Page 44 - FAST 2026 Calendar Yearbook

LA Baby! Sophie Francesconi
I first met an shot with beautiful red haired Italian model
Sophie Francesconi in June of 2022 when I took the Edelweiss
Motorcycle Tour “Rome to Sicily’ across Italy. I asked our
FastDates.com associate Italian photographer Simone de Raineri
if he knew of a model who could join me in Rome for 2 days at
the start of my trip, to shoot with me around Rome and show me
the sights. He suggest his model Sophie and I wasn’t disappointed,
we had a fun time together and I got some grat photos. You can
see the pictures and story of that exciting trip in the FAST 2024 Calendar Yearbook in Member’s Corner.
Sophie had told me her dream was to visit Los Angeles one day, and I was excited to make that dream come true for her
2 years later. Sophie comes from the small town of Massarosa, Tuscany off the north west coast of Italy, where she was a full-time
university student and interning to become a medical nurse. She’s spent most of her life in northern Italy and had never flown on an
airplane before, so she was both excited an intimidated at 21-years old to take such a trip. The two week visit would be a working
vacation as I paid her to shoot for the FastDates.com Calendars, took her to the Josh Ryan 2-day Photography Workship so she
could experience working with the top Guess photographer and his models, and I would be show her the best places in Southern
California from Rodeo Drive, to hiking the Hollywood Sign, to a fun day at Universal Studios. On the way home from picking Sophie up
at Los Angeles International Airport, I took her to Ocean Ave. in Santa Monica where we visited the Santa Monica Pier and had dinner overlooking her first sight
of the Pacific Ocean. The next night we went to the legendary Yamashiro Japanese Restaurant in the Hollywood Hills overlooking greater Los Angeles.
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