Another question generated from my time spent on the photos board. I know, I need to find a better way to pass the time.  

several photographers have been sentenced to jail time for materially participating in a conspiracy to offer prostitution services - in most cases with agencies.   If I were a photographer my shoot contract would state that the images I produce could not be used to promote any illegal business, or my name would not be on them....

he does a fantastic job and doesnt want to fuck all of his clients..

...providers go to him for his Photoshopping Fountain of Youth.  He also allegedly engages in "Leica Lipo."

Providers love him; hobbyists - not so much.  Search the board...

-- Modified on 8/19/2014 4:11:29 AM

This is how it all started: a few highly rated providers used him and now every provider thinks that shooting with him will get them highly rated as well.  

they are well lit and reasonably posed; unlike most of the selfies that seem to predominate most gals' sites.

I don't think he is an Ansel Adams or Georgia O'Keefe but I'm just glad there are some decent photogs out there to make things more interesting to the eye.

Pardon me, but bullshit. I spent 30 years as a photographer and I can state almost unequivocally that you can schmooze with the best of them, but if you don't have talent you're not going anywhere. It's a very tough, competitive business. I watched many no-talent gold class butt-lickers flame out quickly.

Lots of women use other photographers in my neck of the woods.  Also, the problem with Aldo is his rep for photo-shopping.  To lots of guys "photos by Aldo" are a red flag.  Personally, I don't care one way or the other as there are lots of ways to find out if she looks remotely like her pix.  This is also why it's a good idea for a gal to include some recent "selfies," even though those can be altered too.

As I see it, most photographers "retouch" photos of models.  The major difference here is that we don't very often peruse an Internet Porn site, find a hot model, and then get to go and meet her.

Well...maybe that's a stretch as you might  LOL

It's often 20-30 lighter as well.

I think Aldo is so popular because of his willingness to crop out as many pounds and inches as his clients want. He apparently doesn't have the ethics to "just say no".

As others have already said, "Aldo pics" are met with great suspicion, and my advice to the OP is not to follow the thundering herd of OTHFBs who beat a path to his door looking for that fountain of youth and liposuction.

As you can probably tell, I am not a fan. lol

He's extremely affordable and he's the only photographer I've shot with who didn't charge extra to remove my tattoos. The photos he took of me were nice, nothing special, but nice. At the time, I just thought that every higher end chick needed a set done by him to be legit (stupid assumption on my part). I thought the lighting complemented by skin tone nicely, but the poses he had me do were pretty corny and unoriginal. For the price, though, I really can't complain.  

One of my gal pals used him earlier this year for a doubles shoot.  The gals weren't thrilled with the pics (for many of the reasons you described) and asked him to take some that were "more flattering".

To know yourself, who you are marketing too, what you find comfortable so you look natural and be able to say no.  

That's why I love Tim's work so much. He never tells me how to pose, he just pretty much lets me go ham and always manages to capture my personality. His assistant Evita is a doll too. I just love them.  

Nothing more frustrating than meeting an Aldo girl in person. I am almost always disappointed when that door opens.  

Used to think I was the only one who didn't think his work was anything special.  Nice to see some honest criticism here.

So you are saying he wants to fuck SOME of his clients? Which ones?  

"hollering like they were being harpooned"

Send me a few pics through my "Doctor" here lol so I can check out that hot little bod of yours I keep hearing about. Hit up Aldo to photoshop your face then send them over.

I don't know if Aldo does barter on those however.

The "biggest suck up" award.

I predict the BSU's are going to be even more hotly contested than even the SPOTY's. There are some many potential winners of this award I don't even know where to set the morning line.

For example if the BSU prefers the Aldo types and IRL are OTHFB just how much credence can you/I put on their "suck ups"?

but I am sure the award committee will work it out over the coming months.

and I do suppose that sucking up to actual hotties will/should earn a candidate less points than sucking up to members of the OTHFBC, We may need to create some kind of metric where sucking up to a ten gets you zero points, sucking up to a nine gets you one point, but sucking up to a three gets you seven points.

You keep hearing about huh? My bod is an acquired taste, some find it too athletic, others love it. I have mentioned that I have a physique that resembles a figure competitor. Google that and you see me, not as dieted down as in a comp, too hard to do year round.  

As for Tim,  where is he based out of?

Two different styles, two good photographers IMO. I've shot twice with Aldo, once with Tim. I was happy with my images all three times.

I've also shot with other photographers, I love the work of a photographer who is local to me. I also loved my one shoot with Meeshee. For me shooting with different photographers gives the guys to see me in different settings and styles. I think I've shot with a total of 6 different photographers since entering this secret little world here.

Steph xoxo

He knew I was coming with my ideas and wanted a completely different kind of shoot. I booked a long shoot with him, had my own suite, had an on site MUA who helped me change and I was going for old Hollywood glamour and Aldo knew it in advance.

Personally for me, he hit it outta the park. I brought MY ideas to the shoot! He knows I'm picky as hell and I'm not going to be happy with the status quo.

My 2nd shoot with him was in FL and he was feeling terrible but I got a special suite again just for that day so he came over anyway, at my insistence. Again I had my makeup professionally done and some really cool things to wear. I was happy with the shoot and I had input into what poses I wanted, mainly during the shots outside in natural lighting. I do have some of his "Aldo" poses, but guess what, other photographer use most of those poses as well, I see them in print work and celeb photos. Aldo shoots A LOT of ladies so if you want to make your shoot different, it's up to the ladies to communicate it with him or they probably will get a more canned shoot.

And I also recommend letting him know you are PICKY about YOUR shoot. And if a lady doesn't want a ton of photo shopping all they have to do is say so.

I am very very familiar with the industry from another angle and I completely disagree -   I see a huge number of highly talented photographers getting nowhere because they do not have the business sense or the marketing ability,  and quite a number of very average photographers rising to the highest levels of the game on nothing more than a reputation crafted from being media savvy...  Terry Richardson being the ultimate example....    there are hundreds of thousands of photographers who could shoot rings around his reprobate bottom but they don't get the opportunities because they are not "connected".....

Why are you defending his "honor"?

They are an awesome team!

Steph

As I understand it, Aldo's rate is somewhere just north of $100 per hour. That's wedding photographer rate. I can't say that I've seen his bad work, but for $100 an hour...  His photo of Molly Feinstein in today's Photo Forum is about what I'd expect for that price point.

I love Aldo's lighting.

Whatever the nay-sayers think, here are my reasons for shooting with Aldo repeatedly over the years:

NYC, but he travels all over.  

Oh isn't this interesting?

You got that right. Although, in a weird way I can understand it.

The dude came to the Carolinas and had them lined up out the door.  He gives his client what she wants or expects normally.  

Photo Shopping

I just took a look, and those are all good photos. The newer ones look better to me, and I don't know if they were done by Aldo. The ones that are marked "Aldo" are good as well

End of message

Then you can get a general idea.  

The new gallery is a photog who was 3-4x what I pay Aldo.  Yeah, they're nice.  I don't believe that they are "nicer enough" to justify using that photog on a regular basis.  I do like having a variety of photographers and styles - uber pro, semi pro, etc. in my gallery.  I also like doing at least 2 new shoots each year to keep the current gallery *current*, and having just one photographer across the country is not really reasonable for that.  I'll be shooting with Aldo again soon, and I'm always open to new eyes.