1.
Tampa modeling photography shootout
issues and scams
1a. Online
education campaign
1b.
Shootout events
1c. Tampa
Bay Photography Society Association
1d. History:
The Tampa Photography War 2003-2004
2. The
“model coach” and his May 2011 shootout
2a. Being
invited and intentions. How lying = scam
2b. Amateurs
pretending to be professional
2c. Coaching,
the “agent”, composition, and posing
2d. Children
with a loaded gun
2e. Mean
amateurs and the backlash against them
PREVIOUS
- TAMPA BAY MODELING - NEXT
By C.
A. Passinault, Director of Tampa Bay Modeling
SHOOTOUT
EVENTS
I’ve been thinking about
doing a series of modeling shootout events for several years now. Back
as far as 2001 and 2002, I used to go out with groups of models and other
photographers in rather informal shootouts, and we’d have a lot
of fun while getting some great work done (keep in mind that I also had
a photography business even back then, and it worked well. These excursions
did not conflict with my business or undermine my market, either). Informal
or not, however, these group shoots were a hell of a lot more organized,
and professional, than any of these other shootout events in recent years.
In 2005, I noticed, to my disgust, that a Tampa glamour photographer was
doing a series of shootout events in the Tampa Bay area, promoting high-risk
photography and modeling as “mainstream” and safe. Although
the photography work was decent, this was wrong, and they were spreading
misconceptions about modeling and photography in this market. Then again,
I’ve always questioned the ethics of that photographer, who seemed
more interested in marketing services to photographers and exploiting
models than actually having a respectable photography business. Maybe
he really was only doing it for fun? Even if that was the case, he definitely
left a “black” mark on the local market, in my educated opinion.
There was a time, about nine years ago, when I was booking models into
one of my photography projects. I asked for professional references. One
of the models used him as a reference. I sent her an email and asked her
for another reference. He wasn’t happy about it when she told him,
but I didn’t care; he sent me a sarcastic email wanting to know
about my criteria for references, and I didn’t bother to dignify
it with a reply. He got the message, and so did she.
How about professional integrity, and knowing the risks of the crap that
you are doing as you spin it as the real deal? This photographer knew
better, too, as he is not dumb. In my opinion, he merely was out to make
money at the expense of others, and did not care who he hurt or exploited
along the way. I do not like people like that, and certainly cannot respect
them. I also refuse to be associated with them in any way, and other professionals
should be as selective about who they associate with. Don’t compromise!
Your career will thrive only if you protect it by using good judgement
and if you make good decisions. The more you learn, and the more experience
that you get, the better that you will do. Know what you are dealing with,
and get the facts so that you don’t sell yourself short. You are
what you do, and this includes anyone whom you associate with.
In recent years, I was horrified to observe a rather skanky, overrated
“model” doing a series of shootout events at a clothing-optional
resort in the Tampa Bay area. She and her minions would spam the Internet
and social media with whatever it was that they were trying to do (one
of her so-called “photographers” sent Tampa Bay Modeling a
spam ad email on Myspace, and I let them know what I thought of them and
their “offer”. I told them that real models don’t do
shoots at clothing-optional resorts with no-talent people who tried to
spin exploitation as art). They spun a bunch of amateurish, inappropriate,
high-risk garbage as “mainstream” professional modeling and
photography, too (I just love it when low-class, trashy people, people
who are out to make it by using and exploiting others, make it at the
expense of others, while persistently try to pass themselves off as “open-minded
artists”. These defilers of freedom abuse our rights by taking advantage
of them and pushing the envelope of good taste, causing public outrage
and apathy toward anything described as art; they make it harder for legitimate
professionals to maintain their rights. You f-ing fakes disgust me, and
I’m aiming to put these people in their place and out of business!).
I monitored the photographs and the coverage of these events, and I was
not impressed. Why do these amateur, crass people go out and do these
tacky, low-class events and make the participants look like idiots? In
these cases, though, perception was indeed reality, as far as I was concerned;
these people were all idiots. Fortunately, the “model” became
a vagabond gypsy and moved on, and the shootouts came to an end. Many
models were happy about that, and the Tampa Bay area rejoiced. Good riddance,
and please do not move back (Note: As of 07/22/11, it does look like that
she is indeed back, and up to her usual B.S. It doesn’t matter,
though, as she won’t be able to compete with more professional,
higher quality, and more creative alternatives as we bring the standard
to the market. I talked to a model tonight, and she told me that she tried
to delete the spam from the model who was doing the resort shootouts;
when your target market hates you, you have no chance).
Which brings us to a modeling photography shootout event that I witnessed
first-hand last month (For more about this, keep reading this article,
as it will covered in Part Two: “The
GWC model coach and his shootout event”. Also,
read my previous article “Standards
have dropped in the Tampa modeling industry”).
All of my preconceptions were proven correct, and there is more about
this in part two of this article. The organizer lied to me,
lied to the people who were there about me (He invited me to attend, backstabbed
me by telling the people in attendance behind my back not to talk to me,
implying that I was doing something wrong, lied by telling them
that I had invited myself, which was NOT the case, and was really
rude to me by telling me that I could not be around them while they “worked”),
and used deceptive, manipulative tactics; one of the reasons was that
he was afraid of competing with me because he knew that he could not compete
with me, in my opinion. Anyone who lies is a scam. Additionally,
let’s just say that watching a bunch of amateurs pretend that they
were industry players, while they screwed any chance that the models had
of having effective careers with completely inappropriate photography
work, convinced me that standards have to be introduced to the market.
With my resources, contacts, and professional experience in the market,
too, they have no chance of competing with me, either. They already know
this, though, and I’m sure that they are losing sleep over this
(I am not joking about this, either).
What is coming will cripple most of the shootout events in the Tampa Bay
market, if not outright put them out of business altogether. It’s
something that they have coming to them, and it is something that they
well-deserve.
This Fall, I am deploying a series of modeling photography shootout events
(NOTE 07/28/13 - This article was published
two years ago, in July 2011. My shootout events were delayed, but it did
not matter. Just the threat of the shootout events caused the "competition"
to panic, and their attempts to adapt destroyed their shootout business.
We never had to do do any shootout events. This said, my shootout events
are needed, and they are coming; they should be up to full capability
and capacity by 2014; I took the extra time to work out the details. The
story behind this would take another article, and will be written and
published on a new, upcoming web site once the shootouts
are operational in 2014. It's an awesome story, too, and I might even
make it into an independent film). Recently, in preparation
for this, I even bought TampaShootouts.Com
. There will be more than one shootout event property, they will interconnect,
and I will build and deploy additional shootout event web sites, all with
strong branding and formats, as I begin this project. All of the shootout
event sites will use TampaShootouts.Com as the
core site (Note 07/28/13 - I decided to just
go with TampaShootouts.Com, and keep it at that. The site has done extremely
well, and it is as the top of search results, where it belongs).
So, we have something that they will not be able to compete with, and
new standards will be maintained in the Tampa Bay market. There is no
way that a self-proclaimed “model coach” who is a poor photographer
and who operates from a portfolio networking site will be able to compete
with a network of several web sites (which will dominate search engines),
the branding and format of the events, the organization of the events,
my professional industry contacts and support, and the support of all
of my other web sites, including Tampa Bay Modeling.
You brought this on yourself, and you deserve it. You
tried to mislead me, convinced me that there needs to be a professional,
ethical alternative to what you are trying to do, and you are going to
find out that I was the wrong person to provoke. You see, I have
the power and the resources to dominate Tampa shootout events.
You don’t, and you never will, if I have anything to do with it.
You have awakened a sleeping giant by trying to step to me while disrespecting
me, and I’ve, figuratively, knocked you on your ass.
This is my market, and the market of other professionals who
have EARNED the right to be here. Amateurs have no business
trying to step to us, and amateurs certainly do not have the right to
become con artists, pulling scams while misrepresenting their experience
and portraying themselves as industry players when they are not. The
top professional models in the Tampa Bay market trust and respect me because
I have earned their trust and respect. I have an unmatched track
record of getting along with professional models, which is why many of
my best friends are the models whom you dream of working with. Except,
that won’t happen now. You stated that you want word about you to
get out, and it certainly has. Right now, several hundred professional
models know what happened, and they won’t have anything to do with
you or those other unethical amateurs.
I’m also going to take your market from you. Game
over, liar. Go get another hobby and convince people in some other market
that you know what you are doing. In this market, the professionals see
you for what you really are, and know that you are a FAKE.
Oh, and another thing about the shootouts, especially the monthly ones.
They are free for professionals. Free usually doesn’t trump paid
unless the quality is better, and in this case, it is, because professional
models, photographers, make up artists, and stylists collaborate with
each other and will do some worthwhile work. They will also behave professionally.
There will be none of this petty bickering and backstabbing going on,
and no cliques. I won’t be inviting anyone whom I don’t want
there, and won’t mislead anyone by inviting them and then claiming
otherwise when they show up. The other shootouts are marketed toward amateurs,
and it shows in the results of the work. Yes, we will be having professional
workshops which will tie into the shootouts, workshops which are target
marketed to amateurs and which are taught by qualified, experienced professionals,
but the workshops are not the monthly shootouts. There is a difference.
One of the main purposes of my monthly shootout events is for professionals
to network and collaborate, and that’s a reason that I want to keep
it free, at least as first.
I can understand why someone might want to charge an aspiring photographer
$100.00 for a shootout where they can take pictures of models and build
their portfolios, but they should get more value for that. Anyone can
take pictures of models, especially the amateurs which are at those shootouts,
and for free, at that (Free only trumps paid if the quality is the same,
or better, because this makes it a better value for the time invested.
Free cannot trump paid, though, if the quality is poorer than what you
would pay for, such as TFP shoots VS paid photography work. Professionals
are going to know how to work it, and how to position themselves, and
they are going to make money doing what they were meant to do, and doing
what they earned the right to do by paying their dues, while the amateurs
will be stuck in a rut doing free work). Why charge someone for something
that they can get for free with no additional effort? What, are
you going to teach them? How can you teach anyone something that
you do not know? Are you just going to make it up as you go? Is that even
honest? Do you care? Amateurs helping amateurs is kind of like the blind
leading the blind, and it’s no wonder that those shootouts turn
out to be wastes of time. Yes, there have been complaints, and yes, those
complaints are one of the reasons that I’ve been inspired to do
these shootout events.
Regarding giving new models advice on furthering their career,
especially when you haven’t been able to turn whatever it is that
you do into a career yourself, I’m sure that you can study the information
on my modeling resources sites and, like a shady, unethical middleman,
pass of my information as your “advice”, but I genuinely have
the experience and the knowledge. I am the source. You will never be better
than me at this.
NEXT:
Tampa Bay Photography
Society Association
PREVIOUS
- TAMPA BAY MODELING - NEXT
07/24/11
- 04/17/12 - 07/28/13/0743
©
Copyright 2011-2013 Tampa Bay Modeling. All rights reserved.
|