into
the studio is how is the personality?
Is this person going to allow me to lead them?
Can you trust agencies?
I personally had better experience with smaller agencies.
I had a better relationship with the agent, and I was working way more.
My best agent ever was Stephan Dosco, which is no longer between us.
I really miss him dearly,
from agency Braodbelt & Fonte. Giovanni was good agency as well.
I did not have a very good experience with big agencies because
they have way too many girls. When you start working with them,
you are their fresh face, so they kind of push you through for a few weeks and then
they will kind of blend you in with the rest.
You will be just on the list and you will become forgotten.
Should you do freelancing?
I was making with an agency 40% of my income
and 60% I was making as a freelancer
so it is absolutely worth it to work as a freelancer,
but you have to be very careful so you don't get ripped off or
you don't get yourself into dangerous situations.
It is definitely way safer to work through the agency.
Should companies hire you if you have no followers?
Companies will absolutely hire you
if you have no followers, you will do modeling, no problem.
However, today's world is all about
influencers. It is different these days.
You will have a huge advantage
if you're going to have a large following on social media. You will get
stuff like sponsorships, brand deals,
companies will definitely want to work with you more
because they want to have access to all your followers.
They are not really going to be there too much for you.
They just want to get the access to your followers.
So it is quite worth
it to build a following on social media.
I've been following some big models and I can see that they've created
some huge business out of this. Is international modeling safe?
No, it's not.
Why did I say that?
Well, that will also depend on the country.
Some of the countries are very safe.
When I was starting out in Czech Republic,
I ran into many dangerous situations
even with well-known photographers.
Prague is a place where you had to watch out all the time.
My only hope is that over the years, because I've been living in Canada
for 26 years, that things have really changed.
I was scouted by an agent from one of the biggest agencies in Paris in France.
I went there to seek for an agency, and that's how I was found.
A bit later, I went there on their invitation to work there.
Well, when I got there, the reality turn out to be completely different.
I was asked to do something completely different from modeling.
So I packed my stuff and I left immediately.
To my sad surprise
six months later, I saw the very same agent on Czech TV being interviewed
and in newspaper because he was scouting new models for that agency in France.
I was very angry.
Again, I'm hoping that things have changed over the years.
It's not like that anymore.
That was the main reason
I left Czech Republic and I moved to Canada.
I was simply lost there.
And then when I moved to Canada and I started doing modeling in Toronto,
suddenly all the trouble was gone.
Everything was different, like a day and night.
What a difference.
Very professional, contracts were in place, I was safe, I was getting paid.
Plus I didn't have to compete with all those 100s girls from Czech.
Did my
photography career damage my modeling career?
Modeling in Canada was like living a fairy tale
until I started taking photos.
Once I landed a few magazine covers and the name kind of got out,
I got kicked out from my long term client, which was a Sears catalog.
My agent from Next agency told me that
photography is very competitive market in Toronto,
and it is most likely the reason why I was kicked out.
And I remember... when I was doing modeling at Sears,
one day, the photographer said, I hope you are not going to copy my lighting setup.
And I was laughing. I thought he was joking.
I guess not.
Well, when I did modeling,
I could care less about all the stuff. I was there to do
modeling. That was my purpose.
And then the agency, because of that, started
to send me less often and book me less often.
And I noticed also that my freelancing jobs were coming less as well.
So then I just let it go, and I completely switched to photography.