I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn’t know what you were saying when you described yourself as a GWC. “Guy with a camera” is not used to describe an amatuer photographer, but rather a pointed insult used to refer to men who use photography as an excuse to get a woman alone and generally be creepy towards her. Tip number one is to always aspire to be the opposite of a GWC.

Second, taking good portraits, especially for fashion, is about more than having a good camera and good lighting. Being able to pose a model well is half of the art and takes just as much practice as learning how to use your camera. Models you see advertising high end fashion absolutely did not just improv off of “do a sexy pose.” You can practice posing by finding some reference poses online, and asking your wife/a friend to pose for you while you verbally try to direct them into replicating the pose. You’ll learn what kind of language works for you, and you’ll also get to see in real time how your poses change the character of an image. Character is important for fashion photography because your model needs to sell the story of the apparel.