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
HISTORY: THE TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHY WAR 2003-2004
He continued to call me every
day, and I began to ignore him. One morning, he called me and woke up
my girlfriend, who was a model and was fully aware of who he was and what
he did. She didn’t like him. She got on the phone, messed with his
head, went into great detail about what we had been up to, and he freaked
out. She and I discussed it, had a good laugh, and went back to sleep.
He then went around telling people that I was unethical because I “slept
with models”, which implied something that was completely different
than what was really going on. You see, at this point in time, I didn’t
know any women who were not models (and I still really don’t; I’ve
been working and, off and on, living with models for over a decade now).
Although I did not get into the modeling industry to date models, and
I did not become a photographer to date models, I avoid dating models
if at all possible because I have to also work with them. Sometimes, however,
you meet a special woman and everything clicks on a personal level. By
default, only knowing models made it a certainty that my girlfriends would
be models (I’ve had six girlfriends in the last ten years, all of
whom were models. At least one of them was a celebrity. They all have
been gifted, too, which makes them compatible with me. I’ve dated
some of the most beautiful women in the world, and the beauty was irrelevant
because they were not only beautiful on the inside, but we connected and
had a relationship). Dating any model for me is the exception rather than
the rule, and a very small percentage of models whom I’ve worked
with become personally involved with me on that level; I take these situations,
very, very seriously, and am careful about taking those kinds of risks.
There is nothing sleazy or unethical about it. More often than not, though,
a majority of the models whom I work with become friends with me, as I
get along with them quite well. I’m not fake, and I can
be trusted, and models come to realize this. They also come to
realize that I know what I’m doing, and no one, not even the agencies,
know the business and the industry like I do. Hell, I helped create much
of the current industry, especially in the Tampa Bay market.
I think that the reason that he was so upset it that he wanted to be me,
and tried too hard to do what came naturally to me (Don’t you hate
it when people try to be like you and they try too hard to be cool? People
who are insecure and who don’t know who they are, and/ or who don’t
be themselves, are pathetic. You either are, or you aren’t. There
is no try. You just do it by default, and it is a natural benefit of what
you do and how you act, and it is never the goal itself). His motivation
was money and bedding beautiful women, often at the expense of them, and
things that he felt entitled to, even if it was undeserved. My motivation
was professional photography and doing everything ethically. He treated
women as objects, and anything went as far as he was concerned; he didn’t
care who he hurt, and he lied, cheated, and stole to get what he wanted.
I treated women as people, developing professional relationships with
them, and was very careful about what I did as a photographer because
I respected the art form and did not want it to hurt anyone. I also fully
comprehended the power of photography, and understood the risks involved.
Additionally, unlike him, I was honest.
As far as I know, his plans to use photography to pick up women failed,
as no model wanted anything to do with him personally, as he was a crass
dirtbag. As for me, I was no dirtbag, and often models who were interested
in me personally ended up lost on the wayside personally because I was
too busy doing a good job as a photographer and working. I avoided dating
models when I could, and the most that most of them can hope for is friendship,
as I’m picky, am all about relationships, I’m a true romantic,
and I’ve never been a one night stand kind of man.
My girlfriend smiled. She pressed her nose against mine. She looked me
in the eye. “Chris, why do you take calls from that idiot?”
Pity, perhaps?
Well, my girlfriend was the first to put him in his proper place, and
soon, I would have to do that, too.
At that point, it became interesting. He realized that I wasn’t
going to work with him or play his game, so his true intentions became
clear. He stole meta tags off of my web sites. He stole composite
card pricing formulas off of my photography and design business web site,
and then turned around and used my information, plagiarizing my content
and using it to convince other photographers to work with him.
Why did he want other photographers to work with him? Well, you see, it
was a continuation of the same plan that he had when he tried to get me
to work with him. He was out to scam other photographers, and
set out to learn from them while stealing anything that he could from
them. The prominent Chicago-based photographer who he lured in
with my comp card business information? Well, they ended up creating a
composite card business around my stolen information. In the end, though,
they couldn’t make it work because, well, it wasn’t
originally his concept, and he did not comprehend the mechanics behind
the concept. In the end, the business failed because he
ripped off the other photographer. He ripped off others, too.
The photography association, a great idea, failed because it was
a scam. The photographer would get all of these photographers
to work with him, and he would copy what they did, learning the business
that way, while stealing clients and other things from them. In
late 2003, I received a mysterious mass-email from the magazine publisher
whom shared studio space in Ybor with the photographer and his photography
“association”. The publisher claimed that the photographer
went into his computer and stole all of his contacts, and then spammed
them with advertisements (today, unauthorized access to computer
systems and theft of private information is a felony. I’m not sure
what it was back then, but regardless, it is highly unethical, and is
yet another demonstration that the photographer had flaws in his character
which made him unprofessional, as well as completely untrustworthy. The
irony was that he was the one preaching “integrity” all of
the time, and his actions betrayed his words). The publisher denounced
the photographer, and kicked him out of the studio. The photographer
rented studio space elsewhere in Ybor.
His photography “association”, too, had a lot of turnover.
Photographers would move their business in the studio. The photographer
would then access their computers, study their business, learn how to
do photography from them, and steal everything from their business strategies
to their clients! There were more than a few photographers who
were scammed and run out of business over this.
The photographer proved to be a gifted con artist and a natural salesman,
though. He was able to convince people to work with him. Although I continued
to fight him and ran a lot of interference with his schemes, I was the
only one who stood up to him, as far as I know, other than the magazine
publisher. He also did not give up. As a result, he made a business out
of scamming other photographers.
He became a better photographer, too, not through talent, which he had
little of, but through determination and copying the work of other photographers.
With little originality, he made a career out of emulating other photographers,
and his work became good in the eyes of the uneducated.
What annoyed me, too, was that he managed to obtain representation
from several talent agencies. This made me question the
ethics and the integrity of those agencies, as they knew that he was unethical
and unprofessional.
Around Christmas of 2003, the photographer called me one last time.
He had moved his studio to South Tampa. Some models had complained about
him making lewd remarks to them during shoots (i.e. “You look
so hot, you turn me on. I want to j**k off to these pictures later”),
another model complained to me that he tried to get her to pose without
her clothes, I heard a story from another, also-reputable source that
he had two 16 year old models posing provocatively in their underwear
(which prompted at least one photographer to leave the studio in disgust,
and in fear of getting arrested for activities that the main photographer
was doing. I also quit working with one of the 16 year olds over the fiasco,
and her parents were not pleased about their daughter’s bad judgement).
Also, there were stories about him offering so-called free shoots,
and then turning around and selling people pictures that they never originally
agreed to buy as he pulled a bait and switch, which made it a deceptive
marketing tactic, and therefor a scam.
So, I published a warning on Independent Modeling about unethical photography
and photography scams in a studio in South Tampa.
He called me up that very day, and asked for me to remove the warning
post. I asked if it was him that he thought that the post was referring
to, and told him that the post would remain until it could be proven false,
which I was positive would not be the case (I would not have published
it if I had any doubts, or lacked evidence to support it). He threatened
to get his lawyer involved. I told him to go right ahead, and that the
post would remain up. He was upset, and then tried to be nice to me in
an attempt to convince me to remove the post. I would not.
That’s the last time that I would talk to him, but not the last
that I would have to deal with him and his B.S. No attorney ever contacted
me, however, which was as expected.
There were two fights with models that I had because of him, however.
The first was with a model who he had stolen from another photographer,
a model who was an idiot and who was easily misled. Her name was Krystal.
In early 2004, I was working on a project, and was looking to book models
into the project. The model, who was quite stunning as far as her look,
submitted her information and some pictures to me for consideration. The
pictures did not look too great, though, and I asked her for more. I talked
to her on the phone about it. I suggested a few photographers who she
could shoot with to give her pictures that she could book jobs with, including
the photographer who she had originally worked with before she was stolen
from him. The model told me that she loved my work and that she was dying
to do a shoot with me. I told her that I was too busy for a collaborative
shoot at the time (all of this was the truth, too, as I was very busy
booking modeling portfolio shoots at the time. Only recently, in 2013,
have I been able to figure out how to fit this in and balance it out with
my business, and it isn't doing a one-on-one shoot. It was a tough puzzle!),
but that I would consider working with her when I had the time. I stressed,
though, that although I’d try to consider her for the project, that
she probably would not book it with inappropriate pictures, especially
ones which all had the same over-processed look. She would need new pictures.
Well, unknown to me, he had shot those pictures. The model whined to him
about it, and then after he told her a bunch of lies about me, she ranted
in an email to a photographer who I was friends that I was an “amateur
who used consumer cameras”, and that my work “sucked”,
and that she “would never work with me”. My photographer friend
forwarded me the email, and both he and I had a good laugh. If
she wanted to believe what the con artist told her, well, it was her loss,
and not mine. It was funny about how she told me one thing and
then said the opposite after she got mad at me. I later found out that
the model began abusing drugs and modeled on adult web sites, the latter
ruining her modeling career.
The second incident was a couple of months later, in early 2004. In 2002,
I had a calendar shoot in downtown Tampa with a group of four models.
It was supposed to be five. One of the models was a "professional"
league cheerleader who pulled a no-call / no-show, which was rare for
me to experience then, and is still rare for me to experience today. Annoyed
at the unprofessionalism of the delightful model, I posted her first name
in a bad models section on Independent Modeling, explaining in
the post about a cheerleader from Tampa who pulled a no-call / no-show.
Well, in 2004, she worked with the con artist photographer, taking pictures
in various states on undress in his trademark yellow lighting that he
used in all of his pictures at the time. Well, color being off or not,
he was getting better..... at getting women to take off their clothes,
at least! It’s funny how many women out there have self esteem issues
and feel that they have to allow people like him to exploit them in a
permanent format such as photography so that they can feel desired and
“sexy”. Some people should never be allowed around cameras,
for sure. (I once saw a self portrait of the con artist photographer on
Myspace where he was without HIS clothes in front of a computer, so I
have to wonder about the uses that those pictures had after the shoots.
He can’t have the models while he takes pictures of them, so he
probably makes himself believe that he has them when he violates their
pictures on a computer. It’s quite disgusting, really; I’d
never buy a second-hand computer that he had, because it would probably
be the case, literally! It's unethical and nasty)! During the shoot, he
told her that I had posted about her on Independent Modeling, well, because
he was obsessed with my modeling site and everything that I did, and he
knew about it. She got pissed off and emailed me, threatening me with
her attorney, and that I had “slandered” her and the sparkling
image of her cheerleading career. I told her that it’s not slander
if it’s true. I also told her that if her professional image was
important to her, that she shouldn’t have done the kind of photographs
that she did with him (she never brought him up, but a quick search confirmed
my suspicions that she had, indeed, worked with dirtbag, and that he was
behind her anger toward me. Those pictures were also all over the Internet!).
Well, once again, the lawsuit never materialized, and a year later, the
squeaky clean cheerleader model was arrested in Ybor for possession of
drugs and an attempt to dispose of evidence. Such nice role models there
for the young people of America! You are what you do, dear. I suppose
that the no call/ no-show was an indication of her character. Idiot. No
wonder she was so defensive. It’s called insecurity.
At any rate, war was about to begin. It would get worse before it got
better.
In 2004, Andy Meng, Craig Huey, and myself formed our own professional
photography association, the Round Table Photography association. The
con artist photographer began getting better at photography, and began
to get more clever about luring in photographer victims and ripping them
off. His turnover decreased, and soon, he had a little group of other
amateur photographers working out of his studio with him.
One day, I was on One Model Place’s message board, and I saw one
of his photographer partners dispensing bad modeling advice to people
on there. Concerned that the opinionated photographer was luring in naive
models to the studio where the con artist photographer could scam them,
and speculating that the photographer was shady just because he had been
working with the dirtbag for a while, I disagreed with him in a post countering
his.
This was the beginning.
The opinionated photographer, whom I will refer to as late-life crisis
jerk, or jerk for short, did not like that I dared to counter what he
had posted. Instead of sticking to the topic, however, especially since
he couldn’t beat me in any kind of debate, he resorted to an underhanded
tactic. He tried to attack my credibility, instead.
He followed me around on the message boards, and began posting as soon
as I posted somewhere else about my photography association.
He demanded to know who I was. He stated that, because he couldn’t
find out where lived, that I was not a legitimate professional photographer.
He said that people, like models, that he talked to did not know who I
was.
I wasn’t about to allow him to goad me into playing his
game by “proving” that I was a professional photographer,
and told him that he needed to try to debate with me by sticking to the
topics at hand instead of trying to attack my credibility.
Regarding the other allegations, I replied that his "models"
did not know who I was because I only worked with professional models.
I then asked how he could be a legitimate professional photographer when
the photographers whom he worked with in the studio were questionable
at best.
So, the jerk went to the con artist, the con artist told the jerk and
the other photographers all lies about me, and the next thing that I knew,
I had a gang of four photographers out of that studio trying to harass
me online. They all tried to attack my credibility.
I decided to give them a taste of their own medicine. I got Independent
Modeling involved, and models began to write the site about shady photographers
working out of Ybor. A photographer war was underway.
Although I never labeled the jerk to be a scam of any kind, which he claims
that I did to this day, I did question his integrity because of whom he
associated with. The plan was to embarrass the photographers
so that they would abandon con artist in the studio, and the campaign
was well underway; essentially, while fighting them, I would save the
pawn photographers from themselves. Like Tampa Bay Modeling
today, Independent Modeling dominated the search engine results back then
for the Tampa modeling market (Therefore, models who claimed that they
did not know who I was were either illiterate idiots who did not use search
engines, or were lying). Independent Modeling was extremely powerful.
I had a lot of readers, and the photographers soon found that out.
The photographers were vastly outnumbered by my models, my photographers,
and my readers, and the growing number of people who were forming negative
opinions about them. The photographers enlisted a small gang of their
message board friends on OMP, and they started posting a lot of slander
about me.
What the OMP gang did not know was that I was in negotiations with the
site to write, and publish, modeling information on the site. Upon seeing
all of the B.S. being posted about me and about the information on Independent
Modeling on the message boards, where they tried to discredit the information
and slandered me with allegations of being a criminal, I told OMP that
their site users were not ready for the content that I could provide.
The posts continued. I especially loved the posts from the fetish model
who called me a Svengali and who declared that one day the law would catch
up to me and make me pay. Is that the best that some people can do? Why
accuse me of being a criminal when I’m not, especially when those
whom accuse me of such things are the ones who are guilty of crimes themselves?
Hey, slander
is the new discrimination (I’m going to write
an entire issue on this subject on Frontier
Pop, soon, once I catch up on work and I am able to
work on the site again). People won’t try to debate with you or
compete with you if they cannot win, especially if they lack integrity.
They’ll look for dirt on you, and if they cannot find it, they will
simply make things up to try to discredit you so that people “won’t
listen” to you. It doesn’t work, although I’ve had pathetic
losers over the years resort to such underhanded tactics, because that’s
the best that they can do.
Whatever. The attacks were amusing, at the most. Especially a fetish model
trying to take me to task, which failed miserably. Don’t look in
my eyes, fetish model! I’m a Svengali, remember? I might hypnotize
you and brainwash you as I assimilate you into my drone-like army of mindless
models.
Actually, though, I’m not interested in raising an army of mindless
models. I do not like followers or ignorant people who refuse to learn
the business and think for themselves. I like models who know
what they are doing and who think for themselves. I like professionals
who have a backbone and who stand up for what they believe in, alone if
they must. The kind of people that I’m into, and the kind that I
support, are hardly the ideal candidate for anyone who will allow themselves
to be manipulated or controlled, which is another lie that I am often
accused of. I want people to be independent and to think for themselves.
I have no desire to control anyone. Why are such independent people who
think for themselves such a threat to people like you? The only people
who seem to have a problem with what I do are the ones who want to control
others, often at their expense. Con artists and insecure amateurs
don’t get along with me, and you don’t have to think too much
into it to figure out why. It’s because I don’t compromise
my ethics or integrity, and I am not a con artist or a criminal. I’m
real, and I know what I am doing. Do you guys?
I can understand why the bald fetish model lady went out of her way to
defend her friends, but seriously, she, or it, was on the losing side,
and hardly realized it. Aren’t alternative models like her supposed
to be open-minded? Oh, that’s right, that’s just
a line that they say to make themselves look cool and to make them feel
better about their shortcomings. After all, people have no right to judge
you if you supposedly don’t judge anyone, and it’s a natural
defense. If anyone judges you for deviant behavior and for defining your
life on superficial things that you spin as creative art, they are wrong.
Your actions betray your words, though, and you are a self-deluded hypocrite.
It’s such a double-standard. You can judge and condemn others for
doing the right thing, and for being the real deal, but they are wrong
if they call you as you are. They can do whatever they want to, regardless
of how questionable it is, and they are always right, while you are always
wrong.
At any rate, the fetish model and the others were powerless to
stop me, or discourage me from doing the right thing. They were
nothing, and continue to be (and, yes, I’m even pointing at you,
Dan. You might be a decent commercial photographer, but you are a mindless
follower and a moron for contributing to such idiotic, online mob justice.
The fetish model once stated that she’d tell me what she thought
about me to my face if she ever had the chance, and I’d like to
see that. You cowards would sulk and scurry away back into the shadows
without your online message board gang to back you up, as I told you what
I thought of you to your face, and you’d all whimper and back off,
unable to counter anything that I said, or come back at me. Cowards! It’s
been seven years, but I won’t forget.)
With lots of letters being published on Independent Modeling about the
photographers and their friends, and lot of opinions being voiced, the
war escalated.
The photographers planned to sue me for slander, although I never
actually slandered them, and the evidence that I had lent itself to me
having a strong slander case against them if I chose to pursue it. They
had been slandering me, openly, online, and the most that I had done is
raise questions about people who may or may not have been them.
They might have been planning to sue me, but
something tells me that their attorney told them that they did not have
much of a case, and even in the unlikely case that they won some sort
of judgement against me, they would have had a difficult time collecting.
How do I know this? Because as soon as Tampa Bay Modeling launched, it
had a message board, and they began a harassment campaign on the message
board. Do you think that they would do these things, which would jeopardize
a legal case, if they actually had one pending? The con artist
photographer, who had tricked everyone into ganging up on me, posted on
the Tampa Bay Modeling message board that I was giving everyone a terrible
name with my “blasphemy”, and that word was getting
around fast, and that no one wanted to work with me because I was so outspoken.
Well, if that was true, then why did I continue to work, and why did I
work more than they did? The only “word” that was getting
around was the con artist making stuff up about me and slandering me to
the few people that he was around, and no one took him seriously (ah,
and history does tend to repeat itself). Additionally, anyone
trying to do a smear campaign against me will find that I have them outgunned
as far as having a voice. I own over 60 top web sites, and I have the
dominant voice. If you want to get into a screaming match with me, go
for it. I hope that you have a lot of time and money. They will whisper
lies about me to the few that they can reach, and thousands will hear
the truth about them, as well as my opinions. Let’s not go there,
either.
Everyone who has stepped to me and disrespected me has wound up,
figuratively, knocked down on their ass. I fight, and I fight for what
I believe in. I believe in what I do, and I not only know what I am doing,
but I have the experience to back myself up. Do you?
If I’m going to be hated, I’ll be hated for doing the right
thing. That’s perfectly fine for me, because those who would hate
me for doing the right thing prove their ignorance, and are professionally
useless. I also have all of the leverage because of my business and support
resources, as well as a network of widely-read web sites which give me
power and credibility, ensuring that I have the first, middle, and last
words on anything. No one else has the voice that I have.
No one else has my online presence, and the ability to tell it how it
is while remaining unaffected by the consequences that others try to impose
upon me.
The slander being used to attempt to discredit me, and the slander being
used to discriminate against me, is going to stop. First,
I have new measures in place to ensure that such unethical tactics will
backfire. Secondly, there is going to come a time when I’m
going to start suing people who have violated my rights. Go ahead, and
tempt fate. Quit while you are behind. I don’t slander anyone, yet
people think that I do and that it gives them a right to slander me. The
difference between what I say and what they say is that not only do I
have a louder voice, but what I say is the truth. I also back up my opinions
with evidence and great points, Ponder that, cowards.
The bottom line is that if anyone wants to sue me for exercising my freedom
of speech, they certainly can try. That’s a pathetic way of trying
to win a debate, and it is a loser’s way of censorship. Just let
it be known that it works both ways, and something tells me that I’d
have a stronger counter suit, as my opponents seem to make a lot more
mistakes than I do. I’d recommend not going there, unless you want
to lose. Also, when you lose, and I win a judgment against you, it will
be well-publicized, and everyone will know about it.
So, four photographers and their friends ganged up on me. It did not work.
It ended well, though.
The photographers seemed to be thoroughly embarrassed by their
association with the con artist photographer, and their online
harassment against me on the Tampa Bay Modeling message board seemed to
be born of frustration, and it was the breaking point. I thought about
it, and realized that I did not want to give the con artist photographer
the satisfaction of knowing that he got the jerk and the others to fight
me. The fight was between him and I, and not these other photographers.
They were never the target (although the jerk is a jerk. What can I say?)
So, I decided to start to talk, and to end the conflict. I called up the
photographer who was the smartest, and we talked. I met him and the jerk
photographer for lunch in Ybor to talk over our differences. I had Shane,
my friend and Internet security expert, join us.
The smart photographer was actually a cool guy, and I felt bad that he
had been dragged into this war. The jerk, though, whined and complained
through the entire meal, telling me that I had “offended”
a “lot of important people” in the industry. Was he referring
to Dan the commercial photographer, the bald fetish model, and their mindless
online message board minions? Whatever. The jerk finally settled down,
and later, the smart photographer apologized for the ranting of the jerk
photographer.
For all intents and purposes, though, the war was over, at least between
myself and the photographers who were caught in the middle. The jerk emailed
me a year and a half later after getting in an online message board argument
with one my photographer friends. He called me a coward and blamed me
for putting the other photographer up to it (which I did not do). He also
stated that he believed that he had won the war, and that I had run away
and called for a truce. Whatever he wanted to believe was fine with me.
It didn’t matter. I’d just let him continue to think that,
if it made him feel better. We all knew the truth.
The jerk also posted on a message board after the war that my photography
association was a group of photographers who had “made a career”
out of slamming him for his past associations. Well, I wouldn’t
go so far as to say that we made a career out of doing anything to him,
as he was hardly that important, but you are whom you associate with.
Was he feeling guilty, perhaps? I have actively fought the con artist
photographer, though, on principle alone, and I wouldn’t even call
that a “career”. None of those people are a threat
to my business, my interests, or the businesses of my allies.
I don’t even consider them to be competition, although I know that
the con artist photographer was a wannabe competitor. I only fought them
to protect people from them. The fights were good, though. In
fact, conflicts with these people have been largely one-sided, with myself
and my allies winning every battle, kind of like the United States waging
an air war with bombers against a tiny African country full of primitive
Zulu natives running around with spears screaming at an enemy that they
cannot strike back against. It seems that the natives which were never
the target are the only ones left standing, and they convince themselves
that they can hit jet bombers with spears in retaliation for the village
which is burning around them (while their victims, whom they were planning
to eat, escape). Let them scream and pitch a fit. Keep throwing those
spears, little Zulu. Knock yourself out. Just watch out for those spears,
and watch where you are standing when the spears come back down. I don’t
want you to hurt yourself. Please calm down, too, little warrior. I’d
hate to see you soil your loincloth.
The cool thing was that, despite my operation of waging war being inefficient
back then (if done again, I would have handled it differently. I’d
have simply disagreed with the jerk, stuck to the topics when he ran his
mouth, and avoided fighting with the others while continuing to run interference
with the con artist. Better yet, I could have simply disagreed with the
jerk and SUED the con artist for slander and for stealing content and
ideas from my web sites), the end result was the one that I was working
toward. The photographers left the studio that they shared
with the con artist photographer, the con artist photographer’s
faux photography "association" collapsed, and he was forced
to stand alone. The con artist photographer had a few good
years as a sole proprietor photographer, but he became too dependent upon
agencies for his work. When the economy collapsed in late 2008, he took
a big hit, and his photography business became a small side job that he
worked while he worked another career. For a while, he started a very
disturbing second photography business taking pictures of child beauty
pageant contestants (nothing is creepier than seeing a baby less than
a year old in makeup and lipstick, by the way, and seeing five year old’s
made up to look like they are adults). I remarked to one of my photographers
that my opinion was that he was in the business because he really wanted
to be, and my photographer laughed. Still, if he failed at making a business
out of modeling portfolio photography, and tried to move to a market where
he could help rabid stage parents exploit their children, he could have
it. That shady business seemed to be right up his alley. I have no interest
working in that market (and the man who emailed me recently wanting me
to shoot a modeling portfolio for his two year old can go somewhere else
to get that done, and I don’t care how much he wants to pay me.
I can sleep at night because I know that I am ethical, and that I take
every measure to ensure that the power of my photography does not hurt
anyone).
As far as I can tell, the creepy child pageant photography business failed.
It was a last gasp for his dying career as a photographer.
Today, his business is minimal and his presence in the industry is inconsequential.
The con artist photographer has no friends, especially in an industry
where he burned a lot of bridges by scamming people and tarnishing the
reputation of the industry. He seems to be burnt out and on his way out,
and is now working another career, although if he ever comes back and
tries to resume his career, I will endeavor to put him out of business
myself by taking his market from him (minus the child pageant crap. I
won’t do that kind of photography. I’ll simply keep him in
the playground with the other children).
I won, and like it or not, I’m still a market leader. With that,
I will continue to assert that leadership in what I’m about to do!
NEXT: The "model coach" and his May 2011 Shootout
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