Happy middle aged man © Carsten Reisinger
Microstock allows you to start from (almost) nothing. At some point though you most likely will start shooting models instead of objects or landscapes.
There are several ways to do that.
1. Shoot your friends and family – those will be the “cheapest” models out there!
2. Put a free ad on www.cragislist.com to find local people that want to model. Mention in the ad what your budget is or if you want only models that accept images from the shoot as compensation.
3. Contact local model agencies for professional models.
4. Websites like www.modelmayhem.com where you can find more professional models. Oftentimes these models want to be compensated.
In more rural areas you can also put up notes at your local supermarket etc. with your contact information. A good thing to keep in mind is that in many cases you need your model to “act out” a certain situation or look. This way I recommend to target specifically actors as models as they will be more responsive to your directing.
