In the wonderful world of modeling it’s import to keep things fresh. If you’re unfamiliar with the crazy world of fashion here are some basics:

• “Male Model”: Watch Zoolander
• “Test Shoot”: A photo shoot by a professional photographer, it doesn’t advertise anything and sole purpose is to get more photos for your “book” (and also helps add to the photographers book).
• “Book”: Something you drag around to castings or clients to show photos of yourself. This can be very awkward – people staring at the book, then you, then the book, then you, and then finally they look at you with a wrinkle in their brow and a long “thaaanks anyway”.
• “Editorial”: A job hired directly through a magazine. The job usually doesn’t pay much (if anything). This is usually the part in the middle of a magazine that tends to have some sort of story line. What that doesn’t pay hundreds of thousands of dollars? Nope. Natta. It’s just great exposure and new photos for your “book”.
• “Campaign”: These are the $$ jobs for a specific brand. They can be a big ad in a magazine or billboard on the side of the freeway. If you look through a fashion magazine the ads in the beginning are the best as they pay for that spot in the magazine and also typically pay their models the best.
• “Catalogue”: This is mostly what I do. These jobs have the ability to be consistent, but are not as high paying as Campaigns. They are your JC Penny mailers or the big thick book you get in the mail from Macy’s. These are not the most noteworthy or glamorous jobs but they pay the bills. When these jobs start to slow down it’s because you need a new test shoot in order to get you an editorial, to get you a campaign, which will end up getting you catalog work.

I hope you now better understand the man model circuit…

So back to the point of this post, I decided to mix things up and grow a beard.  When you change your “look” it’s important to update your book.  I did a test shoot with a good friend of mine who is a photographer (Nate Holtberg).  All these photos we’re taken in my backyard, my father-in-laws workshop, and my favorite running trail (If you’re wondering why the hell I’m wearing running tights… good question. )