Techniques to help the model feel at ease while being photographed

In class the other day our teacher was talking about taking portraits and mentioned ways to help the model relax or feel at ease. While she only mentioned having a pleasant conversation, I stumbled across a person who had another way of making the models relax, in a rather humorous way in fact!

"22-year-old Vietnamese photographer Nguyen Dinh An is making headlines in his country. The attention isn’t for his photographs, but for the bizarre way in which he captures those photos. As the video above shows, Nguyen turns framing his pictures into something of a performance art.

Vietnam Today 247 writes that Nguyen incorporates strange moves into his shooting style in order to put brides and grooms at ease and to induce genuine smiles and laughs. Sometimes he’ll do Michael Jackson dance moves such as the moon walk, while other times (like in the video above), he’ll roll around on the ground like a ninja on a photo-taking mission."(taken from here)