I sold my soul to Satan. Or so I’m told. 😉
And yes, dear reader, Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, also sold a piece of himself to the Devil…I kid you not. It’s the reason this long-time Spidey fan dumped comics…that and I thought my money was better spent on my business (models)…lol. “A New Day”, or something like that…the title of the thing escapes me at the moment.
So what about my deal with Mr. Scratch, Mephisto, Satan, etc? Before we start, let me just say that I want to post about this, but it’s kinda sensative, so no names will be mentioned…except, mine, natch. 😉 There has to be a start to the thing, right? A time or place where all this madness happened…
Twitter. The Devil’s playground. 😉
My Twitter feed, by the way… http://twitter.com/TucsonTied One of my models and I are pretty big on Twitter…we converse, yak, and have fun there a lot with each other and other Twitterers. It’s a good way to pass time when you should be working (lol)…I don’t know about her, but I have a blast on my feed. Well, said blast got noticed by someone who’s rep…well, let’s just say, “less than untarnished” and leave it at that, k? A fellow producer…and he turned out to be a hoot. The three of us started ripping up Twitter together. Well, one day into the “Twitterfriendship”, he asks me about a “Guest Gallery” of my work of said model at his site. K…interesting.
Firstly, what IS a “Guest Gallery”? Basically, a set of my work, published on his site, with a link leading back to my site…kinda like a “Guest Starring” role on a tv show. His site gets good traffic…gives her a new audience, gives me a new audience, gives him some subscriptions, gives me some “token” sales…it seemed like a “win” all around. That could’ve been the end of it right there and I could’ve just green-lighted the thing, but I never move on something like this without checking all bases…I ran the idea by the model as well. She approved, loving the idea, as it could also attract her more business as well (other photographers view his site…). Her first response to the idea was about ME, ironically enough…she asked if I would be credited. Not even thinking of herself, but of ME. I kinda like that. 😉 I even offered her the ability to sit with me as I chose the images…but she was involved in other projects, and told me she trusted me to pick the best of the best we’ve done. Wasn’t easy, let me tell you…we’ve done some GREAT stuff.
Let’s be clear on one point: it was close to FetishCon, and it was also a thought in both our producer minds that maybe it could generate her some more photography offers for the convention. IT WAS A BUSINESS DECISION. You could almost call it a “publicity stunt”.
I send him the images…he puts them up on his site, advertising the coming of the model and my Guest Gallery to his site, on Twitter. The shit hits the “Twitterfan” almost immeadiatly…as a Twitter member on my feed blasts me for selling my soul to Satan (his words), and that his respect for me is now gone. Yes, he used no names (as I myself have not), but it was more than obvious who he was talking about. I wasn’t the only one who noticed…the model did as well. I’ll avoid the worst of the ugliness, and just say that he and I got into a small fight on Twitter, with, admittedly, me doing most of the fighting…lol. My temper got the worst of me and after months of intermittent innuendo attacks (which I didn’t respond to as I felt it would be of no gain), it all exploded. This one was the straw that broke the camel’s back…I’d had ENOUGH. We went back to our own corners of Twitter, and haven’t spoken since.
That was almost a month ago. So, why bring it up now? Two other producers have asked me to do “Guest Gallery” exchanges for their sites. Am I selling my soul again? 😉
Here’s the thing that has me bugged. This was such a vile and personal attack that I now find myself double thinking business decisions for my site just so I don’t offend one or two people with apparant axes to grind. WTF is that?! I need to be diverse in my thinking to reach all audiences…ALL of them. Personal wars and squabbles don’t and shouldn’t play a role in BUSINESS decisions at ALL. And this one must’ve worked…I barely saw the model all ‘con…lol. I run my business and nobody else…ME. And the way I run it is proper…otherwise I couldn’t look myself in the mirror in the morning.
By the by…was just driving this morning and looked down at the odometer…84666. Should I be scared??? 😉
Tolstoy
Hello Yony
My husband got me to look at your great site and I then look every day to see whats new.
I think I am about the same age as Stacie’s mother
and I hope that all the photographers treat Stacies
mother with respect for her age when taking pictures of her.
Keep up the good work
Ruth
Thank you, Ruth!!! A great deal of respect goes into each and every shoot with a model. If I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t be in business still. ask anyone I work with…I’m the most absolutely respectful man you’ll know on this circuit. 😉
Tolstoy
Don’t see what all the fuss is about with this “selling your soul to the devil” and what not. I see guest galleries pop up on sites here and there all the time on the web! So long as the original copyright owner of the photo’s is okay with it, I don’t see any problem with it. Admittedly I never gave it a seconds thought until now.
And Ruth, I’m sure Tolstoy is respectful – if he wasn’t Stacie never would have let him photograph her Mom in the first place (or come back to model for him, which happily she does). Can’t speak for the other photographers, but I echo your sentiments. Just my two cents. 😉
Stryder…insider bullshit is what it’s all about. Frustrating as FUCK…it just had to come out SOMEwhere.
See what you get from knowing one of us producers up close and personal? 😉 It’s not all beautiful women and tying ropes…there’s drama as well. Sometimes, I like to refer to it as, “As the Ropes Tie…” or something like that…lol.
We’re all a respectful lot…even the models tell us so. I’ve had models who shoot both fetish and glam tell me that we fetish guys’re the nicest people they work with. 😉