A Q came up on the NY Board about recommendations for pro photogs.  I don't recall seeing any discussion here for the benefit of the newbie ladies about what to expect in terms of contracts, terms, professional behavior and so on.   Basically, don't just give some schmoe with a cell phone camera your hard earned money and expect to get high quality pics.  Also, keep in mind copyrights, watermarks, and so on.  I hope the more experienced readers can provide advice and correct my mistakes posted to NY:

spend time going through the websites of successful and highly regarded gals in your area.

Decided which pictures fit your personality, etc., then contact those photographers whose names are usually watermarked on the photo.

If not, then you can email the gal and hopefully she will share that info with you.

Finding a reputable photographer is no different for a provider, than a hobbyist looking for an escort.  There are reputable photographers like Santillo, Aldo Antonio, Inez Lewis, all over the country. These photographers have earned a good reputation. With a little bit of effort a provider should be able to find one. Of course if they try to do pics on the cheap, just like hobbyists seeing low price providers things might not work on satisfactory.

you could also post on the ISO board, and/or your regional board for ideas from other providers.

Swim

Even though I only look at the final pictures, I was thinking that many ladies new to the biz or upgrading from amateur self-pics might have questions about what to expect in a contract, who owns what and stuff like that. There must be a difference between a modeling contract (photog pays the lady to pose for pics) and a photo shoot contract (lady pays photog to shoot, process and deliver pics). What wording should she look for to prevent misuse or unauthorized distribution of her pics by the photographer? What is the photog's obligation to protect her personal info or even just the digital images from being stolen by hackers looking for sexy pictures on the photog's computer.

Maybe some of the ladies posting here learned some important lessons from a bad experience that they fixed in subsequent contracts.  

Everyone can find photographers -- recommendations, watermarks, yellow pages --  but what about 'doing the deal' in a safe, legally binding manner?

Thanks.

This is more what I meant by the OP, to help newbies avoid mistakes with pro photogs.  I am copying KellyParker's reply to the NY Board:

Posted By: KellyParker

All of the above sound great in theory. One can have as many contracts, encryption clauses, etc with any of the above photographers, but at the end of the day you still have your pics with your face showing laying around one someone else's hard drive...forever.

Pay the extra money up front to own your own photos. Hire someone who is okay with giving you the memory cards after the session is done. Straight from the camera, not through their hard drive to another media outlet (you'll have to prepurchase these cards yourself), You can find the ones you like best that are cropped the way you want, and go to a separate retoucher. It's unorthodox, but one less thing to worry about 10, 20 years from now when you've moved on to whatever it is that  you're moving on to

It took me a small amount of extra work, but I found someone willing to do what I needed at the price I wanted.  

Privacy should never be an afterthought, it should be a habit.

Edited to add: I should give all my thanks and credit to the photographer I found that was so very patient and kind and never asked any questions. He's the one that came up with the answer to my issues and made me feel like it was no big deal at all.