TAMPA BAY PHOTOGRAPHY AND DESIGN BLOG

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Work On Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Bay Photography and Design Marketing And Support Sites Underway.

Friday, May 11, 2012 - Tampa Bay Photography and Design Blog Post by Chris Passinault

New Blog Will Replace My Dedicated Domain Blogs. Plans.

This is the first official post on my official blog as a professional photographer and designer, and I’m glad to finally get this started on my brand new, state of the art marketing and support web site for my photography and design company, Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Bay Photography and Design, of all place. This web site has been around seven years in the making, with a lot of experience gained writing and coding a lot of web sites. This new blog section, which is for me to opine about all things photography and design-wise, and has nothing to do with my business, officially, although I will be writing a lot about my clients (with their written permission, of course), and about the work that I do (also with the written permission of all who are directly involved), is about four years in the making, and it will completely replace the aging Tampa Photographer Blog, Tampa Photography Blog, and the newer Tampa Designer Blog. I have two more dedicated domain blogs, too, which are blog sites under a keyword-rich domain name, but since they are not at all cost-effective to do anymore, I will be getting rid of all but one. The one dedicated domain blog that I will keep online will be for archival purposes, since it is over 500 pages in size, and that is the Tampa Film Blog. The Tampa Film Blog will be removed from the old Tampa Bay Film site network, and all new blog posts for that blog will be directly on an overhauled Tampa Bay Film site. I guess that you could say that my era of dedicated domain blogs (which at least one competitor, a Tampa Bay photography company, copied, and there are others, too, which we have noticed) is over, and from now on, all blogs will be done on the sites that they are directly affiliated with.
That’s not to say that this is an official Aurora PhotoArts business blog. It isn’t. My company, Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Bay Photography and Design, is hosting this bloig, but it is all mine, and the opinions expressed herein, as far as this blog section of the site, are all mine, and mine alone. If you want official Aurora PhotoArts news, we have a NEWS section, as well as an UPDATES section for site updates (I combined this with the site update log, too, for those who need to know). I’m also retaining the old ALERTS section, too, for old clients that we have lost contact with and whom we are trying to get in touch with. All of those sections, and the rest of the Aurora PhotoArts site, is all Aurora PhotoArts, and it is all about marketing services and supporting clients (client support is a huge priority right now, by the way, as well as social media integration, which should be up and running soon). This blog, though, is all me, and Aurora PhotoArts, nor my clients or anyone else, have anything to do with it. At all.
I will be combining all of my older dedicated domain blogs here on this blog. I will be posting anedotes from my shoots, and from my work as a photographer, which was what the Tampa Photographer Blog was supposed to be for. These adventures will also contain behind-the-scenes videos, video interviews, and testimonial videos (the interviews and the testimonials crossing over to the business support sections of this site, by the way). My clients swear by me, and I’ve had a lot of word-of-mouth referrals over the years; they love my work, and I love working with each and everyone of them. I will also be blogging about the Tampa Bay photography services industry, which is what I used to do on the Tampa Photography Blog. Of course, I’m also a designer, so what I’ve been writing about on the Tampa Designer Blog regarding design and web design work that I do will also be posted in this new blog. The Tampa Designer Blog, and the others, will be taken offline eventually (again, the Tampa Film Blog being the exception). So, there you go. One ginormous super blog, all for you, my readers and clients.
You’re welcome.
I would have posted when I brought this new Mosaic Class site, which is the main web site for Aurora PhotoArts, online back on May 6, five days ago, but I had a lot going on. So, this is my first blog post on here, and I will not be looking back at any of my old blog sites. Right now, I am writing a lot to get the main sections of this site up and running, and I was slowed somewhat this morning in those efforts because I had to crank up Photoshop CS 2 and work on the main image for the site. I will be writing the rest of the base content tonight, and will then start to work on editing picture and thumbnail graphic sets for the site. After that, I have 10 pages of content to write for the 40+ pages (do the math and that is a healthy paragraph of content, at the least, for each page of the portfolio core) of the main featured portfolio core, which is those 40 thumbnails that you see above. Once the main portfolio core is up, as far as the initial 40 featured and 10 hardwired portfolio image pages, I will then be able to re-route both TampaLooks.Com and AuroraPhotoArts.Com to this new web site. Right now, they are forwarded to my old Venus Class marketing site, which is hosted under an old operating domain name. This new Mosaic Class site, and its also-new operating domain name, which was purchased the same day that the site went online, will replace the old site.
Once the site is up to speed and my two main marketing domains are routed to it, it will take another month, at least, for it to get up to full speed, as a lot of new sections and portfolio pictures need to be added. During that time, however, I will be taking my time updating this web site, because work on the sister sites of this main site will begin, starting with Tampa Model Testing, the marketing and support site of the Aurora PhotoArts Espy model testing program, which began back in 2003, and is now back as a dramatically improved program. Espy will be the way for aspiring models in Tampa Bay and in Florida to start their modeling careers! There will be more, too, but rest assured that over 50% of my web site updates will be on this site for a while, especially when the other sites will not be nearly as big as this one will be. Well, they will be smaller because they do not have to be big, as they are annex support sites of Aurora PhotoArts, each dealing with a specific target market. Oh, and there will not be a lot of linking going on between the sites, either, as there doesn’t need to be any of that, especially as each site will stand-alone with a ton of relevant, well-organized content.
On the subject of the other sites, well, I was slowed down this week working on this site because I did some research on a new class of web site, the Gallery Class site, which would have been used for those other sites. For a while, it looked like there would only be one Mosaic Class site, right here, and no more made for Aurora PhotoArts (and for a while not even that, as I considered dumping this and opting for the more flexible Gallery Class site for all of the sites). Well, that crisis is over, because the amount of work is the same, and the Mosaic Class site simply looks better. As of now, I am planning on building and deploying an additional 23 Mosaic Class sites, formatted like this one, for Aurora PhotoArts, for a total of 24 built and deployed by next year (and, possibly, as many as 36 by 2014). Not only does this site look good, but although the sites will not heavily link to each other, I also want some general site continuity, for navigation purposes, between the Aurora PhotoArts site. Thus, you are looking at a new class of web site which is destined to become the most numerous in my web site portfolio.
I have plans for my photography career, too. I am preparing to buy a lot of polo shirts (with collars, for my camera-strap-weary-and-heat/sweat-rashed neck!) with my new Aurora PhotoArts logo on them. The shirts will be dark blue and gray, and the logos will be white. They will also be cotton, which is great for the heat and the sweat of location photography work! Ah, to see the look of other photographers when they see me and my people with our cool shirts on as we crash their public meet-ups; the message that we will send will be that they need to step up their game and actually become serious about their work, and eventually, real professionals. Also, regarding photography itself, it is no secret that I am a damn good natural light photographer, and that I shoot location most of the time (I have studio shots which are really good, but I don’t like to market with them because the set-up was turn-keyed by one of my photographer friends, with me having absolutely no input into the lighting, and it is not really indicative of what I can, and will, be doing in the studio). Well, in the next year or two, I will be opening up my first photography and design studio in Riverview, Florida (south of Brandon, in the Tampa Bay area), and my headshot photography and model testing work will be done using a studio set. My modeling portfolio work, however, will always be primarily on location, because regardless of what gear I am using, or what I have available, I would never recommend that a modeling portfolio be shot in a studio.
What this means, of course, is all-new gear for me. This will include a new speedlight for event photography work, as I will be producing a lot of events in the Tampa Bay area soon, reflectors, diffusion panels, portable pop-up dressing and camera equipment rooms, a ring flash (which I’ve always wanted), and portable lighting which I can use on location shoots. The portable lighting will be important, too, because it will open up a whole new world of possibilities with my compositions and lighting on location, and I will no longer have to be dependent upon what the natural light is doing on location. I’ve simply become annoyed at all of the so-called photographers out there who have been wowing people with shots that pop because of on-location lighting, which camouflage their lack of experience, creativity, and their flawed composition. It’s time that I bring it, and show them what can be done with that gear, supported by a foundation of strong compositions and photography work. I will also need that gear to go after photography markets which I have not traditionally worked before.
Some things to think about, and for some photographers out there, to worry about. I’m coming after your business, and I will give your clients what you’ve never been able to give them. There are a few photographers out there who I am directly gunning for, such as Rick, Jeff, and Robert, and I will be working hard to put you in your proper place, which is out of business altogether; some people, in my opinion, have no business doing photography in any form, as they give our industry a bad name and hurt the people who they work with. That work will not be under my Aurora PhotoArts brand, however, for their high-risk markets that they have been working, as I am starting a second photography company for that. I can take these guys, as I am already a better photographer, and that’s something that they already know. Soon, with new equipment enabling me to show work that is at my experience and skill level, everyone else will know, too.
Oh, and going back to equipment, I will soon be retiring my Canon camera. It’s been a solid camera for me, but it is not the best that I could be using (cameras and equipment do not make the photographer, however, and good equipment is no substitute for skill and experience. I never criticize anyone for the gear that they use, and instead evaluate them solely on their work as a photographer. I am not a equipment snob, like some no-talent photographers out there like to be). I was planning on buying a new 50D as a stop-gap, but now I am simply going to buy another camera like my existing one to use as a backup, and will be buying a brand new Canon 5D Mark II soon. Just remember that, with new equipment, that I will be doing a lot more photography work, especially with the updates that my portfolio will need for what is coming.
And, with that, it is back to work for me! Have a great weekend, everyone!

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