TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG
Your inside look at the Tampa photography services industry by Tampa photographer C. A. Passinault
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Words and pictures by Tampa photographer C. A. Passinault, lead photographer for Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Bay photography and design
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Friday, May 15, 2009 - 09:00 AM - Tampa Photography Industry Look by Photographer C. A. Passinault
I Think That I Made My Point
I spent all day yesterday shooting models, and then went onto my "favorite" portfolio networking site, where I have a profile for Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Photography and Design, which I hardly ever use (It's there mainly to maintain a professional presence among a collective of amateur photographers), and posted this:
This is a portfolio
networking site. Our profile is only on here to maintain a presence here.
This is a free profile, and does not count as a career investment. We
do have a strong portfolio of career, and business, investments, which
include an array of the most effective marketing and resource web sites
in the world. Please realize that we do not run our business from free
portfolio networking sites or social networking sites such as Myspace,
and no professional photographer or photography company should do that.
We use such profiles for marketing purposes, and they are one of many
marketing services that we use.
Most of our time is spent running a photography business. We specialize
in modeling portfolio photography and talent headshot photography. We
also offer design services with modeling composite cards and headshots.
Printing is referred to qualified third parties.
We are a business. If you are a new model who needs a portfolio, we will
not give you one at no charge. If you are an experienced model who needs
to update your portfolio, we will not give you one at no charge. If you
are a professional model who has a solid portfolio and are not in the
market for updating your portfolio, we are, however, open to no-cost service
exchanges, or collaborations. We rarely offer this, however, especially
since many top Tampa models regularly invest in our photography services
for their portfolios; effective portfolios which market them in their
modeling careers and help them book paying modeling jobs.
What is a solid modeling portfolio? A modeling portfolio which a model
invests money and time into building. Models need to pay professional
photographers to build effective portfolios which will give them an advantage
over other models who they compete against for modeling jobs.
Our model clients don't have any problems competing against models who
use portfolio networking sites for their "modeling web site"
and who build freebie portfolios from amateur photographers who have no
clue what they are doing. Likewise, we have no problem competing against
photographers who use portfolio networking site as their main "photography
business web site" and who build their portfolio doing free shoots
with amateur models. We take the business away from them, and are proud
of it. We save models from what they try to offer.
Anyone who obviously did not invest anything into their career, or their
business, handicaps themselves when they market their services against
qualified professionals.
In the old days, before digital cameras, and when photographers had overhead
such as film and development costs, you had no choice but to invest in
your career or business. TFP was just that; Time For Print. TFP was a
mutual collaboration between experienced, qualified professionals who
already had strong, effective portfolios, and it was the exception to
the rule of business. In many ways, it was like paying for marketing services,
where collaborating was a way to give your marketing, or your portfolio,
a competitive edge.
These days, TFP / TFCD is a misguided, and hijacked, term to describe
the unprofessional practice of amateurs helping other amateurs build their
portfolios for free. This is a lot like the blind leading the blind, and
tends to waste a lot of time. It can also be dangerous, and can teach
amateurs some bad habits which will undermine any chance that they can
have for establishing a professional career.
We chuckle at the stories of amateur models from portfolio networking
sites who flake out. With no investment into their career, and no accountability
because they did not invest into building their career, what do you expect?
The models who we work with don't flake. They are professional models.
We can depend upon them to do what they agree to do. These are models
who the photographers who use portfolio networking sites want to work
with, but don't get to after the models don't bother giving a freebie
profile a second glance and move on to looking for professional photographers
who have invested in professional web sites and a professional portfolio.
Us and them? Believe it. The difference is obvious.
If you are a model who needs a portfolio, pay a professional photographer,
or photographers, to build the portfolio that you are going to need to
compete against other models. Verify their references, get everything
in writing, and make sure that they have invested in their business and
their marketing resources.
If you are an aspiring photographer who needs a portfolio, pay professional
models to help you build what you are going to need. Verify their references,
get everything in writing, and make sure that they have invested in their
career and their marketing resources.
If you are an aspiring photographer who is trying to compete against us,
you are going to need to spend time and money building a professional
portfolio and business resources. You will not be able to compete, otherwise.
This is why we make money with our photography business, and many of you
don't.
You only get out of something what you put into it.
If you are a professional
model who wishes to collaborate with us, keep in mind that you are competing
against the best Tampa models for that same consideration. Show us a professional
web site which is not based on cheap flash templates, a strong portfolio,
high quality composite cards which are not cheap laser comps, a work history
earning money modeling, and a work history which shows us that you know
what you are doing (i.e. no nudes all over the place, when you don't specialize
in high-risk nude modeling, and also try to do mainstream commercial modeling.
Nude work makes it much more difficult to do other types of modeling,
and many clients will stay away from models who do questionable work;
to them, it will not be a good investment allowing such a model and their
likeness to represent the marketing of their products or service. This
is one of the reasons that we don't offer nude photography services, although
we can recommend ethical, professional photographers who specialize in
this. What is on our portfolio reflects on us, too, and directly effects
our ability to market our services). Demonstrate for us that you are a
professional model, and then we will consider you for collaboration.
Want to learn more from our main professional photographer, C. A. Passinault.
Check out his Tampa Photographer Blog (TampaPhotographerBlog.Com) for
career anecdotes and his Tampa Photography Blog (TampaPhotographyBlog.Com)
for his observations about the Tampa photography services industry; a
professional view from the top of the Tampa photography services market.
I hope that you enjoyed what I had to publish. I pretty much said it all.
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Saturday, April 18, 2009 - 08:00 AM - Tampa Photography Industry Look by Photographer C. A. Passinault
The Demise Of Photography Portfolio Networking Sites?
As a professional photographer
who respects the power of my art, and who accepts the responsibility that
comes with professional photography, I have been observing the Tampa photography
market for years. I know who my competition is, and of those, I know who
is professional, and ethical, and which is deserving of my respect.
The problem is that there really aren’t that many professional photographers
in Tampa. Sure, it may look that way, but don’t buy into the illusion.
Much of what I’ve been observing both disgusts, and amuses, me.
There are a lot of amateur photographers out there pretending to be professional
photographers. It’s an epidemic! Perhaps it’s because a certain,
over-rated, unaccredited school keeps running those stupid commercials
for their local digital photography courses, or pathetic, lonely men are
tired of being toyed with by exotic dancers and wasting their money at
the clubs. A dim light bulb goes off in their heads, and they feel that
they can go out, buy a camera, and work as a photographer to hit on beautiful
women and make lots of money at the expense of their customers. For the
purpose of this Tampa Photography Blog entry, I will refer to such photographers
as roaches (I told my friend, photographer Craig Huey about this, and
he laughed. I suppose that the insect term is funny, as well as accurate).
Some of the roaches barely know how to pick up a camera and taken a picture
with the subject in frame. It doesn’t matter to them, because they
know that there are a lot of stupid people out there who can be convinced
to buy anything, especially when some people don’t have a clue about
what makes a photograph good and usable; too many people listen to the
promises of the photographer and don’t really look at their work.
They take short cuts, and often get shoots by misrepresenting themselves
and promising modeling jobs to aspiring models. Then there are roaches
who manage to learn a few tricks, such as using fill flash on a location
shoot. An aspiring model recently told me about this photographer who
was “incredible”, and “awesome”, and was surprised
that I did not know who he was (honestly, there are so many out there
now, that many of them are hard to find in the clutter; I also don’t
consider roaches to be competition. That’s great news, too, because
if I cannot find them specifically looking for them, it is unlikely that
others will find them, too. If your potential customers cannot find you,
then you might as well be out of business). She said that his work was
so good that she would be willing to do anything to shoot with him. She
said that he told her what he charged for modeling portfolios, which didn’t
bother me until she added some additional information. According to her,
he said that if models could not afford him, that they would pay him in
“other ways”. I was disgusted by her report of such unethical,
and unprofessional, behavior, as such photographers give the professional
photography industry a bad name. This said, I looked up his work upon
returning to the studio. His photography wasn’t bad, and he was
a location shooter like me. One thing that stood out in his work, however,
was his use of fill flash on location to make his models “pop out”
of the picture and gave his photographs a fashion look. It looked good,
but it also served to camouflage his mediocre skill in photographic composition.
I called the aspiring model and explained to her exactly what how he took
pictures, and she was surprised that I knew what he had been using. I
explained to her that I knew because I paid my dues and learned how to
shoot long ago. His photography was fools gold, looking glossy and good
at first glance, but still weak in areas, and it would do more harm than
good in a model’s portfolio. It was convincingly fake. I was especially
amused by his online photograph comments about “another secret Tampa
location”, and being a location photographer I could name each of
his secret locations, including the angle, the exact spot that the photograph
was taken, and the time of day. Some secret locations. I’ve been
shooting models on location for ten years now, and I know all of the good
photography spots in Tampa Bay. I even know a lot of spots that the other
photographers haven’t figured out (although, in all honesty, if
you know what you are doing, you can make just about any location work).
At any rate, I certainly hope that his “secret location” comments
were not aimed at me, because I am protective of my locations, and am
well known by other photographers, even if I don’t know of them.
I certainly realize that, while most of these roaches are difficult to
find, that I am not. I have an array of the best photography marketing
web sites in the Tampa Bay market which I specifically designed and coded
myself, and did not use and cheesy, cheap flash templates that so many
others use (It makes me laugh out loud when I see so many photography
sites, such as those for wedding photographers, which look the same).
If you are looking for Tampa photography services or a Tampa photographer
in any search engine, many of my sites will show up in the top results.
There are others there in those search results, too, but I don’t
really mind so much. As long as prospective clients can see my work along
with theirs, I’m not concerned. Why? Because my work is very good,
very solid, and shows the best range. I am very proud of it, and that
pride in my photography is well earned. I didn’t take short cuts,
paid my dues over a long period of years of hard work, and don’t
resort to gimmicks to make my work look better than it actually is. You
take one of those fake photographers, and put them a situation with tricky
lighting, or with a model who needs direction, and they will be in serious
trouble. They won’t have the experience to adapt to the challenge,
and won’t be able to get the job done.
Shortcuts apply to their web site philosophy, too. I see a lot of photographers
using black hat SEO techniques, stuffing their web sites with keyword
spam, and other nasty tricks to get them up in the search engines. Those
tactics may work at first, but they eventually catch up to you (and they'll
catch up to you sooner, rather than later, if I have anything to do with
it).
I’ve been around in the Tampa photography services market a long
time. I’ve seen it all. I’ve also seen photographers come
and go. Most don’t last long in this photography market, because
they find that they can’t make money (or they put themselves out
of business by being unethical, unprofessional, and by taking shortcuts).
One of the reasons for this is that, if they do know what they are doing
as far as marketing their photography services, that they cannot compete
with me, and I take their business from them. It’s as it should
be.
I know of one arrogant photographer who, no surprise, hates me, and that’s
cool by me. This photographer is better than most of the pretenders (and
he really has improved a lot in the past few years, so I have to hand
it to him), and his work has actually been brought up to a respectable
level. At any rate, on a portfolio networking site message board, he once
posted that he was an Alpha wolf observing the others. The other “photographers”
on the message board, of course, were too stupid to realize that he was
insulting them. As for myself, I sat back in my chair and snickered. If
he thought of himself as the king of the photography ghetto, or the king
of fools, more power to him. It didn’t matter to me, or effect me,
because I was busy making money, and they were not. How do I know this?
People tell me things, and I am really good at checking things out. Besides,
they did seem to have an awful amount of free times on their hands to
post on message boards instead of booking photography work and working
photography jobs.
As for me, I’m too busy working my business and making money at
their expense. I enjoy giving them more free time to post on modeling
message boards. They should thank me for the free time.
Then, there are other photographers who see my company, Aurora PhotoArts,
as a “big photography company” which is difficult, if not
impossible, to compete with, and it frustrates them. Well, what do they
expect? I was here long before they were. I invested in resources, and
have the experience, which gives me a huge advantage. Oh, and here is
a secret. I am gearing up to compete with big New York photographers,
photographers who are well-known names in the modeling industry. In the
eyes of the ignorant, my photography is about to get a lot better (actually,
it won’t really improve that much, because it doesn’t have
to. I will be obtaining more equipment which will give me more creative
flexibility and art direction, and by default that will add the icing
on the big cake that I have built and invested in. The others merely try
to use icing to disguise the fact that they don’t have a cake, and
they end up putting themselves out of business this way). I will have
the flash that others fumble around with, along with the substance. I
fully expect to continue to own the Tampa photography services market,
and it’s as it should be.
Don’t expect me to play nice, however. I am about to make things
really hard on the roaches. It’s not enough to own the market. I
simply don’t want these people littering it- I want it all pretty
and nice. So, I’ll help speed up the failure of their photography
businesses. I’m very good at doing that, and I’ll even go
into detail here about how I’m going to accomplish this.
Actually, I got the idea from a Tampa modeling agency owner. We were discussing
professional credibility one day, and she tried to debate that art directors
and modeling jobs would not book independent models without being referred
through an agency, because they did not have any credibility, and that
such models had a higher risk of flaking out. Well, what she didn’t
know, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her, was that models were
already doing it. In hindsight, however, maybe she did know. Maybe her
agency bookers were complaining to her that they were competing against
models who were booking modeling jobs without an agency.
Well, at the least, she did give me an idea, and it is about to make life
very, very difficult for all of the roaches out there.
You see, it all comes down to credibility. Who would you trust? Someone
who doesn’t invest anything in their career, or someone who has
invested in professional tools and business assets?
Those roaches out there who run their so-called photography businesses
from a freebie myspace, facebook, or a portfolio networking site profile
are about to find that their lack of investment into their careers is
going to undermine their professional credibility. At the very least,
it is going to cost them a lot of business, if not put them out of business
altogether (that is, if you can call what they are trying to do a “business”).
I actually sit at my computer and laugh out loud. I post my photography
services ads on certain classifieds sites (which I don’t really
need to do, because of my search engine performance, but it’s icing
on my cake, and pisses the roaches off, so I do it), and watch the roaches
post their ads, full of cheesy copy and bad photography; I see them try
to compete against me. I can see them crying as they post their ads, and
they don’t get any responses. They curse at me because they see
me as taking their business away. I laugh at them because they don’t
deserve to have any business, especially since it is obvious that they
are little more than hacks who haven’t put much into their business
other than going out and buying a camera so that they can make money at
the expense of idiots and meet so-called “hot girls”. Sure,
they have been a “professional photographer” for a couple
hundred years and concentrate on their “commercial photography”
customers because they are so good at what they do (I love the mindgames
that they use when they claim to be a “commercial photographer”
who has modeling jobs to offer through their clients, and that modeling
portfolio photography is so beneath them, yet they would book a portfolio
shoot in a heartbeat if any aspiring models bothered to inquire). It’s
too bad that their photography work does not support their lies- I mean,
claims. Others claim to be all that, and then charge rates that are so
low that it makes their business suspicious. A professional photographer
has a good handle on what their rates are, they invest in their career,
they don’t do “discount rate” pitches because they respect
their own work. They also know what their photography work is worth, and
they stick to their guns. I’ve seen it happen over and over again.
The hack roach photographer does not have a clue what they should be charging,
and takes a shortcut of offering discount photography services in an attempt
to undercut their competition and make it up in volume. Well, it backfires,
of course. How so? Allow me to illustrate (the following have no relation
to any known photographers, are used for the purpose of illustrating a
point, and any similarities to any photographer is purely coincidental,
although I do know a Rick, and he is an ass).
Nelson the photographer and Ricky the photographer both have decent portfolios.
Their work is nothing to fawn over, but they look like they can get the
job done. There is a big difference in rates, however. Nelson knows the
market and has an idea of what is appropriate to charge (the following
numbers are not indicative of what is appropriate for the Tampa photography
services market, and is not an indicator of what I charge, by the way.
This is only an example). Nelson charges $200.00 for his photography package.
Ricky, however, charges $75.00 for a comparable photography service package.
Oh, but wait, here comes another photographer! His name is Frank. Frank
claims to be a famous fashion photographer, and charges $600.00 for the
same service, and what looks like the same quality of work.
Which photography service would you book?
The correct answer is the one that Nelson is selling for $200.00.
Why? Think about this. Perceived value comes into play.
It’s common knowledge that the service should cost around what Nelson
is charging, because that’s what it is worth. Ricky is obviously
an amateur, because he is willing to charge way less than what his work
is supposedly worth; anyone looking at that rate would wonder what was
wrong with the service, because it is too cheap. Frank, on the other hand,
is hyping himself up and trying to rip people off by charging too much.
Most people will refrain from booking a shoot which is too expensive,
and Frank will have to embellish a lot, sell, and mislead people in order
to book at those rates.
Don’t believe me? It happens every day! See those modeling job ads
advertised on the radio and in the paper? How do you suppose that they
make money? They promise models jobs, jobs that they often are not doing
directly, and jobs which they cannot legally make money at referring models
to. The aspiring models, hearing that they can be considered for a modeling
job with no modeling experience (which is wrong, and misleading, on many
levels), then come in and pay for modeling portfolio shoots which cost
over $1,000.00. I know that this happens because I have talked to many
people who have been taken in by this type of modeling scam. Do you think
that they ever booked those modeling jobs, or were even able to confirm
that they existed in the first place?
Moving on, let’s talk about professional credibility. The roaches
take a few minutes to set up free profiles on Myspace, and on portfolio
networking sites. These become their main business sites. They do all
these free TFP / TFCD shoots with amateur and aspiring models, and build
a generic photography portfolio full of mediocre and cliched pictures.
The get aspiring models with breast implants and other modifications to
take off their clothes and pose in wet shirts. In their minds, they are
cool, and are ready to do business. They then try to compete against professional
photographers, real photographers with experience who know what in the
hell they are doing, and discover that they cannot compete. They can’t
get business, and become frustrated. So, where did they fail?
Two areas. One, it is obvious that they did not invest in their business.
This is the mark of an amateur, and only a fool would take them seriously.
They go up against a professional photographer who is operating from a
professional web site, and who obviously spent years and money building
a portfolio with real professional models, and they get crushed. Two would
be the failure to identify and segment different photography markets,
which I’ll have to go into some other time. Just remember that term,
and think about this: If you were a model looking for a photographer to
do your modeling portfolio, would you hire a photographer who operates
from a freebie profile and who has lots of tacky nudes in their portfolio?
I didn’t think so.
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Saturday, March 28, 2009 - 09:30 AM - Tampa Photography Industry Look by Photographer C. A. Passinault
Tampa Photography Blog Reboot
Just like I had to do with the Tampa Photographer Blog this morning, I just did a soft reboot of the Tampa Photography Blog. I removed a lot of the content, edited the remaining content and removed some lines, and am now ready to launch this blog in a new direction which is fully compatible with my Tampa photography business directives. In other words, I removed a lot of my opinions and statements which could be perceived as negative. I also removed content which would be seen as redundant between the two blogs. As I have stated on the other blog, I fully stand behind every opinion that I have ever posted here and have not changed my mind. It's just that I tend to state the obvious, and it's no longer appropriate to do so here.
The Tampa Photographer Blog will focus more on my adventures as a professional photographer, and what I've been up to. This Tampa Photography Blog will focus on the Tampa photography services industry. Both blogs will link to the latest updates in my web sites, projects, and other relevant things.
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - 08:30 PM - Tampa Photography Industry Look by Photographer C. A. Passinault
Photography Marketing And Work
I’ll make this Tampa
Photography Blog post quick, because I have to leave in 30 minutes for
a project. Lot’s to do (note: this post was extended after I took
a break, did the project, and returned to write more later that night.
I wanted
to do the subject justice, and not glaze over it; I think that I nailed
it. Now, I am proofing it before I post it).
I recently had a conference with several other top photographers who I
am allied with, and we were comparing notes on the Tampa photography services
market, as well as other photography services markets. It seems that the
deplorable state of the economy is having an effect on the photography
services market, although we haven’t been effected too much. Speaking
for myself, business is generally the same as it was last year, before
the economic meltdown. My professional photographer friends, on the other
hand, are benefitting from word of mouth referrals and traditional marketing.
For myself, it’s the massive marketing muscle that I control and
the vast umbrella of web sites which I have invested in, as well as word
of mouth referrals. It also helps that we have strong photography portfolios
full of years of outstanding work in photography. Few aspiring photographers
who just bought a digital camera and with a weak photography portfolio
can compete with us, especially in this economy and its weakened photography
services market.
Word from my contacts, however, indicate that most Tampa photographers,
as well as photographers elsewhere, are really hurting. Few photographers
will admit it, but business is down- the photography business, in general,
is down a lot. I think that, in the long run, this is a good thing, as
it will serve to weed out the weaker photographers and the photographers
who are up to no good. Professional photographers, such myself and my
friends, will survive, and this will be good for the Tampa photography
services market.
It could be slower for me, too, but it’s harder to measure if it
is, and cannot be measured directly because of additional factors in the
equation. A year ago, I began a massive upshift in web site fabrication
and new, advanced SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts (this Tampa
Photography Blog was one of them). As of now, the investment, and the
hard work, is paying off, with at least four times the search engine performance
of a year ago. This additional web site indexing performance may be offsetting
(there’s a banker term, denoting my seven years experience as a
banker) any decrease in business, so, like I said, it’s not as easy
to measure any loss of business.
It’s about to get a whole lot more interesting, too.
Effective yesterday, I launched the “No stone unturned” Internet
marketing initiative, which uses every possible and relevant Internet
marketing option available to my photography company. I deployed updated
Vanguard Class ads on (a popular classifieds site), and am mobilizing
other marketing resources for other online venues. I must stress that
I really don’t need to do this right now, but, hey, it will increase
photography bookings- and no one knows for certain just how much worse
the economy will get (if we go into another depression, which is possible,
or we have a complete economic collapse, all of us will have more to worry
about than the photography business. We will all be out of business) .
Another reason for this is to save people from Tampa photography services
which cannot give them what they need.
Photography needs to be taken very seriously (especially boudoir photography
and glamour photography, which carries the most risk for the clients being
photographed). We are working with the likeness of people and the subjects
that we photograph. Take our work out of the appropriate context, and
you can do a lot more harm than good. Making money is fine, and as a photographer,
you have a right to make a living, but you never have the right to make
money at the expense of your clients. Remember that photographs are forever,
and give our profession the reverence and the respect that it deserves.
Models and people who are in the market for Tampa photography services
must evaluate photographers not just in their ability to do photography,
but in what they do with those pictures. Think those pageant title holders
who are thrust into controversy, because of mistakes that they made in
the past with an unethical photographer, learn that lesson a little too
late?
I remember. I remember how I became a photographer. It was a very long
process. In 1994, I was an underground DJ who needed photographs for my
release covers. I also did a lot of writing and design work. I had my
sister-in-law bring her camera, and directed a “shoot” at
Tampa’s Lowrey Park, with myself, and an aspiring model by the name
of Nicole, modeling (yes, I did modeling as well as acting back then).
The pictures came out ok, but at that moment, without knowing anything
about cameras or photography, I formed Aurora PhotoArts, and would learn
as I went. Although at that point in my entertainment career I had spent
a great deal of time learning television production and operating television
cameras, I knew that, as a still photographer, that I was not qualified
to make money doing it. To do so would be to rip off my customers, and
this is something that I would do.
So, I didn’t get paid. I continued to do photography to support
my production projects. This was long before digital cameras, and photography
cost me a lot of money. Every shoot that I did cost me for film and development.
Between 1994 and 1999, five long years, I must have spent $10,000.00 of
my pay as a banker on photography (I did so many shoots that employees
at photo development centers knew me on a first-name basis). For the most
part, too, I got a lot of practice doing it wrong, too. My photography
wasn’t that good (my first professional-quality photograph happened
by accident in early 1998, and was a spark of what was to come later).
I suppose that I learned a lot of things through that experience which
actually benefitted me when I transitioned to pro photography, however,
because I am lethal with a camera now (I went to a large shootout once
and shot circles around photographers with ten times the equipment that
I had and cameras that were supposed to be superior to mine). At that
time, however, I had not yet turned pro, and still did not feel right
about charging for my photography.
That all changed in 2000. I picked up some books on photography and studied
it for the first time. I learned the right way of doing things, and meeting
Diana, who was also a fashion model, also helped me. She went through
boxes of my photography prints and told me that they all sucked. She told
me that I had been spinning my wheels practicing mistakes. As she was
also a designer, she gave me a few tips, mainly about composition. She
told me that I had talent, and that we would work it out and turn that
talent into skill. Within a few weekends working with Diana, my photography
improved dramatically. Within a year, I turned pro. All of the other pieces
of the puzzle, such as marketing infrastructure, which I had been working
on for years, fell into place. By 2001, I started making money as a professional
photographer (I also invested money into my first digital cameras, and
my first service contracts had different rates for film and digital).
The journey to that point was long and difficult. I had, however, paid
my dues, had not taken any shortcuts by misleading people and ripping
them off, and had earned the right to make money as a professional photographer.
Now you understand why I don’t think much of the so-called Tampa
photographers these days. Many of these guys didn’t learn photography.
They just went out, bought digital cameras, and jumped in pretending to
be better than they were. Back in 2001, it wasn’t difficult to figure
out who the professional photographers were. To build a portfolio, it
took a lot of money for film and development. Of course, the digital revolution
happened. These days, people go out and buy a camera, and then go around
pretending to be pro. It doesn’t cost them a thing to shoot. As
a result, the professional photographers now have to operate in a market
which is muddied by clouds of self-proclaimed photographers. A lot of
these so-called photographers try to offer services below the cost of
the professional photographers (you really do get what you pay for), or
shoot for free for questionable reasons. I’ve even heard stories
of photographers who try to make money by photographing models in compromising
positions, in various states of undress or in contexts which exploit them.
If the models can’t afford them, they resort to a barter system,
and offer to shoot the modeling portfolio of the model if the model “pays
them in others ways” (i.e. the model goes to bed with them). This
is unethical, and most models who I know are too smart to fall for this
B.S.
If a Tampa photographer is good, but has questionable ethics, keep looking.
There are better photographers out there, I can assure you. There are
more professional photographers today, and a wider selection, than there
were ten years ago. You will find a photographer who is a fit for you
and the photography services which you are seeking, and you certainly
don’t have to make any compromises or feel uncomfortable doing it.
It is a buyers market! YOU have the leverage. If you feel uncomfortable
shooting with a photographer, take that as a sign that there is something
wrong. Trust your gut!
I now begin a mission. I will work to improve my photography to the point
where I can compete with the best photographers in the world. By default,
this will ensure my dominance of the Tampa photography services market,
and I will save models and others seeking photography services from all
the photographers out there who are out to make money, and otherwise benefit,
at the expense of others.
My work is excellent. It’s about to get a lot better. I have plans
on invading other photography markets, too, such as boudoir, glamour,
wedding, and consumer portrait photography. Many of these type of photography
are ones that I avoided in the past. This will not be the case in the
future. For example, I am now convinced that the only way to save models
from being exploited and abused is to conquer the glamour photography
and the swimsuit photography markets. This will come to pass (yes, Raymond
and Rick, I’m looking at you). Hmmmmm... studio sets. Fill-flash
on location. Portable lighting. Art direction. Advanced photoshop work.
More equipment. New types of photography equipment, such as photosails
(which I invented). Components of the next machine, the business machine
needed to take markets. Those markets will belong to me and my friends.
You know, a thought. Equipment are tools, a means to accomplish a task.
Tools don’t make the work , however. You have to know how to use
those tools to set new market standards.
In the beginning, however, none of this was in my plans.
I never set out to be a photographer back in 1994. It was something that
I had to do because my production projects needed pictures. Over the years,
however, I came to the realization that I was born to do this. I was always
a photographer, even before I knew how to operate a camera. It just took
time, and a lot of work, to refine the skills which my talent supports.
At this time, being a writer, filmmaker, event planner, DJ, actor, marketer,
businessman, and much more, I know that being a professional photographer
will always be something that I will do. It’s about to go to a whole
other level, too. If you think that I’ve done work that was good
in the past, just wait for what will happen later this year and in the
years to come. You have not seen anything, yet.
Wow, I have to sit for a minute and think about my marketing. That’s
been my main edge over the years. Out of all the photographers in Florida,
I would have to say that I have the most significant Internet presence.
I own fifty web sites which are at the top of search engine results for
a plethora of subjects. Everything that I write, and publish, on my web
sites is read by thousands upon thousands of people. My opinions have
more exposure than most. Everything that I do makes a big difference.
I get media interviews and press coverage- a lot. I commissioned a study
last year to try to get an idea of the impact that my writing and my web
sites have had on certain markets. Well, I’ll give the modeling
industry as an example. I own two of the most popular modeling resource
sites- er, make that three (and soon to be four). I have evidence that
my ideas have infected the modeling industry, and helped to change it.
Today, more models than ever book work on their own without going through
a modeling agency, and this has equalized the playing field in the modeling
industry and has taken away the leverage that agencies enjoyed having
over models who they were supposed to be working for. Now, contrary to
popular belief, I am not anti-agency. I just don’t care for them
that much, and I am more interested in bringing integrity to the modeling
industry than in putting modeling agencies out of business. If you are
a legitimate, professional modeling agency, I respect you, and I am your
friend. You are a legitimate part of the modeling industry, and have the
right to stay in business. Just keep it clean. As long as you keep it
clean, you won’t have any trouble from me.
It’s the same with photographers. If they are professional photographers
who run a clean business and have ethics and integrity, they have my respect
and support. Consider me to be a friend.
Of course, the people out there taking shortcuts and doing wrong things
have more to be concerned about than me running interference. What you
do will catch up to you. Count on it, and know that you are your own worst
enemy.
Legitimate modeling agencies and photographers really should have no problem
with me. We all have common enemies and the same goals. We all want to
maintain integrity and ethics in business.
How many professional photographers out there have a passion for photography
and actually care? Not too many.
Heh heh....... So much controversy in the Tampa photography scene. I talked
to a Tampa photographer just now, and they told me that there were meetings
in which photographers and models discussed my modeling web sites and
my blogs. Good stuff. One thing is for certain; just about everyone is
aware of me or what I am doing, and it is all proceeding along nicely
with my plan. My brother once told me that, while I am certainly misunderstood,
I am not boring. I tend to agree. Agree with me or not, if I get you to
at least consider what I have to say, I have succeeded in doing what I
set out to do. Did it ever occur to anyone that I wouldn’t make
claims that I could not back up? Did it ever occur to anyone that everything
that I do, and everything that I publish, has a defined purpose in a component
of a much larger plan?
I play chess, people. Consider that. To me, business is a good, long game
of chess. I’m a good player, I win often, and I play over and over
again. Fine, look at my pawns. Pay attention to those, with their crazy
moves, and focus your efforts there as I position my Knights and my Queen
for a checkmate later down the road (it is ethical to play this way if
you are only doing it to your competition, and to those who aspire to
compete with you. Business is war, and telegraphing your moves to those
who work against you is a bad, and foolish, strategy. To to this to people
who you enter into business with, such as clients, is unethical, however.
You must consider the context).
Anyhow, the same photographer told me that I should update my Tampa photography
marketing web sites with new pictures. Well, I will when I am ready. I
will when I have the time. Perhaps some of these photographers need proof
that I am shooting? Doesn’t matter. Good pictures are just that.
Good pictures. The pictures in my portfolio and showcased (love that word)
on my photography marketing web sites were selected because they are effective
representations of the services which I am marketing. I’m not into
this “post every new photograph that you have online ASAP”
which so many other photographers are into. I am very busy shooting and
have a lot of web sites. I often only update some things when it is necessary
(or, like this blog, when I feel like it and am in the mood). I have nothing
to prove to anyone. I am in the position where I do not have to. I’m
pretty sure that most Tampa photographers know the deal. That’s
all that they need to know. If I were to post every picture that I took,
or posted anecdotes about every single shoot that I did on my Tampa Photographer
Blog, I would do more harm than good because I would be telegraphing my
moves to those who do not have my best interests in mind. I’d also
be taking time away from other things. Sure, sometimes I do telegraph
moves, but keep in mind that those moves are the ones that I want you
to see. Sometimes, the best place to hide something is in plain sight.
Sometimes not. There is a method to the madness, and a purpose in every
thing done.
Ok, closing things. I’ve spent too much time on this tonight.
If you are a professional photographer, consider me a friend. If you would
like to collaborate or need help, you may find that I am willing and able.
I only ask this. Be sincere with me, especially since I will be sincere
with you.
I have known photographers who were the real deal. They were professionals,
and were sincere with me. Those photographers have remained my friends
for years, and we mutually benefit. I have no problem referring clients
to them from my top marketing machine and giving them access to some of
my most powerful secrets. They have earned my trust, and my friendship,
and some of these photographers have serious advantages over other photographers
because of my assistance. Trust must be earned, my friends, and so should
friendship (this goes both ways, too, and I earn the trust and the friendship
of others). I am one of th good guys, and those who know me well know
this. This is also why I have all of the top professionals in my camp;
they know that I am worth it.
My Tampa Photography Association should make things easier this year.
Just realize that I’m much more than a professional photographer.
I am also someone who refers business to photographers, and am an art
director who will shortly be offering most of the photography jobs and
print modeling jobs in the Tampa Bay market. If I am convinced that you
are unprofessional, or you are one of the few photographers who have made
my blacklist, I won’t be considering you at all, regardless of how
good you are. I am a firm believer that you are who you associate with,
and I’m damn sure about who I associate with. So should you.
Well, it’s been busy. I finalized the design of my Tampa advertising
agency web site last night and finished a stable template. It’s
a Venus Class media services marketing web site like the one that I use
for my main Aurora PhotoArts photography company site (my Tampa Headshots
site is a Huey Class photography marketing web site, Huey Class named
in honor of my friend, professional photographer Craig Huey. The Tampa
Photography Association web site is another Huey Class site, and don’t
worry; all the site classes will be explained on my Tampa advertising
agency web site). Tonight, I took as much-needed break, and decided to
work on my blogs and archive the content. I’ll be writing about
my experience judging the Miss Gasparilla pageant and some other anecdotes
on my Tampa Photographer Blog as soon as I close this post.
Oh, yes, and I have another issue to address. I have to go over my blogs
and change some of the words to more refined ones. It seems that the search
engines, and Internet filter services in particular, are picking up some
of these words as keywords. Web Sense has put this Tampa Photography Blog
on their blocked list because it thinks that I have inappropriate content
on it. This is not the case. I will be contacting them shortly to have
them re categorize this site as safe. I went to a library the other day
to get some books on book writing and used their computers to check out
some of my sites. I was not amused when this Tampa Photography Blog was
blocked. I suppose that we all make mistakes, especially when software
is used to ferret out specific key words which are solely the means to
evaluate a site instead of actually looking at it.
Gotta go. Drat...... I don’t have time for my Tampa Photographer
Blog post now. That’ll have to wait until tomorrow, I suppose.
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Monday, November 17, 2008 - 3:33 AM - Tampa Photography Industry Look by Photographer C. A. Passinault
Tampa Photography Marketing Web Site News
I'm making progress
with my Tampa photography marketing web site agenda. This morning, I completed
and 
launched
the new Aurora PhotoArts Tampa
Headshots web site. Since headshot photography is one of
my best selling Tampa photography services, and my main Aurora PhotoArts
web site covers a lot of different photography and design services, this
was needed. Check it out by clicking on the image link to the right.
For more about this exciting, ground-breaking Tampa Headshots web site launch, check out my Tampa Photographer Blog. Another site in my fleet has launched, and I have two more new Tampa photography web sites in development which will launch before the end of the month. I'm also upgrading, and finally completing, my main Venus Class Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Photography and Design web site. The site is huge, so that work alone should take at least a week.
Concerning Tampa photography marketing web sites, I recently posted about issues that I believed that I had with search engine rankings. Well, things were not actually like I though they were. It seems that I checked rankings using search engine terms which my sites were not optimized for. I found the old terms, which are actually what most people use (I use search terms that qualify the targeted traffic and increase the odds that the people on my sites are potential clients who are actually looking for Tampa photography services), and my search engine performance has actually increased. It does not matter, however, since the new directives involving the new search term set has already been implemented, and both sets will do well in the search engines by January 2009 (especially with the addition of three more Tampa photography marketing site using my latest SEO tools and search engine technology). These are exciting times!
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Saturday, October 19, 2008 - 9:00 AM - Tampa Photography Industry Look by Photographer C. A. Passinault
Tampa Photography Market Update
It's
been a fun year, and this is my first update in a while on the Tampa photography
blog because I've spent a while doing Tampa photography shoots and posting
on the Tampa Photographer Blog. Things are about to get a whole lot more
interesting for the Tampa photography services market.
I've been making money at photography for a long time, and I have had
fun doing it. I went pro back in the days when digital cameras were too
primitive to use professionally, and if you wanted to be a photographer,
you had overhead in the form of film and film development. The Tampa photography
services market was a lot less cluttered and way more professional back
then, simply because photography cost money and you had to invest a lot
of money into film and development if you were a photographer. Including
myself, I counted no more than twenty five professional Tampa photographers
in those days, which was 1998 to 2001. The photography services market
was limited to professional photographers because you really had to be
serious about what you were doing.
My, how things have changed in the last seven years.
At last count, which I did over the summer of 2008, there were literally
thousands of self-proclaimed Tampa photographers. The Tampa photography
services market is so cluttered with so-called Tampa photographers (that
is, amateur and unethical aspiring photographers) that it is really difficult
to find the professional photographers. That, too, has changed, and there
are, perhaps, one hundred or so professional Tampa photographers. Of those
professional Tampa photographers, I am in the top five percent, with fewer
than six photographers who I consider to be serious competition. In Florida,
I am among the top ten percent of professional photographers, and there
isn't a single photographer who is in the position to offer services anywhere
close to what I've been booking and selling. I've been doing well with
my Tampa photography and design services business.
One pitfall that has been plaguing the Tampa photography industry has
been the lack of overhead to do photography. High quality digital cameras
are cheap, and many aspiring photographers don't bother investing in professional
photography web sites because it is easy to sign up with one of the many
portfolio networking sites, which serve as amateur photography clubs.
With the perception that you no longer need to invest in a professional
photography career, the market is full of Tampa photographers of a wide
range of skill and experience, and it makes things a bit confusing for
those who are looking for professional Tampa photography services.
Most of the time, I get clients who find my web sites through search engine
searches. They compare my online photography portfolio to the photography
portfolios of other Tampa photographers and end up calling my photography
company. When that happens, I end up having a 85% sell-through rate (most
salespeople would be envious of those numbers, but my photography work
tends to sell itself, and I don't really have to sell that much). When
I tell the clients my photography rates, they don't even blink. I can't
remember the last time that I had a client tell me that my rates were
too high, or who tried to talk me down. I know what appropriate photography
rates are for the Tampa photography services market. When I put together
my Tampa photography company, I had the mindset of a customer, and set
my rates to be average and fair. I put together a photography services
company that I would want to book if I were a customer / client looking
for photography services. I it were not my photography company and I were
still an actor looking for headshots, I'd choose Aurora PhotoArts Tampa
photography and design, which is my company. Setting up a Tampa photography
services company that I would want to buy services from as an educated
consumer is one of the reasons that my sales numbers are consistently
better than most of the other Tampa photographers and Tampa photography
services companies. Oh, yes, and I don’t have to mislead anyone
to book them, either, especially since those tactics are forbidden and
I would not feel right about throwing my ethics away and lowering myself
to that level just to make money.
I
love my work as one of the top Tampa photographers. I really do. I believe
in what I do, and it shows with my high quality photography. I have no
problem marketing and selling photography services which I know are worth
it. Some of my photographers who work with me joke that the large Internet
traffic on my Tampa photography marketing web sites are largely due to
me constantly going through them and admiring my photography work in my
extensive online photography portfolio. I've created some of the best
photographs in the Tampa photography services market, and I am proud of
the high quality work for which I am famous for.
In all my years as a professional photographer, I've only had one lady
make an issue of the quality of my work, and she only did so as an excuse
to obtain a discount. During the shoot, she was wowed by all of the pictures,
and when I pointed out that nothing had changed from the pictures that
she initially saw and the pictures delivered to her, she backed off. Another
woman didn't bother to read the service agreement and was expecting prints
even after I explained to her that printing was an extra service contracted
through a printing subcontractor, as I was a photographer and not a printer
(sometimes, I do miss the film and development days because the clients
obtained prints by default- things have certainly changed, and the digital
delivery of image files, in my opinion and in my experience, is actually
better as long as the client understands why. You simply have more flexibility
and output options with digital images files than you would by receiving
8 X 10 or 5 X 7 prints. Anyone want to scan prints so you can resize them?).
Anyway, in some cases, you do the best job that you can do as a professional
photographer and make sure that your clients expectations match the reality
of the service provided. Perception, indeed, is everything. Oh, and make
sure that they read their service agreement before they sign it, too.
Communication is very important in order to keep your clients happy.
At any rate, I've had two client issues out of hundreds of photography
sessions spanning over seven years. That's 
impressive!
As a matter of fact, several of my closest friends started out as clients.
I have, and maintain, some of the highest client satisfaction rates in
just about every service industry that you can think of, and I am very,
very proud of that. It's only going to get better, too, as I have some
incentives now available for clients which will make them even happier.
There are some great Tampa photographers out there. There are Tampa photographers
who are not so great, too, and they make up the majority. Most of the
time, I've seen a lack of balance in both groups. You have Tampa photographers
who are clearly talented, and who do outstanding, perhaps brilliant, work,
but don't have a clue about running a business. Then, you have Tampa photographers
who are skilled salespeople and who know how to sell what they do, but
they don't know how to shoot. Very few Tampa photographers have the photography
skill and the business skill to make it in the Tampa photography business.
You certainly have to have both to make it in the cluttered and confusing
Tampa photography services market.
Even if you disagree with me right now and are angered by my words, some
of you photographers may eventully end up working for me after you find
out that I know what I am doing, and see that many of the technologies
and ideas that my Tampa photography company introduces to the market will
revolutionize it. That's enough if that, for now.
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 8:35 PM - Tampa Photography Industry Look by Photographer C. A. Passinault
Tampa Photography Blog Design Adjusted
The design of the Tampa Photography Blog is being adjusted. Please stand by for the design change and a new blog post about the Tampa Photography Services market. It's long overdue.
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Sunday, May 4, 2008 - 4:42 AM - Tampa Photography Industry Look by Photographer C. A. Passinault
Tampa Photographer Blog Launched
It is late, so I don't have much time to post this. This Tampa Photography Blog has spilt into two blog sites, Tampa Photography Blog and Tampa Photographer Blog. This original site, Tampa Photography Blog, will see some design adjustments, and will focus on the Tampa photography industry and my opinions about the Tampa photography services industry. The new Tampa Photographer Blog will focus on my adventures as a photographer and other photographer anecdotes. It will retain the original design, and if you want to follow up on my adventures as a photographer, will be the one to read. Each site, which make up one large binary blog site with two categories, will have to have a different color scheme and design so people won't get confused. The names are very close. Right now, both sites look identical with small differences, but this will change shortly when the design and color scheme of this site is adjusted.
I will post more later. It is time to sleep.
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are not neccessarily those of Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Bay photography and
design or any other party. Presented as-is, with no guarantees expressed
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is not legally liable for the content on this web site blog, and use of
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