Well I has something happen today that has not happened to me before that I've been encouraged to share here. A stranger from across the country called my cell phone number and began a casual personal conversation with me. My fan said he saw my photos on model mahem, which I joined about 2 days ago. Apparently he enjoyed them enough to read all about me on my blog (and do some further research from there to ferret out my number which is published on a business site, but has just been updated to send calls elsewhere).
MM invites people to PL, so perhaps he has joined and may be reading this.
He asked a number of personal questions and wanted to know if we could get together if he came to town. It took me a couple minutes of talking to him cordially to realize and confirm that he is not a travelling photographer, "just a fan". At that point I let him know I needed to get back to work and asked him to email me (so I could have a little more information about him in case I needed it). He was prompt in his response which contained some compliments and some suggestions. Then he texted me. I've saved his information and blocked his emails and advised him that since we have no business relationship it would be improper for me to continue to communicate with him, I thanked him for his sincere compliments, and let him know I would tell the photographers how much he enjoyed their work. Hopefully this will suffice.
I was totally caught off guard by this contact and it left me feeling a tad creeped out. I am pretty cautious about what contact information goes where and have seperate email addresses for different things, but of course people DO need a way to find you and that is part of the enjoyment of social media, and I do need to have a business line and thought the cell would be fine since it doesn't give a location. It could if I let it but I don't.
It was not so much the contact being initiated, nor the suggestive nature, nor even the desire to meet in person - it's understandable in a way. It was the fact the first contact was made by telephone, the casual nature of the conversation - as if this is someone I already know, and the personal questions which revealed how much personal information this person already established about me before ever speaking to me and giving me the opportunity to share about myself. Well i guess in a way I had already shared it about myself in a bio here and there, but I did not expect to be researched and vetted.
I am sure that I am not the first to be contacted in this manner. I was planning with a photographer just yesterday about an upcoming TFCD implied nude shoot, and think that what happened today has helped me decide against that, at least for the time being. At this point I would only do it with a release and payment to the photograther with the understanding they are not going to publish my images willy nilly. If I have to feel like they cannot be seen I'm not sure I need to have them taken.
So please post on this thread if you have some tips or experiences of your own to share. I'm sure I am not yet too old to learn a thing or two more.