ABOUT
TAMPA SHOOTOUTS
Our
history, mission statement, and inspiration.
What
led to Tampa Shootouts was a need in the Tampa Bay photography and modeling
industries for a professional, ethical modeling photography event; a shootout
event where professionals could be proud of participating in, and where
they could network.
Photographer
C. A. Passinault, who owns Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Photography and Design,
founded his company in the summer of 1994, and spent years experimenting
with photography and events. In 1998, as his web design aspirations took
off, his photography work increased, as he needed photographs for his
web sites. By 2000, Passinault became a professional photographer, and
his company, Aurora PhotoArts, switched from supporting his other business
work to offering photography services as a business.
Passinault had been doing photography events of his own since 1999, getting
with models and photographers and having fun at group photography sessions
on location. After he turned pro in 2000, Passinault continued doing photography
shootout events with groups of models.
In 2003, Passinault began noticing that all was not well with the Tampa
photography and modeling markets. He began looking at what others were
doing. He was not impressed, or pleased.
He began looking at shootout events, too, and was not happy by what he
discovered. One series of shootout events in the Tampa Bay market were
nothing but glamour modeling photography seminars and workshops, which
were high risk work that no aspiring photographer or model had any business
doing. Although they were organized well, the $500.00 photography workshops
didn’t do much for the careers of any of the participants, and the
models and photographers who participated often came back with work which
hurt the marketability of their careers.
Another series of photography shootout events were done by a crass, exploitive
model and photographer who did high-risk photography sessions at a clothing-optional
resort. Although popular with a certain market, little was accomplished
in the careers of any who were involved.
Obviously, new standards were needed in the Tampa photography and modeling
market when it came to shootouts.
Passinault began developing his ethical, professional alternative to Tampa
shootout events in 2005, and, as he worked his business, he tinkered with
the concept. How could he make the shootout events compatible with his
career as a professional photographer and talent expert? Passinault’s
main business was modeling portfolios and talent headshots, so a shootout
event series, which would focus on modeling photography, was inevitable.
The key was eliminating conflicts, providing a mainstream event format
which was low-risk and career safe, and also being able to provide an
alternative to what the others were doing. That last part, proving an
alternative to the high-risk markets that the other shootouts were servicing,
was in itself a conflict with the mainstream nature of the shootouts that
he wanted to do, and Passinault had to figure out a way to be able to
do both. The work took years, and, as Passinault worked out the details,
his shootout event was on hold.
In May 2011, Passinault found out about a modeling photography shootout
event in the Tampa Bay area, and was curious about how legitimate it was.
Satisfied that it was a legitimate event, he was invited to attend by
the organizer. Passinault attended, and quickly discovered that he had
been purposely misled by the organizer. Although he did not go with the
intention of researching the event and did not immediately plan on starting
his shootout event, this incident proved to be motivating. A professional,
ethical shootout event was needed in the Tampa Bay market, and it had
to set the standard for all others to follow. Passinault immediately wrote
two articles addressing the shady shootout event on Tampa Bay Modeling,
and then authorized a massive amount of resources toward his own shootout
events, now slated to begin in the fall of 2011. Passinault announced
his own shootouts in July, 2011. Passinault also met a professional photographer
who was a photography instructor, and who wanted to do workshops. Passinault
immediately began looking at ways to infuse workshops into the shootout
concepts.
By August 2011, work on the Shootouts events and formats was in full swing,
and Passinault acquired TampaShootouts.Com. He added early content to
a site which had not officially launched, and by late August, it already
dominated search results for shootouts and photography events in the Tampa
Bay area. Passinault also started social media support infrastructure
for the upcoming events and the TampaShootouts.Com web site.
With the first shootout event slated for late September, Passinault worked
hard on details, including the web site, support tools, and branding.
He began promoting the upcoming events. The first shootout event was set
for September 25, 2011. Although Passinault envisioned a wide range of
shootout events to be promoted, marketed, and covered on the TampaShootouts.Com
site, tackling markets from mainstream to high-risk, the main shootout
events were to be frequent, monthly shootouts for models, photographers,
and other industry professionals. Since professionals were not in the
market for workshops or portfolios, it was decided to use the main shootout
events as working auditions to evaluate the professionals who participated
for subcontracted jobs in the workshop events. Because those events would
be used for evaluating other professionals, the main shootouts were slated
to be offered free of charge, and Passinault came up with ways of keeping
overhead low so that the shootouts could be offered free of charge. The
details were coming together.
Work progressed. In September, 2011, the main shootout event branding
was finalized. The monthly shootout events became the Athena Modeling
Photography and Networking Event Series, and it further benefitted from
using a few concepts that Passinault had already developed for his monthly
film festival series, the Tampa Film Showcase monthly film festival and
professional networking event series, which was still a long way off,
as it was waiting on Passinault’s independent film efforts.
Which brings us to the present, as this story is still unfolding, and
will unfold here as time goes on, and many of you witness progress being
made first-hand.
Tampa Shootouts. The Athena Modeling Photography and Networking Event
Series. The new standard in photography events!
PUBLISHED 09/23/11
UPDATED 11/18/11
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DISCLAIMER
- TERMS OF USE - MINUTES - CREDITS - SPECIAL THANKS
Athena
Modeling Photography and Networking Event Series
Beacon
Modeling Photography Shootouts
Allure
Sexy Photography Shootouts
Tampa Shootouts
on social media; Follow us, friend us, like us, and subscribe to us on:
Twitter - Facebook
- Youtube
an
event series by
Tampa Bay Photography
Society - Tampa Bay Modeling - Aurora PhotoArts - Frontier Event Planning
- Frontier Stage Productions
in
association with
Modeling and talent expert
and photographer C. A. Passinault, Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Photography
and Design, and director of Tampa Bay Modeling. C. A. Passinault has been
the professional behind the modeling careers of several top models in
the Tampa Bay market, and has been Tampa Bay's original, and best, model
maker since 2000. C. A. Passinault is also an event planner, and owns
all of the organizations, web sites, and companies supporting his Tampa
Shootouts series.
Pioneer Class
web site by Aurora
PhotoArts, a Passinault.Com
company. Pioneer Class 0002, Commissioned 092311.1344hrs.
Webmaster and Pioneer Class
web site designer C. A. Passinault.
ONLINE 09/23/11
UPDATED 09/15/12 - 01/07/23/0059
Tampa
Shootouts Update Log
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2011-2023 Tampa Shootouts. All rights reserved.
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