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TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS ARCHIVE

UPDATES - CLIENT ALERTS - TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG

This is the official Aurora PhotoArts NEWS ARCHIVE! This page is a text only web page, as the Aurora PhotoArts site is not designed to handle a lot of content (It is a photography site, after all!). Click on any link to return to the main site.

Photography Marketing Begins - Monday, August 13, 2007

Tampa Bay Advertising Agency Site Coding - Sunday, August 12, 2007

New V6 Aurora Site Online - Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Thursday, November 9, 2006 - Enhanced Exposure

Sometime next week we will be launching a massive marketing blitz, and for the first time, we will be collaborating with Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer in addition to offering new incentives for our model and talent clients. In the first few months of 2007, our marketing will expand to assist sister company Eventi Events/ Eventi Stage. Although 2007 will be our record-setting year in sales and volume of clients, by the summer of 2007 there will be a transition and Eventi Events/ Eventi Stage will have a higher profit margin than we will. This, of course, is good for us, too, because Eventi will amplify our marketing and sales efforts. Aurora PhotoArts will be advertised heavily in all Eventi event and stage productions (especially their modeling events and runway productions), and our services will be massively pushed in their marketing and sales. These efforts will inspire others to accept our market superiority as we assimilate them into our agenda.

Monday, October 23, 2006 - Working On Upgrade

We've updated many files, but our upgrade is still in-progress. The work is ongoing, and we are finalizing our selection on which thumbnails we will use and how they will be laid out. We are doing away with all black and white thumbnails, and the thumbnails will link to the "official" configuration of the image which they represent. A color menu thumbnail may lead to a black and white picture (for the example of actor head shots), and clicking on that main image will enable visitors to toggle or click through to color or alternate versions. Most existing and all new black and white pictures will have color versions.

Main images displayed will be their favored versions, so black and white photographs may be displayed anywhere on the site. The color rule only applies to design elements such as thumbnail menus.

The upgrades will be completed sometime this week.

Thursday, October 19, 2006 - Site Upgrade On Monday

The Aurora PhotoArts web site will be upgraded on Monday, October 23, 2006. Many of the upgrades will not be noticeable to the average site visitor, although a few will. We will be updating our main site thumbnails, and this will change the overall look of the site. This scheduled upgrade is needed to support our fall marketing efforts, which are on schedule to commence on October 30, 2006. November and December will see the largest marketing and sales effort in our history, and new client support options will be in place in the next few days. The final months of 2006 will pave the way to market domination in 2007 to the point were everyone in the industry will notice that we are leading the market.

While we are on the subject of web sites, the new Huey Class (named in honor of Orlando photographer and friend Craig Huey) Tampa Bay Photographers Round Table Photography web site will finally debut in November. This web site has been finished since February 12, 2006, and the time is now right to launch it.

Monday, October 9, 2006 - Some Rates Adjusted

Our model portfolio photography rates have changed as of today, and they have dropped to what they were in 2004. Actor and talent head shot photography service rates have not changed. Rates are now locked until spring of 2007, and it is unlikely that they will change then; if they do, they will only go up.

Regarding our Client Delivery System, or CDS, it has largely remained unaffected.

Friday, October 6, 2006 - Rates To Be Adjusted

Our service rates for model portfolio and actor / talent head shot photography services will be adjusted later this month with the fall 2006 edition of our service agreements and our refined Client Delivery System (CDS). Due to an increase in business, base rates are expected to drop to 2004 levels, or as much as 25%. If this goes into effect, services such as model portfolio photography will have seen a reduction in base rates of 40% since August. The increase of bookings has made our services more cost-effective, and we are working toward further increasing those bookings. We will be consulting with our photography partners as we evaluate and adjust our rates. Profits are expected to increase by over 70%, as new marketing and sales efforts go into effect next week.

If the rates are reduced, discounts and CDS bonuses may not be possible like they were in the past. If the rates are reduced and this move does not inspire additional bookings, it is possible that the rates will be adjusted again early next year.

Thursday, September 28, 2006 - APS 6.0 In 2008

EOS MediaArts has begun development of the next Aurora PhotoArts web site, APS 6.0, which will be due sometime in 2008. The site will utilize advanced flash technology and will be built using CSS libraries (the existing site uses JPEG graphics/ images and simple CSS Templates). The basic design and layout will remain the same, although the site will have different ratios of the existing layout components and there will be a few changes. A good portion of the new site will emphasis long-term client support. The format will be much more refined than what the present site has. Much of the site will be developed using new scam-fighting techniques and will be optimized to defend against competitors and aspiring competitors who try to learn from us and attempt to steal what they want.
The new site will contain music and videos, as well as a few surprises like image customization. Details remain a closely guarded secret.
The present Venus Class site is far from obsolete, however, and it has only begun to see its potential as a marketing and sales platform. The site has been highly successful and its effectiveness is increasing. The current Aurora PhotoArts site, APS 5.0, is the most advanced and successful photography and design services site in Florida, and nothing in the Tampa Bay market can compete with it. If the 2008 site is delayed, the current site is designed to be effective until at least 2010.
The current site will be upgraded in early October, with the main thumbnails replaced and updated along with several new features.

Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - Support Files Cleared

Our client support files have been backed up and cleared from our computers, databases, and telephone system voice mail. Pictures have been archived and stored away, and online web proofs have been deleted.

This is needed to clear our support network to be able to handle a 4,000% increase in business bookings later this month. Because of an increase in paid bookings, our stock photography program has been reduced 90%, and we'll be lucky to find the time to do one session per month; especially with most of our needs met through paid bookings with our clients. Most pending stock photography sessions with certain models (you know who you are) have been postponed indefinitely or have been outright cancelled. The window is closed and time is up.

We will be mailing picture packages tomorrow to the six models who have them pending. We also have at least two packages to mail to Los Angeles.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - Stock Photography Reduced

Our Stock Photography program is being scaled back by 90%. We've been much too busy lately to do it as much as planned, and there have been some adjustments to our service lines and to our booking process that has put a dent into the program as far as it being a stand-alone project. This will free resources for our service bookings as business continues to grow in the Tampa Bay area.

Models on our waiting list for this program, meaning those who have not been able to lock down and book a time to do it, can expect their wait to increase to months instead of weeks.

Expect a noticeable increase in business and updates to this site in September.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - Client Delivery System Adjusted

Our Client Delivery System, or CDS, has been adjusted and finalized for the remainder of this year, with different terms and conditions. CDS specifics will be tied into a "services rendered" statement which will be attached to the signed service agreements, making service paperwork a three component process which will simplify consultations and booking clients. Contact sheets and prints will come with all photography services now, and the older "crop out" print templates are being discontinued in favor of straight prints. Composite Cards and Head Shots, which are separate services, will continue to have Aurora PhotoArts branding printed on them, but will now have an area where agencies can place agency logo stickers.

While our six-look modeling portfolio photography package had its rates adjusted on Monday, we will be adjusting all service rates in October.

Monday, August 14, 2006 - Model Portfolio Rates Drop

Due to record levels of model portfolio photography services, which bring our costs down, and in order to stimulate even more bookings, we have adjusted out model portfolio photography rates for the Tampa Bay market effective immediately. The rates have dropped nearly 20%, and the new rates will be retroactively applied to four pending photography bookings that we've quoted in the last week. We will notify these clients today about the new rates for a six-look model portfolio photography package. The per-look rate and other photography rates remain the same for now. Our Client Delivery System, or CDS, remains unaffected, too. The adjusted rates are comparable to what they were in 2004, which continues to be our record-setting year, although sales this year were on course to exceed that record before the rate adjustment. Sales should smash that record, now.

Marketing and sales incentives which will begin next week will easily enable lower rates due to increased business.

Friday, August 11, 2006 - Service Line Work

We have more work on our service lines this weekend than we have done in five years. Our business advisory board has ordered an overhaul of our service agreements and legal contracts. We will be meeting with our attorney and our legal team in downtown Tampa Saturday to go over these changes and sign off on them Current pending contracts will be grandfathered in, and existing contracts will be honored.
Policy changes are in effect, too, with a "comp card" rule applied to stock photography model eligibility requirements (matching a 45% forced decrease in stock photography resource allocations due to a conflict with our other service lines - Stock photography agreements will now be offered as a post-service option for our other service lines as an alternative to straight-out stock bookings). Qualifying models for booking consideration of any stock photography session or commercial photography session will include a reference evaluation on every photographer they have worked with, and references will be checked in the booking process.
We will be using a "25" or college student qualifier rule for consultation qualifying screening, and there will be an overhaul in our paperwork, our CDS, and our client tracking system. For the first time, we will begin promoting our allies at Independent Modeling and the benefits of our collaborative packages in all consultations and service line bookings, and as a result we will dramatically increase in support and financing to our modeling resource site friend. We will be increasing our support of Independent Modeling and the Independent Sites by over 400%, as we have reduced confidence in doing business with Tampa Bay based model and talent agencies. Independent Modeling and the Independent Sites will see an incredible level of updates in the next three weeks.
We will be streamlining how we do business and will be adopting our 2007 standards this fall. Our main portfolio will be redone and new forms will be created to support business operations.
Referrals from satisfied clients and subsequent bookings have recently exceeded the bookings that we get from conventional marketing efforts. This may be the start of a trend in our model portfolio photography and actor/ talent head shot photography services. There are also indications that an increasing number of models who are represented by Tampa Bay and Orlando model and talent agencies are passing over the photographers that agencies try to force on them and they book us for what they need. There is evidence that this is a growing trend, too.
A new tiered rate system for model portfolio photography services and actor/ talent head shot photography services was unveiled today, and may be adopted soon as our new standard. Our rates will be adjusted in October. Our CDS (Client Delivery System) will be adjustable and scalable if any rates are adjusted, as CDS terms are included in set service packages and the client, not us, pays for them.
Work in the studio will be done this weekend, too. Our main computer has over 100 Gigs of photographs on file, and many of those files need to be archived and purged from the system to support increased bookings (and maybe we will be able to finally locate Ingrid Suchit’s pictures while we are at it). We will be cleaning computer hard drives, adding physical file cabinets for paperwork, will be working on our client services telecommunications system (at night, when we don’t get constant calls), and will be adding tracking cards and an organized client paperwork system designed to support initial and continued client contact.
Some of this maintenance is long overdue and is a result of our busy nature as the Tampa Bay photography and design services market leader. Some of our agreements and service contracts were quickly put together and worked into use as we began to book a lot of work five years ago. The overhaul is now needed, as business will dramatically increase along with our transition to a focus on commercial photography services within the next year.

Monday, August 7, 2006 - Pictures Uploaded

Aurora PhotoArts Senior Photographer C. A. Passinault had a great swimsuit modeling photography session with model and former Ms. Florida USA pageant contender Shilah Goodwin over the weekend. Some of our picks from the shoot have been uploaded, and they can be accessed from the new images thumbnails on the left or from our swimwear modeling portfolio channel.

Saturday, August 5, 2006 - Site Code Adjustments

Starting today, we will be adjusting code throughout the site. These adjustments will enhance the effectiveness of this web site and double its performance. While we did get to most of it today, there will be other work done in the next few days. Because some of this work is confidential and invisible to the average site visitor, we will make no further announcements regarding this and will not specify exactly what we are working on in the code and in what part of the site this work is being done in (good luck analyzing all 724 pages on your own - Official count is 724 web pages within a total of 5,039 files organized in 205 folders and clocking in at 113 MB, which is just over a tenth of a Gig - We have a very big site and it will triple in size by next year). The thumbnail graphics will be upgraded sometime in the next two weeks, and we are looking into enhancing the CSS templates of the site design this month. Some of these upgrades are made possible by recent EOS web team developments and some new design technology which was developed during design work on the EOS MediaArts web site, which is a Tampa Bay advertising agency and our sister company.

Friday, August 4, 2006 - Booked Out

We are booked out for the next two weeks with over 20 photography sessions and service line work. Our service agreements need CDS (Client Delivery System) adjustments, some CDS line specifics need working out, our normal letters and paperwork need to be adjusted, our rate sheet needs to be reformatted (our service lines are massive, as we do far more than photography), and we need new forms and client tracking tools. Our copy and legal teams (needed for site content, service agreements, and paperwork) are also tied up with the EOS MediaArts advertising agency web site preparation at the moment. This, in addition to a lot of photography and design work, has used up our time and resources. Web site updates will be minimal, with most of them being select portfolio picture uploads. Expect our major marketing push to begin later this month and our rates to be adjusted in September. The marketing push will be preceded with a large site update and perhaps an overhaul during the week of or sometime after August 21, 2006. Until then, enjoy the new picture additions!

Friday, August 4, 2006 - Portfolio Updated

Our model portfolio photography portfolio has been updated (sorry about the extra day Stephanie and Matt!). See the newest image thumbnails at the left to look at our uploaded pictures.

Thursday, August 3, 2006 - Portfolio Format Adjusted

Our online photography portfolio format has been adjusted again. We will no longer post black and white thumbnails unless that is the primary or only image, which will increase the use of color within our layout. You can see black and white and altered versions of photographs by clicking on them within our online portfolio, and you will go automatically to other variants of that image.

We will be reformatting our thumbnail menus in a few days. Target portfolio profiles will be adjusted, and credit text links mirroring the thumbnails will be added to the bottom of our site.

Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - Commercial Connection

Aurora PhotoArts is making progress in making commercial photography services our main market. We are working with Tampa Bay advertising agency and sister company EOS MediaArts to develop joint services. Could it be that model and talent agencies will be seeking us out for model print jobs and the top professional models in the Tampa Bay and Florida modeling markets? The paradigm is about to shift in our favor, and wait until you see what we are going to do to the modeling industry in the Tampa Bay market.

Saturday, July 29, 2006 - Bookings Increase

Our bookings have increased and the EOS Team has spent most of the week getting the Dream Nine Studios site up to speed. Our stock photography program is booked solid, and we may have to book multi-model sessions in the future to keep up.

Monday, July 24, 2006 - Portfolio Channels Adjusted

As our web site updates settle down to a normal routine, we have adjusted and optimized our portfolio channels and have connected photography service sections to their relevant portfolio channel. The design portfolio will be connected to the design section when it is operational next month.

Updates will be slow this week as the web team spends a lot of time on the Eventi Events web site.

Saturday, July 22, 2006 - Contract And Rate Work

We will be adding new photography service rates and contracts for the next two weeks. These services will cover the Tampa Bay market. Although we are going to be adjusting our service contracts and will be optimizing them for our Client Delivery System (CDS), existing photography and service rates are not due to be adjusted until September.

Our CDS paperwork will start use this week.

Thursday, July 20, 2006 - Aura Models Team Formed

Aurora PhotoArts and Eventi Events officially formed the Aura Models print and promotional modeling team today. The Aura Models Team is a modeling organization which covers print and promotional modeling as well as dancing. The team is a joint project of both companies,and will also serve as a talent pool for all of the Passinault.Com companies. For more about the Aura Models Team, please check out today's news on the main Passinault.Com site.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - Photography Portfolio Channels Active

Our online photography portfolio channels are now active. We still have to upload another 40 to 60 pictures before we catch up with the picture content that we want online, and we have to add optimized copy for each channel, but the portfolio section and all of the new directories are ready for the flood of incredible pictures that we will be taking the rest of this year and well into next year. We also have to identify which photograph profiles we wish to push and adjust their formats (we may change around the portfolio front-end, too). We will be connecting all areas of this web site to their relevant portfolio channel. The last batch of up to 60 images should be up by next week, and we are still searching our photograph archives for some pictures of New York model Ingrid Suchit and Tampa Bay model Roxanne Kowalska.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - Web Sites, Links, and Updates

Updates to our web site will slow to a normal level this week as the EOS team moves on to other web site projects and SEO support of this site. We will be adding a lot to our links section, and site content adjustments will be ongoing. We will also get our portfolio channels online in a day or two.

The EOS team is setting up a special server account and some more domain names will be procured on Thursday. Finishing touches are being done to the new Huey Class Tampa Bay Photographers Round Table Photography Association site (we have seen it, and it is a state-of-the-art masterpiece, unlike their current eyesore). Frontier Society, Advanced Model, and the popular Clearwater-based Tampa Bay Modeling model resource will share the new server by next week. These are great times, and set up the market for what is coming!

Monday, July 17, 2006 - Marketing Potential Unlocked

Our web team has unlocked the development restrictions that were on the web site by default, unleashing the full marketing potential of this Venus Class photography services web site for the first time. Core sections have been adjusted as most of the site pages have been gone over and optimized, and SEO performance increases will become obvious within the next few weeks. Additional Internet activity has been authorized and begins today. The web team intends to have hard data concerning the effectiveness of this web site class within six months for ongoing evaluations and improvements to be applied to other web sites and the next generation Aurora PhotoArts web site due in 2009.

Monday, July 17, 2006 - Site Adjustments

We have refreshed the site and are still working on the portfolio channels; the portfolio can be accessed from the main portfolio page and all channels are duplicates of that page at this time. We have added several more channels and that is giving us a little more work to do. The portfolio channels will be working this week, and the main menu will change when that happens (we are thinking about adding a design portfolio section with its own channels, and this will be accessible from the main menu. The design section and the existing portfolio section would both link to Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts).

We are currently spending time launching aggressive promotions today.

Sunday, July 16, 2006 - Educational Services?

Things are about to get both weirder and more interesting around here.
Besides owning entertainment and business support services, Aurora PhotoArts senior photographer and Passinault.Com executive producer C. A. Passinault also owns a little-known scientific research firm. Professionally qualified in over 20 professions with a Mensa-level IQ and enough of a college education to earn him several doctorates, polymath C. A. Passinault is passing along his “educate while entertain” philosophy to our photography company. We will be vesting our photography and design services to include scientific research and work in experimental art forms, and we will be including an incredible amount of attention to detail in both our work and in the way that we describe that work. One area that will reflect that is in our anecdotal and information part of our online portfolio, where technical information on our subjects and links to additional information on the Frontier Society site will be included. While not official until now, much of our work over the years has covered far more than photography. Many of our clients have expressed that they are not only very happy with our photography and design work but also because they learned something cool from the experience, the conversation, or both.
There was an announcement today that took many of us by surprise, and answered the questions that some had about obscure services such as aerial photography. C. A. Passinault announced today that Aurora PhotoArts was investing capital into a new aerial tethered robotic drone that he had developed over the years, and the company would be procuring three of them by next year. Far more flexible, easier to use, and less expensive than renting small aircraft, the aerial robotic drones will carry commercial camera payloads thousands of feet to take high resolution photographs for commercial photography and survey work. The drones will be able to work stationary over areas for up to twelve hours at a time, with a data link and payload control function that will enable the photographer to work from a ground station while the drone maintains flight control. The drone will utilize pilot interaction only when needed. Additionally, Aurora PhotoArts will be procuring a number of small, highly maneuverable drop pods for low altitude photography. These tiny, high-speed pods carry high resolution camera payloads.
It will be an interesting time for flying devices and clever gadgets that get the job done. All of these inventions will adhere to F.A.A. regulations. Both the aerial robotic drone and the drop pod have already flown and work well. Both were invented by C. A. Passinault, and patents are pending.
Aurora PhotoArts is going to be far more than a photography and design services company. With two new upcoming service lines and innovative solutions that no one else has access to, we will continue to be the best value in photography and design services in the Tampa Bay market and the rest of Florida.

C. A. Passinault will be finalizing some technical aspects of the aerial photography gear on small aircraft in a series of flights over Tampa Bay this fall.

Saturday, July 15, 2006 - Updating

Our online portfolio core has been placed in a pending status while we make some adjustments. We have paused photography image uploads until the adjustments have been made, and should resume our photography uploads on Monday, July 17. The portfolio is, however, fully up and works fine. The channels are open, but all channel content will be identical (with the exception of our photography stock) until updates resume. Much of this work is SEO related and has to do with titles and alt tags. Older portfolio profiles will see alt, title, and anecdote updates over the next few weeks. Section-relevant meta tags will be uploaded shortly to their relevant site sections.

We have edited our NEWEST IMAGES section to the left, and have reduced the image thumbnails from 97 down to the operational-spec 20.

Saturday, July 15, 2006 - Portfolio Adjustment

As of early this morning (12:43 AM), there are over 227 images in our online portfolio. Our NEWEST IMAGES section to the left has 97 image thumbnails leading to some of them, and this is the reason that the site is loading slow for some people. As of now, we are going to update the main portfolio menu and then edit the NEWEST IMAGE thumbnails down to the last 20 (which would only cover around half of what has been uploaded this week). Obviously, now is the appropriate time to fine tune the portfolio section and make final revisions to the format before jumping into hundreds of shoots and thousands of new image uploads.

Presently, we have the normal ability to upload up to 20 images per day, which consists of roughly 160 image files; 80 for the images themselves and 80 for the supporting new image and main thumbnail images. The uploads also require roughly 80 HTML support page files, which totals 240 files in an eight hour editing session. This is a lot of work, as you can see, but it makes for perhaps the best photography and design services marketing web site in the world, and the top one in the Tampa Bay market. Now that we have established upload capacities, it should be noted that we are benefiting from what our web team has learned from designing and maintaining leading modeling resource sites. Simply put, it is not enough to have the most content on a site. To be usable, the content must be organized. Throw hundreds, and eventually thousands, of portfolio images into one big thumbnail menu and you will lose people regardless of how good the photography is and how interested that they are. This is why we are now slowing down uploads enough this weekend to finalize some details and organize what we have so far. We will adding main thumbnails to the main portfolio section, removing a lot of the new image thumbnails to prune it back to a manageable level, and then we will bring most of the portfolio "channels" online. The channels will only have relevant image thumbnails for that section, greatly enhancing the ability of people to find the images that they are looking for and enabling our online portfolio to reach the full potential of the advantages of having thousands of pictures online offers. Our online portfolio will have over 1,200 pictures online by the end of the year, and they will all be easy and fun to look at. By this time next year, we should have over 3,000 pictures online.

With our site designed to handle thousands of organized pictures, continuity of portfolio profile formats will change. Newer profiles will be slightly different than older ones, but they won't be so different that it will become much of an issue. Besides profile pages, other elements of this site are being improved, too. Our thumbnail formats have been improved, and the mouse over actions are noticeably different (and better) than the original format. This is one reason that we are holding off from updating the main thumbnails on the top and on the bottom of every page on this site; we are waiting until enough new thumbnails are added and then we will update selected ones to the new standard.

Next week a lot will be happening. We will be working on this all weekend to be sure that it's ready by Monday

We are now uploading far more than your typical model portfolio, actor and talent head shots, and portrait photograph images. we are now uploading pictures of just about everything and anything that we have, including out take snap shots that may not be up to our quality standards. Effective immediately, we will limit out take type pictures to their relevant portfolio channels and will not use them in our marketing or feature them on this site. Our NEWEST IMAGES section will only include marketable additions and not out take type images (one did slip in yesterday, but it is of excellent quality and will soon be displaced by newer thumbnails). We will not announce or market every image added to our site, and will not publish over 50% of our work here. The NEWEST IMAGES section will also be used to proof selected shoots and our client picks. Since an average six-look model portfolio session may yield our picks of around ten images covering those six looks that were shot, proofing a shoot will only take up around half of the self-imposed 20 NEWEST IMAGES that we have set for ourselves to optimize the performance of the site. Our NEWEST IMAGES will serve as a highlight proof and a que for images to be added to pour main portfolio section and their relevant channels. By the time that image thumbnails are displaced, they should be selectable from our portfolio section and the relevant portfolio channels. At times, we may push the NEWEST IMAGES beyond a 20 limit (let's say that we have more than two model portfolio sessions in a day and want to post more than 20 images from them- even booked up, the 20 images should last at least 72 hours before they are displaced, as we do want to give our clients and chance to look at them and need to give ourselves time to add them to the online portfolio section. In rare chances, we may extend the NEWEST IMAGES over 20, and perhaps as high as 50 in rare situations. Just don't try to use updates to this site as a way of trying to weigh out how much work that we are getting or trying to find out who our clients are so you can shop them. We will never upload anything close to what we are doing, and you'll never get the full picture.

In other news, the 6th Aurora PhotoArts web site is now in development, and it will feature flash graphics and animation, sound, CSS library templates, and will be PHP database driven. It will be the ultimate site for flexibility, presentation, customized visitor experiences, and quick and easy updates. While we may announce it, we also may not, as it is a long way off. This site is just getting started, is proving itself as the best photography services marketing site, and we still have to test some things. Don't expect the new generation Aurora PhotoArts site until at least 2009, and we will guess 2010. Until then, you will get to experience this beautifully designed, refined site, and our never-ending tweaks and upgrades.

Friday, July 14, 2006 - Massive Mobilization

C. A. Passinault has ordered the largest mobilization of our resources and project bookings in our 12 year history, with the goal to completely refresh our portfolio by the end of the year and build an additional portfolio for a special project that will go after other photography markets in the Tampa Bay area. This will, by far, exceed the volume of work that we have done since the last time that we did something like this between 2000 and 2002, and combined with our usual business bookings, this means that we will be booked constantly for the remainder of 2006. Passinault activated several dormant contacts, and in the course of a single day booked out for the rest of July. We will be booking and working with at least 60 experienced professional models the rest of this summer.

Much of this work will be with our Aurora PhotoStock program, booking professional models. We are looking forward to meeting and working with every worthwhile professional in the Tampa Bay and Florida markets in the next few months. We're also looking forward to talking to them and listening to their experiences and what they have to say about the industry (if you think that there will be more to this than just doing shoots, than you may be on to something. We have always been far more than a simple photography services company, and our connections and interests are far more extensive than any other professionals in Florida).

Friday, July 14, 2006 - Portfolio Copy

We have uploaded more pictures today, and have adjusted our online portfolio section. We will be adjusting the channels before we bring them online, and have added an OUT TAKES section for those cool behind the scenes pictures that show the respect and the repritore that we have earned with top industry professionals and models. As soon as we get our image files situated, we will spend a day or two going over the copy in our online portfolio profiles, namely the title tags, descriptions, and anecdotes.

At the present, our online portfolio contains roughly 100 pictures. We will be adding at least 1,200 pictures to our online portfolio by December 2006. All 1,200 will be Grail shots that we took in 2006 (a Grail shot, as in holy grail, is a picture that we recognize as the best of the best. This is our term and we came up with it. We strive for these in every photography session, and often get several per shoot). See the next entry for information on how we are going to come up with so many new pictures in this short period of time.

Thursday, July 13, 2006 - Images Added

We have traveled back in time five years and have added some great pictures from our 2001 and 2002 archives. See those images by going to the NEWEST IMAGES section to your left; the main portfolio menu will be updated shortly (if not by the time that you read this). Our site is exploding to life in preparation for what is to come.

Thursday, July 13, 2006 - Site Upgrades Begin

When this Aurora PhotoArts Venus Class web site launched last September, it was designed and optimized for future upgrades, but we had not planned to do it at that time. We are beginning to install upgrades, including some enhancements to our background. Our new images feature is now set up to post our picks during selected shoots and projects. Our partnership with Independent Modeling is going strong, and their site is now ready for what we have planned. This summer is going to get hot around here, and we are entering a new era where we give our clients the best value and show models and talent the light!

It can be said, and has been said, that the greatest fear that a competing photographer or photography company should have is that their clients, such as models, meet us, get to know us, and work with us. We are about to introduce certain people to the bigger and better deal, and this market really needs it!

Thursday, July 13, 2006 - Project Marketing On Monday

C. A. Passinault authorized an extended marketing push for the Aurora PhotoStock stock photography program today, which will begin on Monday, July 17, 2006. The marketing will be a major effort and will last until the end of this year. A second wave of marketing will launch the following weekend. The projects will be limited to professional models who have established portfolios and composite cards. Independent Modeling incentives have been added to the program for the remainder of the year.

Service marketing will resume this weekend, but will be kept separate from project marketing due to it being a conflict of interest.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - Standard Aurora Uniforms

With the planning and assistance of sister company Eventi Events, Aurora PhotoArts will be issuing a standard uniform for our company later this year. The uniforms will be blue, yellow, and gray and will be made of cotton. The Aurora PhotoArts logo will be embroidered on the shirt. The uniform will be designed for electronic interfaces and will be in full compliance with Eventi Events standards for their official uniforms. The Aurora uniforms will not adhere to their color classification system, however, although our color scheme will not conflict with theirs if we work together. Eventi Emblem badges will be placed over the Aurora PhotoArts Logo for subcontracted Eventi Events work (either that, or our photographers and photography support personnel would have to wear the standard green-coded Eventi uniform for the event support classification).

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - Model Tracking System (MTS)

Our new Model Tracking System, or MTS, will be online this week. The MTS will be needed for our commercial photography/ model print work, and working with sister company and Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts we are planning on becoming the leading source of print work for models (model and talent agencies are also subject to a MTS-type system, and if we are not comfortable with anyone that they represent or are associated with, we will choose to avoid working with them). The MTS will enable us to organize and schedule model information more efficiently, and it is needed because of the large number of model referrals and inquiries that we we get from professional models. We will use the system to make ourselves professionally accountable for who we choose to work with; all models will be assigned permanent tracking serial numbers for their permanent file. The system uses databases such as TALON to track the work history and references of models we are considering to book into projects. We will know every contact and reference that the model has before working with them; all models are subject to background checks and a security clearance before we will consider booking them into certain projects due to the contamination of the Tampa Bay photography market that we have been monitoring. Professional conflicts of interests will be taken into account, and we would like to remind models that you basically are who you work with; this is why it is so important to be selective with who you work with.

The MTS will be adapted for a Client Tracking System, or CTS, as well, later this summer.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - Main Computer Offline

We have taken the main computer offline while we work on the ethernet port. One of our two backups is handling our editing and support work. We will be cleaning up old files on the system and will be overhauling it for future work.We are also going through our archives in an attempt to locate some portfolio image files. The system should be back up later this week. In other studio developments, we will be bringing an actress to do voice-over work for our answering system software. We are also adding hands-free head sets for our client services representatives and a hold system to support heavy call volume.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - Lightning Damage

The Geomedia 3 production facility suffered a direct hit from lightning last night during an extremely strong storm, knocking some systems offline and shutting down power for over an hour. The facility was designed to be surge resistant when it was built, and even has special grounded EM shielding built into the walls that prevent RF and EM signals from being picked up outside (the studio section is built inside what is basically a faraday cage). There was minimal damage that would have been far worse if not for our precautions, with a router and an ethernet card paying the price (we also lost a pump on one of the display aquariums). The router was replaced today by a repair team, and we will be installing a new network card in our main computer later this week. For security reasons, we only use one of our computers for uploading files to web sites, and this means that all EOS uploads will be suspended for a few days while work continues on web sites. Although the fiber optic cable that was recently installed isn't supposed to be able to conduct lighting, we will be going over everything in the next few days to fine-tune our surge protection. We will be installing new UPS systems next week.

Monday, July 10, 2006 - Images Added

We attended the Hot Import Nights event in Orlando on Saturday evening. We've uploaded 22 of our favorite images to our online portfolio. You can check out these images through our NEWEST IMAGES on the left or in our online portfolio section.

An online proof of all images taken at the event has also been uploaded, and it can be accessed through our PROOFS section. Please note that these images are unedited, and we are not responsible for anything depicted in these images.

Friday, July 7, 2006 - Client Services

We are working on new tools and procedures to improve our communication with our clients, and are working toward long-term professional relationships. These new tools will be operational on Monday. We are going to be editing pictures today and will be adding them next week, too.

Thursday, July 6, 2006 - Photography Session Policies

Escorts

As it has always been, we would like to remind our clients that they may bring someone along to any shoot that they book, unless the individual is an unauthorized photographer or someone who may be a security risk. Friends and family are welcome! We don't mind as long as they do not interfere with the photography process, they make our clients more comfortable, and their participation is not a professional or ethical conflict of interest. If it is ever an issue, we will simply request that our client bring along someone else. Clients under the age of 21 are encouraged to bring someone along. Clients under the age of 18 are required to have the full participation of their parents or legal guardian at all times.

Nude And Glamour Photography

Our company, as a rule, does not do nude photography or any kind of photography that we have professional issues with. We will not do any work with the potential to make our clients or our company look bad. We are against the exploitation of models and talent, and freely support resource sites that build up the integrity of the entertainment industry and which help models and talent. If you are looking for a service that can photograph you nude or in risque poses, we have a list of ethical professionals who we can refer you to. This kind of work is very risky for any modeling or entertainment career, and we recommend avoiding it if possible. If you pursue it, please be careful and make sure that you are dealing with an ethical professional. Check all references and make sure that they cannot sell your images to businesses that will not portray you in the best of light. We believe that exploitation is not art, and those who exploit people in the name of art are those who defile our freedoms. It is too easy for someone to pick up a camera and take pictures of nude subjects, and it requires no professional training. Too many "photographers" are doing this sort of work, and those of us who are professional take a stand. While we recognize that nude photography is a legitimate art form, we also respect the higher level of professionalism required for such art. In our case, we simply do not feel comfortable doing this kind of work because we do not want to risk the pictures being taken out of context and turned into something that was never intended. If a photographer is mainly soliciting nude work or only seems to do nude work, we suggest looking elsewhere for your photography needs. Find a photographer who excels in many areas of photography, who has been in the business a long time, and has many verifiable references.

Thursday, July 6, 2006 - Site Work

We will be doing some cleanup work on the site in the next few days. We will be deleting some pictures and adding many more. We will also be adjusting content and files as we prepare our online store and the introduction of other services. Out thumbnails are in the process of being upgraded, and our overall look will change shortly.

Thursday, June 29, 2006 - How To Contact Us

Over the past few weeks, we have lost count on how many E-Mails that we get asking for rates when we have instructions in our contact section explaining that we do not E-Mail rates (we have also lost some E-Mails due to the volume of mail that we get and models sending huge image files to us). We also do not post our rates on this web site. The main reason is that we have hundreds of services that we offer and our rates are constantly being adjusted. Another is that many of these inquiries are not specific, and we have too much respect for the time of our clients to quote them a general rate when we may not have any idea of exactly what they are looking for. Instead of spending days E-Mailing back and forth, the information can be obtained either by investing five minutes on the phone with one of our representatives or by scheduling a free, face-to-face consultation with one of our photographers. E-Mailing a standard rate would hardly be fair to you, and it is far faster and better to simply call us at (813) 671-9507. If we are busy, please leave a message and we will get back to you faster than we can with E-Mail.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - Advertising Spending Increased

As we branch into other markets, we are increasing our investment into mainstream advertising. We have budgeted thousands of dollars into mainstream advertising for the remainder of 2006. This should increase our market share by over 400%. This is especially important as we focus more on commercial photography in 2007 and demonstrate the we service photography markets other than the model portfolio and talent head shot photography that we continue to excel at.

Monday, June 26, 2006 - Online Store In July

Our Online Store, originally scheduled for a debut this month, has been delayed until late July. The store, which will also sell stock images, will possibly launch around the time of our next large upload of images for our portfolio. We have been spending a lot of time booking client photography sessions and taking pictures of other things in order to build a stock image library for EOS to take advantage of.

Saturday, June 10, 2006 - Twelve Years!

Today Aurora PhotoArts is twelve years old! Our very first photography session was with two DJ's at Lowry Park in Tampa. The shoot, done at the band shell, was for Geomedia's 22nd release, Futura, featuring DJ Frontier (C. A. Passinault) and DJ Cricket (Nicole Angel). Aurora PhotoArts continued primarily as a support company of its sister companies, and then came into its own in 1998 and 1999. By 2000, we were routinely turning out great work for professionals who booked our services. By 2001, our company became the most profitable Passinault.Com company and a Tampa Bay photography leader. We continue to be the top Tampa Bay photography and design company, and are well on our way to achieving national photography market leadership in the remaining years of this decade.

We were going to do a celebration shoot at Lowry Park today, but we have been too busy with booking shoots, and that itself is an ongoing celebration of the work we do and the overall tastes of the consumers in our market.

Thursday, June 8, 2006 - Summer Work

We’ve been really busy booking and working on photography shoots lately (the reason for the lack of online update time), and this summer is going to be record-setting.
Our online store will launch shortly, along with our new photographic art sales line, and we will be scheduling more time to update the site, as new service contracts which we will be using require it. We will be expanding our marketed range of photography services, and model and talent clients will be promoted through an exclusive deal that we have with Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, Independent Performer, and the TALON TALent Online network (affiliated photographers such as Craig Huey and Andy Meng will have the same benefits, so models and talent can not go wrong working with them, either). This exclusive promotion will be offered at no additional charge for our regular freelance promotion package. No one else can offer what we can, and we’re more than happy to demonstrate what we can do for our clients that no one else can match. We are far more than just another photography company.
Our rates will be adjusted again this summer. Please call our client services department at (813) 671-9507 for current rates that are relevant for the services that you are looking for.
Aurora PhotoArts will be investing in new equipment this summer, including a range of specialized studio and portable lighting.
Our photography association, the Round Table Photography Association, found at TampaBayPhotographers.Com, will be pushed heavily in the coming months. At the moment, their old site is up, and we are sitting on the new site, as it has been finished for months now. The reason? We’re preparing to support new initiatives with the association and with the web site, and to post some revolutionary new ideas on the Internet before we are ready to push them would prove to be a mistake. We are not in business to teach our perceived competition how to do business, and we are concerned that some may take our ideas and use them before we are in position to, as it has happened before. We are committed, however, to helping improve the overall integrity of the photography services industry, and will be assisting our photographer partners and photographers who work in our upcoming professional alliance. We will subcontract the best photographers for our projects in the future, further increasing the range and the effectiveness of our services.
Working along with our new photography spinoff company, we will be increasing our stock photography services this summer, too. Advertising agency and sister Passinault.Com company EOS MediaArts will begin selling stock images as a low cost alternative to commercial photography to commercial clients starting this fall. All stock images will be beneficial to the careers of all involved models.
The EOS advertising agency site is in development and will be launched very soon.

Friday, May 19, 2006 - New Photography Company

It is official. There is a second photography company that will begin business in the Tampa Bay market in the summer of 2006. Although this company is an operational partner of ours and will share our photographers and resources, this company will focus on photography and only photography, with an emphasis on fashion and modeling (our work is heavy on the commercial-type and we do far more than photography) . The new photography company will tackle photography that we are not comfortable doing, and it will provide an ethical and professional alternative for much of what is going on in the market now. This new company will not be an official Passinault.Com company for market-conflict reasons.

The company name and specific photography service lines are classified, and the company is currently putting together an extensive portfolio.

Edge Portfolios, an advertising agency for models, actors, and talent, has been absorbed into advertising agency EOS MediArts and will now operate as a division of EOS under their license.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - Store Due In June

Our long-awaited online PhotoArts Store will be online and featured on our site in June! You will be able to buy Aurora PhotoArts art, lithographs, prints, and other products from this site. The store will also be connected to and marketed through an arrangement with online retail leader Ebay and other sales sites.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - Site Updates

Site updates to the Aurora PhotoArts site have been slow lately because we are booking plenty of work and have been very busy. There is a backlog of images that we have shot lately which we will start uploading today; please note that we're overloaded with images and we will not post everything that we have been doing. We will only post the highlights of our most recent work. A lot of this work has been the most impressive in our history, and we are working on some things that will increase what we can do by a factor of ten toward the end of this year. Currently, we are the top photography services company in the Tampa Bay market. By next year, we will be openly competing with the nations best and will become the obvious choice in this market throughout several industries.

We will be doing plenty of updates throughout this site in the coming days as we schedule time to work on it.

We will be adding new marketing support campaigns and entire new sections this summer to support new sales and program initiatives.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - ESPY Model Testing Retired

Due to the large volume of business that we have been doing, we feel that the ESPY Model Testing Program is redundant, and may not be performing like it should. Effective immediately, we are suspending the ESPY Model Testing Program, but retain the right to offer it in certain circumstances to approved clients. ESPY has been a very successful program, and has been ongoing for the past three years. The suspension of ESPY is part of our process to increase commercial photography and other services.

Those who have been putting off booking an ESPY session may be out of luck. Please contact us and we will be happy to discuss your new options.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - Sponsored Sites Restored

Sponsorship of the Independent Sites and model resource sites like Tampa Bay Modeling have been restored. Aurora PhotoArts, EOSMediaArts, and other Passinault.Com companies will continue to support the sites. As part of an updated agreement, the sites are no longer dependent entirely upon us and are free to shop for other sponsors if we are unable to sponsor them in the future. For the time being, however, sponsorship and assistance is promised and followed through. For Aurora PhotoArts, this also means that our client profile arrangement is on again with the Independent Sites!

A special thanks go out to all of the models and actors who sent countless E-Mails to the sites and to us protesting the suspension. The majority has finally become vocal, and we heard you. Sponsorship was restored a week ago.

Although we are sponsoring them, the Passinaut.Com companies are not responsible for the opinions expressed on these sites, the information presented, and the talent resources available on them.

Monday, May 8, 2006 - Independent Sites Suspended

Effective today, Independent Modeling and the other Independent Sites have had their web support suspended by EOS MediaArts. Although these sites are not directly affiliated with us and the sister companies of Passinault.Com, advertising agency EOS MediaArts performs maintenance on the web sites and at least one other unrelated modeling resource (we believe that it was Tampa Bay Modeling). Without update support, this pretty much stalls all the involved sites and suspends further updates until a financial arrangement can be secured between the sites and the EOS web team or the owners of these sites find other web companies that can work with the EOS web designs (it remains unclear if EOS will allow this, as the site class formats are technically leased to the involved parties under the terms of sponsorship and the web sites would probably have to be paid off in full before they are released).
Effective immediately, this terminates our online profile arrangement with the Independent Sites, too, as we cannot do this if they are unable to update their sites. This is projected to have minimal impact on our business.
The EOS web team will continue to maintain most of the existing content of the involved sites, as several sponsored sites are now on standby mode with no planned updates. The domain names and site content remain the property of their owners.
It remains unclear if this is the end of some of these sites. For now, they will remain online. We have been informed by the web team that all of the sites can be brought up to speed in one day if the need arises and outstanding issues are addressed.

Thursday, April 13, 2006 - ESPY Program Schedule

C. A. Passinault today scaled back the ESPY model testing program on our active schedule. We will now have four main sessions a year, and reserve the right to qualify participation. Rates for this service are now longer held at a discount from the rates of our model portfolio photography, but have been set as a testing rate. The quality of both testing and portfolio photography are identical. Model portfolio photography and other photography services may be pro-rated as package deals, however, and we reserve the right to adjust rates at any time. Rates booked under the terms of a signed service agreement are locked at the specified rate.

We no longer market our services with the promise of reduced-rates or discounts. With the new Client Delivery System (CDS) implemented this month, all of our photography services are expanded, and our clients now receive more with each service contracted. Our long-term client support services have been enhanced, too. With service improvements made, we can no longer justify budget marketing, especially when our full-rate services have been outselling our discount programs for some time now.

Thursday, April 13, 2006 - Portfolio Updated

We've uploaded more images to our online portfolio. Check the "newest images" on the left to see more.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - Rates And Services

In the latest rounds of service agreement adjustments (necessary because of the implementation of our new Client Delivery System, or CDS), we have elected not to increase any of our rates. We have also elected, as CDS specifies, to increase overall services and enhance client support. To enable these welcome changes, we have made cut-backs to reduced rate services and are pushing to make up for increased overhead by obtaining higher volume sales. ESPY, which is currently marketed as a reduced-rate model testing service, will be offered less, and we will be very selective in who will be eligible to use ESPY (We have a session this Saturday April 15 and in late May. After that, we’re looking at August, and then maybe as infrequent as every three months. Those that ignored or passed up this offer in the past will soon find it very hard to get into. It is possible that we may discontinue and retire the ESPY program later this year). We are projecting our offline sales efforts to become more effective once ESPY is no longer pushed, and while we won’t go into reasons, let’s just say that we are too busy booking our regular services to bother with reduced-rate anything.
We will no longer market services on the promise of lower rates. Our work quality is excellent, and we really don’t see any other photographers or photography companies in the Tampa Bay market who can match what we can do for clients. Those that market services at lower rates almost always have work that match those low rates. We are all that anyone needs for the pictures and quality work that they are looking for. Since sales have been up, we are interested in increasing the services that we offer to our clients instead of trying to give them discounts. Our focus is on both service and total value. If anyone wants budget pictures by someone who is less experienced and is still trying to figure out the photography business, than they are welcome to go there. We’ll wait for them to come back to us for what they need.
Clients who have booked our services using older agreements would be bound to the terms of those agreements, and would have to use the newest edition agreements to take advantage of our CDS. The new agreements will not be available until next week at the earliest, as we are still finalizing some details. We may grandfather some photography sessions that we did this week into the new terms, but have not decided if we will or not at this time.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - Studio Upgrades

We are about to upgrade our studio connection. Our present broadband connection is barely able to keep up with our web work, and a new fiber optic connection should be more than enough to help us keep up. Connection speed has a lot to do with the number of updates to the “new images” thumbnails on the left, and whenever we add any images, we have to refresh the entire site directory. This takes time, and with our current broadband connection it takes at least thirty minutes and we need someone here during the process to make sure that the FTP does not time-out.
We have always intended to use the left “newest images” thumbnail bar as an online proof of current, daily work of the images of our choice. These images would be highlighted here, but would not necessarily be added to the online portfolio (We would leave that to the best of the best and work that demonstrates our professional range). It was never meant to be redundant.
With uploads being over six times faster, we can finally use it to proof our top picks for current work. The “newest images” would be aimed at current clients rather than general visitors, although security precautions would be taken so visitors could look at that work, too, if they wish.
Currently, we use Photoshop to generate web proofs for clients to look at. We’re not happy with the way Photoshop presents unedited work that is not optimized. A part of our solution will be to use this web site’s “newest images” as an online proof of the edited work of our choice, while providing our clients with actual printed contact sheets (as a part of our new CDS, or Client Delivery System) and follow-up consultations. The clients would end up getting our picks as a bonus and their picks as promised by the service agreement. The new CDS would also include prints as part of photography services, and we will cover that in another news post today. Increased services that are more user-friendly rather than reduced-rate offers are now the trend- which is putting pressure on services such as ESPY. The days of clients having no choice but to choose their own printing service are now over, too, especially when we have seen what some models have done to our composite cards and some actors have done to our head shots with our company name all over them. Quality issues aside, we’re also not too keen on referring our clients to potential competitors, and some of the printing companies that we happened to refer clients to in the past just happened to offer services like we do as well as printing services. We will be highly discouraging clients from mailing image files and from using their own printer. We are also looking at our web comps and may modify the format so they cannot be printed off of the web- we haven’t decided what to do there, however (the existing web comps and online head shots on Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer would not be changed, however, and would be unique in their download/ online print capabilities if we decided to modify the format).

Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - ESPY Model Testing Scaled Back?

Our famous ESPY reduced-rate model testing program has been running since the summer of 2003, and there are now rumors that the program could be scaled back in favor of conventional consultations and increasing model portfolio photography and talent head shot photography. Our regular photography services have seen an increase in bookings, and ESPY has indications that it may not be as cost-effective as it used to be. With regular-rate service bookings increased, we have less time to do any reduced rate services even as group projects, and historically offline sales have led to conventional service bookings rather than ESPY bookings. ESPY has always been the darling of online sales efforts, and with a 30% drop in online sales, ESPY sessions are not booking like they used to. Overall, however, sales are up, with the majority going to our conventional services and our greatest success coming from our highly-refined offline sales program. It seems that when people see our work, they are inspired to invest in our photography services. This is how it should be, and it should be noted that we are booking clients even after they have shopped other photographers in this market.

ESPY sessions may become less frequent, and we may become highly selective on who we book into this service. The next session is in late May, and there may not be another until July or August. With the connected First Look program, and some issues regarding height limitations in what agencies will even consider in a model, ESPY may become an elite service which is an exception rather than the rule.

Monday, April 10, 2006 - New Service Agreements

We will be releasing our Q2 service agreements and upgraded contracts later this week. Unlike the last few changes, rates will remain the same for now, although we will be looking at our rates again in September. The changes will instead reflect our new Client Delivery System (CDS), and some agreements will see the increased benefits that take advantage of of our last rate increase. One of the reasons that we raised our rates in Q4 2005 was to support our CDS and the inclusion of prints. The system is now ready, and while we will be doing more work after each photography session to support it, it is worth it to satisfy our clients and to enhance our new efforts in long term client support.

The terms of our client delivery system (CDS) cover full-priced photography bookings. Discounts and special offers may modify the CDS.

Sunday, April 9, 2006 - Changes In Store

We will be working on adding more pictures to our online portfolio in the coming days, and these pictures will be more than the ones of models and talent who fill the Aurora PhotoArts site currently. We have a lot of landscapes, pictures of things and objects, and art work that we haven’t had the chance to show on this site until now. We will be editing pictures tonight, and some may make it onto the site on Monday morning.
Of course, adding new type of pictures to the site is only one of the changes that are in store. The rest of this is about booking policies.
We've had this policy in place for the past three years, but we're really going to start emphasizing it. Which policy are we talking about? The under 21 rule. If a model is under the age of 21 and at least 18, we strongly encourage their parents to become involved in the consultation and booking process. If the model is under 18, then parental involvement is mandatory.
Under 21? Talk to your parents and spend time with them looking at our work. Your parents will like us. We have yet to meet any parents who don’t, and we have a mile-long list of references to back it up. We like parents, too, and have spent a lot of time making it easy to work with them in model testing and model portfolio photography work.
Speaking of consultations, we have recently changed our consultation process to make it a bit easier. Changes aside, clients still must deposit at least 50% down in order to book our services (and those between 18 and 21 should have their parents involved.). Lately, our schedule has been getting tight, and booking deposits help us manage all of that and make it work.

Saturday, April 8, 2006 - Client Choice

Some of our work in the past twelve weeks has even surprised us. Some of our clients and even other photographers have told us that we’ve been doing the best work in our history in the past quarter.
That’s a start, but it won’t compare to what is coming. Just wait until they see what we’ll be coming up with in the near future.
What exactly does “writing photography” mean? It is a conceptual process that will become the foundation of the future of Aurora PhotoArts, and it will enable us to compete with highly regarded professional photographers and photography studios on a national and international level. We are going to become famous for our editorial and conceptual work. The irony is that you will seldom see anything editorial or conceptual in our present work. That will change. Photography is much more than great composition and taking well-lit, sharp pictures of models, actors, and talent. We are going to demonstrate that shortly. Aurora PhotoArts is about to become a legendary brand, and our already-excellent photography work will improve ten-fold in the next year.
Why do others worry about famous photographers flying down from markets like New York and booking work in Tampa Bay? We don’t.
That’s something to think about (if you’re not in the loop, it’ll only be more confusing than anything, and that’s just fine with us- we would rather that most would see the results and not have to think about the process). For now, we have to work on the studio, get it ready for models, and work on studio lighting. We’ll be working on the studio all night tonight and into tomorrow morning.
The fact that 99% of all of our work is done on location and not in a studio should be raising some eyebrows, and should make the above information even more compelling. Good. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
We are already the choice of our clients. We will soon become the choice of the established clients of our competition, and we look forward to making the bigger and better deal obvious. We’re going to give a level of work that you simply won’t be able to get anywhere else, and that’s the way that it should be.

Thursday, April 6 2006 - Site Expansion Coming

The Aurora PhotoArts web site will be expanded soon. This site has been very successful since its launch last fall, and although it weighs in at a hefty 1,500 pages, some of the features and other sections await expansion. We will be tripling the size of this site in 2006.
We will be adding and updating the following site content:

SEO
We are now increasing this sites effectiveness on Internet search engines. The advanced SEO techniques coded into this site have been working well, and we will be adding SEO support features to double what we’ve been able to do so far. Much of our business comes from people who find us using the Internet, and while sales efforts are now focusing offline, our online efforts will increase. For the time being, smart people are finding exactly what they need. They are finding us, and feedback that we’ve obtained from our new clients indicate that they love our site and they love our work. Our web site is the most effective marketing engine in the Florida photography and design services market at the moment, and it will only get better as we grow into our designed potential.

PORTFOLIO
We will be adding several hundred new images to our online portfolio section, and will be activating all channels. We are thinking about adding additional portfolio channels, too. One of the largest channels will be our Stock Photography channel with stock sale-enables images for sale. We plan an additional 50 stock photography sessions this year to fill our stock library.

DESIGN
Our design services will be expanded to support commercial photography and other services. Consumer design services will be added.

FEATURES
We will be adding a FAQ section (like we had back in 2001-2002), articles, tutorials, DIY features, interviews, support content, an expanded client support section, and a store where our services can be booked and products such as art pieces can be purchased.

ART
Our first framed art will be available for purchase. Some pieces will be limited edition collectors items. We are presently in talks with a framing company to be able to frame our art prints. Most of these prints will be art derived from photographs and photographs themselves, but we have other product lines in the works. Aurora PhotoArts art work will be displayed in art galleries and shows, too.

This is just the beginning. This Venus Class web site was designed to be more than a photography marketing site, and the directions that it could expand to in the future are limitless. There is a third market that we will be working in by 2008, and it will join our photography and design services as well as our art work. We will need a new studio, equipment, and top-of-the-line computer workstations to reach into that market, however. What we are working with right now cannot begin to touch what we need.
Like most Passinault.Com companies, we are far more than a company with limited services. Aurora PhotoArts is far more than just a photography and design services company. Our present services only cover a third of what we’ve been planning all along, and all of the service and product lines are designed to compliment and enhance each other.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - Advanced Marketing

Aurora PhotoArts will roll out an advanced marketing program this month. One line of marketing material will be a joint marketing effort with both Aurora PhotoArts and event planning/ stage production company Eventi Events. The Aurora/ Eventi marketing will include service packages that no one in Florida can offer, and that alone is projected to increase our bookings over 500%.
Both Eventi Events and Aurora PhotoArts are Passinault.Com companies.
The advanced marketing program, which has been in the works since January, ties exclusively into our new testing, sales, referral, client delivery, and the Round Table Photography Association project programs. Currently, Aurora PhotoArts is the top photography company in the Tampa Bay market, and all these efforts will dramatically increase our lead over our competition in this market and others in Florida. By 2007, the advantages that our company will enjoy over other photography companies will become obvious and easily apparent to everyone in Tampa Bay, and this would be possible even if we were not tied into an advertising agency. That, however, is another scenario altogether, and will serve to further amplify the Aurora PhotoArts market advantage. Those who work with us will enjoy some of those advantages, too.
Currently, we have several programs and projects in the works that have not been announced or revealed yet. Some of these will serve to revolutionize the Tampa Bay photography services market and will change the way that photographers, models, talent, and their clients interact and do business. We have looked at other photography companies and the way business is done in this market and are not very impressed. We do, however, have the ability to change things and improve the market. We will enhance our ability to do business by helping the market, and every genuine professional will ultimately benefit from this. The responsibility of leadership is something that we take as seriously as the quality services that we offer and the comprehensive support of our clients.
The foundation of support resources and advanced business protocols are now in place. It is time to make a difference and make photography services a better business.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - New Client Delivery System

To ensure quality control on photography session output, we have brought a brand new client delivery system online which will cover the output of all photography services that we offer. This includes ESPY Reduced Rate Model Test Sessions, Model Portfolio Photography, and Talent Head Shot Photography. An earlier version of this system was already in place for wedding and commercial photography.
Effective immediately, we will be working with two printing companies. Clients will have a range of different photograph printing options available. Prints will utilize a specialized format unveiled today which brands each photograph and ties in with our marketing program. This format is critical at this time since it has come to our attention that at least ten models will be taking our images to top model and talent agencies and businesses this month. All print files will come in a standard print resolution of 355 DPI/PPI in RGB mode @ 8 X 10 inch default sizes. Other print sizes and images files in professional CMYK mode/ file types are also available. Commercial clients will now be able to order files that can support poster, magazine, and billboard-size TIF image files in a CYMK format.
The ESPY and closely connected FIRST LOOK programs will have an advanced online client delivery system by next week. This will replace the old Photoshop-generated web galleries and links that we had been using, and clients will be to see adjusted proofs on the web. For those who have been complaining of sideways proofs, this is good news. You can now view images proofs that have been adjusted. Our photographers will pick the overall proofs and allow the clients to choose, and the option to obtain contact sheets of the full session output will be available. Due to the fact that we now have new equipment and client support technology, full session output consultations where we can go over all the proofs with our clients and answer questions will also be made available.
Effective immediately, we will discourage clients from printing their own pictures, although that option will remain available (there are seven pending bookings that will have expanded options available to them to ease the transition). Quality of the delivered images and photograph prints are very important to us, and we will make it as easy for the clients to get high quality prints of their photographs as possible.
This new client delivery system is neccessary to support a ten-fold increase in business in the second quarter of 2006. Aurora PhotoArts is projected to grow substantially in the Tampa Bay market in the next year. In the past, our clients were able to choose their own printing company and print their pictures from our sessions. Since we cannot control the quality of the picture prints in those situations, a change was needed. This will make our services much easier to use from now on.

Tampa Bay's best photography company just became a lot more effective.

Thursday, March 30, 2006 - Joint Studio Name Not Set

The new Joint Photography Studio (JPS) in the works for the Tampa Bay market may not end up being called Fusia Studios when it launches. The name is currently tentative, and other names are being considered while the studio and the advanced technology behind it are being finalized.

The joint photography studio will set a new standard in the Tampa Bay market, and it will serve as a collaborative home to several professional photography companies, photographers, and businesses (advertising agency EOS MediaArts may be based there). Specialized services will include commercial photography, model portfolio development, and actor/ talent head shot photography. There is a genuine need for this studio in the Tampa Bay market, and work is proceeding. Currently, the studio project is being administered by the Round Table Photography association and Aurora PhotoArts, but a new business, which would be a Passinault.Com company, may be created to run the operational studio.

Thursday, March 30, 2006 - Client Promotion And Support

Our new client promotion and support program is completed and will be fully operational on April 2, 2006. All clients from the past six years are eligible for the program and we extend the offer free of charge, with no obligation to obtain any additional services. Present and future clients will be connected to the program automatically, and it will come as a free bonus to any booked model portfolio photography session or actor and talent head shot photography session. Other services that we offer may also be eligible for this service.

All client promotions include a free inquiry-screening service to help reduce inappropriate offers.

For details on how this works, you will have to call us. We are unable to provide this information on our web site at this time. Our service agreement contracts are currently being updated to support this new service.

Thursday, March 30, 2006 - Alert System Role Increased

There is a new alert for a client by the name of Samantha Sweat. She can read it HERE.

Effective immediately, we will be using our alert system for far more than long-lost clients and dormant client accounts. We will use it as a means of getting in touch with any client who we are having difficulty reaching. Our NEWS DIRECTORY menu will link directly to these alerts (with the exception of this one).

To date, our experimental alert system has proven to be very useful and highly successful. It has put us in touch with many models and other clients. As of now, it is no longer classified as experimental and is now fully operational with expanded roles. to see current alerts in our system, go HERE.

Thursday, March 30, 2006 - Call Backs

Currently, we have been playing phone tag with over thirty clients in the past month. We will have this corrected in a matter of days. Please note that it is our goal to call back all clients on the same day. If you cannot reach anyone in our client services department during normal business hours (9AM-5PM M-F), it probably means that we are all out working on projects, and a call back would normally occur after 6PM that same day (depending upon work load). Normally, you can reach a live person in client services before 9AM and after 6PM on any day, as there would be someone either prepping or winding down from the day's work at those times. Another good time to reach one of our representatives would be between 9PM and 6AM, as we sometimes have someone working in the studio overnight.

If you call our client services department and are prompted to leave a message, please do so (If you don't get any answer, please E-Mail us- The system became overloaded with messages on the morning of 3/29. We've since rectified that issue, but it can happen). Please indicate the best time to reach you, and include more than one phone number if you can. We will have someone contact you. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Thursday, March 30, 2006 - MUA Saturation

We have done over a dozen interviews with leading Make Up Artists in the past month, and are still swamped in submissions for MUA work. Please note that Make Up Artists that we subcontract must be licensed as a Make Up Artist through the department of business and professional regulation. If you don't have a license, we cannot consider you until you are qualified and licensed as a professional Make Up Artist. This said, the market is already saturated with licensed Make Up Artists, and we are taking our time looking for additional professionals to work with (there is one MUA who is contacting us daily, and we will be getting back to them shortly). Our call-back times with MUA inquiries are now at an average of two to three weeks, due to current high booking levels of work.

Currently, we are selectively considering MUA's to work with, and are no longer accepting inquiries from Make Up Artists. We are also looking into setting MUA Rates for our referral program, and booked MUA's would be locked into those rates (Note: This is nothing against the Make Up Artists, but if we do not do this, it is going to become very difficult to get any of our clients to book a MUA for their photography session during our consultations).

Thursday, March 30, 2006 - Business Process

We are in the process of streamlining our business operations. Consultations, booking, and programs such as ESPY are being optimized for high-volume business. It is becoming so busy at this time that it is very difficult to keep up, and we will be able to handle more business by the first week of April. In April, we will get even busier as new marketing and sales programs launch, adding to our word-of-mouth bookings and repeat client sales. It is going to be a record-setting spring and summer for sales.

The sales and service processes, which have been proven and refined over time, are now in place. We are ready to push what we have to offer and increase our lead in the Tampa Bay photography and design market. Increased profits will be reinvested into out company, with new equipment procured this Summer. This new equipment will lead to a ten-fold increase in the quality of our work late this year, as we have a ton of great, creative ideas and are waiting on the equipment to bring those ideas to life.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006 - Next Reduced Rate Model Testing

Saturday, April 15, 2006 is the magic date for our very next ESPY reduced-rate model testing session for aspiring models and experienced professional models (if they are looking for professional pictures to pad the looks in their portfolio, as all ESPY photography is professional quality). This should take the edge off of the normal tax-day crunch, especially for parents who want to get their kids into modeling. For more, check out our ESPY SECTION.

Friday, March 24, 2006 - Security Upgrades In Place

Security upgrades to our leading operations are now in place and are in effect. Most of the measures are invisible to most people. We are no longer in the unintentional business of training those who aspire to compete with us, and have ensured that Aurora PhotoArts will continue to the top choice and the undisputed leader of photography and design services in the Tampa Bay market.

While we strive to educate our clients about the entertainment industry and about true quality in photography and design services, we have further increased security efforts in career promotion so they will not be bothered by offers that have no chance in giving them the quality and professionalism that they deserve.

Friday, March 24, 2006 - April Showers

As we move into the second quarter of 2006, we're going to be pouring it on in April! We've been booking and shooting a lot throughout February and March, and work will only increase in April. Expect a new marketing strategy in April (we may use the "Higher Resolutions" one again in Q1 2007 because this one worked really well), another in the summer, and yet another in the fall- one for each quarter may be the trend here. Expect lots of new pictures to be uploaded in April, too.

We've been really busy lately, and have a backlog of client calls to return and updates to upload. We will be caught up with client callbacks this weekend. Once again, Aurora PhotoArts is proving to be the photography and design services leader in the Tampa Bay market, and the top choice for entertainment professionals.

Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - ESPY Session Rescheduled

The March 25, 2006 ESPY session has been postponed to April 8, 2006. C. A. Passinault, who normally does these sessions, has an obligation in another industry which is not photography related. C. A. Passinault will be available for the next ESPY session on April 8.

Sunday, February 26, 2006 - Sales On Upswing

Bookings and sales have been increasing in the past few weeks. Everything we have rolled out has seen better than expected success. Our stock photography program has attracted top professional models and other professionals in the industry. ESPY is seeing some of its best bookings in years, with experienced models as well as aspiring taking advantage of the unmatched service that we offer. Other services, such as our actor head shot photography sessions, have been doing so well that we had to scale back some of our special offers.

We are now booked well in advance, and this trend will only continue.

Sunday, February 19, 2006 - Stock Images For Sale

Our first batch of stock images are now online, and sales start immediately. Stock photography sessions are booking up fast, and lots more will be available soon. Go HERE to check them out.

Saturday, February 18, 2006 - Site Upgrades

Site upgrades are now being done, and it will lead to small differences in continuity with some parts of the site (for example, the new stock photography part of our online portfolio has been slightly restructured). This is of little consequence, as the site was designed to be updated from time to time. We are currently working on enhancing the portfolio section and tweaking our thumbnail formats.

Friday, February 17, 2006 - Stock Photography Session

Our first official Stock Photography Session was done today at a secluded beach in Ruskin with Jacksonville model Michelle Natasha and Aurora PhotoArts senior photographer C. A. Passinault. The images that we selected for stock use came out well, and you can see them all by going HERE.

Thursday, February 16, 2006 - System Reset

Due to the competitive nature of our business, we have reset our NEWS - DEVELOPMENTS AND UPDATES section to comply with new security and public relations measures. New posts in this section will be overseen by our new head of corporate security, and sensitive information will not be included.

Thursday, February 16, 2006 - Market Focus Shifts

Directive 1903152120091407 (KEY A1) has been implemented, with full operations commencing. We have been preparing for this for the past six months, and now that infrastructure, contracts, and new business tools are online, we are now shifting our work to other operations within the Tampa Bay photography services market. We will have a senior staff meeting in the main studio this evening to go over specifics. Our staff and support teams will know what this means, with disclosure on a need-to-know basis only. Subcontracted professionals will only have access to the relevant information that they need to follow through on their bookings. A meeting with our attorney is scheduled for next week as well.

The plan is in motion, and we are on schedule. New security protocols are also now active.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - It's A Secret For Now

Could it be that the information released on this site that others studied was done by elaborate design and completely intentional? We’re not saying what the plan was or how it worked, but lets just say that we’re happy with the outcome so far.
Effective immediately, and per strict orders from C. A. Passinault, information security for all of the companies of Passinault.Com and affiliates has been enhanced, and new measures designed to maintain (and ultimately increase our) market superiority are in place. This covers us, too, as we are presently the most profitable company in the Passinault.Com arsenal and we are leaders in a very competitive industry. We are sitting on a mountain of revolutionary ideas, some which have the potential to change the course of industries and the way that business is done. In many cases, entire business models and even web sites will be worked on in secret, to be unveiled and unleashed upon different markets in blitzkrieg fashion with the assistance of overwhelming support infrastructure that has been in the works for years. The idea is to keep our ideas a secret until we can properly push them. Competitors will not have time to react and adapt, enabling us to dominate markets and establish indisputable leadership. We are the answer to the problems that the photography services market is swamped with presently, and we will begin by reshaping the Tampa Bay market and leading by example.
We have already accomplished things that no one else can do or had been able to do. This trend will dramatically increase shortly.
While some information on the Aurora PhotoArts site will be adjusted for security purposes, most of the current information will remain. After all, it’s common knowledge already for all of the people who spend their time studying this site, and we are going to keep material that can be referenced on the site for people who are looking for the true source of some really good ideas floating around out there. Additionally, the business models expressed on this web site are now outdated compared to what we are now working on while remaining compatible. We are confident that most businesses using our ideas will not be able to fulfil the potential of those ideas, as they do not fully understand what they are working with and are missing the pieces that make them work as-intended, and what we are working on behind the scenes is even better.
How are we so sure that what we have works? Experience and education. We have experimented and studied our results over the years. We constantly study business, marketing, and other industries and apply those concepts to our industry when we can make it work. We have hard data to back it up, and at this point in the game more and more of our ideas are as effective as we want them to be. We have a business research and development department that most Fortune 500 companies can only dream of, and we will soon prove our advantages. Our claims are about to become facts, and will be obvious to everyone in the photography services and design industry. Crazy claims? We hope that most think that and underestimate what we are going to do. As a matter of fact, we’re counting on it.
We have enjoyed watching both aspiring and professionally competent competitors react to our simpler ideas and attempt to counter some of the things that we have been successful with. The real fun will be watching them try to react to things that they won’t know about until the last moments.
Expect informational posts in our developments section to drop off, effective immediately, as our business completes a transition that will shape the industry of the future.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - New Round Table Site

A brand new Round Table Photography Association web site is now up and running - on a EOS MediaArts laptop in the studio. The site, a brand new Huey Class photography and project marketing web site, is said to be one of the most advanced sites yet, and is even a bit more refined than our Aurora PhotoArts Venus Class site. More content and features will be added to the site over the next few weeks, and there are standing orders to keep the new site offline until it can be properly pushed (You can see the site at TampaBayPhotographers.Com when it is up). We have huge plans for our little elite association. Which brings us to a big secret.................

Monday, February 13, 2006 - Stock Photography

Our stock photography program is starting to book red-hot. We have a lot of highly experienced, professional models lined up to participate with the program, and since the quality requirements are a bit on the high side we’re going to be selective. Models who need details about the program only have to spend a minute or two reading about it on our web site. If they have questions, they need to call us and simply ask. Competition is stiff, and we require that instructions are followed for consideration and participation.
The PhotoStock sessions are going to become team efforts as the weeks progress, with Make Up Artists and additional photographers brought into them. With specific requirements and high standards needed to pull off some of our concepts, most can see why we are asking for professional models only. The program is about to shift gears, too, as our other services are about to be marketed aggressively and we don’t want to compete with ourselves and have aspiring models get the wrong idea. See that friendly link on our front page for professional models to use to check out the program? The link is about to be removed and other efforts will take its place.
So far, 2006 is looking to be our busiest development year since 2001. It will be a year of transitions in many areas, and our stock photography program alone will see dozens of sessions.
To be considered, models need to submit a cover letter concerning which session or type of modeling they want be considered for, a resume with references, and a current composite card.

Sunday, February 12, 2006 - Site Success

The current Aurora PhotoArts site continues to surprise us. Not only is the site extremely effective as a marketing tool and is instrumental in helping us book record levels of work, but an experimental feature is proving to be a brilliant addition to the site design.
We’re talking about our CLIENT ALERT system, which not only works, but is inspiring a lot of curiosity about the great ideas that our staff seems to come up with all of the time. We have a bet going on around here that some photographers will start using a similar system (as long as they don’t claim that they came up with it and give credit where it is due, we don’t really mind). The irony is that the alert system works best when you A.) Have at least a few years of working in a market like Tampa Bay, and B). Are actually booking enough work and have worked with enough models to use it with. For most of the people who would do that out there, neither is the case.
So what is our alert system all about? Well, it stemmed from research and study of our web logs over the years. We noticed that some of our traffic and the patterns that emerged were from models and other clients going on our web site to look at their pictures, and they would often forward the web site profiles to their friends and professional contacts (we have the same issue with our web proofs that we send to clients who have finished their photography sessions).
After a few years of heavy bookings, life throws a monkey wrench into our client contact flow, and we lose touch with some of our clients. It’s not, mind you, intentional for either our clients or ourselves, but it does happen. C. A. Passinault, after noticing that there were several clients who vanished and had the opportunity to go over the final design documents of this present site a week before it was coded, realized that there was an answer to his problem. He inked in the alert system, figured out how it would work in a day of sorting out details, and then forwarded the design addition to the EOS Web Team so they could implement the experimental feature.
There is a lot of psychology behind the alert system. We know people and human nature (one of the reasons that our sell-through numbers are so good). C. A. Passinault realized that such a system was the perfect way to get important messages to unavailable clients who eventually came back to the site to look at their pictures. None of us were prepared for just how effective this idea would be.
Many of our clients are now checking in after they see an alert for them, and we are reconnecting with our past clients, who are very enthusiastic about working with us again. One client, Jinelsa Rosado, was a fifteen year old child model when we last worked with her. She’s now nineteen, very much grown up, and we are booking her into our stock photography program because we know she’s an experienced model and can deliver the professional looks that the project needs.

We have some really interesting features that we will be adding to the site design soon, such as a PHP based database system that will allow the interactive serving of the right pictures for individual visitors based on their activity on the site. We’ll check that out later.

Saturday, February 11, 2006 - Our Market Intentions

The Tampa Bay photography market is in great need of improvement. We are in the position to help it change for the better, and we are committed to helping it by educating other professionals and assisting reputable photographers in the market.
Our advantages are about to become the advantages of professional photographers who deserve to book more work, and it’s also important for us to help others clarify the true source of all the good ideas in the Tampa Bay market.

Saturday, February 11, 2006 - Images Uploaded

More images have been uploaded to our growing portfolio core. Pictures of model Ann Poonkasem, taken two days ago, were uploaded. We have also added other types of pictures, as we are working on adding range to our portfolio with both existing and future pictures, and our portfolio core will have different channels soon.
Check out the latest additions by going to our PORTFOLIO SECTION or by checking our newest images to the left.

Friday, February 10, 2006 - Photography Association

Our Round Table Photography Association, founded in 2004, has been a tremendous success and is making an impact in the Tampa Bay market. We are all booking an increasing amount of work and business is thriving, with the highest client satisfaction rates and client referrals in the Tampa Bay and Florida photography industry! The influence this association of top photographers has on the Tampa Bay market will only increase, as we are investing more of our marketing technology and ideas into it and into our photographer partners. We would not be the photography company that we are today without the help and support of professional photographers Andy Meng and Craig Huey.
Is what we offer not what you are looking for? Not to worry- you have a choice. Look at the work of our partner photographers and see if they offer what you need. They all do excellent work, and we’re happy regardless of who among us that you book.
Unfortunately, we cannot recommend anyone who we do not work with and who is not in our photography association. We will be inducting other professional photographers who we can vouch for shortly, further increasing your choices.
It’s just not us that our competition has to worry about, now. It’s all of us. We are very concerned about the professionalism and the ethics of this photography market, and are dedicated to helping it improve. After all, an ethical and professional market is also good for us, and everyone wins, including those who are looking for high quality pictures that they can use and that will help them in their careers as professionals.
The Round Table Photography Association can be found at TampaBayPhotographers.Com. The site is a little old right now, but it is usable. The EOS Web Team, however, is on the case, and word is that they will be launching a brand new Round Table Photography Association site this month, if not this weekend!

Thursday, February 9, 2006 - Images Uploaded

We have uploaded a variety of images to our online portfolio core. Many of these images were from our archives, but a few, such as those of Tampa model and actress Harmony Oswald, were done just days ago. Check them out by going to our PORTFOLIO SECTION or by looking through our newest images on the left.
We spent a lot of time today in Brandon shooting model/ entertainer/ Passinault.Com staffer Ann Poonkasem. Some of those pictures will be uploaded on Saturday.
More non-model and talent pictures, which include landscapes and things, will be uploaded shortly.

Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - Portfolio Core Online

This is what a lot of people have been waiting for. Our official Aurora PhotoArts Portfolio Core is now online, and the images on our web site can be accessed from the main portfolio page, now! We currently have over 60 images in our online portfolio, and more will be added shortly. Most of the work consists of model portfolio pictures, talent/ actor head shots, and portraits. Landscapes, things, and art will be added shortly, and once those new genres are added our portfolio core channels will be added. The Aurora PhotoArts site is now up to 100%, and will see expansion soon.

While our portfolio images have been on this site since it launched, we lacked a main portfolio section menu and all of our online portfolio was accessed from thumbnails used throughout our site. This was effective, but it was also inconvenient. With the new portfolio core, our site is now much easier to use!

Monday, February 6, 2006 - More Updates And Studio Work

We will be working on the studio today with cleaning, reorganizing, and installing equipment.We will be locating more image and support files in our archives during this work, which will lead to large site updates sometime this week, which will include bringing our portfolio core online. By next week, the studio work should be done, and we will be able to focus much of our time on marketing and business. New service contracts will be finalized by Wednesday (C. A. Passinault was not completely happy with the design that we came up with last week, and has introduced a new format and made adjustments. The new design is superior in every way, with ease of updates being a major addition).

Our Client Services department work was finished last week, and we are completely up. We are able to return calls, book clients, and follow up on client needs faster and more efficiently than we have in the past five years. This new level of performance is needed for our new marketing efforts, which come as soon as this weekend.

Friday, February 3, 2006 - Enhanced Client Support

Besides our deal with Independent Modeling, which is already well known to those who keep up with our site news and where we give our modeling and talent clients featured one-year profiles on the Independent Sites, we are working on new ways of enhancing client support and building professional relationships with our clients and affiliates. This information, and most of our newest ideas, will not be posted anywhere on this web site or dispensed on the Internet. We will utilize what we have developed where it is appropriate; to help and support our valued clients.

Thursday, February 2, 2006 - TFP Article

Our first article is now online in our support section! It is a controversial piece about TFP photography and Aurora PhotoArts coming to the rescue with a professional alternative to TFP. This article was written by Aurora PhotoArts senior photographer and director C. A. Passinault, and it's sure to be hotly debated in the industry. Read it by going HERE.

Thursday, February 2, 2006 - Preparations

We've been working on the studio, contracts, and on support equipment for a bust month. We will be archiving and backing up over 200 photography session files this week, and will be clearing hard drive space for record-setting levels of work. Our Aurora PhotoStock program will be extremely busy this year, and could amount to up to 50% of our work. New stock photography agreements will be completed this weekend, with stock photography sessions starting next week. Services such as our model portfolio photography, ESPY model testing sessions, and actor head shot photography sessions are also booking well.

Monday, January 30, 2006 - Rates Adjusted

Our rates have been adjusted, with new services and client support benefits taken into account. Rates for wedding photography have doubled, and this is the only large increase done with this rate adjustment (we will showcase new wedding pictures shortly).

Rates that were quoted before today are now longer valid, although we will honor rates that are locked by services that have been booked and rates quoted on the consultations that we have pending for this week.

Note to aspiring (beginning) models: We do not offer TFP or free services, although we do offer reduced-rate model testing sessions. There seems to be a little confusion with some people that we offer free TFP shoots and will help a model build a portfolio at no charge. This is not the case. We are a business, and not a charity. If you sincerely want professional portfolios and tools (and you NEED them), you must invest in them.

Note to professional, established models (those with professional portfolios and composite cards who have no need for portfolio photography): We do not offer free (TFP) services, although we do have an ongoing stock photography program and the occasional model print job that you may be interested in.
We can only consider professional models for any model job or our stock photography program. If you do not have composite cards or a portfolio, we recommend that you invest in them somewhere. If you don’t, we will see what you have, but you may not be able to compete with the professionals who are using professional tools.

Saturday, January 28, 2006 - Project Schedule Drafted

We have our project schedule that we will do our best to meet or exceed until summer 2006. It will begin in February and will run until August. This does not include our client bookings and portfolio photography.

We have allocated the resources to do between six to eight PhotoStock sessions a month. These sessions will book up to 24 professional models per month. During this six month schedule, we should have 48 Photostock sessions completed, yielding 20,000 professional, stock-enabled pictures featuring 192 established professional models. During this same period, we are projecting booking an additional 156 models in our portfolio photography services and ESPY model test sessions, which are very different from our stock photography work. We are forecasting 200 model portfolio bookings in 2006, which is far more than any photography company in the State, including those who get agency referred model portfolio shoots.

Saturday, January 28, 2006 - Rates And Contracts

We are adjusting our rates again, fine tuning our services, and will be rolling our brand new service agreements on Monday. Our rates should be good until this fall, but in this business you never can tell when we'll have to adjust them again. Some rates are dropping and others are rising, but the adjustments are not by much this time. ESPY reduced rate model testing session rates will be adjusted often, however, especially as demand rises and our ability to support them is reduced. We have projects that are cutting into our ESPY resources, and with a second photography company in the works that we have to support, these projects are critical right now and will be a priority until this summer. At this point, between projects and our normal photography bookings (which are projected to increase this year by a factor of TEN), we will be lucky if we have an ESPY session every month or TWO.

Saturday, January 28, 2006 - Site Updated

The Aurora PhotoArts site has been updated with new information, and we even removed new image thumbnails for pictures that we were not too fond of (it seems that certain pictures looked good on some computers and not others). We will be adding more pictures and will be bringing our portfolio core online in a few days. Pictures added starting in February will truly be our newest 2006 pictures, as we will be caught up with building the portfolio database and our extremely heavy workload for the next sixteen months will give us a plentiful supply of awesome pictures of professional models and other subjects to pick and choose from. We are also looking forward to adding the long awaited interview with our visionary prodigy photographer C. A. Passinault, which should provide some interesting insights to Aurora PhotoArts and what we are working on.

Friday, January 27, 2006 - Studio Overhauled

The Geomedia 3 production facility south of Brandon has been overhauled and upgraded with new computers and equipment. Older systems have been taken offline; they will be refurbished and designated as additional backups. The entire studio has been cleaned. Storm damage has been repaired, security systems enhanced, and temporary measures in place since the Hurricanes of 2004 have been replaced with permanent solutions. Our client services telephone system has been rebuilt, and the database has been reformatted. New tools are in place, and our responses, consultation set ups, booking systems, and client communications are now dramatically improved. Check lists, rate sheets, and phone aids will be installed this weekend for our client services area. Our advanced marketing, sales, and work tools have all been primed for record-breaking workloads (which, of course, are set to begin in February).

An actress will be in the studio next week to record a new phone system interface. A new hold system and hands-free head sets for our representatives are coming in the next few weeks.

Thursday, January 26, 2006 - New Passinault.Com Site

The newest Passinault.Com web site is now online. You can use this site to keep up with everything that all of the Passinault.Com companies are doing. This Extensive web site is your direct link to all of the Passinault.Com companies, which includes Aurora PhotoArts, and the next entertainment industry! You can access the site from any page on our site by clicking on the Passinault.Com link on the top, and use this to switch over to the sites of our sister companies and back again.

Sunday, January 22, 2006 - Aurora PhotoArts Breaks 450

We've been working on updating the Aurora PhotoArts web site all weekend, and we audited the web site files after one particularly lengthy update. We were shocked to discover that this web site no exceeds 450 pages in size, making it easily one of the largest and most elaborate web sites in the Tampa Bay market. Our marketing team is planning to have the site exceed 1,000 by the end of 2006, but at the rate we are adding to the site, they are projecting that we might hit 1,500. That's a hefty-size site!

AuroraPhotoArts.Com is presently one of the most advanced end effective photography services marketing web sites ever unleashed on any market, and it is a balanced blend of quality pictures and information.

Sunday, January 22, 2006 - Rates And Pictures

We have posted special rates for our Valentines Day Photography Special, which is one of the few exceptions that we have to the rule. Please do not try to figure out our other rates using the posted rates as an example, as there is no correlation between the terms and rates of specials and our normal services. We do not post our rates on this web site, as we promote total value over having the lowest rates in the Tampa Bay market. Do we have the lowest rates in this market? That may or may not be the case. Please call for all rate information, and note that rates may not be current after being quoted, as we adjust them periodically. Rates are only good when they are booked and locked into a written contract, although we will lock them as a courtesy between initial client contact and a client consultation.

In other news, more pictures were added to our site today. Check them out using the newest images menu on the left.

Some specials may have rate information. We normally do not provide service rate information on this web site, and shown rates pertain only to the listed special which they are associated with. Listed rates for specials have no relation to our other service rates. Please call for most rates.

Saturday, January 21, 2006 - Site Updated

The site has been updated, with more images added and work done to our Composite Card and Web Comp sections. We also did some work to our online portfolio section. There will be another large update tomorrow, completing this work, too, as we have to look for some files that we need today.

Saturday, January 14, 2006 - Swimsuit Stock

At least 50% of Aurora PhotoArts stock photography efforts this year will go toward swimsuit and related photography, according to latest reports. We will be working with leading professional swimsuit and fitness models throughout 2006, with the heaviest workload planned for early Summer. Keep checking the PhotoStock section for more, and if you are a swimsuit model, we want to talk to you.

Aurora PhotoArts has not focused on swimwear photography much in our history, and this will now change as we shift focus to other projects. Effective immediately, we will be adding a swimsuit look for our portfolio packages. All swimsuit photography will be in good taste.

Saturday, January 14, 2006 - Second Company Confirmed

C. A. Passinault confirmed today that a second photography company had been formed with the intent purpose of aggressively leading new markets. "We have been watching others attempt to move into the photography and design markets that Aurora PhotoArts presently leads in" Passinault stated, "Although Aurora PhotoArts will continue to lead in the markets that it services, we formed another photography company to go after their markets and their clients in response. The family-friendly and commercial markets that Aurora PhotoArts works is not compatible with the other markets, so it was necessary to come up with a new brand. The new company will share resources with Aurora PhotoArts, and both companies will work together. Our competition and aspiring competition now have to worry about two companies".

The new company is currently building a portfolio and will launch services later this year .

Saturday, January 14, 2006 - Site Design Adjustments

We are adjusting site copy throughout the site and are tweaking design elements. We may add a new format to the site pictures, too, but may not end up doing that because it would alter the design of the site and clash with older pictures. Our image files are also designed to be used on other sites.

We will be heavily updating our online portfolio once we have moved image files onto our new computers.

Friday, January 13, 2006 - Next ESPY Session

The next ESPY reduced-rate model testing session will be on Monday, January 30, 2006 in the Tampa Bay area. For details and to book, contact us. There may only be one ESPY session in February, and future sessions may be rarer as our photography resources are diverted over to our portfolio development, commercial photography, and stock photography programs; the stock photography will be the largest drain on ESPY work.

Saturday, December 31, 2005 - January Plans

We're still waiting on some equipment shipments to arrive, and next week will have a bit of unpacking and configuring equipment. Until the second week of January, expect updates in spurts (we will be uploading articles in our FEATURES section next week and the entire site will see a massive update during that time, too). By the second week of January, we will be ready for constant web updates and heavy marketing.

The next ESPY session will be on Monday, January 16, 2006. Also in January, we will be booking swimsuit models for a new stock photography project that we are working on, and our stock photography program will go into high gear (we will be collaborating with professional models starting in January at work levels not seen since 2001, and we will exceed those efforts by far in 2006). For now, swimsuit models shouldn't wait for our job announcements. Send your information NOW.

Monday, December 26, 2005 - New Equipment Obtained

We have obtained brand new, powerful computers for the studio and portable production/ support applications and are also equipping our field teams with new Palm TX PDA's and other high-end devices such as blue tooth enhanced cell phones. The equipment is now being configured and will be operational before the end of the week. Full Wi-Fi Support for a range of over a dozen device formats is now in place with enhanced security. Service contracts and booking forms will be upgraded this week, as well. Expect increased efficiency in business operations and an obvious increase in web site updates (expect our online portfolio to triple in size by next week and our main portfolio section to come online). The new equipment is optimized for heavy maintenance of multiple web sites and enhanced communications with our staff (some of you know what this means for us and our affiliates, and we're excited about it, too). Preparation for FY 2006 is now complete.

Existing equipment will be upgraded and used for back-up purposes.

Friday, December 23, 2005 - 2006 Market Forecast

The last three months have been very busy for us, setting new records and helping us to prepare for the first third of 2006, which statistically is our busy season (from 2001 all the way to 2005, each and every period between January and April has been very busy, with our busiest occurring in 2004. We expect 2006 to easily beat this many times over).

The 2006 fiscal year is forecast to be our best yet, with up to a 1,000% increase in business across the board due to new sales and marketing efforts that will be set into motion in January. In the first six months, we will be doing more photography than we have in all the combined years of work that we've done since 1994. The year will see something special happen with our photography, and this company branching out into new and previously unheard of markets. We are the best at what we do, and we are about to show those who think that they are competing with us just how it's done and how this business can work. If nothing else, what we are going to do will change the Tampa Bay market forever and will have a strong ripple effect among others in the industry. Some may ask themselves how we are going to do all of this. We can't reveal all that we've been up to in the last six months, but we can say that between booking work and doing the top quality photography in this market we've been spending a lot of time and money with business investments and building infrastructure designed to support and enhance what we have planned. We also have the most comprehensive strategy outlined that any photography and design services market has ever seen, with a ten-year long term plan that has already been set into motion. We've said this before, but it needs to be repeated and emphasized- our plans are more than educated speculation, and we have hard numbers and experience backing up what we have set out to do. Simply put, we will achieve, and perhaps exceed, our market objectives. While it is true that the companies of Passinault.Com (which includes us) have been historically slow to do what we set out to do, the track record speaks for itself. While we're often late to the party, we accomplish 90% of everything that we set out to do eventually. Starting next year, expect the time lag to become a thing of the past, as profits from both Aurora PhotoArts and Eventi Events will be invested into our sister companies, such as the troubled- but promising - Dream Nine Studios. While we can speak for ourselves in the accomplishment department, we have seen what is going on with Dream Nine Studios and our other sister companies, and we can say that what is in the works is awesome. For example, with Dream Nine Studios, we found out today that they will do business in FOUR different industries, being motion picture production, video game development, a music label, and now work in manga (Trust us on this one- they have a very detailed plan on how this all works together, and it is brilliant). Why invest in our sister companies? Because their success will ensure our leadership of not only the Tampa Bay market, but any market that we choose to operate in. Imagine what will happen to our business when professionals realize that we are fully associated with the top companies in several industries? For now, we can already offer our clients much more than anyone else can, and that is a well known fact. That's probably one of the reasons that we consistently do better in the business than just about anyone else. Expect the advantage that we have to increase ten-fold in January. How? Sit back and watch. The observant will find out for themselves what is to come. Aurora PhotoArts is much more than a photography and design services company, and in 2006 we will often demonstrate that we can do much more than mere photographers and designers are capable of. That is only once facet that will define us as being a top company in the Tampa Bay market. Most photographers and designers will find out the hard way that they simply cannot compete with us because of their limits in talent, resources, and sheer capability. There ARE lot of great photographers and designers out there, but they are not us. We'll bet on us every time.
This said, if there are exceptionally talented photographers and designers out there that exceed our capabilities in any of our service lines, we have advanced plans to work with them rather than against them, enhancing all of our businesses and increasing the integrity of the market. How will we do this? We'll let them know in due time, and some of this collaborative work will become obvious by the spring. We have to say that our company wouldn't be where it is today without the friendship, professional collaboration, and support of great professionals. Two professionals who have been great to us would be Orlando photographer Craig Huey and Tampa photographer Andy Meng. These guys have our respect and dedication, and both will benefit from what we are working on, although neither one needs any help in the photography department. They are both excellent, and the Tampa Bay market needs more professionals like them.

We're booked solid through the end of the year, but will be here throughout the holiday season to set up consultations and to book new work. We will also invest some money into special projects and procure new equipment next week. Early next year, we will be investing heavily into new studio lighting and photography support equipment.

Monday, December 19, 2005 - Holiday Specials End

The holiday portrait specials end today. While we will honor our holiday specials until midnight tonight, effective tomorrow you will have to pay full rates for portrait photography. If you're one of the hold-outs, you owe it to yourself to call today and book a session. Hours are left, and tomorrow it's gone.

Friday, December 16, 2005 - The Next Ten Years

Aurora PhotoArts Senior Photographer/ Director and Passinault.Com Executive Producer C. A. Passinault revealed a ten year plan for Aurora PhotoArts today, and the details left our jaws on the floor. It is safe to say that what this company is today is nothing compared to what it will become, existing services are only a tiny fraction of what is to come, and they will be dramatically enhanced by what is coming. Starting in 2006, expect a revolution in what photography and design services should be, as well as new standards in what consumers and professionals looking for such services should expect.
Passinault and his team have identified what the market needs as well as what it wants, and Aurora PhotoArts is being prepared to offer services that will exceed those of any other photography and design services company as well as services serving markets that DO NOT EXIST YET. These future markets, more than just educated speculation, are what really floored us. Passinault stated that these new markets were identified through experience with clients and being creative with our professional services, and we have to agree that the demand for these services in these new markets will be high. We are surprised that no one has thought of these services before, and it will be interesting to see how the competition reacts to these services and new markets once they see how successful they will be. Passinault informed us that he expected the competition to scramble to compete, but was confident that such competition would fall short and would be publically perceived as low quality, second-rate counterfeits of what we will offer. One thing is certain: No matter what happens, the innovations and quality services that our company will introduce will change the face of the photography and design services industries for all time.
Passinault told us that he is not impressed with the current state of the photography market in Tampa Bay, and is especially concerned about the deplorable state of the modeling and talent industries here. He and his team have come up with solutions, however, and by this time next year it will be improved.
Expect an interview with our resident visionary, C. A. Passinault, to be published soon on this web site in our FEATURES section.
Aurora PhotoArts is currently the top photography services company for the Tampa Bay market, and we bring much more to the table than photography when it comes to the support of professional models, actors, and talent. Our photography is hard to beat and we have no real competition in model and talent support; this trend will spread to our other photography and design services as well as the new markets that we will open in the future. We have a ten year plan that extends to 2016 and we know exactly where we are going and what we have to do to get there, while remaining flexible enough to adapt to market changes that may happen along the way. How many others can say the same?

Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - Booked Up

Due to a holiday-induced staff shortage and heavy bookings, we will be making client call-backs on Friday. We will be out today doing client consultations and have bookings all day tomorrow, which include obligations with several models. If no one is available on the client services line, please leave a message and information regarding the best time to reach you on Friday; the next call-back time that we have available will be on Monday, December 19, as we are booked solid throughout the weekend. Thank you for your attention and your patience.

In related news, our new service contracts will be released next week, and this comes with adjusted rates. Most rates are not expected to go up much, but most will be adjusted. Call for most rates.

Saturday, December 10, 2005 - Site Files Refreshed

Due to support, file cleanup, and SEO purposes, we have refreshed 100% of our current site code. We've made some secret adjustments, too; the extent of which will not be known for months. Expect large follow-up updates to come in the coming days.

In other notes, the image that you see to the left of model Roxanne Kowalska was taken on December 10, 2001 (exactly four years ago today) on Clearwater Beach. Going through all of the content on the site, we noticed the date and realized that our work really goes back a long way. That shoot was so long ago, it almost feels like another lifetime. What is even more haunting is looking over old pictures while listening to Moby's Grace, and realizing that, to an extent, the pictures are ghosts of a single moment in time. Those moments now only exist in a single image, and can never be found again. Here is to an awesome model and a perfect day.

Friday, December 9, 2005 - Support Content Coming

This just in from our marketing department and the SEO team over at EOS MediaArts: Our support section will be seeing just as many updates as our image uploads. New content will include Independent Modeling-style articles and tutorials aimed at educating the consumer about photography, photography services, and value versus flat-out rate shopping. Nothing about TFP? Since we do not do it nor do we want anything controversial on this site, we'll leave that issue to our friends at the modeling resource sites- word has it that the professional models are now annoyed about TFP's and will be dealing with them head-on in 2006. We will have a lot of written content on this site in the near future, and it will be useful to anyone looking for professional photography services regardless of if they get those services from us or not; it is our full intention to help the integrity of the photography services market even if it costs us short-term market share.

Thursday, December 8, 2005 - Site Ready For 2006

Our site is ready for what we have planned in 2006. We will be updating certain files throughout this month, and will be bring the main portfolio menus online. We've been very happy with the performance and the marketing effectiveness of this site lately, and we project that a new site will not be needed until 2008. This is good news for our marketing plans, and this site will see strong updates and strong support next year as it supports our new agenda.

We will be adding more pictures to our online portfolio overnight tonight, as we have been very busy doing shoots and have a backlog of image uploads. See the "newest images" on the left to see them as they are added; scroll down through them to see all the new images.

There is a second web site, which is completely new, in development for the second photography company which has been licensed and formed for business initialization next year. The web team is trying a lot of innovative and brilliant ideas with this new site, and if it changes the World (which it might), it may inspire the next generation Aurora PhotoArts site to launch before 2008. We are very much looking forward for what is coming in 2006, and we're confident that it will be our best year ever!

Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - Testimonials Updated

Our testimonial section has been updated, and will be further enhanced in January! For more, go HERE.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - Holidays Are Amost Over

Our popular holiday portrait specials for 2005 are coming to an end. The last day that we will perform this service, which is done at a substantial reduced rate for top value, will be on December 23, 2005. To take advantage of this, you MUST book before Monday, December 19, 2005. We cannot guarantee sessions will be available after that deadline, as we will not be booking any work for Christmas Eve, Christmas, or New Years day (although we will be busy doing other types of work on New Years eve, and have been booked solid for this date since September; we are also presently booked out for New Years Eve 2006, too!). Thank you all for your participation, and we look forward to offering more holiday specials starting on November 1, 2006. Happy Holidays from the staff and team here at Aurora PhotoArts!

Sunday, December 4, 2005 - New Year Marketing

We will be launching a new marketing campaign around Christmas designed to promote and support our sales and service work for the first third of 2006. This period, which covers January through May, is statistically our busiest time. This year, due to new marketing and sales, we expect to smash the records, booking more work than in the past five years combined. A good portion of the money earned will be re-invested into new equipment and ongoing client support, dramatically increasing our leadership in the Tampa Bay and Florida photography services markets. Aurora PhotoArts will not only become a major brand in photography services, but we will set new standards in innovation, creativity, and quality.

Next week, we will be updating our composite card and head shot support sections, revealing a new two-tier format for these services. We have decided to post rates for these services, too, which is the exception from what we do on this site.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005 - Updates Coming

We are on the verge of another large upload of new pictures and much-needed updates to our web site. We are also planning on bringing the main portfolio section online in the coming weeks, as we need it to support new marketing efforts. Expect most of this in December; this is the beginning of our year-end project of tripling our portfolio core size. Most of the new updates for the rest of this year will be the addition of many, many new pictures. We will also be providing quality pictures to Independent Modeling, the Independent Sites, Tampa Bay Modeling, Frontier Society, and Advanced Model.

Sunday, November 20, 2005 - Site Exceeds Expectations

The ongoing numbers coming back so far look really good. This newest version of the Aurora PhotoArts web site has been online for 91/2 weeks now, and the numbers for Internet-based referrals, inquiries, and sales are up 600% compared to this time last year (we should be batting over 1,000%, or ten-fold, by January 2006). Our web team needs to be congratulated, as they did an awesome job of putting together an effective, well-designed web site that continues to surprise us. We track competitor's online marketing efforts, too, and the results of those efforts. At this point, we not only can claim leadership of the Tampa Bay talent photography market, but we have numbers that back us up when we assert that our photography web site is the most effective online marketing tool in the Tampa Bay and west-central Florida markets. As we are engaging other types of photography markets at this time, growth and continued market superiority is a certainty. With the procurement of new equipment, obtaining studio space, an alliance with Independent Modeling and the Independent Sites, and a second photography company, our effectiveness in this market will only increase from this point.

Our busy season starts in January. We're going to start it in late November this year.

Friday, November 18, 2005 - ESPY Changes

There have been some major changes to our ESPY reduced rate model testing program, which has been in operation since 2003. To date, the program has been an outstanding success, with hundreds of participants. Changes have been made to the program to improve it, however, and make it fit in to both our heavy booking schedule and our new First Look program. Other changes are to make it more compatible with our aggressive marketing and sales program. Some of these changes include, but are not limited to:

Rates
We will be increasing the rate for ESPY, but it is still reduced from what our normal rate is. The new reduced rate is merely a guideline, and rates are up to the discretion of Aurora PhotoArts. We will honor rates quoted over the phone, and rates may vary with different sessions and participants.

Limited Sessions
We will average ONE session per month. This will enable us to put more effort into every session and schedule them more efficiently.

Limited Availability
Effective immediately, we must approve all participants who are seeking to book a session in the program. We will approve participants based on what we feel their modeling potential is, and not every applicant will be accepted into the program. Aurora PhotoArts reserves the right to deny participation with no given cause or reason specified, but we will honor quoted rates, terms, and bookings. In the past, we have been swamped with prospects who would be ineligible for this program, and our new First Look program requires a measure of quality control.

If anyone has any questions, wants rate information, or needs additional details, we ask that they please contact our client services department at (813) 671-9507. ESPY is a reduced rate model testing program with the exclusive purpose of testing aspiring models. Other purposes are entirely up to our discretion, and this exciting program is not intended to replace or augment our other photography services.

Thursday, November 17, 2005 - Rates Adjusted

Rates have been adjusted across the board for the holiday season. Current rate quotes are no longer valid, as some rates have increased, some have decreased, and new specials are running. Rates were last adjusted on September 1, 2005. Rates will be adjusted again in January, 2006, for our traditional busy season that runs between January and April. Major holiday marketing will commence next week and run until late December.

Please call our client services number at (813) 671-9507 for rates.

Monday, November 14, 2005 - We Have A Secret

It's been brought up a few times in our news section, but as of now our secret project is a go. What is it? We can't say much at this point, and even when it is in operation we won't say much about it. We can tell you that it is a brand new photography company designed from the ground-up to go after markets that we won't touch. The company will experiment with the market, which is something else that we can't really do at this point, and try some groundbreaking new ideas out. Although it will not be a Passinault.Com company for some reason, it will share our equipment, technology, marketing resources, and our client services department. Why won't we get too close to the company? It's nothing bad, but there are strict orders to keep the companies and the markets separate for business reasons, and we are guessing that it has to do with certain market experiments (we are told that if the experiments work out, then it may change some things here in the future). EOS MediaArts is now designing the site for the company, which is rumored to be a hybrid Venus/ Athena format. The photography company will specialize in modeling photography, and will sell much more than photography, which has some of us who are not in the loop even more curious. The ideas that we have seen so far are brilliant, and we might also add revolutionary. We get to spend a few months helping them develop their portfolio, which will be interesting from what we can see. The name of the company? It's a secret. Expect this new kind of photography company to surface sometime next year.

Saturday, November 12, 2005 - Call For Rates

We no longer E-Mail rate information, as rates are specific to what you need as a client and we have rate guidelines that we go by that are sometimes adjusted depending on specifics on what you need. We also have specials that go on from time to time. We want to show you the entire picture so you can invest in the high quality services that you need, and shopping by rates alone is a false economy. Call our Client Services department at (813) 671-9507 for rate information. Future E-Mailed inquiries for rates will be responded to with an E-Mail instructing you to call us. If a described service does not have rate information attached to it, you must call us to find out more. Thank you.

Items and specials sold through the Internet will have prices and rates attached to them, such as our framed artwork.

Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - The Art In PhotoArts

The reason that the word "Art" is in Aurora PhotoArts is about to be revealed. Simply put, photography and photography support services were always meant to only be a mere THIRD (33%) of our business model. We are much more than a photography services company, and it was always meant to be that way since the beginning. As of this moment, 100% of everything on this web site is about photography and photography support services in the the Tampa Bay market. Knowing this, where is the remaining 66% of the business and service/ product lines?

We are now getting to it. The second-third of our business will be rolled out in the coming weeks; the creation and sale of photographic based framed artwork. This line may be expanded in the future to include other types of artwork, too, so this is only the beginning. The plot for the Tampa Bay market thickens......... especially when this art work will be marketed worldwide and not just locally. More will be revealed soon as our company grows and expands into different markets.

Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - Composite Card Printing Line

Our new Composite Card printing line is now active. We have subcontracted a new printing service and will now be referring our clients to this service so we can set them up with the best quality tools for their career. Set up-only services are still available. The Composite Card section will soon be updated to reflect the new line, and anyone wanting to know specifics or prices can contact us. We have already started receiving inquiries about our composite cards. For samples, please note that Aurora Photoarts business cards are printed on the same stock and are the same quality as the larger composite cards.

Special thanks to Orlando photographer and friend Craig Huey for his assistance, advice, and the referral for setting this printing line up. Thank you, Craig!

Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - Sales Shift Offline

Effective immediately, most of our sales and business efforts will be shifting offline, and by offline we are not talking about reducing or canceling what we are doing. We are referring to playing up to the strengths of both the Internet and offline facets of doing business while avoiding the weaknesses and drawbacks. More specifically, the strengths of one will cover the weaknesses of the other and vice-versa.
The Internet is very important to us, and we have had more success with using it than 99% of everyone else. We now have it down to a science, and know what works and what does not.
The past year, while this new web site was being developed, we have studied this issue extensively while paying attention to the hard information that we have on-hand. We have identified what we need specifically to market our services and drive sales, while also nailing down what we don't need. Quite simply, there are things that are appropriate to post on the Internet, and other things that are not.

Monday, November 7, 2005 - Site Perspectives

We have some good news and some bad news. Actually, though, the bad news isn't so much as bad, but it is disappointing for this month.
The good news comes first. The early numbers are in. This new site has exceeded our expectations as a marketing tool, and is easily the best photography web site in the Tampa Bay market. Some people can have their fancy flash-based sites which only half of their visitors can see because of low speed Internet connections or browser plug-ins that they do not have. Another thing about fancy flash-based sites: they don't update easily unless you're the web developer, and in most cases, the photographer or photography company who owns such sites didn't build them and have no direct or easy way to update them. We will settle for intuitive, effective, and 100% compatible with all browsers and connection speeds. Just because it isn't full of flash doesn't mean that it isn't the best. Before you think that we are knocking flash-based sites, we are not. We realize that new technology has its advantages as well as its drawbacks, and we will be using that technology ourselves as soon as it can be used effectively. It's just that most of those efforts are overdone with no clue or thought toward the business model or the target market and are ultimately uneffective; a point that we will be more than happy to prove in the next year.
This new Aurora PhotoArts web site is designed to be pushed by a sales team and is built around a massive online portfolio so potential clients can see the high quality and obvious value of our work firsthand. We haven't abandoned the old-school Internet/ search engine based market, however, and the new site is designed to be search engine friendly. At the moment, we are ranking very high in some search engines but not others. Google, for starters, has changed and is no longer ranking our site high. That will change in the next six weeks, and it must, as our work and our site deserve to be at the top. We feel that what this company offers is much more relevant than what is now coming up in some searches (look and see. Other than an Orlando based photographer who does exceptional work, you need to look at those search results and compare them to us and what we offer. Is it really relevant? We think not).
This said, the site has exceeded our projections so far, and the numbers are looking good. We won't know the final score, however, and won't have a solid base of reference until the market picks up in January like it normally does; after years in business in the Tampa Bay market, there are definite market patterns that have been established that allow us to accurately forecast the cycles of business. So far, this year has been slower than the past few years, but it is only because of all of the support work that we've had to do. We are now focusing our efforts on marketing, sales, and service, and are looking forward to a record breaking year in 2006. We're going to put all of that expanded business to work, too- we are on the verge of procuring even more equipment and new lights, and will even be setting up a new joint-photography studio now known as Fusia. The new gear is not necessarily needed for the Tampa Bay market, but we need it for both our commercial photography work and to compete with photography companies in big cities such as Chicago and New York. Of course, this will increase our lead in this market by default, too, and we might add it will increase our market leadership dramatically. There is a saying in business, and that saying goes like this: "Good equipment does not make up for lack of talent". We know by observing others that you can fake your skill and knowledge in this business; we call such "competitors" Fools Gold. In our case, we have lots of talent, lots of experience, and lots of skill. When we obtain the rest of our tools, people are going to wonder how our work became ten times better overnight. The actual reason, of course, would be that the work always existed, but was held back by a lack of tools. In the case of the Fools Gold analogy, what will happen is that we will be subjecting them to a lot of heat and pressure in the market, they will become known for what they really are when they start to stink, and they will fall out of business. We're not putting down our present work, however, by any means- especially when the Fools Gold people like to learn from it whenever they can. We are very proud of the quality of our work, and it really is the best value in the Tampa Bay market; our photography and photography support services are what we would want and need if we were clients. It's just that we also realize that there is room for improvement; we know where we need to go and know how to get there. We're just now getting what we need to bring a new vision into reality, and, quite frankly, this market needs it. Get ready to witness the greatest growth of this company in our history.
Now, it's time for the bad news. The news deals with site updates for the month of November. While we will be working to get our portfolio core menu online and add more images to our portfolio database, there won't be a lot of updates like there have been the past six weeks except for a handful of news and update postings. The reason? There are two. First of all, we will be busy booking and working photography sessions, and it may be some time before the next big update. We have some catching up to do. The other reason is that the EOS web team has shifted its attention to completing Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, Independent Performer, and TALON. That is a huge project that will take a while. They also have to complete upgrades to the Eventi Events site, launch a new Tampa Bay Modeling site, and continue developing a new modeling resource site called Advanced Model.
They are telling us November, but we're telling you this: Don't expect a lot of updates to this site until the new year at least. 2006 will be the year that it will be heavily updated and it will really grow. Thank you all for your patience.

Wednesday, November 2, 2005 - ESPY Into Overdrive

The ESPY Model Reduced Rate Test Photography program has been overhauled and improved. Combined with a new program called First Look (which doesn't need to be explained on this web site and will be explained to clients in person or over the phone before they book), ESPY is a really cool deal for both aspiring and experienced professional models. ESPY is finally out of the experimental phase and is fully operational.

Since debuting in the Summer of 2003, ESPY has serviced over 300 model clients. Many of those clients are working professional models today. The refined ESPY is more than simple model testing, however, and has been enhanced with other markets in mind. Effective immediately, we are ramping up operations to have weekly ESPY Sessions. The ESPY and First Look programs will become a driving force for model portfolio photography and other services.

Tuesday, November 1, 2005 - New Passinault.Com Web Sites

The EOS Web Team has been working on two Passinault.Com web sites, and both will debut before the end of the year.
The main Passinault.Com web site, which is a new Diana Class site much like the Eventi Events site, was nearly finished five months ago, back in May, and is days away from launching. The site will expand upon and connect the existing three Passinault.Com sites; this one (Aurora PhotoArts), Eventi Events, and Dream Nine Studios. The new Passinault.Com site will report on general news of all of its companies, and leave the details to us.
The Eventi Events site is presently on standby mode as the team applies an upgrade from the older HTML format to a new CSS/ DHTML version (AuroraPhotoArts.Com, the site you are now on, is an advanced CSS/DHTML web site optimized for photography and design services marketing). The DHTML frame set is making it slow, as all the existing content has to be ported page by page before the new version of the site can be launched (presently designated as V2.0). Eventi Events is also having some staffing issues that have forced them to abort Holiday marketing this year, with limited booking and basic services available. For a company older than ours, and one that was making money long before we were, this is a little sad, but we can understand that what they are going through is necessary to meet their ambitious market goals in the near future. We can understand because we had to go through the same thing the last seven months, a lot longer than they will have to endure, and we only recently completed our new support infrastructure. Eventi Events is still working on support resources, and if you thought our marketing was slick, wait until you see what is in the works for them. The company will resume major operations in February, when it is ready to do so. From what we hear, expect conventional event and party services to be available early next year, with the heavy hitting interactive theme events, stage productions, and a new kind of independent film festival to slam the market next Fall. Eventi Events has a lot of hard work to do, and they are going to start with some reorganization before staffing up. Rumors persist that Eventi will become a binary company with a dual marketing agenda, and we think that is a great idea- by all means, take your time and do things right. We did. At the moment, the only Passinault.Com company going strong is Aurora PhotoArts, but that will change next year as Eventi Events overtakes us in profitability, and advertising agency EOS MediaArts outdoes us all. This means that Aurora PhotoArts will be pushed harder in the next six months than it has in the past eleven years combined, and we stand to take this market and set new, higher standards of what photography and a photography services company should be. Additionally, once EOS begins marketing its services, Aurora PhotoArts will become the leading supplier of modeling print work in Tampa Bay and, shortly thereafter, the rest of Florida. Models, you can thank us later.
Dream Nine Studios is another Passinault.Com company that has seen its fair share of setbacks. Back in 2003, Dream Nine Studios had to drop its "Reverence" feature film project. The over- budget production took its toll, and the aftermath not only came close to shuttering Dream Nine Studios, but almost took the other companies with it, too. It took over a year to repair the fiscal and organizational damage. Dream Nine Studios has been refurbished and is almost a new company today, with major operations slated to begin in 2007, fed by profits from Aurora PhotoArts, Eventi Events, and EOS MediaArts. The new Dream Nine Studios company will work on independent film production work, video game development, and producing music; three industries that ultimately compliment each other. We're hearing that the company will most likely debut some video game properties first, perhaps as soon as next year. With some projects appearing in 2006, the new Dream Nine Studios web site, another Diana Class site which was finished months ago, will be upgraded with new CSS/ DHTML enhancements (much like Eventi is getting), and may debut as early as December 2005. The new site is looking great and will feature screener downloads and cool things like recently cleared scripts. The new site will have a Reverence section where visitors can read the 120 page final draft of the Reverence script, too! With the curtains rising on what is left of Reverence, we're not betting that the project will ever be done in its current form. The script, however, is an interesting read, and wait until you see some really cool concept photographs by Aurora PhotoArts done for the project!
Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts will finally offer and market services in 2006, once its new web site debuts. The Passinault.Com company has been busy working on web projects and marketing for its sister Passinault.Com companies for the last two years. Its web site is presently in development.

Projected Passinault.Com profit leaders for FY 2006

1. EOS MediaArts, Advertising agency
2. Eventi Events, Events and stage production
3. Aurora PhotoArts, Photography and design services. Art production.
4. Dream Nine Studios, Motion pictures, video games, and music

Monday, October 31, 2005 - Next Updates

Starting in November, the majority of the updates to the AuroraPhotoArts.Com site will be new images and images added to our online portfolio, which should be completely online by next week with a main menu and portfolio channels. The reason for this is that we are in the process of booking a record number of photography sessions, and will not have as much time to update the site news and text content. Since the new image updates are directly related to our post-photography and editing work (and therefore paid for by our clients with the cost of their default session editing- See how nice that works out?), it takes mere minutes to post them to our online portfolio, which means that new images updates will be a regular part and a natural extension of our photography work.

Overall, expect fewer updates to the site as most of our time will be spent offline doing photography and design work. We will be doing a lot of updates to our client support part of this site, but most of that will only be accessible to our clients and access to that material will be highly regulated and monitored.

Friday, October 28, 2005 - Consumer Market Engaged

As of today, Aurora PhotoArts has rolled out full support and marketing for consumer photography services. Although we have always offered consumer services, we haven't begun to push them until now, and this is only the beginning.

Already leaders and the top photography company in modeling portfolio photography and actor/ talent head shot photography in the Tampa Bay market, Aurora PhotoArts is committed to expanding our service lines to other markets. We will achieve market superiority in every photography services market by 2007.

Recently, we found the notebook with the design specs for this web site and the company business plan for 2006, dated this past Summer. Scrawled at the bottom in pen, bolded and underlined by C. A. Passinault himself, were the words "Do NOT ignore the consumer market". Today marks the first step to honoring those words and turning them into an action plan.

Friday, October 28, 2005 - Site Code Update

We had to take away some of our picture editing time to go over all of the site code and finish some of the back-end of this site. One of the most time consuming parts of this work was updating and expanding our Client Testimonial section (due for yet another upgrade next year). The site has been updated now and we even uploaded some new pictures (although not as many as we wanted to). Expect more updates soon, perhaps as early as tomorrow; we're already working on uploading more pictures.

Besides adding more pictures, we're working on two big things for this site due in November- our online store and an exclusive interview with Aurora PhotoArts senior photographer C. A. Passinault. We can't wait, and it will be nice to see Aurora PhotoArts coffee mugs around Tampa Bay as well as some of our valuable framed art hanging up in South Tampa mansions (the art work will be expensive and sold in limited editions). It'll be great to see what C. A. Passinault will have to say, too.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005 - Ready To Work It

We've been finalizing our newest contracts, client support forms, sales support, and marketing strategies. We've been cleaning the studio and are setting up a new Client Services system. Our new marketing and sales material arrives today from California. We're editing the rest of 48 new images. We're also taking time to finish our marketing plans for the rest of the year. As you can tell, we've been busy.... and a lack of online updates usually indicates offline work like client bookings, sales, consultations, and administrative things. What's the rush? We will start pushing our services aggressively on Saturday, and we need to get everything ready to support our hard work. As of this weekend, sales will increase ten-fold, and we intend to benefit the Tampa Bay photography services market with quality work that we know is the top value for our clients. This new site has been online almost six weeks now (since September 16th), and we are about to use it like it's designed to be used. It is time to get to work and bring our advanced marketing tools up to speed.

Expect large updates on Friday as the site nearly doubles in size and we work to get our main portfolio menu system online. We're also uploading the rest of actress and model Harmony Oswald's pictures, among others.

Friday, October 21, 2005 - Copy And Image Work

We've been adjusting site copy and prepared a new batch of images all day for our online portfolio. The online portfolio section will expand by over 120 images by November to support offline marketing and sales. This extra work will be worth it, as January through April is our busiest season traditionally, and the site alone should see an increase of business around 400% from people finding this site on the Internet (The true measure of the success of this new site will be known around this time). The portfolio section will see a lot of new copy added, especially since the anecdote/ notes sections are lacking. We've also uncovered typos and have corrected them when we find them, as we strive for perfect image and copy content on our web site. Due to the sheer volume of updates to this site on a daily basis, mistakes are a certainty, although we work hard to avoid them. We' would like the help of our visitors to help us proof the site every day. If anyone see's a mistake, please let us know so we can correct it.

A new batch of images will be uploaded shortly, perhaps as soon as this weekend, as our shoots have been rescheduled and we will be spending our spare time in the studio working.

Friday, October 21, 2005 - November Starts A Revolution

At the moment, our business in the Tampa Bay photography services market is routine, and much like it was last year, with a lot of referrals from satisfied clients and Internet referrals. Although business is good, this is the silence before the storm in the market, and November will begin a photography services revolution for the Tampa Bay market that will lead into a record year in 2006! On Monday, new marketing and sales material will arrive, and we'll put it to immediate use. While we are not a public company and don't really have to report our sales, we will throw this much out- We are looking at exceeding $100,000.00 in business next year, earning revenues that will put us in competition with our sister company, Tampa Bay event planning company Eventi Events (Eventi should always pull in more business than us due to market realities- although Eventi is not quite at 100% at the moment, and they will need a cash infusion from us to get there). What makes this most impressive are a number of facts, which include the event services market being larger than the photography market, and the fact that we are only now beginning to book work in the consumer, wedding, and commercial markets. Once all of our markets are engaged, we are looking at over $500,000.00 in revenue in 2007, and aim to be the largest Tampa Bay photography company within three years!

We planned ahead, and now you know why we put so much work and planning into this web site. We know where we are going and what we have to do to get there. How many of our competitors can say the same?

Thursday, October 20, 2005 - Shoots Rescheduled

We're still watching Hurricane Wilma, and we are still waiting for its turn to the northeast. Due to uncertainty in storm track, intensity, and time of arrival, we have rescheduled shoots for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday's ESPY model test photography session. We will continue to book clients and do consultations; our client services department will remain completely operational unless the storm track shifts toward Tampa Bay and evacuations are ordered.

Thursday, October 20, 2005 - Online Portfolio

We've been editing and adding images to our database in preparation for bringing our main portfolio section menu online. Once we have a batch of at least 32 images added, we will upload and update the site with them. Before the end of the month, the online portfolio section core and menu will be online, enabling access to every image in our database.

Until we get our main portfolio section up, you can still look at our online portfolio by clicking on images throughout the site. This newest Aurora PhotoArts site is built around a portfolio core, and we have lots of great work online now that you can look at. The main portfolio section is more for convenience and is our portfolio "supercharger".

Wednesday, October 19, 2005 - Marketing Transition

We've been getting a lot of business off of Internet search engines the last few years, and that's all great, but we are now at the point where we can push services rather than pull clients in. Effective later this week, the focus of our marketing and sales efforts will shift offline rather than online. This new site is designed for high search engine rankings, and we will only get more online referrals, but starting this Fall most of our business will be coming from offline sources, with the web site supporting these endeavors (this web site was actually designed with this in mind, too). This will be the key to expanding our business ten-fold. Marketing and sales will now be both aggressive and high volume, with more solid rate negotiations before booking to improve the performance of our limited special offers.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - Supporting Indie Film

Senior Photographer and Executive Producer C. A. Passinault has set up a special program for Aurora PhotoArts to support independent film in Tampa Bay and Florida. Aurora PhotoArts, along with event planning sister company Eventi Events, and affiliate actor resource site Independent Acting, are now set up and looking forward to supporting independent film markets in Florida. Contact us for details.

Eventi Events is undergoing an upgrade at the moment, and they have yet to announce this in their news section because the news section is not being updated due to the upgrade in progress.

Monday, October 17, 2005 - Hurricane Watch

We've been looking at those numbers coming in to the studio concerning Tropical Storm Wilma, and it does not look good for the west coast of Florida this weekend. We're leveling a 50% chance that a major Hurricane by the name of Wilma will be either influencing or impacting the Tampa Bay region sometime this weekend. What does this mean for us? That we may be doing a three hour evacuation of the studio later this week and that Monday's ESPY session may have to be rescheduled. Whatever happens, please note that we're not gutting the studio and removing everything again like we did when Hurricane Charley threatened last year. We are still putting this place back together from that one, and the Hurricane never came close to us. This time, we're only taking pictures, files, computers, cameras, and critical equipment. Ironically, we'll be done getting the studio back up to speed from last year sometime this week. Eventi Events will delay reinstalling its sound equipment to next week as we all wait and see what's going to happen with this soon-to-be major Hurricane. We projected weeks ago that October would be the month to watch, and so far it's proven to be a valid prediction.

Monday, October 17, 2005 - Domain Name Issues

As some of you know, there are four or five domain names for this web site, which includes the obvious AuroraPhotoArts.Com. There is a domain name for this site which was on fliers passed out this past weekend. This domain name, which will remain unnamed for security reasons, is among those our Passinault.Com overlords are dumping (they are dumping at least 6 domain names this year that have either been replaced by something better or have fallen into disuse). The domain name was replaced by an easier domain name which is optimized for radio and television advertising. Our fliers and business cards are being updated with this new domain name, as the old one is no longer working. This does not mean that our web site is going down or that our business is in any sort of trouble, but rather indicates that we are growing and making adjustments to our marketing as we grow. We are thinking about buying it to ease the transition, but have not made a decision as the number of old fliers with it are just a few. We're hoping that squatters will buy the old domain name and try to extort it back to us for some obscene price, as that would protect it from others using it. Sorry about the inconvenience if you tried to use the fliers, but if you're reading this you found our AuroraPhotoArts.Com domain name on the flier header and already know about the old domain name being discontinued.

Monday, October 10, 2005 - Eventi Technology Licensed

Today, in groundbreaking news, Aurora PhotoArts announced the licensing of the Eventi Events Artificial Environment Technology used in their Interactive Theme Events. The event technology that will be used most would be custom lighting, wardrobe, and property fabrication, and Eventi Events artificial environment equipment is now clear to be used in Aurora PhotoArts photography sessions. This "theme photography" capability will support our goals for amazing editorial, fashion editorial, and creative commercial photography work in 2006, and will allow us to go beyond the capabilities and work of photographers and photography companies in New York and Europe. The creativity and the range of photography style is about to become unmatched, and our photography work will certainly get more creative.

Tampa Bay Advertising agency EOS MediaArts is working on new market branding for Aurora PhotoArts. Additionally, Aurora PhotoArts will be working with Eventi Events to come up with photography-friendly lighting for their fashion runway shows, modeling events, and their theme events. Aurora PhotoArts will be granted exclusive prime photography positions at all Eventi Events productions, and while other photographers may be there covering the program too, Aurora PhotoArts is the official photography company at all of these events.

Our market lead is about to become much more pronounced.

Friday, October 7, 2005 - Advertising Agency Almost Ready

We were just informed by the EOS web team that their EOS MediaArts advertising agency web site is almost finished and will launch shortly! Additionally, a new Passinault.Com web site was finished months ago and is waiting to launch after a few minor tweaks. This revelation is a bit of a surprise, but with some of their projects facing delays we're now figuring out where some of the lost time and work went. EOS MediaArts, a new Tampa Bay advertising agency and a Passinault.Com company, has been doing nothing but internal marketing development work for the Passinault.Com companies, Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, Independent Performer, TALON, Frontier Society, Tampa Bay Modeling, and Advanced Model the past two years. Once their new web site launches and their sales team is up to speed, they will switch gears and offer services to the Tampa Bay and Florida markets. Why did they spend all that time doing internal affiliation development? To set up support infrastructure for what is coming. Aurora PhotoArts and event planning sister company Eventi Events will offer support services to the advertising agency, which will enhance business operations in the Tampa Bay market.

Friday, October 7, 2005 - New Marketing Tools Ordered

New marketing tools were ordered today, and are due next week. We are in for a busy week, and have a lot going on starting on Monday. Some of these new tools will be coming from a new printing vendor, which we intend to utilize for our new lines of composite cards and head shots. We are also aiming to upload another 100 images to our online portfolio and will be categorizing the portfolio database before the end of the month. As of now, we have over 1,200 images in line to be optimized for our online portfolio from the past eleven years of market leadership, and it will take months to upload them all. We are still going over our archives, and it's possible that several thousand more images will be selected and readied next year, in addition to the flood of images that we have coming in from current photography work. Business and our workload will increase by a factor of ten by January 2006, and we are looking to set serious sales and service records during 2006. It is now possible that the 2006 workload will exceed the work done by us in all the years since we started business in 1994!

Friday, October 7, 2005 - Major Site And Portfolio Additions

We updated our site today, polishing the content and adding another 16 images to our online portfolio. To see the latest images, look on the left of this screen, scroll through the selection, and click an image to look at it. Some of the images added today are from our large back catalog and archives, but you can see that we've been doing top-quality work for many years. Enjoy! More recent pictures will be added shortly.

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - Studio Upgrades

We are about to do some much needed upgrades to the Geomedia 3 facility and our client services system, as we have had issues with our present system with dropped calls and overloaded memory on those busy days. We're adding two more computer workstations for photo editing work, a new Voice Response Unit (VRU) with music and hold music libraries, hands-free head sets for talking and typing, a new credit card booking system, and a call hold/ que system. The upgrades are scheduled for late November. An actress will supply the "voice" of our new system, and sister company Eventi Events will mix the music and information tracks. Aurora PhotoArts, Eventi Events, and the other Passinault.Com system will all share the same client services system. The system is needed now as we anticipate a large increase in business from January 2006 to April 2006, and we aim to get back to clients much faster than we do today.

Thursday, September 29, 2005 - Contact Us For Rates

Going into October, we are tweaking and adjusting the content of this web site as business increases. The first adjustment? Removing rates from the site. If you want to know our service rates, you must now contact us. The reason for this? One less thing to maintain on the web site, especially as we work to enhance our already high quality and top value photography service lines. There are too many variables, mainly depending upon client needs, to post cut-dry rates, and it wouldn't be fair to our valued clients to throw out rate quotes when we don't know what their unique service requirements are. An exception to this would be our ongoing special offers. This step is necessary to maintain market superiority in the Tampa Bay region.

Contact us and talk to us, and we'll set you up with services that you will agree are the top value in Tampa Bay and Florida.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - Return To Print

Back in 2002, we partnered with a quality Northdale Printing company that helped us develop our Italian Style Composite Cards. The printing arrangement fell apart, however, when the company went out of business. Since then, we have had a printing program where we referred our clients to printers. This has worked somewhat well, but is no longer desirable for us, especially when one of those printers is actually a competitor in certain services and we have referred a lot of our clients to them free of charge.

We are returning to the business of quality printing through partners, as there is an urgent need for this. With the recently increased rates for certain services, we now have room to work this into our service packages. In fact, the main reason that we did increase rates was to enhance and improve our services while discounting basic packages. This move further increases our market advantage over our competition.

Aurora PhotoArts will be setting up a two-pronged printing service with long term service contracts with at least two printing companies- one for composite cards, headshots, lithographs, artwork, and posters, and another for photographic prints, contact sheets, and proof work. This will enable us to ensure the quality of our work in the area of printing, and will ensure a trouble-free experience for our clients. Expect a new line of Aurora PhotoArts branded print products in the near future.

Monday, September 26, 2005 - ESPY Rate Increases

There may be further increases in later sessions depending on the resources we have available for them and the demand. We only guarantee rates for the listed session.

Friday, September 23, 2005 - Aiming For Chicago And New York

Aurora PhotoArts is on the verge of a buildup of new lighting equipment and a whole new way of shooting photography and editing our images. This acquisition of equipment and resources has one goal- to work towards entering competition with Chicago and New York photography companies. We've been planning on breaking into the "next level" of photography for a while now, as we feel there is always room for improvement, and once the extra tools are online we will bridge the gap quickly and exceed what is being done in those markets within two years. Our new sister photography company will share the new tools, and maybe even drive innovation. It's going to be very hard work- don't get us wrong- but we are used to working tough challenges and know what we need to do. One thing can be said- In the near future, if an "A" list national company or celebrity wants to contract a Florida photography company, it's going to be us. There will be no more lost business to those markets.

In site related new, we will be uploading a new batch of pictures shortly, and will be categorizing and expanding our online portfolio section in October.

Friday, September 23, 2005 - Stock Photography Program Online

We have brought the Aurora PhotoStock program back online, with shoots booking for October. At the present time, we're pushing Independent Modeling to get their model job board up so we can market this program on their site. We've been told that Independent Modeling will see heavy updates by Monday.
Our Stock Photography program is primarily for experienced models who have professional portfolios and composite cards in their professional toolkit. There are three reasons for this, and other photographers may want to take notes. If you want to do it all, as far as doing a range of services while avoiding conflict of interests or scandals which can hurt your business credibility, this is how to do it. You may have to give up a possible booking, but in the long run you will come out ahead, and we will be among those in the industry who will extend a grateful hand of earned respect and thank you for keeping the competition clean.

1. Professional models have the skills that will give us the pictures that will sell. It's really that simple, and they will automatically have what they need to book work. The fact that the models have their professional tools goes a long way to eliminating any conflict of interest, as it precludes them from our other services.

2. We've seen bait and switch scams over the years where "professionals" offer model jobs and then try to sell them pictures, portfolios, comps, runway training, or model classes. Misleading models is just wrong. In regards to us, we are very careful not to mix our modeling jobs with our portfolio development services, simply because even if the offer is innocent, the perception of wrong-doing alone undermines professional credibility. By trying to limit these jobs to professional models who already have established portfolios, we automatically eliminate most of these risks because the models are not in the market for portfolio development services. We will never tell a model who is being considered for a booking that they need portfolio development, and avoid bring up those services when we are in the context of considering or booking them for a job.

3. On the flip side, we do a lot of business in portfolio development, and we don't want to undermine this market. We don't want aspiring models trying to build the portfolios that they lack by booking work. By default, it won't happen. If you don't have the tools, you probably won't be considered. If, by rare chance, we REALLY like your look and end up booking one of those jobs as an aspiring model, you will only get the looks specified. Granted, you will get our usual professional quality images and you'll get them for use in your portfolio, but you won't have enough to make your portfolio, as a portfolio needs at least a good range of six looks or more. Just the same, if you're booked for one of our jobs and you are in need of a portfolio, we are professionally obligated to bite our tongue and avoid bringing it up or telling you about those services. If you initiate it, that's fine, but otherwise it is an ethical conflict of interest that we wish to avoid.

So, why are we so strict about these rules and why aren't we tempted to bend them? Simply because we also know that most models like our work and chances are that they will come back to us for portfolios long after the job is done. That's their obligation, and if they choose to do so, that's fine.
So, what this means is that there will be two major lines of model photography done here, and those lines don't mix. The first line is where aspiring and experienced models pay us to invest in quality portfolios that show a range of looks and will book them work. The second is where we book professional models and pay them for a job. Any questions? Feel free to E-Mail or call us.
For our official statement on this, go HERE.

Thursday, September 22, 2005 - Three Companies In One

We are pleased to announce that Aurora PhotoArts will be splitting into a second photography company, a model photography company, and both companies will be referring our clients to a third one, which is the world's first advertising company for models and talent, Edge Portfolios. Going back to the second photography company, this new company would focus on modeling, fashion, and swimsuit photography. Some of that photography would be Maxim and FHM style studio and location work, work that we have determined is incompatible with what the Aurora PhotoArts brand is all about. That work, however, is very popular, and there is a big market for it. We can no longer afford to ignore that market, and will serve it while not risking the Aurora PhotoArts brand (Example: Think Disney and Viacom). The second photography company will be a Passinault.Com company under our license, and will launch in the Spring of 2006. Currently, we don't have a name for the company, but the EOS MediaArts team is working on branding for the new photography company. Those of you who have been reading our updates all year may note that this spin-off company is hardly a new idea, and that we have been planning this move for some time.
So, in the wake of our brand new photography services web site, the web team begins work on a brand new Venus Class site, which may be totally different in design and layout than our current one, for the new company. Both companies would share the same production resources, and some of the newest Aurora PhotoArts work output would be branded for the new company. There is talk that most of the work under the new company would be stock-ready, and we can confirm that most of it will be developed with stock use in mind.
Edge Portfolios, the third company in our strategic triad, launched last year, but has yet to begin business operations. It is a subsidiary of Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts, operating under their license, and it will be expanded this year to handle the client load from Aurora PhotoArts and the second photography company. We have a lot to do, but the Tampa Bay and Florida photography markets will benefit from it.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - Rates May Increase

Some special services, such as our ESPY reduced rate model test sessions, may see increasing rates in the coming weeks as demand increases and we see faster bookings. These are group sessions with a limit on how many clients we can comfortably accommodate. The September 26 Session, which is now booked to capacity, was $49.99. Our October 3 Session is $59.99, and there may be further increases in later sessions depending on the resources we have available for them and the demand. We only guarantee rates for the listed session.

Other rates for other services may increase as well, so we highly recommend booking sooner rather than later.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - Next ESPY Session

With the September 26 Session now booked, our next available reduced rate model testing session, known as ESPY, is Monday, October 3, 2005. Expect these to book up faster than normal from now on, as we will be pushing these heavily. Terms and the reduced rate may change from session to session. For more, go HERE.

Monday, September 19, 2005 - Site Updated

We have finished porting the remainder of the content. We have also have edited and added more images to the portfolio core which powers the new site. Promotion of the new site has started, with heavy promotion later this week.
Although completed with Initial Operational Capability (IOC), the site is still designated a BETA version and will be adjusted throughout the week as promotion increases. The BETA designation will probably be dropped around the end of the week and the site would then be designated as fully operational.

Friday, September 16, 2005 - New Site Online

We spent 4 hours today porting more web content, and the site is now at a BETA stage where it can be uploaded and the bugs worked out over the next few days. We uploaded it at 7:15 PM EST and brought it online. It will be fully operational and polished sometime next week, with very little work able to be done over the weekend. Heavy promotion of the new site is scheduled to start on Monday afternoon. It has been a long and tiring week, and we are looking forward to relaxing a bit over the weekend.
We have scheduled the next ESPY reduced rate model test session for Monday, September 26, although we are not sure of the time that we will have booking this session next week. The reduced rate has been set as $49.99 for this session, and that rate covers the first look (terms and conditions apply).

Thursday, September 15, 2005 - Site Construction

The portfolio core, although minimal at this time, is complete, and we spent 17 hours today working on the site itself and porting existing content. Because of the extensive amount of preparation and planning behind this new site, there were no technical surprises and the work progressed smoothly, although it was bit tedious. We finally saw the finished site today, after we had a portfolio core to interconnect the pages to, and we must say that all of the hard work is paying off! We're very pleased with the outcome, which is exactly to spec. There is a LOT of site to code, however, and it is taking a while. The site is approaching BETA form, which means that it can be brought online as a work in progress and the finalized online over a period of several days. We uploaded support files today, which was invisible to the visitors of the current site online.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - Online Portfolio Assembly

Today, we spent another 16 hours formatting, tweaking, and assembling the portfolio core of the new site. This core is especially critical because the entire site revolves around it and interconnects heavily with it. The work has been very tedious, and because we have to finish this before finalizing the code for the site itself, we haven't even seen what the actual site will look like yet. We have a book of design specs and polished layouts, however, so we are well prepared, and the site will come out to spec.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005 - Preparing Image Files

We spent 16 hours today editing and formatting over 60 images for the new portfolio core. We have selected over 300 portfolio-quality images to use in this portfolio from over 200 satisfied clients and at least the last five years of hard work. It will take a while to edit and upload all of these images, especially with new ones coming in every week. Programs such as our stock photography program and ESPY will further increase the amount of new, professional quality images that we have to work with; we are especially excited about the work that will come from the stock photography program, as this program is limited to experienced, professional models.

Monday, September 12, 2005 - Copy And Contracts

In preparation of the work on the new site, we are adjusting the site copy that we will be porting from the old to the new and am working on contracts and tools. We also have to finish some client work orders today, which ends in a delivery of images to a model later this evening; once this work is done, we have long days ahead dedicated to building our new site. Most of our work has been rescheduled to next week to accommodate this ambitious schedule.
Our radio and television marketing support tools are now finished and are slated to be rolled out early in 2006.
As it was stated last month, our rates changed on September 1. Most of these changes are in place to accommodate a flexible rate system, advanced sales, and special promotions. Base rates have increased, but some design rates have actually been reduced (example: Our $89.99 five look Composite Card set up rate is now $79.99 and covers additional looks).

Sunday, September 11, 2005 - New Site Design Finalized

C. A. Passinault approved the final design spec today for the new Venus Class Aurora PhotoArts marketing site. Details concerning the new alerts system, compatibility with older site design, online subcontracting, client support, and the large amount of images required were finalized. The new site, unlike the last site, is designed around a massive online portfolio core, making it a heavily updated picture portfolio machine. The design spec basically takes what works with the existing site and combines it with what worked with the site that we had up in early 2004, and then adds all the nice enhancements that we've developed in the past year but haven't had the chance to unveil. Those enhancements are tried and true, and have been tested by the experience that we've had marketing, doing client consultations, selling, booking clients, the process of performing our photography and design sessions, delivering our work to our clients, and client support. One area that has been lacking was in the client support area, and that changes now. We've been so busy working on the quality of our services that some areas, such as follow-up work, fell short. Our client support enhancements are a hundred fold better now, and while we will go on record that the new site will be ten times more effective that past sites, the reality will be that we are shooting for 100 times more effective, and we are confident that we will exceed even that high standard. We have much more than a brand new kind of photography services site, however. What this is the new face of a new and improved way of doing business and ensuring our continued market superiority. It is really a whole new era, and some of these new business concepts will find their way over to our sister companies, like event planning company Eventi Events.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - Updates Suspended

News updates and adjustments to this present version of the Aurora PhotoArts web site have been suspended pending the imminent release of the next Aurora PhotoArts web site, which is the Venus class site by EOS MediaArts that has been in the works the past several months and is the 5th Aurora PhotoArts web site. We may elect to port over relevant archived news items and other content, but we haven't decided yet if we are going to do this, and we will be resetting the News section and the archives upon the launch of the new site. The new Aurora PhotoArts site will have a new News section which will have new update link features and an alerts database system keyed into the portfolio system where we can post messages for clients and other information. This will be the last post on this site, and the next update will be the launch of something really special.

Monday, August 15, 2005 - Capabilities To Increase

It was announced today that Aurora PhotoArts would increase its market capabilities through collaborative efforts with professional affiliates. This will allow us to offer professional, quality services in all photography and photography support markets. Effective immediately, Aurora PhotoArts will be subcontracting several photographers who each specialize in photography work such as wedding photography and event photography. While our main photographer specializes in model portfolio, talent head shot, and commercial photography work, we will be booking top photographers in other specialized fields to increase both our capabilities as a company and our extensive portfolio. We just signed two of the top photographers in wedding and event photography, and will be working with over twelve top photographers by the end of the year.

We were already the best value for professional photography in the Tampa Bay market, and this move increases our lead over the competition another ten-fold. Our online and print portfolios are about to become a lot larger, with far more choices to choose from.

New marketing and sales efforts are well on their way to increasing our sales by over 800% as of September 2005. By December, we should further increase our market share by another 3000%, and the enhanced service capabilities will facilitate increased sales. Early next year, we will begin print, radio, and television advertising in the Tampa Bay market, and our marketing infrastructure is already in place to support those plans.

The bottom line? We're growing faster than we have since we began business in 1994, and the next year should see increased growth which will exceed what we have done in the past eleven years. This is great news for the Tampa Bay and Florida photography markets.

Sunday, August 14, 2005 - Free Featured Talent Profiles

Effective immediately, all of our paid talent clients will be receiving a one year featured talent profile on either Independent Modeling (models), Independent Acting (actors), or Independent Performer (singers, dancers, and other talent professions). This profile will be a free bonus and will run for a period of one year! Web Comps and web-ready head shots are included in this offer, so there will be no set up charge involved. There are two main reasons for this special offer: it will help to promote our clients on the leading talent resource web sites, and it will make it really easy for future clients to check our references before booking our services. Why are we announcing this today? Because the featured talent sections are due up this week!

What should professionals be expected to pay if they want to be featured on these sites and they are not one of our clients? We've been told it's $80.00 per year for models on Independent Modeling, $50.00 per year for actors on Independent Acting, and $50.00 per year for other talent on Independent Performer. We've also heard rumors of a $100.00 per-year special for talent who have several professions and who want to be featured on all three sites. When you look at their advertising rates, this is a very good deal! As rates and terms can change at any time and without warning, we strongly suggest going directly to IndependentModeling.Com for the latest and most current information.

Aurora PhotoArts is affiliated with the three Independent Sites, and we are directly involved with them with part-ownership. We advertise on and advise all of these sites.

Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - Portfolio Updates Holding

We have images from over forty clients worthy of our online and hard-book portfolios from the past few months of work. These "Grail" (i.e. top images worth highlighting) images are presently on hold for the online version of our portfolio, and we be available for viewing when the new Aurora PhotoArts web site launches this month (will it be tomorrow? Next week? Maybe in the next seven days? Check back daily for a big surprise!). The new site, a Venus class prototype from Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts, will feature image based navigation and new visual and link-up update sections. The EOS team is making the new site, which is now in its third and final draft, compatible with the image format used on Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer; because most of the images on those sites are ours, we get a portfolio library boost by default since we can use those images that have been optimized for those sites. This will greatly increase our turn-around time, especially since the new Venus class Aurora PhotoArts site will use 80% of the existing site code and content but in a new layout format. We can't wait to see what is coming next!

Saturday, August 6, 2005 - Rate Increase Due

Some service rates are slated to increase as much as 25% on September 1. Current rates will be honored until until August 31 if they are booked by the deadline. For details on which rates are changing, please call us at (813) 671-9507. The increased rates will compensate for increased bookings and will facilitate rate flexibility in special offer incentives. All of our services will be expanded and improved across the board in the last quarter of 2005. The first step to these improvements will be in our marketing, and will begin with the next Aurora PhotoArts site due this month.

As of January 1, 2006, we will be subcontracting several more photographers to help our work load. All these photographers are "A" rated photographers who deliver work to our specifications, and the quality of our work will increase due to the diverse talent available. Due to professional obligations and attention to specialized commercial photography work, models who specifically wish to book photographer C. A. Passinault for their model portfolio photography can expect to pay commercial photography rates over our normal ones. C. A. Passinault will have extremely limited availability. The rates to book him will be three to four times the standard portfolio photography rates, which may actually be a deal worth consideration due to the fact that the portfolio session will be booked and treated as a commercial shoot with greater attention to detail and additional support.

C. A. Passinault is our senior photographer. He is the Executive Producer of the Passinault.Com (Passinault Entertainment Group and Passinault Industries LLC) companies and the Director of Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer. He is professionally certified in over twenty different entertainment and business professions. Of note is his work as a photographer, writer, event planner, film director, and modeling expert.

Thursday, August 4, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts Branding A Go

As it is known in business, it's not enough to deliver quality services at a fair rate. You have to market yourself well, and in the best cases employ a process known as branding.

Our marketing team has come up with a new, comprehensive branding campaign that will begin this month. We've already achieved a standard of quality photography services and the best value for those services in the Tampa Bay market. We are now going to make our name alone an icon, and our services will become coveted simply because of the Aurora PhotoArts advantage, an overall and genuine cool image, and the name attached. More will be revealed soon.

Tuesday, August 2, 2005 - Best Shoot Ever?

We did a shoot this morning that produced some of our best work in years, due in large part to the talent of model Harmony Oswald. Expect her pictures to be featured heavily on the new Aurora PhotoArts site due this month. This work will first be used on Independent Modeling and Independent Acting this week. Harmony joins the ranks of some of the best models who we have worked with over the years, which include Diana Furka, Lowie Narvaez, Jessica Leigh, Roxanne Kowalska, Michael Christian, Ann Poonkasem, Sarah Bray, Melissa Maxim, and Jennifer McCallister. All of these models had a level of professionalism, skill, and raw talent which is both rare and appreciated in this industry. Could it be that the reason that these models were exceptional is that most of them had additional careers as actors and performers? It could be!

We are strongly considering working with an exceptional Orlando-based model in a project that we are working on. We will be contacting her in the next few days, as she contacted us several weeks ago expressing an interest in working with us. Due to the heavy bookings, we've been a little slow with getting back to some people, but we haven't forgotten anyone.

We feel that, due in large part to several model-centric programs later this year, that we are on the verge of another renaissance in our legendary work with models that we have not seen since 2001. We expect what is to come to exceed what was done in the past by a factor of ten or more! We are beginning to surprise ourselves again.

Speaking of shoots, our rates are due to be adjusted again and will change on September 1, 2005. We can confirm that our model portfolio photography sessions and our actor head shot photography sessions will be increasing in rates, so book now or invest more later for the best value in professional photography services.

Friday, July 29, 2005 - August Developments To Increase Business

August is going to be a big month for us, with a new web site optimized for the photography services industry, new service contracts with new rates, increased sales due to the implementation of our new marketing strategies, and a client promotion alliance with the improved and advanced Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer sites; these site being proven leaders in the industry for talent resources and as an un-equaled tool for the entertainment industry.

We'll say it now, and we'll say it along with our sister company Eventi Events. The last three months of 2005 will see sales of historic proportions, easily exceeding the amount of business that has been done in the past three years. Eventi will see sales which should exceed what they've booked in the past five years. What is about to happen will be very effective, and we have scalable operational capabilities in place now which can handle anything that our sales team can throw our way. Here is a brief breakdown of what's going to happen in the wonderful, but too hot, month of August.

New Web Site

Our new Venus Class web site, which is specifically designed for the marketing of photography and design services, is nearing completion. The site is now in the third beta version, with final adjustments being made before the final version, and is due in August. We can't wait!

Segmented Service Contracts

We will be doing larger, and more elaborate projects, especially as we increase work in commercial photography projects (due in large part to our work with Tampa Bay and Florida advertising agencies). These expanded services require the subcontracting of additional photographers, make up artists, stylists, and support professionals. The new service contracts will define terms with both our clients and subcontractors.

Rate Changes

It's time again to adjust some of our photography and service support rates. Some will rise, and some will fall, but rest assured that the quality will increase, making the value unbeatable in this market. Rates will change on September 1, 2005; current rates will be honored until August 31.

Sales and Marketing

Considered to be our secret weapon. While the web assets are at the top, most of our work will come from our sales team, and we've just finished spending the past two years working out the details. Our sales team will be massive, and good salespeople will be cross-qualified to sell services from our entire portfolio of Passinault.Com companies. Many of these services are designed to be compatible with services from our sister companies, creating a one-stop-shop which will truly be the top choice in this market.

Client Promotion

Another incentive for clients will be that we can now offer a one-year free featured talent profile on Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer. This will be a bonus that will come with any photography services that they invest in. They will also enjoy advertiser status on these sites, too, which will enhance their marketing potential. As a benefit for us, it will also enable future clients to easily check our references. Contact us for details.

Monday, July 25, 2005 - New Aurora PhotoArts Site Almost Ready

The new Aurora PhotoArts web site, which is the very first Venus Class web site from the geniuses over at EOS MediaArts, is almost done and ready to go. Due in August, the layout and design is done, and the team is waiting on us to complete delivery of the 60 initial images that the portfolio core of the new site needs. This present site should have been built around a functional online portfolio, and it was not, which is the reason that our image reference system and the present portfolio was never completely activated and never achieved its full potential. We are now taking steps to build one of the most effective online portfolios ever designed, and the new site will be built around an online portfolio with assorted categories and an easy-to-use, intuitive interface. Main navigation keys will be horizontally arrayed and reduced to seven buttons from the existing twelve. Image based navigation will be a dominant design feature, too. The site will utilize 90% of the design and color components of the existing site, which will be reformatted in a new visual-based layout. Each page will have scalable image display templates which will allow for large images in a vertical or a horizontal orientation, and will also display a minimum of 24 thumbnailed images that link directly to the online portfolio. Recently added images will be selectable from a section menu on the main page. Expanded text-based content will be available deeper within the site, with the images taking priority for those who are not inclined to read and who would rather look at pictures.

This is a main reason that we have not added a whole lot to this site or the online portfolio. The new site is not much more work than putting together a comprehensive online portfolio, especially since most of the features on this existing site were done right and they can be made more effective in the new design format layout. The new site is mostly an evolution on the tried-and-true. The directories will remain unchanged. Our testimonials will be expanded, as will our career and client support. Our clients can also expect free support from Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer (all clients will get a one year featured talent listing on the relevant site for free with any paid head shot photography or model portfolio photography session). As has been our policy, clients will still have to CONTACT US for rates and schedule information, as there are many variables which limit a comprehensive listing.

The new site may launch as early as this week, as the image library is almost ready.

Monday, July 18, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts Spins Off

It happened... We've been hinting at it for months, and have finally taken a much needed step, now that other things are done and we have the time and resources to invest in this. Aurora PhotoArts spun off a separate company today that will cater to the fashion modeling, swimsuit, and glamour photography markets. The new company will share Aurora PhotoArts resources, and the market branding will be separate. With Aurora PhotoArts a strong brand in commercial type and family friendly photography, the division of branding is appropriate. Both photography companies will work with Edge Portfolios, which is the first advertising agency for models, actors, and talent.

This announcement comes just before the dawn of a new Aurora PhotoArts web site, which will be a Venus class photography services and support business site.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - Sales Increase Due

Our extended support infrastructure is now in place, and we are ready for the largest sales force build up in our history. Through a partnership with leading modeling resource site Independent Modeling, we will be utilizing the site to promote our model clients. Sales are expected increase dramatically starting in August, with an emphasis on commercial photography business working with Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts, which is a sister company, too. Sales for the latter half of 2005 will set records. In 2006, Aurora PhotoArts will become one of the leading sources of print work for models in the Florida market, due in large part to our commercial photography services. As usual, models do not have to be a client and are not obligated to get their portfolios done through us in order to be considered. We will also book models without an agency involved if they so choose, as we acknowledge that the agency way is no longer the only way.

Friday, July 8, 2005 - Weekend ESPY Session Postponed

Due to inclement weather, our ESPY session for tomorrow afternoon in north Tampa has been rescheduled. We have contacted all booked clients today; for more information on the next ESPY session, give our client services department a call at (813) 671-9507.

Thursday, July 7, 2005 - Two ESPY Sessions This Month

We have another two ESPY model test sessions coming up this month! Give our client services department a call at (813) 671-9507 for more information.

Friday, June 24, 2005 - Web Developments

The past few days, we have adjusted some content on our web site in order to prepare for what is coming. The next generation Aurora PhotoArts web site will come sooner rather than later, and that means as early as late August. The next site will be a visual based Venus class web site, and will replace this text-content based first-generation Diana class site. Marketing has determined that Diana class sites are better suited for businesses such as Tampa event planning company Eventi Events, and Eventi has an outstanding site (they are completely happy with their site and, other than a CSS code update later this year, will not need a new site for a long time). The new Aurora site will be heavy on the pictures and light on the content, but we will also have lots of text-based content available deeper in the site if our clients want it. Another thing that has to be fixed, and something that we are not happy about with the current site, is our online portfolio. While our pictures are good, there are not enough of them, the navigation is spotty at best, and the image linkup is not working like it was intended to because it wasn't set up right. That, of course, is not entirely the fault of the web team, and is more the cause of a lack of planning; we would have had to have a large number of pictures on the site and an operational online portfolio first in order to have implemented that feature correctly. We will be going through hundreds of our best pictures over the next few weeks to prepare the foundation of the next Aurora PhotoArts web site now in development, so the next site will not have that handicap. Also, you will not have to read as much on the next one, either, unless you want to. Photographs will come first.

This said, what DO we like about our present site? Staying will be our client testimonials, the file layout structure, the graphics, and the color scheme (The design layout will be changing, of course- the button design may not). We will be expanding our client testimonials, too, and now have a partnership set up with the next generation Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer sites to assist and promote our talent clients. What will be great about this? Well, for starters, what this means is that it will be very easy by default for people who are checking out our services to get references on us, and that's a good thing for everyone.

Friday, June 10, 2005 - Web Sites Sold

We have sold our first ten modeling web sites, just before they are ready to be marketed. We now have a waiting list. Through a partnership with talent advertising agency Edge Portfolios (a subsidiary of Tampa advertising agency EOS MediaArts), we are offering high value talent web site packages at low rates and at the same high quality that you have come to expect from EOS web projects. The high value talent sites are fully compatible with top resource sites such as Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer. Speaking of these resource sites, we also have a partnership program with them where our modeling and talent clients will be featured on their web sites. Several other photographers and photography companies have similar agreements with these sites, also. The featured talent profiles are designed to be linked to their TALON talent/ industry database system, which in turn will drive traffic to their high value web sites.

The web site packages will be marketed starting in July, and we will be coming up with a cool name for the program shortly. Independent Modeling is expected to be reformatted this month, and by the end of July should be up to full strength.

Interested models and talent should call for rates, as packages vary depending upon their professional needs.

Wednesday, June 8, 2005 - First Look Program Initiated

Our First Look program was initiated today. This sales program is designed to work with ongoing projects such as our ESPY test photography sessions. First Look is expected to increase overall sales and marketing efforts.

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 - Major Marketing And Sales Begins

Our sales and marketing teams initiated a sales and marketing plan today that has been in the works since March. Bookings are expected to increase dramatically in the next few days. ESPY model test sessions for June are almost booked up, and we have begun to book July sessions. At the present time, we have not determined if there will be more than one July ESPY session.

Our client services department has begun a cleanup of outstanding leads, and has certified our booking system as a business standard (outstanding leads were closed yesterday- we had over eight in the system that needed to be concluded). It has been very successful to date, and will be improved in the coming weeks.

Wednesday, June 1, 2005 - Target Marketing Summer 2005

This month, we are launching some of our most advanced marketing concepts, and will further diversify and separate our target markets. The EOS web team is now developing a new Venus Class Aurora PhotoArts web site specifically designed for the model and talent photography markets. We will also be offering low cost, high quality talent web sites, which will be compatible with leading modeling and talent resource sites. These web site talent marketing services will be offered with the assistance of sister company Edge Portfolios, which is based in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and is the worlds first advertising agency for models and talent. We intend to become the leading one stop shop for models and talent for the Florida market, and will make the Tampa Bay market a leading one for models and talent. Models and talent will have an unfair advantage in their careers, and that advantage will be us.

The new talent photography Aurora PhotoArts web site will not be announced on this web site, and the domain name will a trade secret. The prototype Venus Class site will be built with the latest web technologies, including new stealth enhancements, and may serve as a development exercise for the next generation AuroraPhotoArts.Com web site due in 2006. Once the site is up, this site will focus more on the range of photography and support services that we offer, and will be heavily promoting our quality commercial photography services.

Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - What Is A "Code Blue"?

Last Hurricane season, there was a little confusion as to what our "Code Blue" was. Simply put, Code Blue is a Hurricane evacuation plan that we drafted back in 1999 that covers the steps that need to be taken to remove key equipment and files in order to preserve business continuity. 2004 was the first time that we have ever has to activate our Code Blue plan, and we had to do it three times. When we enact a Code Blue, we can remove and relocate these key components within four hours. Servicing our clients is very important to us, and we have a professional obligation to define the steps needed to preserve the ability to deliver the quality services that our clients have come to expect from us.

Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - Two ESPY Model Testing Sessions In June

We have been booked solid lately, leaving little time for ESPY Sessions and web site updates. We have managed, however, to set aside some time in June and will be offering two afternoon ESPY sessions south of Brandon and in north Tampa this month. Several models are already booked, and we expect to be booked up in the next few days. Contact us for details, as the first look will be available at a rock-bottom rate (if you received another offer, we will honor it). For more, go HERE.

Friday, May 27, 2005 - AuroraPhotoArts.Com Site Updated

We have updated our web site in several areas. Normally, we would let you know where the updates are. We won't make it that easy, however, unless we need to specifically show people important additions. You'll have to find them for yourself this time.

Friday, May 20, 2005 - The 411 About Independent Modeling

Not only are we affiliated with this popular modeling resource site, but we are also their official photography company. As of yesterday, the site and the sister sites were parked, due to the 2006 next generation versions coming along in the next few weeks. We can tell a little about what they won't. The new site will combine several in "channels", being Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, Independent Performer, a database, and Frontier Society (the last one being a different site that will use the same format). The site will be a new Athena Class site by the EOS team, and will be their most advanced yet, with full CSS coded. At the moment, each site in their "channel" has 11 main menu buttons (15 if you count the channel buttons), which tend to overwhelm visitors. The new sites have a menu on the top with six buttons! Other news? Servers are being installed, a high bandwidth connection is online, and the teams are working with PHP code for the first time, advancing beyond static HTML that has made up the site since day one. Whatever could that mean? We can only guess, but this may be the Independent Modeling that finally exceeds the potential that it's had since late 2001. What we can tell you is this thing is going to be awesome and it will dominate the industry in 2006.

Expect something big to be revealed shortly.

Aurora PhotoArts and Eventi Events will partner with Independent Modeling late this Summer for several joint projects.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - More Site Additions

The news format that first debuted with the Eventi Events Diana class web site has been applied to the Aurora PhotoArts web site effective completely. We will be phasing out our text-heavy content format. Starting today, we will also have a news index of all posts, mirroring the format of the Eventi Events site.

Thursday, May 12, 2005 - New Dream Nine Studios Site Launches

The new fourth edition Dream Nine Studios web site launched today. This new site is also the fourth Diana Class web site by EOS MediaArts, and it follows the Aurora PhotoArts, Eventi Events, and Passinault.Com Diana Class web sites launched in 2005. The Dream Nine Studios web site is coded more closely to Eventi Events than the others, and it has been stated that the Eventi Events web site is as advanced as it is because work on the Dream Nine Studios site was applied to it as it was being put together (each site is in development for at least eight months, so work on the present site started last year- each site existed in some form as the other was put together). Dream Nine Studios is our sister company, a Passinault.Com company, and it is a motion picture production company, video game development company, and a music label. Currently, the new Dream Nine Studios site is the most refined and advanced Diana Class web site. The present Aurora PhotoArts site, being the prototype Diana class site, is the least advanced of them all, but it still works well. Check out the new Dream Nine Studios site by clicking the link below:

DreamNineStudios.Com

Thursday, May 12, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts Developments Section Upgraded

The news format that first debuted with the Eventi Events Diana class web site has been applied to the Aurora PhotoArts web site effective immediately. What you see now is still a work in progress, and we may abandon the content page format to keep the look of the site consistent. More is to be announced soon. The Aurora PhotoArts Diana Class site, being the first in the line, is the least refined of all four Diana Class web sites, and it has been noted that a new Aurora PhotoArts web site better suited for photography services will have to be rolled out a year early in 2006. The next Aurora PhotoArts web site is rumored to be a new Venus Class site, which uses visual based navigation and is optimized for photography and design services.

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Friday, May 6, 2005 - Another Aurora PhotoArts Web Site?

Rumors persist of another Aurora PhotoArts site which is said to be in the works. This site is supposedly a second web site and will not replace this one. The new site is said to be a Venus class prototype which is easy on text content, heavy on pictures, and will be highly experimental. The site is also said to use a new visual navigation interface. The EOS representative that leaked this information to us has stated that the new site will be geared for model and talent photography as the present Aurora PhotoArts company site is expanded to push other kinds of photography such as commercial work. It is also rumored that the new site will be optimized for sales and referral tracking. This rumored site will not be the same one as the next Aurora PhotoArts web site, which will also be a Venus class site and is scheduled to launch in 2006. The present Diana class Aurora PhotoArts web site has been highly successfull, but it is known that the format is not optimized for photography services and is more suited for services such as event planning (see sister company Eventi Events for an example, which is the best, refined, and most advanced Diana class site to date- The new site has already won design awards). The present Aurora PhotoArts Diana class site will continue to be supported.
If and when this thing launches, we'll let you know, although we may not be permitted to show you anything. It is unknown if we will be allowed to promote or link to the second site, and the reasons that we have heard concerning this make sense, especially since it may contain rate and schedule information. If the rumors turn out to be true, it will be exciting for next years main site because the experience earned from the second site will advance efforts for our next main web site.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - Now Booking For May!

We are now booking photography services for May, as we have been busy the past few weeks and are booked solid until the end of the month.
We have ESPY reduced rate model photography sessions available for May. Call us at (813) 671- 9507 for availability information and our schedule, which may change on a daily basis.
For rate information, please call our client services department at (813) 671-9507. Packages and rates vary.

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Saturday, April 16, 2005 - Online Portfolios

Aurora PhotoArts has deleted our paid portfolio networking site profile. We have come to the conclusion that the service is not cost-effective and that our target market (namely real professional models) are not being served, especially since there are so few on the site.
We have long maintained that we do not need to use portfolio networking sites, and the facts support that position. We have not had one solid professional model contact through such a site. We get lots of bookings, however, through our web site and real marketing efforts. We have voted with our feet and have left the site without any concern or consequence of lost business.
For more about the flaws of large portfolio networking sites and what is being done to rectify the situation, please check out Independent Modeling for an article that is coming soon.
In related news, Independent Modeling and EOS MediaArts will all be doing programs to offer models and photographers low cost, effective web site that are professionally designed. These programs will include everything from domain name registration to hosting. These web site packages will be the best value, because, like our site, they will actually work and get results. Aurora PhotoArts proudly supports these offers.

RETURN TO NEWS

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Tuesday, April 12, 2005 - EventiEvents.Com Launches!

After a long wait, the new Eventi Events web site, EventiEvents.Com, has launched! While the new site is at an initial operations capability level right now, a lot will be added to the site in the coming days weeks.
The Aurora PhotoArts web site you are now on was the debut of a new line of web site template design by EOS MediaArts called the Diana class. We are the prototype, and it took a V1.1 code addition to fix a few bugs and bring us up to speed. Even so, the new Eventi Events web site is the second Diana class web site in existence, and it brings even more enhancements to the table. It is superior to our web site in every way, and is more interactive and polished. Everything about the web site screams "refinement", and the only thing it is lacking at this time would be images and content (coming rather soon, we are told). The site benefits from some serious work on a Diana class site now being built for Passinault.Com company Dream Nine Studios, and some of the ideas for that web site, which were derived from their present site, were used on the Eventi Events site. It seems that the Diana class web site for Dream Nine Studios is closer to a code twin of Eventi's site than we are. There is no ETA on the Dream Nine Studios Diana class site, because it was not deemed a priority. It may end up being the fourth Diana class site, as a new Diana class Passinault.Com is rumored to be moved ahead of it.
Although our Diana class site is now considered old, it's working great, and it can still work for us until the projected 2007 life span. We may not keep this Diana class site that long, however, because the EOS web team is working on a new web site class optimized for photography companies, and we'll have ours by 2006, or at least once development is done. The new class of photographer optimized web site is known as the Venus class. Venus class sites will be based on visual navigation, and will utilize CSS, Flash animated graphics, and sound samples.
An insider at EOS told us today that they are now going to get Frontier-Society.Com up this week, which should prove interesting. The site will debut a brand new web site class called Athena.
You can see the new Eventi Events site now at EventiEvents.Com!.

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Friday, April 8, 2005 - Search Engine Issues

Our web team audited the search engines today, and it seems that we are pulling an average performance in that area. The AuroraPhotoArts.Com web site code is still relatively new, and it does take time for the search engines to index us appropriately. This said, we are getting a good amount of traffic every day, and much more than most other photography sites in this market.
Our friends over at Independent Modeling seem to have a virtual monopoly on search engine rankings, and the EOS web team behind them is also behind the creation of our web site. The EOS team has promised us that new WCE technology developed for Independent Modeling will be made available to us for improving our search engine performance. We have also contracted Independent Modeling to steer some of their traffic our way starting today. Ironically, WCE technology has yet to be used by Independent Modeling, and they have told us that they are waiting for some new additions to their site before using the new tactics to boost their already impressive search engine standings.
Aurora PhotoArts will begin a short term program that will optimize our site code and content for search engine results with different photography markets. This program will be completed by early Summer, 2005.
Another irony is that our business model for 2005 downplays the importance of search engines and puts more emphasis on direct marketing and sales. This does not, however, mean that we are going to disregard our Internet marketing, and are now working to make it as effective as possible.
In related news, we are in the process of removing a portfolio networking site profile that we have had for several years, as it has not been cost-effective. This is the first of many changes.

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Tuesday, April 5, 2005 - Web Site Copy Adjusted

The EOS web team have gone through the Aurora Photoarts web site and have adjusted content to support new marketing protocols now in place.

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Monday, April 4, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts To Split Into Second Company

In the interest of segmenting markets of markets that are inappropriate to mix, Aurora PhotoArts has announced that it will create a second company that will deal exclusively with markets that we will not touch. This company will launch in the Tampa Bay market the Summer of 2005.
Aurora PhotoArts does work which is considered to be safe and family friendly. There are other markets out there that are also part of normal business marketing and the modeling industry, and this twin company will go after those markets while separating its market definition from what we do. The company will share full Aurora PhotoArts technology, marketing material, and other assets. The markets that this company services will be different than the ones that we do, so this company will not technically compete with anything that we do and will complement us in this market. The markets that this company will service will benefit from the superior ethics and integrity that the company will have. Due to the nature of the markets that this company will service, this company will do far more studio photography than we do.
The name of this company will not be revealed until the web site and marketing are launched. The targeted markets will not be revealed until launch, either. EOS MediaArts will assist. The web site that this company will have will be more advanced than the present Aurora PhotoArts web site and will be more of a visual based design.
Both photography companies will be Passinault.Com companies, and both will work with Passinault.Com companies EOS MediArts, Edge Portfolios, and Eventi Events.
Aurora PhotoArts and EOS MediaArts will also assist our photographer friends with segmenting their marketing, too.

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Sunday, April 3, 2005 - Online Portfolio

We expect to have the final online portfolio drafted by next week, and will be uploading over one hundred new images. Some of these images will be stock enabled. When the new portfolio is designed, we will roll out a new visual navigation interface, which will make viewing the portfolio intuitive and easy.

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Saturday, April 2, 2005 - More Updates

We launched a new ad campaign today and some aggressive marketing, but we can't go into details about it on this web site. Ask us about it. If we talk to you, you'll know about it.
We've been very busy lately, which is the reason why we've had fewer updates on the web site. This will continue for at least a week, as we have a lot to do in the next few days. Bookings will increase ten-fold in the next two weeks.
In related developments (we just love that word- developments), the Eventi Events web site is now three weeks behind schedule. This is for a good reason, and it should be up and online soon. Watch for it. It will be well worth the wait.
Now, where is the EOS site? Well, it's coming soon, too. The EOS team has been so busy on other web sites this past year that they have not had a chance to do their own. Expect it soon after Eventi is up.

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Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - More Models To Be Added

We've been getting calls from many of our model clients who have been wondering why they are not on our new Aurora PhotoArts web site. Well, we are just now exiting our shake down period, and more additions are coming.

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Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts To Partner With Printing Company

Three years ago, Aurora PhotoArts enjoyed a professional relationship with a printing company. Although this is for our commercial photography division, it will benefit other services such as model portfolio photography and actor head shots.

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Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - Studio Work For Next 48 Hours

The studio will be down for the next two days for a scheduled overhaul. The client services center, which is normally available 24 hours a day 7 days a week, will be offline between 10 PM EST and 6 AM EST both Tuesday and Wednesday (believe it or not, we do get client calls overnight). We need to completely re-wire our telecommunication systems, clean, and overhaul much of what we have. We have things such as furniture and aquariums that need to be moved around or altogether removed, too. Much of this work is leftover from the Hurricane evacuations over six months ago. Additionally, we are preparing for staff meetings here next week and some support upgrades due next month. We also have a few shoots scheduled here next week.
Client support and our work load will have minor impacts, and no delays are expected as this work will be mostly overnight on both days.
There will be few Internet updates for the next two days due to the fact that our computers are wired into our telecom network and most of our updates are done between 9 PM and 9 AM EST.

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Saturday, March 26, 2005 - Eventi Events Update

The EOS web team is almost done with the Eventi Events web site, and they are simultaneously coding the new Passinault.Com web site, too, which is old and has not been updated in over eighteen months.
Regarding Eventi, they have reduced the number of links on the main menu to eight (compared to our twelve, which is a reduction of 33% and should allow for more intricate button designs). Although the main menu will look smaller, the Eventi Events site will actually end up being larger than AuroraPhotoArts.Com due to the myriad of different services and productions that the company has. The site structure is designed much like a pyramid made up of smaller pyramids, which leads to an intuitive interface that should prove superior to this site despite sharing the same overall layout. The menu interface will be put together differently than ours, too, with contextual keys with mouse-over code that will cause them to change as the mouse cursor moves over them. Our site menu does not do that, but EOS tells us that all future sites will, starting with Eventi Events.
Some of you may be wondering what services and productions Eventi will do. Glad you asked. A sample of the ton of things that they will be doing include Parties, Theme Events, Weddings, Stage Plays, Dinner Theater Productions, Stage Productions, Film Festivals, Expositions, Concerts, Pageants, Runway Shows, and much more.
For those that need to know, Eventi Events is the oldest Passinault.Com company, and it is almost 3 ½ years older than Aurora PhotoArts.
The business analysis team from Passinault.Com, which analyzes the interactions between our sister companies and forecasts profit potential, has filed a recent report. As you know, this new Aurora PhotoArts web site is ending its shakedown period, and major marketing is about to begin. In the next twelve months, Aurora PhotoArts will see a 100 fold increase in business, dominating the photography market here in Tampa Bay. Between 2001 and the present, Aurora PhotoArts has been the top earning Passinault.Com company, but that is expected to change. Even with our 100 fold increase in business due by next year, we have been projected to become the third top earning company. Eventi Events is expected to book more business, making them number two, and advertising agency EOS MediaArts is projected to become the top earning Passinault.Com company, at least until sometime in 2008. With all of our companies networking and supporting each other, this is going to be an exciting time for the Tampa Bay market. With all this going on, who should be the most excited? We'd have to say models. Aurora PhotoArts will become the leading supplier of model print work in this market, and Eventi Events will require promotional, trade show, and convention models for all of the productions that it will be doing.
We can't wait!
By the way, we wish everyone, including our valued clients, a happy Easter weekend!

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Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - New Tools, Rates, And Site Additions

We will be adding a visual navigation interface to our web site soon, and the present V1.1 site code supports it already. This week, we will also be adding more pictures to the site, completing the SERVICES SECTION, and moving content from our navigation pages to content pages (more lines of links- see a pattern with the move toward visual navigation? This sets the stage). Another web site adjustment will be to our reference and referral system; the advancements here are nothing less than revolutionary and we cannot discuss any details on this site, although you will see the results in time.
In business developments, we will be adjusting our rates this week. With adjusted rates comes an effort to balance things out with incentives, discount programs, and special offers. We will also be rolling out new contracts, marketing tools, and new applications regarding our service support and our client work flow.

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Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - Busy Week

We've been booked tight all week, with photography sessions in the day and consultations in the evening. This week is shaping up to be exceptionally busy as business increases, and starting tomorrow it will further increase.

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Monday, March 21, 2005 - Edge Portfolios Gives You An Unfair Advantage

A year ago, Aurora PhotoArts was a key player in the formation of the world's first advertising agency for models, actors, and talent. We are pleased to announce a major expansion of the services of sister company Edge Portfolios, which make it the real "one stop shop" for model, actor, and talent portfolio photography and marketing tools in the Tampa Bay area and Florida. Edge Portfolios is a real advertising agency, working with EOS MediaArts, which will help models, actors, talent, and business professionals put together impressive portfolio tools, come up with promotion and marketing plans, and implement those plans to take the advantage over your competition! The same marketing advantage that Aurora PhotoArts enjoys can work for models, actors, and talent, also!
Businesses go to advertising agencies to market their services and product. Why shouldn't models, actors, and talent be any different?
Aurora PhotoArts and other professional photographers are contracted to provide quality photography for Edge Portfolios clients. Edge Portfolios will also have its in-house team of photographers who will do work ranging from modeling portfolio photography up to swim wear, lingerie, and glamour (the last which we do not do). Edge Portfolios will also be the place to go for to get the ever-popular Maxim-style photography that some people seem to want, but, again, something that we normally do not offer.
EOS MediaArts will be launching a new Edge Portfolios site in April, 2005. The services that Edge Portfolios offers include model portfolios, model composite cards, model web comps, actor head shots, actor demo reels, corporate head shots, business cards, web sites, career marketing workshops, cover letter writing, resume writing courses, and other services. Edge Portfolios also has a team of professional copy writers on staff to supply their clients with professional copy for marketing and promotion efforts! Models should note that this company will be teaching models how to manage themselves, too.
There is no other choice. Teamed up with Aurora PhotoArts, Edge Portfolios is the smart choice of models, actors, and talent who want an edge in their career! If you want high quality photography, Aurora PhotoArts does exactly that. For our clients that want more, we refer them to Edge Portfolios!
Edge Portfolios is a Passinault.Com company and a sister company of Aurora PhotoArts. Edge Portfolios is a division of Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts, which engineered our web site and marketing material. Edge Portfolio was founded in early 2004.
Find out more at Edge-Portfolios.Com.

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Monday, March 21, 2005 - New Photography Technology Trials In Summer 2005

Our AURA technology is on the road to field testing and Initial Operational Capability (IOC). We will also be testing other development projects. Aurora PhotoArts will be conducting field trials and operational testing of no less than six new photography concepts and technology that we have developed over the past year.

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Wednesday, March 16, 2005 - Joint Photography Studio Named

Our marketing team named our new joint photography studio today. Our sister companies, Eventi Events and EOS MediaArts, will be assisting us with the layout and design of the studio and its remarkable technology. When this new studio debuts, it will be Tampa Bay's most advanced photography studio, and the top choice for professional photographers who want to collaborate with other professionals.
The studio is expected to launch in 2005, and will be located in the Tampa Bay area.
Members of the Round Table Photography association, found at TampaBayPhotographers.Com, will get reduced rates and special offers.

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Tuesday, March 15, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts 2007 Business Model Completed

The Aurora PhotoArts web site you are now on is brand new for 2005, and is the fifth edition web site for the company. The layout and content of AuroraPhotoArts.Com are designed to support 2005 business operations, and although it is designed from scratch to be expandable and upgradable for changing market dynamics, the site was only meant to last for two years. Throughout this year Aurora PhotoArts will be increasing our influence on the Tampa Bay and Florida photography markets. We will be able to do this with our high quality photography services, superior marketing, and our wide range of business resources.

In the Spring of 2006 , Aurora PhotoArts will push services into other markets. The AuroraPhotoArts.Com web site will be upgraded to support these new business models in preparation for the next generation Aurora PhotoArts web site due in 2007. In 2007, photography services will not be the only market that we will lead in. Two more are to follow, and most will not even know what those markets are until we are ready for them to know.

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Friday, March 11, 2005 - Business Transition Starts Now

Starting now, updates to our web site will be reduced as more of our efforts are concentrated on photography, marketing, sales, client consultations, and business operations. This web site is only one component of our marketing efforts, and is more of a support function. The Aurora PhotoArts web site will see regular weekly or bi-weekly updates; come here to the news section for immediate notification of updates to the site; our SERVICES SECTION will be done next week and more pictures will be added to our online PORTFOLIO. We will be doing photography sessions all weekend, and have to finish ten jobs that we are working on. We are very happy that so many people love our work and want to invest in Tampa Bay's top photography services by booking Aurora PhotoArts. Our new infrastructure is finally in place! It's a good time to be in the photography services business.

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Thursday, March 10, 2005 - Next ESPY Reduced Model Rate Session

Is now scheduled for Sunday, April 10, 2005. This session is now open for booking. Other scheduled ESPY sessions are booked solid. Our busy session, which usually is between February and June of every year, is expected to continue all year long because of our new marketing and sales efforts. For more, go HERE.

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Thursday, March 10, 2005 - More Portfolio Images And Updates Coming

We will be updating our online portfolio shortly with more pictures and our services section will be completed. Our online portfolio will employ several categories and a new image based navigation format which our V1.1 code currently supports. We are waiting for the work to be completed by our team, and they are busy on the Eventi Events site right now. A tremendous amount of progress has been made on our event planning sister lately, with the additional acquisition of more talent such as DJ's and Choreographers. More is to come when the site goes live. Eventi Events, by the way is the oldest Passinault.Com company, and one with a long track record of excellent events. It was founded in 1990, and Aurora PhotoArts didn't come along until 1994.

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Wednesday, March 9, 2005 - Model Jobs Added

We added some more MODEL JOBS in our PROJECTS SECTION. Please follow submission requirements to be considered, and read our DISCLAIMER concerning potential conflicts of interest. Good luck!

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Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - Site Marketing Results Are In!

The first numbers are in, and the new Aurora PhotoArts web site that you are now on is not only successful, but it is exceeding our expectations in marketing our services. Bookings have quadrupled in the past week alone, and it has been extremely busy. Our design and web team have done an outstanding job, and the site has been a dream, both to update and for visitors to use. The EOS Team is now coding the Eventi Events web site, which is almost done and should be online in the next 48 hours. The Eventi Events web site is formatted exactly like this one with a few minor modifications, so it's our twin sister; the difference being that it will be all about quality event services instead of photography. Since the marketing teams have deemed that event services will drive wedding and event photography services, the Eventi Events site will have a photography link on its main menu that will lead to us!

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Saturday, March 5, 2005 - Online Portfolio To Be Updated

We just finished updating our PORTFOLIO SECTION, and will be adding a ton of pictures soon. we are also going to be adding a visual interface on the main portfolio hub and will be organizing portfolio directories in different categories! We are also going to be linking models pictures to their online profiles on Independent Modeling's TALON Database so they can be contacted (all of our model clients will receive safety and online security instruction). Aurora PhotoArts has literally thousands of portfolio worthy images and, of those, hundreds of "Grail" shots (i.e. money shots- pictures with legendary quality). We just have to go through all of them. Our online portfolio will become the largest part of this site, and hopefully the most exciting!

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Friday, March 4, 2005 - Model Job Consideration Requirements

Our PROJECTS SECTION listing our print jobs for models is now up, and we are being flooded with submissions by models who are simply not reading the job posts and are not following instructions. To be considered, read the instructions and mail us a composite card, a resume, and a cover letter using snail mail to our P.O. Box. DO NOT E-Mail us pictures, attachments, and files that have to be opened or downloaded, because we will not do that for security and professional reasons. We don't have time to scan every file using anti-virus software, and we will not have art directors spend all day in front of a computer looking at what normally consist of unprofessional pictures clustered online. We will also not waste paper and ink printing out crude looking web print outs to hand to our art directors and commercial clients. Please send us the required material and read our simple instructions or simply do not get considered; if you need to learn professional methods of promoting your modeling career, read the free information on Independent Modeling, IndependentModeling.Com . If you send us a composite card, a resume, and a cover letter, you MAY send us a URL (Domain Name) link to your professional web site (although a link to a portfolio networking site profile may be disregarded completely due to the fact that too many unprofessionals use these sites and it is too easy for anyone to take camera phone images or web cam pictures and upload them to a free profile, which, quite frankly, professionals should not be doing). If you have your own domain name, by all means include it, but this is not a substitute for mailing us the required material. A web site would compliment a submission, and we may look at your site if we are interested in considering you after you mail us your material and we feel that your look is one that we can use.

You do not have to be one of our clients and are not obligated to book any of our services to be considered. Additionally, we cannot pitch you any service if you are being considered for a job, and take great measures to avoid unethical conflicts of interest. Thank you all for your attention and professional compliance.

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Thursday, March 3, 2005 - Expanding Markets

Aurora PhotoArts is already the top photography company in Tampa Bay for model testing, model portfolio photography, and actor head shot photography. Our work history in the talent photography market has been incredible. We are now going to set our market agenda in other photography fields. Effective this year, Aurora PhotoArts will be pushing into the commercial photography, wedding photography, event photography, and consumer portrait photography markets (corporate and business head shot photography is going to be a big market).

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Thursday, March 3, 2005 - Updates For Portfolio And Project Sections

The PROJECTS SECTION is now completely up, as is the PORTFOLIO SECTION. We are working on the SERVICES SECTION, but that will have to wait and may be up in another day or two as the EOS web team has to go and work on the web site for our sister company Eventi Events, Tampa Bay's best event planning and services company, and another Passinault.Com company. Next up? A new Passinault.Com site and the EOS MediaArts site! The EOS Team has done an incredible amount of work for us over the last 48 hours, and we're impressed!

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Wednesday, March 2, 2005 - Site Upgrade 1.1 Uploaded

The site may not look different upon first glance, but the underlying code and table layout structure has been completely changed out. Scheduled improvements have been made, and the graphic break-up glitch has been fixed. Notice that we now can scroll content further down without compromising the layout of the site. An image navigation feature has also been installed, and the code to support this is now working. We have not yet rolled out image based navigation, but the upgrade allows us to do it in minutes. This site is now at 100%!

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Sunday, February 27, 2005 - Next ESPY Reduced Rate Model Photography Session

Now scheduled for Sunday, March 20, 2005. Currently, ESPY sessions are for testing aspiring models and experienced professional models who need to add a look or more to their portfolio. We are extremely busy right now with booked work at normal rates, so we can only offer reduced rate ESPY sessions every four weeks or so at best. To be considered, you need to contact us now.

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Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - Passinault.Com Maintenance

EOS MediaArts is adjusting the Passinault.Com domain name. It may be unavailable over the next 24 hours. Aurora PhotoArts file directories will become a subdirectory of Passinault.Com, along with the web sites of our sister companies. Old directories on the Passinault.Com server will be deleted this morning, which means certain web pages will not work properly until adjustments can be made.

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Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - Stock Photography And Other Updates

Our PhotoStock stock photography rolls out at the end of the week. We also have many other updates coming, and we'll also be uploading more pictures soon. In other news, the EOS team will be working on the Eventi Events site today. Once the new Eventi Events site is up, we should see a massive increase in event and wedding photography business.

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Sunday, February 20, 2005 - ESPY Model Testing Changes.

We will honor free testing offers until our next ESPY session on March 6, 2005. If you did not get an offer, then we will start charging a reduced rate of $49.99 to book these sessions starting on March 6, 2005. This is still dramatically lower than our standard one look rate, and mainly covers administrative costs. ESPY will only be offered once a month starting now. Call for specific terms and conditions.

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Saturday, February 19, 2005 - New Content Coming.

We have some awesome new content for our SERVICES SECTION (which will bring it online) and our PROJECTS SECTION, but we are going over it to make sure that is safe to post. The content should be posted shortly. We have had issues with plagiarism in the past, and this won't continue.

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Friday, February 18, 2005 - ESPY Adjusted.

The February 20 ESPY Session has been booked up, and the next session will be in March. We are also adjusting some details, such as MUA availability. We have been very busy with bookings, so the time that we have for testing will be limited. ESPY sessions will be held every three weeks to once a month.

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Thursday, February 17, 2005 - Busy Week.

It has been another busy week with lots of work and very little Internet time for our staff. We will be doing call backs today, so if you called over the past few days we should be calling today. Our phone volume has spiked, too, which leads to call back delays. In other news, our regular ESPY MUA, who is a professional actress, is doing a television series in Los Angeles and won't be available for a few weeks. Our other MUA's are currently involved in other projects, so we may not have a MUA on our next session. Our MUA's are also professional entertainers, so scheduling can be tricky with their busy careers. They are often available in advance for portfolio and head shot sessions.

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Monday, February 14, 2005 - ESPY Session.

The next ESPY SESSION scheduled for Sunday, February 20 will be an afternoon session. Past sessions were always in the early mornings. We are currently scheduling in a MUA, but we are still locked on schedule.

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Sunday, February 13, 2005 - Updates In Progress.

Most of our SERVICES section will be up tomorrow. We will also be adding extensively to our CAREER and our PROJECTS sections. While we have the first batch of our PORTFOLIO images up, we are having issues with our server storage space and we have to delete 70 Megs of files this week before adding more images. Our primary server that this site is on is full. In other news, we will be adding text content pages like this section has in the archives for copy and will be adjusting the format of the copy on all the pages in the next few days. You'll know it when it happens.

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Saturday, February 12, 2005 - News Of The Others.

News from the EOS web team today is that coding our sister sites is well underway. Next up will be the Eventi Events Tampa Bay event planning site and a brand new Passinault.Com site (Aurora PhotoArts is a Passinault.Com company, and the Passinault.Com site hasn't been touched since 2003, which is a shame). After those site, EOS will finally be able to gets its own web site up, which is long overdue after spending the last year working on everything else. The sites for Aurora PhotoArts, Eventi Events, Passinault.Com, and EOS MediaArts will all interconnect, and the sites will be subdirectories of Passinault.Com. See a pattern here? We see a powerful marketing force in the Tampa Bay market. We also hear that some modeling events are coming up- We only wish that we had an event link on our main menu.

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Saturday, February 12, 2005 - Sales Efforts.

Our new sales efforts, this web site, and our other Internet marketing assets are working better than expected. Tomorrow we will be doing a lot of offline sales. While we will have our portfolio up sometime tomorrow afternoon, the next web updates will probably come on Monday.

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Friday, February 11, 2005 - Next ESPY Session.

The next ESPY free model testing session has been scheduled for Sunday, February 20, 2005. We are now booking models for this session, but we have already booked several models into it, and it should be booked up shortly. Book now, as surplus models will be booked into the following session, which could be a wait and may be scheduled in March.

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Friday, February 11, 2005 - Site Adjustments.

The last version of our site was a little flawed, with a minimal portfolio because we were developing this one. So, we created a band aid . We had a portfolio-only site using the domain name RangeOfLooks.Com to make up for it and give people 99% pictures to look at. Well, this new site is great so far, so we have diverted that domain name to our portfolio section. Speaking of our portfolio section, it will be up sometime today, along with some of our services section!

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Thursday, February 10, 2005 - References Online.

Like many photographers and photography companies are doing, we will be using Independent Modeling's TALON Talent Online database for references; both to check references and for some of our select clients to give them. It is very, very important to check all references before you work with someone. Aurora PhotoArts respects the privacy rights of our valued clients and keeps information confidential, although many of our clients have made themselves available to provide references on our services with no financial or service incentive involved. Aurora PhotoArts prides itself as being one of the top ethical professional photography companies in Florida. Aurora PhotoArts senior photographer C. A. Passinault was recently named director of Independent Modeling, Acting, and Performer; all companies will be working together on projects and to help models and talent.

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Wednesday, February 9, 2005 - ESPY Session Delayed.

Due to scheduling conflicts, we have rescheduled the ESPY session for Saturday February 12 to Saturday February 19, 2005. This session date is tentative and may change. We apologize for any inconvenience that may be experienced by models who have already booked into Saturday's session.

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Wednesday, February 9, 2005 - Updates and ESPY Schedule.

It's been very busy the past few days, with many photography sessions, post production, marketing, and other offline work. We should be updating the site later tonight. Regarding Saturday's ESPY session, we may be pushing it to 2PM rather than 9AM. We are waiting for our Make Up Artist to call back and confirm before deciding, because if she can't do it, we might have to postpone it a week. Tomorrow we will update the ESPY SECTION to reflect any changes.

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Sunday, February 6, 2005 - More Updates.

We are rolling out a lot tomorrow, including aggressive marketing on six fronts. Today, we are working hard to get the SERVICES section and subsections up. The services section will include a Client Support area, which was done last night and should be up tomorrow. We are also working on our PORTFOLIO section, which should be active tomorrow.

Clients should CALL US today, as we should have someone in the studio who will be available to take calls. As of tomorrow, our client call backs should be the same or next day. This is our busy season, but we try to return calls as soon as possible. Thank you all for your patience during all this work.

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Saturday, February 5, 2005 - Rate Change On Monday

New rates and service terms go into effect on Monday (Lisa, call us about the terms of your shoot- we can't offer you a discount much longer). New service agreements and terms go into effect, too. We roll out massive marketing today, which means that ESPY will become a fast booker. We are returning more client calls from early this week today, too.

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Friday, February 4, 2005 - Catch Up Time.

With everything going on this week, like shoots and web site development, we are a little bit behind on our client call backs. We usually like to call back clients within 24 hours, but the call back time has been more like three or four days. Additionally, client bookings have priority over work such as ESPY. We are now wrapping up this weeks work and should be in a more standard schedule by next week. We are about to begin aggressive marketing and we really needed excellent marketing tools like this web site. Incidentally, this new web site has been getting rave reviews from models, photographers, and web designers. We are very proud of the work that we did, and love having a site that approaches the quality of our photography. We are behind, we apologize for the inconvenience, and we'll be getting to those call backs today and Saturday. Next week, the EOS team will be putting together the new Eventi Events web site (Marlon, get ready for some awesome events!).

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Thursday, February 3, 2005 - New Site Launches!
Our web team has taken the best from our last web site design and has improved upon it with a brand new Aurora PhotoArts web site! Explore the new site and let us know what you think. The new Aurora PhotoArts web site, still found at AuroraPhotoArts.Com, is part of the Passinault.Com domain. Our sister site for event planning company Eventi Events will share our site format.

For those of you who are keeping track, the new site is our 5th edition web site.

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Monday, January 31, 2005 - Long Weekend.

Our photographers have been shooting non-stop since Friday, and we now have hundreds of pictures to edit and a lot of new client consultation calls to return. Some of our best photographs in years were created yesterday, and they will be featured on the new site perhaps as early as Wednesday. Our busy season is in full swing; please call NOW for consultations or there will be a wait. The Saturday, February 5 ESPY Session is booked up, and we are now booking for the February 12 ESPY Session. We've also had writers working hard on copy for the new Aurora PhotoArts site which will be up this week, so this will be the last post on the old site. The new site will be formatted so users won't have to do a lot of scrolling, and the menu will be back on the left hand side of the screen. We will keep the color formatting and the basic design.

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Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - Changes Are Coming.

NEW WEB SITE - The EOS web team is finishing work on Independent Modeling and its sister sites this week, at which point it will be putting together our sister site, event planning company Eventi Events. Once the Eventi site is up, a new Aurora PhotoArts site will launch, too, along with the overdue EOS MediaArts site. All three of our companies will be working together in team projects this year and from now on, and a working relationship with an advertising agency should enable our commercial photography division to offer more professional print modeling opportunities than anywhere else in Florida (important to note- our portfolio services and commercial services will not cross due to it being a conflict of interest). With all those print jobs, it will be interesting to see what happens with our relationships with both modeling agencies and professional models, as we will go on record as saying that we will be booking independent models just like EOS intends to.

NEW STUDIO - We are looking into decommissioning the Geomedia 3 facility this year. Our present studio is located south of Brandon, but after the recent Hurricanes we are strongly reconsidering our location and may move to either Tampa or Clearwater. We have already had an offer for a Tampa location with the help from several models. Geomedia 3 will undergo renovations in the coming weeks to remove sensitive proprietary material and prepare the studio building for sale; we bought commercial shredders to prepare this week. A final decision will be made in the Spring, with a possible move this Summer.

NEW PROGRAMS - We will be starting several programs this year, such as a stock photography production and sales program. We will also be expanding present programs such as our ESPY model testing program to work with modeling agencies and other industry contacts.

NEW PARTNERSHIPS - Despite the working alliance described above with Eventi Events and EOS MediaArts, we have another important partnership with a leading model resource site. We have been a contributor to Independent Modeling over the years. Our contributions to this awesome web site have only enhanced our credibility in the in the industry, and once models find out that we work with them they look forward to working with us. Our director and senior photographer, C.A. Passinault, was recently appointed executive director of Independent Modeling, which changes a lot of dynamics here in the industry. Both Aurora PhotoArts and Independent Modeling will be working as partners from now on, with the goal of helping models; one section being added to the new Aurora PhotoArts site will be an advice section, and we will help to advertise and promote Independent Modeling. Please note that this does NOT mean that we are controlling them, just like they won't control us. It is a partnership, and any possible conflicts of interest will be clarified. Aurora PhotoArts will also work with other photographers and subcontract work out when needed through the Round Table Photography Association, found at TampaBayPhotographers.Com .

NEW MARKETING AND SALES STRATEGIES - Details are not available online. Contact us for information.

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Monday, January 17, 2005 - ESPY Sessions Booking.

Our marketing and sales departments are about to put in some overtime, and we are now booking up the last session in January (The January 29 session, which will be a joint session with Andy Meng photography in Brandon for studio photography- January 29 and 30 will be very busy) and both of sessions for February. We normally like to have one ESPY group session per week but the increase in photography session sales booked is taking up much of our time and has cut our ESPY sessions in half. Book a session now unless you want to wait until Spring.

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Monday, December 20, 2004 - Preparing For Our Busy Season.

Every year, January through March books up fast for model portfolio photography and other services. Last year set records. The first quarter of 2005 is projected to be our busiest yet. January is already close to being booked up, with model testing sessions prescheduled earlier this month. We will start booking for February and March later this week.

If you want to book a shoot and our schedule is booked, we refer overflow work to our photography partners who are allied with us in the Round Table Photography Association , found at TampaBayPhotographers.Com . You cannot go wrong with any of us, as we provide the best model portfolio photography services in the Tampa Bay area with fair rates. Our photography is quality guaranteed.

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Sunday, December 19, 2004 - Free Model Test Sessions Now Booking.

Free model testing for groups of models! Photography sessions are now booking for Sunday, January 2, 2005 and Saturday, January 8, 2005. Sessions are completely free of charge with no obligation to book services. A make up artist who is also a professional fashion model will be provided at no charge. Sessions will be in the Tampa Bay area. Please call our client services department at (813) 671-9507 for details.

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Saturday, December 18, 2004 - Present Site To Be Adjusted.

We've made a decision. Our web team really likes this site design, and the new versions looked the same but were less efficient. So, some of the content that we have developed for the "new" site will be added, and the menus may be adjusted. We are also adjusting the portfolio pages so you won't have to scroll down for images. When some of us get a break from doing shoots, we'll get to update the site for you. Expect many more pictures and a lot more references and testimonials. Stay tuned.

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Monday, December 6, 2004 - January Model Testing Booking.

First session booking is for Sunday, January 2. Additional bookings TBA.

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Friday, October 15, 2004 - Work increases.

We have booked shoots with over fifteen models and other clients in the coming week. To be considered for our services, please book today, as our schedule is filling fast. We expect to book a lot more every week from now on.

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Friday, October 15, 2004 - Stylist positions frozen.

We currently subcontract five MUA/ stylists, and they represent the best in the Tampa Bay and Orlando market . Our stylists are professionals who do not work with unethical photographers. Currently, we are not seeking to subcontract any more stylists, and if we do in the future we will take who they work with in the consideration of subcontracting them.

We will not consider working with MUA/ Stylists who work with unethical photographers (not that there will be a temptation to do so in the near future, simply because the unethical photographers may experience some cash flow problems in the market - If you only knew what we knew right now. Enjoy the weekend.)

Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - Geomedia 3 studio operational.

Hurricane Jeanne did what we expected but did not want to happen. The studio took damage on the exterior that exceeded what was done from Frances and there are huge branches blocking the doors and the parking area. Nothing that a little money can't fix. The facility itself is fine, however, and our main computer is now up. We have a subcontracted team working on the outside to clean up, and photography sessions resume tomorrow morning. Despite the Hurricanes, we have been very busy, and continue to remain booked up.

Video footage from our exterior security cameras of the Hurricane is a bit scary, but it's interesting. The security system is designed to work even if the main power is out, and it worked very well on the backup UPS system. Internal sensors designed to record pressure and vibration reported gusts of over 80 MPH were hitting the structure, and it withstood it. The main studio section, which has reinforced walls which are soundproofed for recording work done by our sister companies took the brunt of the wind.

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Saturday, September 25, 2004 - Geomedia 3 studio declares code blue.

For the third time in six weeks, we have declared code blue. Since we have very little time to act, we are removing the main computer, backup files, our portfolios, and our cameras. The studio will be locked down and the security system will be battery enabled. We are expecting minor structural damage like we had with Frances. We're looking at that guiding high, however, and there is a small chance that the Hurricane could track right over Tampa Bay, and if that happens we're in big trouble. We've rescheduled Monday's shoots, and expect to be ok.

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Friday, September 24, 2004 - Model Go See Section Added.

We've added a Go See Section for experienced professional models (added to our current CAREERS section). These are jobs that we are referring models to. We are not an agency, so all models are referred to our commercial clients at no charge. Agency bookers are welcome to submit models.

In other news, we are standing by for another code blue, as another Hurricane is approaching. We are praying for cold weather.

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Monday, September 20, 2004 - Busy Times.

Hurricanes? What Hurricanes? Despite all of the storm threats lately, business has been increasing, and we have been working well with a studio and production facility that is only half put back together. The damage to the facility has been repaired, and we will have it back to 100% as of Wednesday. Starting this weekend, we will catch up with the backlog of shoots, and should be caught up with work by late October.

Special thanks to all of our friends who are helping out. Thank you!

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Saturday, September 18, 2004 - Internet Developments.

Aurora PhotoArts is now working on an annex web site specifically for model portfolio photography and testing. While you can still get all of that information here, the other site will be designed to cater to the modeling market, and will touch on actor head shot photography. The domain name is now working, and marketing material will be branded with the new domain as well as this one. The new site will be hosted on another server, as it will be image heavy.

In other news, we have removed our profile on the portfolio networking site. While the administrators on the site have been good to us, we are much too busy actually doing shoots to keep up with it. Unlike the so-called "professional complainers"- er, we mean "photographers" who are afraid of us on the site, we do not need to use a portfolio networking site to market ourselves, especially since we already have Internet superiority.

In business news, we are booked up until early October. We will have no model portfolio photography or TFP Select sessions available until then, so book today.

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Friday, September 17, 2004 - Aurora PhotoArts Expands Model Portfolio Marketing.

Activity increased today regarding advanced promotions of model portfolio photography and model testing services. We bought a marketing domain name leading to a picture heavy section of our site which is only accessible by the new domain name, and the new marketing will begin next week. Thanks to sister company and ad agency EOS MediaArts for the domain name idea!

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Sunday, September 12, 2004 - Booked Up.

Despite the Hurricanes, photography bookings have increased. We are now booked with a backlog of photography sessions until November, and scheduling is tight due to evacuations pushing back booked sessions. If you wish to book a photography session before November, give us a call at (813) 671-9507, and we will see if we can fit you in (we may be able to). Lisa Marie and Mrs Goldburg, please give the studio a call. We also need to get with Kinsley.

In regards to Hurricane Ivan, we are taking a wait and see approach. If the storm heads our way, we are calling code blue and will evacuate. Currently, if the storm passes us by, we will have repairs to the studio done this week, and will have the studio back to 100% next week. There was no damage to the studio facilities themselves or to the systems- most damage was cosmetic or to the area outside. The A/C is now working, too.

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Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - Geomedia 3 Online.

Sort of. Due to the threat of Hurricane Ivan early next week, we have brought in the minimum equipment necessary to do business. We had to get the studio online as quickly as possible because we have a backlog of photography sessions to do. This means that scheduling will be tight for the next two weeks. Due to storm damage to the exterior of the studio, we are suspending bringing models to the main studio until it is safe to walk to and from parking- we are holding off on making repairs until the next Hurricane threat is gone. Our A/C is also working erratically, which is not a concern because we seldom do photography here.

This said, we are open for business and fully operational.

We are working on a new program which will make our operations Hurricane resistant. In the near future, we will be back in business as soon as power is restored, and it will not matter if our production facilities are destroyed or not. There are rumors that due to the weather threats of the past month we are planning on moving out of the state of Florida. While our competition would love this, it isn't true. We are staying in Tampa Bay. We have many reasons to stay here, and among those reasons is the reason that we fully intend to be around to see a group of photographers put themselves out of business, as what they are doing will catch up to them. That alone is reason to ride out any Hurricanes and keep going. After all, who else can you trust for quality photography services?

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Thursday, September 2, 2004 - Key Component Evacuation Ordered.

7:00 PM - Evacuation of key equipment and files has been ordered, with our three hour plan extended to four. We will evacuate most of our equipment starting tonight. Due to expectations of the studio receiving minor damage at the most, a total evacuation gutting the studio will not be necessary this time. The Hurricane is expected to slow as it crosses the State of Florida and should weaken to Tropical Storm strength upon arrival in the Tampa Bay area. We will probably be offline until early next week in regards to our Internet operations. The phone system will be left online. We will return client calls after the storm has passed and key components are brought back online- obviously, if the studio is damaged or destroyed, this will change.

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Thursday, September 2, 2004 - Online portfolio now up.

Our online portfolio is now up, and will probably be the last update for a while as we may be tearing down the computer system in the next 24 hours. This time, we do not intend to gut the studio facility, and will leave the phone system online. The four hour plan will remove cameras, marketing material, media, and computers. If the storm maintains the forecast track, the Geomedia 3 facility may take severe damage, but parts of it may still be intact and salvageable.

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Another Andrew? We would kick back and admire the beauty of these NASA photographs if we weren't so scared. Perhaps we'll be able to from Geomedia 3 after the storm in the best case scenario. God help us all.

You can see Tampa Bay in the foreground in the top image.

Wednesday, September 1, 2004 - Geomedia 3 studio declares code blue again.

This was a 1 in 10,000 shot, but we are declaring code blue AGAIN, as another Hurricane is threatening the studio. The storm is expected to effect the Tampa Bay area Saturday evening, and a decision to evacuate will be made late Thursday or early Friday. The studio isn't even back together after the last Hurricane evacuation, and only 40% of all equipment has been re-installed. Most items are still boxed, which will speed another evacuation. What are the odds of this happening? We are amazed and horrified at the same time.

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Saturday, August 28, 2004 - New Site Additions Coming.

Our online portfolio and incomplete sections will be available sometime this week.

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Saturday, August 28, 2004 - TFP Select Photography Services Rolls Out Today.

Other photographers who over rate their services and are hostile competitors can start losing sleep now. Their market nightmare has arrived. Today we are pleased to announce the full roll out of our TFP Select program, and all of our staff photographers and fashion stylists/ MUA's are on board. Got a look that we like? We'll give it to exceptional models at no charge! Contact us for details, and on how TFP photography works for both our business and models. For the first time, TFP is available with professional quality and no strings attached.

TFP Select is available for a limited time, and availability depends upon schedule. Not all models will qualify.

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Saturday, August 28, 2004 - Measures To Prevent Shopping In Place.

With the assistance of our attorney and the start of aggressive marketing, we have come up with some powerful tools and have taken measures to prevent unethical photographers and hostile competitors from shopping our rates and trade secrets. Trying to find out our confidential information? Stop while you are ahead. Theft of our information will backfire. Here is a wake up call to everyone out there- Most so-called professionals who try to denounce us are the very ones trying to steal from us (Our friends over at Independent Modeling have the same problem, and they are helping us fix it). They are afraid of high quality photography services and superior marketing, and will go to great lengths to minimize a perceived threat to their business. Some services, such as our TFP Select program, are high risk, and we have taken great measures to address this threat.

Wise Rule: Never volunteer information. Information security is important, and we exercise it. We are not in business to train our competition.

Any unethical photographer or hostile competitor caught using our material will face a lawsuit.

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Saturday, August 28, 2004 - New Pricing Due On September 1.

Our legal team has been working on new contracts, and we expect the new contracts to be deployed on September 1, 2004. On September 1, new rates will go into effect, too. If anyone has a photography session or services pending, please contact us so we can grandfather your quoted rate in and insert a waiver code for our financing department. Call for new rates. Thank you.

A special thanks goes out to Round Table Photography Association member and photographer friend Craig Huey for the idea behind the new split rate sheet/ Fall 2004 contract series. Excellent idea, and a great paper saver!

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Friday, August 27, 2004 - We've been busy.

The lack of updates are due to being backed up in shoots and work. We have over 20 clients to call back at the time of this update, and should be able to tackle the calls and get those consultations scheduled today. We will be doing several photography projects this weekend. If no one is available in the studio when you call, please leave a message and we will get back to you as quickly as possible. In early September, we are forecasting an increase of business of over 500%.

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Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - Dimension Stageforms web site is almost here.

Our sister company, event planning company Dimension Stageforms, will have a new web site available, perhaps as early as tonight. Why are we announcing it here? We have many joint projects and modeling events in the works, that's why. Just like we are the best photography services company in the Tampa Bay area, Dimension Stageforms is the best event services company in Tampa Bay. They have been in business longer than we have, since October 1990, and the theme event technology that they have is second to none!

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Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - Aurora PhotoArts Web Site Additions Coming Soon

Now that our studio is back up, we can work on the site additions that were due last week. Expect missing information to be added and an online portfolio to be up shortly.

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Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - Geomedia 3 Studio Resumes Operations

The Geomedia 3 production facility was spared by the Hurricane last Friday after the Hurricane changed course with hours to spare. During the evacuation, we extended our three hour plan to a twelve hour plan, effectively stripping the studio of all wiring, critical components, paperwork, computers, and electronic systems.The facility was gutted. The only thing left online was the ISIS security system, the CCTV cameras, and the battery backups.

While we are very happy that the Tampa Bay area was spared from a dangerous storm that would have been a category five by the time it reached us, and we are happy that we have a studio facility that suffered no damage, it has taken us five days of wiring and component installation to get back to basic business capability. We should be at full capacity by tomorrow, and it will take us at least a week to complete that work that remains to be done on Geomedia 3. This has not been easy, but we have passed the first implementation of our code blue Hurricane plan. Thank God we did not have to put our business continuity plan to test.

Our consolation goes out to the communities in Florida that were hit by the Hurricane.

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Thursday, August 12, 2004 - Geomedia 3 Studio key component evacuation ordered

What we projected back on Tuesday is still holding true as of 6:41 AM this morning, and is actually a lot worse, as the storm is projected to be a category three Hurricane, which is a major Hurricane that leaves studio survivability at zero. The Hurricane is forecast to come up the mouth of Tampa Bay, which is the worst news possible regarding our studio location. We have cancelled today's meetings and have changed our schedule to implement emergency operations. We have ordered the three hour evacuation of key components and technology from the studio so we can resume service operations in whatever capacity that circumstances enable after the storm. If the storm impacts the Tampa Bay area as currently predicted, we expect a total loss of the Geomedia 3 production facility, and there will be a major operations disruption.

The Hurricane is forecast to arrive Friday evening. Studio phone lines will remain in automatic mode and will be available as long as the studio is standing and power is still on. Ironically, the ISIS security system has battery back up and will operate until the studio is lost. The embedded CCTV cameras will continue to record and document what is happening until the structural failure of the facility, and the recorders will survive to be located in the debris field and recovered later, much like a black box after a crash.

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Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - Geomedia 3 Studio declares code blue

All photography sessions scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday have been rescheduled for early next week due to the increasing likelihood that a category 2 Hurricane will affect the Tampa Bay area this weekend. Studio evacuation protocols were reviewed by our team this evening, with the planned three hour evacuation of critical business components and trade secrets possible as planned. The Geomedia 3 production facility, an 1100 square foot studio which is located very close to the mouth of the Alafia River and Tampa Bay waters, has been operational since the Spring of 1999, and is currently scheduled for a major overhaul this Fall. It would not survive any Hurricane, and has not been built to. If a Hurricane does hit Tampa Bay directly, this would have a severe impact on operations for years to come, but we would still remain in business, and our survival is ensured in one form or another. If the Hurricane does hit, our Internet assets will go on standby, as it will affect our ability to update. We wish the Tampa Bay community luck as we prepare for the worst.

Due to the fact that we do a lot of location work, Geomedia 3 is equipped to project possible weather conditions as far as a week in advance, with a solid track record of accurate projections. Since last night, the probability that Hurricane Charley will affect us has increased dramatically, and as of 10:48 PM we project a 50% chance of the storm hitting the Tampa Bay area directly with sustained winds in excess of 100 MPH. The estimated storm surge alone would destroy the studio, although the winds from the storm would cause structural failure long before that happens. We will update our clients as weather updates come in.

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Thursday, August 5, 2004 - New Aurora PhotoArts web site launches

The new Aurora PhotoArts web site, the fourth in a series, launched today. The new site is expected to be current for at least one year, and is an integral part of the marketing of our quality photography services. Our OMP marketing has been in place since July 23, and additional marketing enhancements are in progress.

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OLDER ARCHIVES

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Thursday, August 5, 2004

New Web Site Launches.

The new Aurora PhotoArts web site launched today. Go HERE to see it. This is an old directory, and will not be updated anymore.

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Out With The Old.

We are days away from a new Aurora PhotoArts web site! Check back for a surprise.......

Thursday, June 10, 2004

Aurora PhotoArts Turns Ten!

Aurora PhotoArts turned ten today! Ten years ago today the company was created to supply pictures for a DJ Mix project by sister company Geomedia Productions titled Futura. The first model photographed was none other than then 18 year old Nicole Angel. Since then, the company has worked with hundreds of great models and has turned out many excellent photographs which are considered by critics to be legendary, and Geomedia Productions became the advertising agency EOS MediaArts. The next Aurora PhotoArts web site, the 10th anniversary special edition, is due out this month!

Thursday, May 6, 2004

Aurora PhotoArts Prepares POS Marketing.

Aurora PhotoArts will be preparing POS marketing in the Tampa Bay area. The roll out is expected next week.

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

EOS Team Removes Content.

An EOS MediaArts web team went through the Aurora PhotoArts web site today and removed content in preparation for June's new site. An EOS director expressed disappointment in the present site, and indicated that while it has been satisfactory for the most part, the the advancements developed for search engine indexing in the Summer of 2003 did not work. In some instances, the super metas and embedded content backfired. Content has been removed because of evidence that "photographers" have been going through the site shopping for ideas and stealing content, too (in one example, we know of a composite card design services site in Tampa which has content directly developed from the study of this site. The entire business model was stolen from us, and our attorney is now involved- We are surprised that people with no professional experience and no talent would choose to rip us off and bad mouth us while using our information to sell their counterfeit, derived services). What was stolen, however, was already outdated compared to new techniques developed late last year. "This is a special year for Aurora PhotoArts" a team member stated, "and the new web site will not only support new business directions but will exceed our design expectations. The dinosaur will be retired, and the new site will work like it is supposed to."

According to design protocol adopted in 1999, no trade secrets have ever been on the Aurora PhotoArts web site, and that protocol prevented market damage due to the theft of material. Since the information was outdated, the stolen material would have done more harm than good to the party that stole it. They copied things that simply do not work or are not cost effective, and it will cost them time and money because they used material that is outdated. Content on the new site will be limited, with new material created for it. Aurora PhotoArts photography and support services have always been excellent, however, with high client satisfaction rates and quality that most photography companies cannot match. Things will get substantially better this year, too.

Monday, April 19, 2004

Aurora PhotoArts Web Site Makes Progress.

With a strong emphasis on commercial photography work and a simplified layout, EOS MediaArts is already out of the planning stage for the next Aurora PhotoArts web site and is making progress. They've been busy lately. The team is tweaking Independent Modeling (today they are fixing the model job board), is putting together a new site called Independent Performer, and just wrapped and launched the new Dream Nine Studios site a few days ago. The new Aurora PhotoArts web site will be due around the time of our tenth anniversary in June, and work on Dimension Stageforms is almost done, too. Work on the EOS web site, delayed because of the backlog of work on all of these sites, will be completed in early Summer.

Aurora PhotoArts has set sales records with model portfolio photography, ESPY test photography sessions, and actor head shot photography in the first quarter of 2004. Even though the direction of services will focus on commercial photography in 2004, Aurora PhotoArts will continue to provide our quality talent photography services. With commercial photography and working with EOS, Aurora PhotoArts will become the leading source of print work for models in 2004 for the State of Florida (and no, we will not cross service lines and use the promise of jobs to sell models portfolio services, as that would be unethical. Models do not have to use our portfolio services to be eligible to book work with our clients). We will push to book independent models before agency models, although we will accept agency referred models too. In both cases, we will consult the Professional Model Bureau of Independent Modeling, IndependentModeling.Com to get references. Professional models only, as we will check your profile for a reference, and will not even consider you if your PMB score is under 500. Aurora PhotoArts is a photography company, too, and is not an agency, so models will be referred to our clients at no charge.

Saturday, March 6, 2004

Aurora PhotoArts To Focus On Commercial Photography Services in 2004.

Aurora PhotoArts has been in the top of the model portfolio and actor head shot market in Florida, and especially Tampa Bay, but there will be a focus on commercial photography this year. Model portfolio and actor head shot services will still be offered, of course, but not marketed nearly as aggressively as to not dilute our commercial photography branding;we do not wish to create a conflict of interest situation in the eyes of our corporate clients. This change in market direction is a first in the ten years, and will set the tone for the next ten years as Aurora PhotoArts focuses on commercial photography work with sister company EOS MediaArts, Tampa Bay's newest and most innovative advertising agency! Being the best with working with models, this is a logical move, as this means that Aurora PhotoArts will become the leading source of paid print work for models in the coming months!

Saturday, March 6, 2004

Aurora PhotoArts To Launch Tampa Location Preservation Project.

Similar to the efforts of the legendary Burgess Bros photography company of the early 1900's, Aurora PhotoArts will embark on a project to photograph and archive Tampa Bay locations for future generations to enjoy. More details on this ten year project to be announced.

Friday, February 13, 2004

Aurora PhotoArts Plans New Photography Studio.

Aurora PhotoArts is planning a joint photography studio in Tampa with other photographer partners, and the focus will be on commercial photography. Other types of work will include model portfolios, actor head shots, consumer portraiture, wedding photography, and photographic art. The studio will also house the offices and creative studios of EOS MediaArts, an advertising agency which is the newest Passinault.Com company. The name of the studio has been selected, but will not be announced until it is ready. The new studio will include Aurora PhotoArts AURA technology, and a new security system know as THOR, which is the successor of the ISIS system currently protecting the Geomedia 3 facility. Speaking of ISIS, security upgrades were done in recent weeks which include remote monitoring and a sophisticated video surveillance system with dual backups. ISIS is designed to neutralize any attempts of intrusion and to generate and archive the evidence used for prosecution. THOR is designed to eliminate intrusions with brute sonic force, and also incorporates a technology-friendly fire suppression system which uses halon.

Tuesday, February 3, 2004

Business sets an all-time record.

Model portfolio bookings set a record in January, and we are also seeing a large increase in actor head shot photography services sold through. Client satisfaction for this year is at 100%, another record, with several new client referrals from past clients. As bookings continue to increase, we are working hard to maintain our clients satisfaction ratio of 100%. The toughest critic of our work, however, continues to be us, and our satisfaction is at 95%. We are very proud of the quality of professional work that we have done this year so far, and will shatter expectations later this year as we field new equipment and new photographic techniques.

In related news, our new services which were rolled out last week have inspired an overwhelming response. For those models wanting TFP Select, please be patient as we prepare to set up consultations, as there are a lot of models in line for this.

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Aura will change everything.

More Aura tools were designed yesterday, and nothing like it exists anywhere else. Aura technology will provide a quantum leap in our production quality as early as this spring. Patents are pending on some of the technology, and we expect other photographers to study our ideas in the future after they try to figure out how we manage to get some of the most incredible pictures in the Florida market. Presently, our work is all high quality and our clients are happy, but we aspire to produce better things.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

New Photography Services Roll Out This Week.

Aurora PhotoArts is rolling out a TFP project and a new Portfolio Service this week. Check back for the roll out! Ironically, our new TFP program is a real TFP offer- we don't do TFP and then give models useless web only images with huge logos on them. Models get all of the images, and we do not sell them back anything. Additionally, the quality is professional. What you see on this web site and in our portfolio is the type of work that you can expect.

Friday, January 23, 2004

A New Aurora PhotoArts Web Site Is In The Works.

Our new sister company EOS MediaArts has been working overtime, and they announced today that the 4th Aurora PhotoArts web site is in development, and it will be launched in time for our tenth anniversary in June! The present web site, which is the third in the series, was launched in June of 2003, and is already overloaded with information, and our services have outgrown it. The technology on this site is extremely obsolete compared to the new technologies that the EOS team are rolling out for the new site. Some of that new technology was developed for the new Independent Modeling web site, which an EOS team has been developing for the past year, and which is due to launch in early February. The new Aurora PhotoArts site will contain simpler, less confusing content, a comprehensive and easy to navigate layout, and an awesome design. Additionally, the site will use "Net Component" technology based on the next Independent Modeling site's WCE web array system, a highly secure and virtually impossible to steal technology.

The new Aurora PhotoArts site, with all of its advanced innovations, will be online this spring, replacing the fairly young site that you now are on less than a year after it was launched.

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

New Services On The Way.

Aurora PhotoArts is now finalizing plans to roll out new services, including two new ones for models. The model services are rumored to include a new low cost portfolio photography line and a professional quality TFP offering. We are hearing that there will be a portfolio service available for under $100.00, but have yet to confirm that with planners. Some of us are curious to see just how that is going to work, especially since price points on other services are not going to come down, and in fact may be increasing later this year.

Aurora PhotoArts Now Using New Equipment.

Aurora PhotoArts now has access to new equipment such as the Canon EOS 10D, the Fuji S2 Pro, and the Nikon D2H, as well as new studio lighting and accessories such as lenses. Combined with the new AURA™ lighting technology, 2004 should be a very productive year. The equipment upgrades were needed for commercial photography work, and the skills and talent of our photographers will no longer be limited by minimal equipment. A new photography studio is in development for commercial photography work and talent portfolios.

Client Satisfaction Surveys Complete.

Our first run of Client Satisfaction Surveys are back. Over 95% of our clients are completely satisfied, with 85% of them indicating that they would not hesitate to refer other clients to our services. For a service company, especially one in the competitive world of photography, we are very proud of our record of satisfied clients. Sales for the first quarter of 2004, some of them referrals from other clients, are very strong, and have exceeded projections. We are now projecting that we will do more work in 2004 than in the past three years combined, and will exceed our total production output since we began operations in 1994.

Aurora PhotoArts Announces Location Photography Mobile Studio Gear.

Aurora PhotoArts announced on Friday, January 9, 2004 a new line of professional studio equipment designed to work on location and in adverse weather conditions. Code named AURA, the new gear will allow our teams to out perform any studio lighting setup while taking advantage of the photographic range of composition that working on location provides. AURA technology was originally developed two years ago for the Aurora PhotoArts project RTR 60. Some of the gear includes portable soft boxes, spots, reflectors, key lights, and fills. To date, location shoots have been done without any additional lighting, and this will change this year.

Inexpensive Model Portfolio Photography.

Modeling photography introduction starting at a low price for the best value! Go HERE for more information. Sessions are limited, and we recommend booking as soon as possible.

Aurora PhotoArts Uses Professional References.

Aurora PhotoArts is a proud supporter of Independent Modeling's Professional Model Reference database. We use professional references of all models, and give them, too. For more, go HERE.

Aurora PhotoArts is a proud sponsor of the free, no obligation talent web resources Independent Modeling and Independent Acting. You do not have to use our services to use these sites. These web sites are making a difference in the entertainment industry, and have already changed many things for the best!

Model Submission Instructions For Commercial Photography Booking.

Aurora PhotoArts is working with sister company EOS MediaArts to book models into jobs free of charge. We are proud of our modeling connections, and it helps us sell the client our services when we book commercial work. Since we are not a modeling agency, we are not licensed to make money off model fees, and therefore refer models to our clients as a professional courtesy. Models who we are familiar with professionally are always given first referrals.

Models, please do not send us large E-mails if you are trying to land a go see for one of our jobs! Some models have been spamming us with the same E-Mails and large picture files for each posting, and this is uncalled for. Large E-Mails will be deleted and not read. If you must E-Mail us, please send us a COVER LETTER, YOUR RESUME with YOUR MEASUREMENTS AND STATS, and a LINK to your web site or your pictures which are already on the Internet elsewhere. If you cannot do this, PLEASE mail us a COMPOSITE CARD, a COVER LETTER, and a RESUME including your measurements and stats to PO Box 1224, Riverview, FL 33568-1224. Some professional advice: Please write a cover letter to us and use a word processor when you do so. Please send us an accurate, up to date resume so we can check your references. As a reminder, if we are not professionally familiar with a model, we use Independent Modeling's Professional Model Bureau for professional model reference scores. Since their database now contains over 1,000 models in Florida, most of you already have scores that we can check. Models who do not follow these instructions or models who fail to have a satisfactory PMB score from Independent Modeling's Professional Model Bureau will not be considered. For those of you who need help with this, please go HERE to study up. One final note: Professional models only. These jobs are not for beginning models, and we are looking for models that have established portfolios and composite cards. One reason is that they reflect on us with our clients, and these jobs are not easy. Another reason is that we do not want a conflict of interest between aspiring models who need to invest in portfolios and experienced models who no longer need to spend money on portfolio photography. It would undermine our professional credibility if aspiring models were trying for these jobs and we were unable to provide them the services that they really need because it would be a conflict of interest. If we book you, you are already the professional model that we are seeking. Our clients are paying professional rates for professional models, and that is what we need.

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DISCLAIMER

Due to the potential for an ethical conflict of interest, we do not mix prospective jobs that we book models into with our portfolio photography and development services. To be considered for any model job, models should already have a solid portfolio and composite cards, as we rarely book aspiring models into any job. Models who contract our portfolio photography services and other services are not coerced into booking us with the promise of booking any work, neither directly or implied. We are not obligated to book any models into work if they are clients.
Aurora PhotoArts is not a model and talent agency. We are a photography services company with a large spread of services that have the potential to be conflicts of interest. We do not charge models any fees or make money from fees by referring models into client jobs, as we make our money from photography.

Shopping for photography services by rates alone is a false economy. You often get what you pay for. You need to look at the whole picture. Ask to see samples of the quality of their work and take the time to interview them when you evaluate a photographer for your service needs. Be safe- verify their references. For more on verifying photographer references and checking them out, go to our friends at Independent Modeling, IndependentModeling.Com .

Disclaimer

Updated March 9, 2008




		TampaPhotographyDesign - News
		Client Testimonials TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS ARCHIVE UPDATES - CLIENT ALERTS - TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG This is the official Aurora PhotoArts NEWS ARCHIVE! This page is a text only web page, as the Aurora PhotoArts site is not designed to handle a lot of content (It is a photography site, after all!). Click on any link to return to the main site. Photography Marketing Begins - Monday, August 13, 2007 Tampa Bay Advertising Agency Site Coding - Sunday, August 12, 2007 New V6 Aurora Site Online - Tuesday, July 31, 2007 Thursday, November 9, 2006 - Enhanced Exposure Sometime next week we will be launching a massive marketing blitz, and for the first time, we will be collaborating with Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer in addition to offering new incentives for our model and talent clients. In the first few months of 2007, our marketing will expand to assist sister company Eventi Events/ Eventi Stage. Although 2007 will be our record-setting year in sales and volume of clients, by the summer of 2007 there will be a transition and Eventi Events/ Eventi Stage will have a higher profit margin than we will. This, of course, is good for us, too, because Eventi will amplify our marketing and sales efforts. Aurora PhotoArts will be advertised heavily in all Eventi event and stage productions (especially their modeling events and runway productions), and our services will be massively pushed in their marketing and sales. These efforts will inspire others to accept our market superiority as we assimilate them into our agenda. Monday, October 23, 2006 - Working On Upgrade We've updated many files, but our upgrade is still in-progress. The work is ongoing, and we are finalizing our selection on which thumbnails we will use and how they will be laid out. We are doing away with all black and white thumbnails, and the thumbnails will link to the "official" configuration of the image which they represent. A color menu thumbnail may lead to a black and white picture (for the example of actor head shots), and clicking on that main image will enable visitors to toggle or click through to color or alternate versions. Most existing and all new black and white pictures will have color versions. Main images displayed will be their favored versions, so black and white photographs may be displayed anywhere on the site. The color rule only applies to design elements such as thumbnail menus. The upgrades will be completed sometime this week. Thursday, October 19, 2006 - Site Upgrade On Monday The Aurora PhotoArts web site will be upgraded on Monday, October 23, 2006. Many of the upgrades will not be noticeable to the average site visitor, although a few will. We will be updating our main site thumbnails, and this will change the overall look of the site. This scheduled upgrade is needed to support our fall marketing efforts, which are on schedule to commence on October 30, 2006. November and December will see the largest marketing and sales effort in our history, and new client support options will be in place in the next few days. The final months of 2006 will pave the way to market domination in 2007 to the point were everyone in the industry will notice that we are leading the market. While we are on the subject of web sites, the new Huey Class (named in honor of Orlando photographer and friend Craig Huey) Tampa Bay Photographers Round Table Photography web site will finally debut in November. This web site has been finished since February 12, 2006, and the time is now right to launch it. Monday, October 9, 2006 - Some Rates Adjusted Our model portfolio photography rates have changed as of today, and they have dropped to what they were in 2004. Actor and talent head shot photography service rates have not changed. Rates are now locked until spring of 2007, and it is unlikely that they will change then; if they do, they will only go up. Regarding our Client Delivery System, or CDS, it has largely remained unaffected. Friday, October 6, 2006 - Rates To Be Adjusted Our service rates for model portfolio and actor / talent head shot photography services will be adjusted later this month with the fall 2006 edition of our service agreements and our refined Client Delivery System (CDS). Due to an increase in business, base rates are expected to drop to 2004 levels, or as much as 25%. If this goes into effect, services such as model portfolio photography will have seen a reduction in base rates of 40% since August. The increase of bookings has made our services more cost-effective, and we are working toward further increasing those bookings. We will be consulting with our photography partners as we evaluate and adjust our rates. Profits are expected to increase by over 70%, as new marketing and sales efforts go into effect next week. If the rates are reduced, discounts and CDS bonuses may not be possible like they were in the past. If the rates are reduced and this move does not inspire additional bookings, it is possible that the rates will be adjusted again early next year. Thursday, September 28, 2006 - APS 6.0 In 2008 EOS MediaArts has begun development of the next Aurora PhotoArts web site, APS 6.0, which will be due sometime in 2008. The site will utilize advanced flash technology and will be built using CSS libraries (the existing site uses JPEG graphics/ images and simple CSS Templates). The basic design and layout will remain the same, although the site will have different ratios of the existing layout components and there will be a few changes. A good portion of the new site will emphasis long-term client support. The format will be much more refined than what the present site has. Much of the site will be developed using new scam-fighting techniques and will be optimized to defend against competitors and aspiring competitors who try to learn from us and attempt to steal what they want. The new site will contain music and videos, as well as a few surprises like image customization. Details remain a closely guarded secret. The present Venus Class site is far from obsolete, however, and it has only begun to see its potential as a marketing and sales platform. The site has been highly successful and its effectiveness is increasing. The current Aurora PhotoArts site, APS 5.0, is the most advanced and successful photography and design services site in Florida, and nothing in the Tampa Bay market can compete with it. If the 2008 site is delayed, the current site is designed to be effective until at least 2010. The current site will be upgraded in early October, with the main thumbnails replaced and updated along with several new features. Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - Support Files Cleared Our client support files have been backed up and cleared from our computers, databases, and telephone system voice mail. Pictures have been archived and stored away, and online web proofs have been deleted. This is needed to clear our support network to be able to handle a 4,000% increase in business bookings later this month. Because of an increase in paid bookings, our stock photography program has been reduced 90%, and we'll be lucky to find the time to do one session per month; especially with most of our needs met through paid bookings with our clients. Most pending stock photography sessions with certain models (you know who you are) have been postponed indefinitely or have been outright cancelled. The window is closed and time is up. We will be mailing picture packages tomorrow to the six models who have them pending. We also have at least two packages to mail to Los Angeles. Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - Stock Photography Reduced Our Stock Photography program is being scaled back by 90%. We've been much too busy lately to do it as much as planned, and there have been some adjustments to our service lines and to our booking process that has put a dent into the program as far as it being a stand-alone project. This will free resources for our service bookings as business continues to grow in the Tampa Bay area. Models on our waiting list for this program, meaning those who have not been able to lock down and book a time to do it, can expect their wait to increase to months instead of weeks. Expect a noticeable increase in business and updates to this site in September. Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - Client Delivery System Adjusted Our Client Delivery System, or CDS, has been adjusted and finalized for the remainder of this year, with different terms and conditions. CDS specifics will be tied into a "services rendered" statement which will be attached to the signed service agreements, making service paperwork a three component process which will simplify consultations and booking clients. Contact sheets and prints will come with all photography services now, and the older "crop out" print templates are being discontinued in favor of straight prints. Composite Cards and Head Shots, which are separate services, will continue to have Aurora PhotoArts branding printed on them, but will now have an area where agencies can place agency logo stickers. While our six-look modeling portfolio photography package had its rates adjusted on Monday, we will be adjusting all service rates in October. Monday, August 14, 2006 - Model Portfolio Rates Drop Due to record levels of model portfolio photography services, which bring our costs down, and in order to stimulate even more bookings, we have adjusted out model portfolio photography rates for the Tampa Bay market effective immediately. The rates have dropped nearly 20%, and the new rates will be retroactively applied to four pending photography bookings that we've quoted in the last week. We will notify these clients today about the new rates for a six-look model portfolio photography package. The per-look rate and other photography rates remain the same for now. Our Client Delivery System, or CDS, remains unaffected, too. The adjusted rates are comparable to what they were in 2004, which continues to be our record-setting year, although sales this year were on course to exceed that record before the rate adjustment. Sales should smash that record, now. Marketing and sales incentives which will begin next week will easily enable lower rates due to increased business. Friday, August 11, 2006 - Service Line Work We have more work on our service lines this weekend than we have done in five years. Our business advisory board has ordered an overhaul of our service agreements and legal contracts. We will be meeting with our attorney and our legal team in downtown Tampa Saturday to go over these changes and sign off on them Current pending contracts will be grandfathered in, and existing contracts will be honored. Policy changes are in effect, too, with a "comp card" rule applied to stock photography model eligibility requirements (matching a 45% forced decrease in stock photography resource allocations due to a conflict with our other service lines - Stock photography agreements will now be offered as a post-service option for our other service lines as an alternative to straight-out stock bookings). Qualifying models for booking consideration of any stock photography session or commercial photography session will include a reference evaluation on every photographer they have worked with, and references will be checked in the booking process. We will be using a "25" or college student qualifier rule for consultation qualifying screening, and there will be an overhaul in our paperwork, our CDS, and our client tracking system. For the first time, we will begin promoting our allies at Independent Modeling and the benefits of our collaborative packages in all consultations and service line bookings, and as a result we will dramatically increase in support and financing to our modeling resource site friend. We will be increasing our support of Independent Modeling and the Independent Sites by over 400%, as we have reduced confidence in doing business with Tampa Bay based model and talent agencies. Independent Modeling and the Independent Sites will see an incredible level of updates in the next three weeks. We will be streamlining how we do business and will be adopting our 2007 standards this fall. Our main portfolio will be redone and new forms will be created to support business operations. Referrals from satisfied clients and subsequent bookings have recently exceeded the bookings that we get from conventional marketing efforts. This may be the start of a trend in our model portfolio photography and actor/ talent head shot photography services. There are also indications that an increasing number of models who are represented by Tampa Bay and Orlando model and talent agencies are passing over the photographers that agencies try to force on them and they book us for what they need. There is evidence that this is a growing trend, too. A new tiered rate system for model portfolio photography services and actor/ talent head shot photography services was unveiled today, and may be adopted soon as our new standard. Our rates will be adjusted in October. Our CDS (Client Delivery System) will be adjustable and scalable if any rates are adjusted, as CDS terms are included in set service packages and the client, not us, pays for them. Work in the studio will be done this weekend, too. Our main computer has over 100 Gigs of photographs on file, and many of those files need to be archived and purged from the system to support increased bookings (and maybe we will be able to finally locate Ingrid Suchit’s pictures while we are at it). We will be cleaning computer hard drives, adding physical file cabinets for paperwork, will be working on our client services telecommunications system (at night, when we don’t get constant calls), and will be adding tracking cards and an organized client paperwork system designed to support initial and continued client contact. Some of this maintenance is long overdue and is a result of our busy nature as the Tampa Bay photography and design services market leader. Some of our agreements and service contracts were quickly put together and worked into use as we began to book a lot of work five years ago. The overhaul is now needed, as business will dramatically increase along with our transition to a focus on commercial photography services within the next year. Monday, August 7, 2006 - Pictures Uploaded Aurora PhotoArts Senior Photographer C. A. Passinault had a great swimsuit modeling photography session with model and former Ms. Florida USA pageant contender Shilah Goodwin over the weekend. Some of our picks from the shoot have been uploaded, and they can be accessed from the new images thumbnails on the left or from our swimwear modeling portfolio channel. Saturday, August 5, 2006 - Site Code Adjustments Starting today, we will be adjusting code throughout the site. These adjustments will enhance the effectiveness of this web site and double its performance. While we did get to most of it today, there will be other work done in the next few days. Because some of this work is confidential and invisible to the average site visitor, we will make no further announcements regarding this and will not specify exactly what we are working on in the code and in what part of the site this work is being done in (good luck analyzing all 724 pages on your own - Official count is 724 web pages within a total of 5,039 files organized in 205 folders and clocking in at 113 MB, which is just over a tenth of a Gig - We have a very big site and it will triple in size by next year). The thumbnail graphics will be upgraded sometime in the next two weeks, and we are looking into enhancing the CSS templates of the site design this month. Some of these upgrades are made possible by recent EOS web team developments and some new design technology which was developed during design work on the EOS MediaArts web site, which is a Tampa Bay advertising agency and our sister company. Friday, August 4, 2006 - Booked Out We are booked out for the next two weeks with over 20 photography sessions and service line work. Our service agreements need CDS (Client Delivery System) adjustments, some CDS line specifics need working out, our normal letters and paperwork need to be adjusted, our rate sheet needs to be reformatted (our service lines are massive, as we do far more than photography), and we need new forms and client tracking tools. Our copy and legal teams (needed for site content, service agreements, and paperwork) are also tied up with the EOS MediaArts advertising agency web site preparation at the moment. This, in addition to a lot of photography and design work, has used up our time and resources. Web site updates will be minimal, with most of them being select portfolio picture uploads. Expect our major marketing push to begin later this month and our rates to be adjusted in September. The marketing push will be preceded with a large site update and perhaps an overhaul during the week of or sometime after August 21, 2006. Until then, enjoy the new picture additions! Friday, August 4, 2006 - Portfolio Updated Our model portfolio photography portfolio has been updated (sorry about the extra day Stephanie and Matt!). See the newest image thumbnails at the left to look at our uploaded pictures. Thursday, August 3, 2006 - Portfolio Format Adjusted Our online photography portfolio format has been adjusted again. We will no longer post black and white thumbnails unless that is the primary or only image, which will increase the use of color within our layout. You can see black and white and altered versions of photographs by clicking on them within our online portfolio, and you will go automatically to other variants of that image. We will be reformatting our thumbnail menus in a few days. Target portfolio profiles will be adjusted, and credit text links mirroring the thumbnails will be added to the bottom of our site. Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - Commercial Connection Aurora PhotoArts is making progress in making commercial photography services our main market. We are working with Tampa Bay advertising agency and sister company EOS MediaArts to develop joint services. Could it be that model and talent agencies will be seeking us out for model print jobs and the top professional models in the Tampa Bay and Florida modeling markets? The paradigm is about to shift in our favor, and wait until you see what we are going to do to the modeling industry in the Tampa Bay market. Saturday, July 29, 2006 - Bookings Increase Our bookings have increased and the EOS Team has spent most of the week getting the Dream Nine Studios site up to speed. Our stock photography program is booked solid, and we may have to book multi-model sessions in the future to keep up. Monday, July 24, 2006 - Portfolio Channels Adjusted As our web site updates settle down to a normal routine, we have adjusted and optimized our portfolio channels and have connected photography service sections to their relevant portfolio channel. The design portfolio will be connected to the design section when it is operational next month. Updates will be slow this week as the web team spends a lot of time on the Eventi Events web site. Saturday, July 22, 2006 - Contract And Rate Work We will be adding new photography service rates and contracts for the next two weeks. These services will cover the Tampa Bay market. Although we are going to be adjusting our service contracts and will be optimizing them for our Client Delivery System (CDS), existing photography and service rates are not due to be adjusted until September. Our CDS paperwork will start use this week. Thursday, July 20, 2006 - Aura Models Team Formed Aurora PhotoArts and Eventi Events officially formed the Aura Models print and promotional modeling team today. The Aura Models Team is a modeling organization which covers print and promotional modeling as well as dancing. The team is a joint project of both companies,and will also serve as a talent pool for all of the Passinault.Com companies. For more about the Aura Models Team, please check out today's news on the main Passinault.Com site. Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - Photography Portfolio Channels Active Our online photography portfolio channels are now active. We still have to upload another 40 to 60 pictures before we catch up with the picture content that we want online, and we have to add optimized copy for each channel, but the portfolio section and all of the new directories are ready for the flood of incredible pictures that we will be taking the rest of this year and well into next year. We also have to identify which photograph profiles we wish to push and adjust their formats (we may change around the portfolio front-end, too). We will be connecting all areas of this web site to their relevant portfolio channel. The last batch of up to 60 images should be up by next week, and we are still searching our photograph archives for some pictures of New York model Ingrid Suchit and Tampa Bay model Roxanne Kowalska. Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - Web Sites, Links, and Updates Updates to our web site will slow to a normal level this week as the EOS team moves on to other web site projects and SEO support of this site. We will be adding a lot to our links section, and site content adjustments will be ongoing. We will also get our portfolio channels online in a day or two. The EOS team is setting up a special server account and some more domain names will be procured on Thursday. Finishing touches are being done to the new Huey Class Tampa Bay Photographers Round Table Photography Association site (we have seen it, and it is a state-of-the-art masterpiece, unlike their current eyesore). Frontier Society, Advanced Model, and the popular Clearwater-based Tampa Bay Modeling model resource will share the new server by next week. These are great times, and set up the market for what is coming! Monday, July 17, 2006 - Marketing Potential Unlocked Our web team has unlocked the development restrictions that were on the web site by default, unleashing the full marketing potential of this Venus Class photography services web site for the first time. Core sections have been adjusted as most of the site pages have been gone over and optimized, and SEO performance increases will become obvious within the next few weeks. Additional Internet activity has been authorized and begins today. The web team intends to have hard data concerning the effectiveness of this web site class within six months for ongoing evaluations and improvements to be applied to other web sites and the next generation Aurora PhotoArts web site due in 2009. Monday, July 17, 2006 - Site Adjustments We have refreshed the site and are still working on the portfolio channels; the portfolio can be accessed from the main portfolio page and all channels are duplicates of that page at this time. We have added several more channels and that is giving us a little more work to do. The portfolio channels will be working this week, and the main menu will change when that happens (we are thinking about adding a design portfolio section with its own channels, and this will be accessible from the main menu. The design section and the existing portfolio section would both link to Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts). We are currently spending time launching aggressive promotions today. Sunday, July 16, 2006 - Educational Services? Things are about to get both weirder and more interesting around here. Besides owning entertainment and business support services, Aurora PhotoArts senior photographer and Passinault.Com executive producer C. A. Passinault also owns a little-known scientific research firm. Professionally qualified in over 20 professions with a Mensa-level IQ and enough of a college education to earn him several doctorates, polymath C. A. Passinault is passing along his “educate while entertain” philosophy to our photography company. We will be vesting our photography and design services to include scientific research and work in experimental art forms, and we will be including an incredible amount of attention to detail in both our work and in the way that we describe that work. One area that will reflect that is in our anecdotal and information part of our online portfolio, where technical information on our subjects and links to additional information on the Frontier Society site will be included. While not official until now, much of our work over the years has covered far more than photography. Many of our clients have expressed that they are not only very happy with our photography and design work but also because they learned something cool from the experience, the conversation, or both. There was an announcement today that took many of us by surprise, and answered the questions that some had about obscure services such as aerial photography. C. A. Passinault announced today that Aurora PhotoArts was investing capital into a new aerial tethered robotic drone that he had developed over the years, and the company would be procuring three of them by next year. Far more flexible, easier to use, and less expensive than renting small aircraft, the aerial robotic drones will carry commercial camera payloads thousands of feet to take high resolution photographs for commercial photography and survey work. The drones will be able to work stationary over areas for up to twelve hours at a time, with a data link and payload control function that will enable the photographer to work from a ground station while the drone maintains flight control. The drone will utilize pilot interaction only when needed. Additionally, Aurora PhotoArts will be procuring a number of small, highly maneuverable drop pods for low altitude photography. These tiny, high-speed pods carry high resolution camera payloads. It will be an interesting time for flying devices and clever gadgets that get the job done. All of these inventions will adhere to F.A.A. regulations. Both the aerial robotic drone and the drop pod have already flown and work well. Both were invented by C. A. Passinault, and patents are pending. Aurora PhotoArts is going to be far more than a photography and design services company. With two new upcoming service lines and innovative solutions that no one else has access to, we will continue to be the best value in photography and design services in the Tampa Bay market and the rest of Florida. C. A. Passinault will be finalizing some technical aspects of the aerial photography gear on small aircraft in a series of flights over Tampa Bay this fall. Saturday, July 15, 2006 - Updating Our online portfolio core has been placed in a pending status while we make some adjustments. We have paused photography image uploads until the adjustments have been made, and should resume our photography uploads on Monday, July 17. The portfolio is, however, fully up and works fine. The channels are open, but all channel content will be identical (with the exception of our photography stock) until updates resume. Much of this work is SEO related and has to do with titles and alt tags. Older portfolio profiles will see alt, title, and anecdote updates over the next few weeks. Section-relevant meta tags will be uploaded shortly to their relevant site sections. We have edited our NEWEST IMAGES section to the left, and have reduced the image thumbnails from 97 down to the operational-spec 20. Saturday, July 15, 2006 - Portfolio Adjustment As of early this morning (12:43 AM), there are over 227 images in our online portfolio. Our NEWEST IMAGES section to the left has 97 image thumbnails leading to some of them, and this is the reason that the site is loading slow for some people. As of now, we are going to update the main portfolio menu and then edit the NEWEST IMAGE thumbnails down to the last 20 (which would only cover around half of what has been uploaded this week). Obviously, now is the appropriate time to fine tune the portfolio section and make final revisions to the format before jumping into hundreds of shoots and thousands of new image uploads. Presently, we have the normal ability to upload up to 20 images per day, which consists of roughly 160 image files; 80 for the images themselves and 80 for the supporting new image and main thumbnail images. The uploads also require roughly 80 HTML support page files, which totals 240 files in an eight hour editing session. This is a lot of work, as you can see, but it makes for perhaps the best photography and design services marketing web site in the world, and the top one in the Tampa Bay market. Now that we have established upload capacities, it should be noted that we are benefiting from what our web team has learned from designing and maintaining leading modeling resource sites. Simply put, it is not enough to have the most content on a site. To be usable, the content must be organized. Throw hundreds, and eventually thousands, of portfolio images into one big thumbnail menu and you will lose people regardless of how good the photography is and how interested that they are. This is why we are now slowing down uploads enough this weekend to finalize some details and organize what we have so far. We will adding main thumbnails to the main portfolio section, removing a lot of the new image thumbnails to prune it back to a manageable level, and then we will bring most of the portfolio "channels" online. The channels will only have relevant image thumbnails for that section, greatly enhancing the ability of people to find the images that they are looking for and enabling our online portfolio to reach the full potential of the advantages of having thousands of pictures online offers. Our online portfolio will have over 1,200 pictures online by the end of the year, and they will all be easy and fun to look at. By this time next year, we should have over 3,000 pictures online. With our site designed to handle thousands of organized pictures, continuity of portfolio profile formats will change. Newer profiles will be slightly different than older ones, but they won't be so different that it will become much of an issue. Besides profile pages, other elements of this site are being improved, too. Our thumbnail formats have been improved, and the mouse over actions are noticeably different (and better) than the original format. This is one reason that we are holding off from updating the main thumbnails on the top and on the bottom of every page on this site; we are waiting until enough new thumbnails are added and then we will update selected ones to the new standard. Next week a lot will be happening. We will be working on this all weekend to be sure that it's ready by Monday We are now uploading far more than your typical model portfolio, actor and talent head shots, and portrait photograph images. we are now uploading pictures of just about everything and anything that we have, including out take snap shots that may not be up to our quality standards. Effective immediately, we will limit out take type pictures to their relevant portfolio channels and will not use them in our marketing or feature them on this site. Our NEWEST IMAGES section will only include marketable additions and not out take type images (one did slip in yesterday, but it is of excellent quality and will soon be displaced by newer thumbnails). We will not announce or market every image added to our site, and will not publish over 50% of our work here. The NEWEST IMAGES section will also be used to proof selected shoots and our client picks. Since an average six-look model portfolio session may yield our picks of around ten images covering those six looks that were shot, proofing a shoot will only take up around half of the self-imposed 20 NEWEST IMAGES that we have set for ourselves to optimize the performance of the site. Our NEWEST IMAGES will serve as a highlight proof and a que for images to be added to pour main portfolio section and their relevant channels. By the time that image thumbnails are displaced, they should be selectable from our portfolio section and the relevant portfolio channels. At times, we may push the NEWEST IMAGES beyond a 20 limit (let's say that we have more than two model portfolio sessions in a day and want to post more than 20 images from them- even booked up, the 20 images should last at least 72 hours before they are displaced, as we do want to give our clients and chance to look at them and need to give ourselves time to add them to the online portfolio section. In rare chances, we may extend the NEWEST IMAGES over 20, and perhaps as high as 50 in rare situations. Just don't try to use updates to this site as a way of trying to weigh out how much work that we are getting or trying to find out who our clients are so you can shop them. We will never upload anything close to what we are doing, and you'll never get the full picture. In other news, the 6th Aurora PhotoArts web site is now in development, and it will feature flash graphics and animation, sound, CSS library templates, and will be PHP database driven. It will be the ultimate site for flexibility, presentation, customized visitor experiences, and quick and easy updates. While we may announce it, we also may not, as it is a long way off. This site is just getting started, is proving itself as the best photography services marketing site, and we still have to test some things. Don't expect the new generation Aurora PhotoArts site until at least 2009, and we will guess 2010. Until then, you will get to experience this beautifully designed, refined site, and our never-ending tweaks and upgrades. Friday, July 14, 2006 - Massive Mobilization C. A. Passinault has ordered the largest mobilization of our resources and project bookings in our 12 year history, with the goal to completely refresh our portfolio by the end of the year and build an additional portfolio for a special project that will go after other photography markets in the Tampa Bay area. This will, by far, exceed the volume of work that we have done since the last time that we did something like this between 2000 and 2002, and combined with our usual business bookings, this means that we will be booked constantly for the remainder of 2006. Passinault activated several dormant contacts, and in the course of a single day booked out for the rest of July. We will be booking and working with at least 60 experienced professional models the rest of this summer. Much of this work will be with our Aurora PhotoStock program, booking professional models. We are looking forward to meeting and working with every worthwhile professional in the Tampa Bay and Florida markets in the next few months. We're also looking forward to talking to them and listening to their experiences and what they have to say about the industry (if you think that there will be more to this than just doing shoots, than you may be on to something. We have always been far more than a simple photography services company, and our connections and interests are far more extensive than any other professionals in Florida). Friday, July 14, 2006 - Portfolio Copy We have uploaded more pictures today, and have adjusted our online portfolio section. We will be adjusting the channels before we bring them online, and have added an OUT TAKES section for those cool behind the scenes pictures that show the respect and the repritore that we have earned with top industry professionals and models. As soon as we get our image files situated, we will spend a day or two going over the copy in our online portfolio profiles, namely the title tags, descriptions, and anecdotes. At the present, our online portfolio contains roughly 100 pictures. We will be adding at least 1,200 pictures to our online portfolio by December 2006. All 1,200 will be Grail shots that we took in 2006 (a Grail shot, as in holy grail, is a picture that we recognize as the best of the best. This is our term and we came up with it. We strive for these in every photography session, and often get several per shoot). See the next entry for information on how we are going to come up with so many new pictures in this short period of time. Thursday, July 13, 2006 - Images Added We have traveled back in time five years and have added some great pictures from our 2001 and 2002 archives. See those images by going to the NEWEST IMAGES section to your left; the main portfolio menu will be updated shortly (if not by the time that you read this). Our site is exploding to life in preparation for what is to come. Thursday, July 13, 2006 - Site Upgrades Begin When this Aurora PhotoArts Venus Class web site launched last September, it was designed and optimized for future upgrades, but we had not planned to do it at that time. We are beginning to install upgrades, including some enhancements to our background. Our new images feature is now set up to post our picks during selected shoots and projects. Our partnership with Independent Modeling is going strong, and their site is now ready for what we have planned. This summer is going to get hot around here, and we are entering a new era where we give our clients the best value and show models and talent the light! It can be said, and has been said, that the greatest fear that a competing photographer or photography company should have is that their clients, such as models, meet us, get to know us, and work with us. We are about to introduce certain people to the bigger and better deal, and this market really needs it! Thursday, July 13, 2006 - Project Marketing On Monday C. A. Passinault authorized an extended marketing push for the Aurora PhotoStock stock photography program today, which will begin on Monday, July 17, 2006. The marketing will be a major effort and will last until the end of this year. A second wave of marketing will launch the following weekend. The projects will be limited to professional models who have established portfolios and composite cards. Independent Modeling incentives have been added to the program for the remainder of the year. Service marketing will resume this weekend, but will be kept separate from project marketing due to it being a conflict of interest. Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - Standard Aurora Uniforms With the planning and assistance of sister company Eventi Events, Aurora PhotoArts will be issuing a standard uniform for our company later this year. The uniforms will be blue, yellow, and gray and will be made of cotton. The Aurora PhotoArts logo will be embroidered on the shirt. The uniform will be designed for electronic interfaces and will be in full compliance with Eventi Events standards for their official uniforms. The Aurora uniforms will not adhere to their color classification system, however, although our color scheme will not conflict with theirs if we work together. Eventi Emblem badges will be placed over the Aurora PhotoArts Logo for subcontracted Eventi Events work (either that, or our photographers and photography support personnel would have to wear the standard green-coded Eventi uniform for the event support classification). Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - Model Tracking System (MTS) Our new Model Tracking System, or MTS, will be online this week. The MTS will be needed for our commercial photography/ model print work, and working with sister company and Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts we are planning on becoming the leading source of print work for models (model and talent agencies are also subject to a MTS-type system, and if we are not comfortable with anyone that they represent or are associated with, we will choose to avoid working with them). The MTS will enable us to organize and schedule model information more efficiently, and it is needed because of the large number of model referrals and inquiries that we we get from professional models. We will use the system to make ourselves professionally accountable for who we choose to work with; all models will be assigned permanent tracking serial numbers for their permanent file. The system uses databases such as TALON to track the work history and references of models we are considering to book into projects. We will know every contact and reference that the model has before working with them; all models are subject to background checks and a security clearance before we will consider booking them into certain projects due to the contamination of the Tampa Bay photography market that we have been monitoring. Professional conflicts of interests will be taken into account, and we would like to remind models that you basically are who you work with; this is why it is so important to be selective with who you work with. The MTS will be adapted for a Client Tracking System, or CTS, as well, later this summer. Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - Main Computer Offline We have taken the main computer offline while we work on the ethernet port. One of our two backups is handling our editing and support work. We will be cleaning up old files on the system and will be overhauling it for future work.We are also going through our archives in an attempt to locate some portfolio image files. The system should be back up later this week. In other studio developments, we will be bringing an actress to do voice-over work for our answering system software. We are also adding hands-free head sets for our client services representatives and a hold system to support heavy call volume. Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - Lightning Damage The Geomedia 3 production facility suffered a direct hit from lightning last night during an extremely strong storm, knocking some systems offline and shutting down power for over an hour. The facility was designed to be surge resistant when it was built, and even has special grounded EM shielding built into the walls that prevent RF and EM signals from being picked up outside (the studio section is built inside what is basically a faraday cage). There was minimal damage that would have been far worse if not for our precautions, with a router and an ethernet card paying the price (we also lost a pump on one of the display aquariums). The router was replaced today by a repair team, and we will be installing a new network card in our main computer later this week. For security reasons, we only use one of our computers for uploading files to web sites, and this means that all EOS uploads will be suspended for a few days while work continues on web sites. Although the fiber optic cable that was recently installed isn't supposed to be able to conduct lighting, we will be going over everything in the next few days to fine-tune our surge protection. We will be installing new UPS systems next week. Monday, July 10, 2006 - Images Added We attended the Hot Import Nights event in Orlando on Saturday evening. We've uploaded 22 of our favorite images to our online portfolio. You can check out these images through our NEWEST IMAGES on the left or in our online portfolio section. An online proof of all images taken at the event has also been uploaded, and it can be accessed through our PROOFS section. Please note that these images are unedited, and we are not responsible for anything depicted in these images. Friday, July 7, 2006 - Client Services We are working on new tools and procedures to improve our communication with our clients, and are working toward long-term professional relationships. These new tools will be operational on Monday. We are going to be editing pictures today and will be adding them next week, too. Thursday, July 6, 2006 - Photography Session Policies Escorts As it has always been, we would like to remind our clients that they may bring someone along to any shoot that they book, unless the individual is an unauthorized photographer or someone who may be a security risk. Friends and family are welcome! We don't mind as long as they do not interfere with the photography process, they make our clients more comfortable, and their participation is not a professional or ethical conflict of interest. If it is ever an issue, we will simply request that our client bring along someone else. Clients under the age of 21 are encouraged to bring someone along. Clients under the age of 18 are required to have the full participation of their parents or legal guardian at all times. Nude And Glamour Photography Our company, as a rule, does not do nude photography or any kind of photography that we have professional issues with. We will not do any work with the potential to make our clients or our company look bad. We are against the exploitation of models and talent, and freely support resource sites that build up the integrity of the entertainment industry and which help models and talent. If you are looking for a service that can photograph you nude or in risque poses, we have a list of ethical professionals who we can refer you to. This kind of work is very risky for any modeling or entertainment career, and we recommend avoiding it if possible. If you pursue it, please be careful and make sure that you are dealing with an ethical professional. Check all references and make sure that they cannot sell your images to businesses that will not portray you in the best of light. We believe that exploitation is not art, and those who exploit people in the name of art are those who defile our freedoms. It is too easy for someone to pick up a camera and take pictures of nude subjects, and it requires no professional training. Too many "photographers" are doing this sort of work, and those of us who are professional take a stand. While we recognize that nude photography is a legitimate art form, we also respect the higher level of professionalism required for such art. In our case, we simply do not feel comfortable doing this kind of work because we do not want to risk the pictures being taken out of context and turned into something that was never intended. If a photographer is mainly soliciting nude work or only seems to do nude work, we suggest looking elsewhere for your photography needs. Find a photographer who excels in many areas of photography, who has been in the business a long time, and has many verifiable references. Thursday, July 6, 2006 - Site Work We will be doing some cleanup work on the site in the next few days. We will be deleting some pictures and adding many more. We will also be adjusting content and files as we prepare our online store and the introduction of other services. Out thumbnails are in the process of being upgraded, and our overall look will change shortly. Thursday, June 29, 2006 - How To Contact Us Over the past few weeks, we have lost count on how many E-Mails that we get asking for rates when we have instructions in our contact section explaining that we do not E-Mail rates (we have also lost some E-Mails due to the volume of mail that we get and models sending huge image files to us). We also do not post our rates on this web site. The main reason is that we have hundreds of services that we offer and our rates are constantly being adjusted. Another is that many of these inquiries are not specific, and we have too much respect for the time of our clients to quote them a general rate when we may not have any idea of exactly what they are looking for. Instead of spending days E-Mailing back and forth, the information can be obtained either by investing five minutes on the phone with one of our representatives or by scheduling a free, face-to-face consultation with one of our photographers. E-Mailing a standard rate would hardly be fair to you, and it is far faster and better to simply call us at (813) 671-9507. If we are busy, please leave a message and we will get back to you faster than we can with E-Mail. Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - Advertising Spending Increased As we branch into other markets, we are increasing our investment into mainstream advertising. We have budgeted thousands of dollars into mainstream advertising for the remainder of 2006. This should increase our market share by over 400%. This is especially important as we focus more on commercial photography in 2007 and demonstrate the we service photography markets other than the model portfolio and talent head shot photography that we continue to excel at. Monday, June 26, 2006 - Online Store In July Our Online Store, originally scheduled for a debut this month, has been delayed until late July. The store, which will also sell stock images, will possibly launch around the time of our next large upload of images for our portfolio. We have been spending a lot of time booking client photography sessions and taking pictures of other things in order to build a stock image library for EOS to take advantage of. Saturday, June 10, 2006 - Twelve Years! Today Aurora PhotoArts is twelve years old! Our very first photography session was with two DJ's at Lowry Park in Tampa. The shoot, done at the band shell, was for Geomedia's 22nd release, Futura, featuring DJ Frontier (C. A. Passinault) and DJ Cricket (Nicole Angel). Aurora PhotoArts continued primarily as a support company of its sister companies, and then came into its own in 1998 and 1999. By 2000, we were routinely turning out great work for professionals who booked our services. By 2001, our company became the most profitable Passinault.Com company and a Tampa Bay photography leader. We continue to be the top Tampa Bay photography and design company, and are well on our way to achieving national photography market leadership in the remaining years of this decade. We were going to do a celebration shoot at Lowry Park today, but we have been too busy with booking shoots, and that itself is an ongoing celebration of the work we do and the overall tastes of the consumers in our market. Thursday, June 8, 2006 - Summer Work We’ve been really busy booking and working on photography shoots lately (the reason for the lack of online update time), and this summer is going to be record-setting. Our online store will launch shortly, along with our new photographic art sales line, and we will be scheduling more time to update the site, as new service contracts which we will be using require it. We will be expanding our marketed range of photography services, and model and talent clients will be promoted through an exclusive deal that we have with Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, Independent Performer, and the TALON TALent Online network (affiliated photographers such as Craig Huey and Andy Meng will have the same benefits, so models and talent can not go wrong working with them, either). This exclusive promotion will be offered at no additional charge for our regular freelance promotion package. No one else can offer what we can, and we’re more than happy to demonstrate what we can do for our clients that no one else can match. We are far more than just another photography company. Our rates will be adjusted again this summer. Please call our client services department at (813) 671-9507 for current rates that are relevant for the services that you are looking for. Aurora PhotoArts will be investing in new equipment this summer, including a range of specialized studio and portable lighting. Our photography association, the Round Table Photography Association, found at TampaBayPhotographers.Com, will be pushed heavily in the coming months. At the moment, their old site is up, and we are sitting on the new site, as it has been finished for months now. The reason? We’re preparing to support new initiatives with the association and with the web site, and to post some revolutionary new ideas on the Internet before we are ready to push them would prove to be a mistake. We are not in business to teach our perceived competition how to do business, and we are concerned that some may take our ideas and use them before we are in position to, as it has happened before. We are committed, however, to helping improve the overall integrity of the photography services industry, and will be assisting our photographer partners and photographers who work in our upcoming professional alliance. We will subcontract the best photographers for our projects in the future, further increasing the range and the effectiveness of our services. Working along with our new photography spinoff company, we will be increasing our stock photography services this summer, too. Advertising agency and sister Passinault.Com company EOS MediaArts will begin selling stock images as a low cost alternative to commercial photography to commercial clients starting this fall. All stock images will be beneficial to the careers of all involved models. The EOS advertising agency site is in development and will be launched very soon. Friday, May 19, 2006 - New Photography Company It is official. There is a second photography company that will begin business in the Tampa Bay market in the summer of 2006. Although this company is an operational partner of ours and will share our photographers and resources, this company will focus on photography and only photography, with an emphasis on fashion and modeling (our work is heavy on the commercial-type and we do far more than photography) . The new photography company will tackle photography that we are not comfortable doing, and it will provide an ethical and professional alternative for much of what is going on in the market now. This new company will not be an official Passinault.Com company for market-conflict reasons. The company name and specific photography service lines are classified, and the company is currently putting together an extensive portfolio. Edge Portfolios, an advertising agency for models, actors, and talent, has been absorbed into advertising agency EOS MediArts and will now operate as a division of EOS under their license. Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - Store Due In June Our long-awaited online PhotoArts Store will be online and featured on our site in June! You will be able to buy Aurora PhotoArts art, lithographs, prints, and other products from this site. The store will also be connected to and marketed through an arrangement with online retail leader Ebay and other sales sites. Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - Site Updates Site updates to the Aurora PhotoArts site have been slow lately because we are booking plenty of work and have been very busy. There is a backlog of images that we have shot lately which we will start uploading today; please note that we're overloaded with images and we will not post everything that we have been doing. We will only post the highlights of our most recent work. A lot of this work has been the most impressive in our history, and we are working on some things that will increase what we can do by a factor of ten toward the end of this year. Currently, we are the top photography services company in the Tampa Bay market. By next year, we will be openly competing with the nations best and will become the obvious choice in this market throughout several industries. We will be doing plenty of updates throughout this site in the coming days as we schedule time to work on it. We will be adding new marketing support campaigns and entire new sections this summer to support new sales and program initiatives. Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - ESPY Model Testing Retired Due to the large volume of business that we have been doing, we feel that the ESPY Model Testing Program is redundant, and may not be performing like it should. Effective immediately, we are suspending the ESPY Model Testing Program, but retain the right to offer it in certain circumstances to approved clients. ESPY has been a very successful program, and has been ongoing for the past three years. The suspension of ESPY is part of our process to increase commercial photography and other services. Those who have been putting off booking an ESPY session may be out of luck. Please contact us and we will be happy to discuss your new options. Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - Sponsored Sites Restored Sponsorship of the Independent Sites and model resource sites like Tampa Bay Modeling have been restored. Aurora PhotoArts, EOSMediaArts, and other Passinault.Com companies will continue to support the sites. As part of an updated agreement, the sites are no longer dependent entirely upon us and are free to shop for other sponsors if we are unable to sponsor them in the future. For the time being, however, sponsorship and assistance is promised and followed through. For Aurora PhotoArts, this also means that our client profile arrangement is on again with the Independent Sites! A special thanks go out to all of the models and actors who sent countless E-Mails to the sites and to us protesting the suspension. The majority has finally become vocal, and we heard you. Sponsorship was restored a week ago. Although we are sponsoring them, the Passinaut.Com companies are not responsible for the opinions expressed on these sites, the information presented, and the talent resources available on them. Monday, May 8, 2006 - Independent Sites Suspended Effective today, Independent Modeling and the other Independent Sites have had their web support suspended by EOS MediaArts. Although these sites are not directly affiliated with us and the sister companies of Passinault.Com, advertising agency EOS MediaArts performs maintenance on the web sites and at least one other unrelated modeling resource (we believe that it was Tampa Bay Modeling). Without update support, this pretty much stalls all the involved sites and suspends further updates until a financial arrangement can be secured between the sites and the EOS web team or the owners of these sites find other web companies that can work with the EOS web designs (it remains unclear if EOS will allow this, as the site class formats are technically leased to the involved parties under the terms of sponsorship and the web sites would probably have to be paid off in full before they are released). Effective immediately, this terminates our online profile arrangement with the Independent Sites, too, as we cannot do this if they are unable to update their sites. This is projected to have minimal impact on our business. The EOS web team will continue to maintain most of the existing content of the involved sites, as several sponsored sites are now on standby mode with no planned updates. The domain names and site content remain the property of their owners. It remains unclear if this is the end of some of these sites. For now, they will remain online. We have been informed by the web team that all of the sites can be brought up to speed in one day if the need arises and outstanding issues are addressed. Thursday, April 13, 2006 - ESPY Program Schedule C. A. Passinault today scaled back the ESPY model testing program on our active schedule. We will now have four main sessions a year, and reserve the right to qualify participation. Rates for this service are now longer held at a discount from the rates of our model portfolio photography, but have been set as a testing rate. The quality of both testing and portfolio photography are identical. Model portfolio photography and other photography services may be pro-rated as package deals, however, and we reserve the right to adjust rates at any time. Rates booked under the terms of a signed service agreement are locked at the specified rate. We no longer market our services with the promise of reduced-rates or discounts. With the new Client Delivery System (CDS) implemented this month, all of our photography services are expanded, and our clients now receive more with each service contracted. Our long-term client support services have been enhanced, too. With service improvements made, we can no longer justify budget marketing, especially when our full-rate services have been outselling our discount programs for some time now. Thursday, April 13, 2006 - Portfolio Updated We've uploaded more images to our online portfolio. Check the "newest images" on the left to see more. Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - Rates And Services In the latest rounds of service agreement adjustments (necessary because of the implementation of our new Client Delivery System, or CDS), we have elected not to increase any of our rates. We have also elected, as CDS specifies, to increase overall services and enhance client support. To enable these welcome changes, we have made cut-backs to reduced rate services and are pushing to make up for increased overhead by obtaining higher volume sales. ESPY, which is currently marketed as a reduced-rate model testing service, will be offered less, and we will be very selective in who will be eligible to use ESPY (We have a session this Saturday April 15 and in late May. After that, we’re looking at August, and then maybe as infrequent as every three months. Those that ignored or passed up this offer in the past will soon find it very hard to get into. It is possible that we may discontinue and retire the ESPY program later this year). We are projecting our offline sales efforts to become more effective once ESPY is no longer pushed, and while we won’t go into reasons, let’s just say that we are too busy booking our regular services to bother with reduced-rate anything. We will no longer market services on the promise of lower rates. Our work quality is excellent, and we really don’t see any other photographers or photography companies in the Tampa Bay market who can match what we can do for clients. Those that market services at lower rates almost always have work that match those low rates. We are all that anyone needs for the pictures and quality work that they are looking for. Since sales have been up, we are interested in increasing the services that we offer to our clients instead of trying to give them discounts. Our focus is on both service and total value. If anyone wants budget pictures by someone who is less experienced and is still trying to figure out the photography business, than they are welcome to go there. We’ll wait for them to come back to us for what they need. Clients who have booked our services using older agreements would be bound to the terms of those agreements, and would have to use the newest edition agreements to take advantage of our CDS. The new agreements will not be available until next week at the earliest, as we are still finalizing some details. We may grandfather some photography sessions that we did this week into the new terms, but have not decided if we will or not at this time. Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - Studio Upgrades We are about to upgrade our studio connection. Our present broadband connection is barely able to keep up with our web work, and a new fiber optic connection should be more than enough to help us keep up. Connection speed has a lot to do with the number of updates to the “new images” thumbnails on the left, and whenever we add any images, we have to refresh the entire site directory. This takes time, and with our current broadband connection it takes at least thirty minutes and we need someone here during the process to make sure that the FTP does not time-out. We have always intended to use the left “newest images” thumbnail bar as an online proof of current, daily work of the images of our choice. These images would be highlighted here, but would not necessarily be added to the online portfolio (We would leave that to the best of the best and work that demonstrates our professional range). It was never meant to be redundant. With uploads being over six times faster, we can finally use it to proof our top picks for current work. The “newest images” would be aimed at current clients rather than general visitors, although security precautions would be taken so visitors could look at that work, too, if they wish. Currently, we use Photoshop to generate web proofs for clients to look at. We’re not happy with the way Photoshop presents unedited work that is not optimized. A part of our solution will be to use this web site’s “newest images” as an online proof of the edited work of our choice, while providing our clients with actual printed contact sheets (as a part of our new CDS, or Client Delivery System) and follow-up consultations. The clients would end up getting our picks as a bonus and their picks as promised by the service agreement. The new CDS would also include prints as part of photography services, and we will cover that in another news post today. Increased services that are more user-friendly rather than reduced-rate offers are now the trend- which is putting pressure on services such as ESPY. The days of clients having no choice but to choose their own printing service are now over, too, especially when we have seen what some models have done to our composite cards and some actors have done to our head shots with our company name all over them. Quality issues aside, we’re also not too keen on referring our clients to potential competitors, and some of the printing companies that we happened to refer clients to in the past just happened to offer services like we do as well as printing services. We will be highly discouraging clients from mailing image files and from using their own printer. We are also looking at our web comps and may modify the format so they cannot be printed off of the web- we haven’t decided what to do there, however (the existing web comps and online head shots on Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer would not be changed, however, and would be unique in their download/ online print capabilities if we decided to modify the format). Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - ESPY Model Testing Scaled Back? Our famous ESPY reduced-rate model testing program has been running since the summer of 2003, and there are now rumors that the program could be scaled back in favor of conventional consultations and increasing model portfolio photography and talent head shot photography. Our regular photography services have seen an increase in bookings, and ESPY has indications that it may not be as cost-effective as it used to be. With regular-rate service bookings increased, we have less time to do any reduced rate services even as group projects, and historically offline sales have led to conventional service bookings rather than ESPY bookings. ESPY has always been the darling of online sales efforts, and with a 30% drop in online sales, ESPY sessions are not booking like they used to. Overall, however, sales are up, with the majority going to our conventional services and our greatest success coming from our highly-refined offline sales program. It seems that when people see our work, they are inspired to invest in our photography services. This is how it should be, and it should be noted that we are booking clients even after they have shopped other photographers in this market. ESPY sessions may become less frequent, and we may become highly selective on who we book into this service. The next session is in late May, and there may not be another until July or August. With the connected First Look program, and some issues regarding height limitations in what agencies will even consider in a model, ESPY may become an elite service which is an exception rather than the rule. Monday, April 10, 2006 - New Service Agreements We will be releasing our Q2 service agreements and upgraded contracts later this week. Unlike the last few changes, rates will remain the same for now, although we will be looking at our rates again in September. The changes will instead reflect our new Client Delivery System (CDS), and some agreements will see the increased benefits that take advantage of of our last rate increase. One of the reasons that we raised our rates in Q4 2005 was to support our CDS and the inclusion of prints. The system is now ready, and while we will be doing more work after each photography session to support it, it is worth it to satisfy our clients and to enhance our new efforts in long term client support. The terms of our client delivery system (CDS) cover full-priced photography bookings. Discounts and special offers may modify the CDS. Sunday, April 9, 2006 - Changes In Store We will be working on adding more pictures to our online portfolio in the coming days, and these pictures will be more than the ones of models and talent who fill the Aurora PhotoArts site currently. We have a lot of landscapes, pictures of things and objects, and art work that we haven’t had the chance to show on this site until now. We will be editing pictures tonight, and some may make it onto the site on Monday morning. Of course, adding new type of pictures to the site is only one of the changes that are in store. The rest of this is about booking policies. We've had this policy in place for the past three years, but we're really going to start emphasizing it. Which policy are we talking about? The under 21 rule. If a model is under the age of 21 and at least 18, we strongly encourage their parents to become involved in the consultation and booking process. If the model is under 18, then parental involvement is mandatory. Under 21? Talk to your parents and spend time with them looking at our work. Your parents will like us. We have yet to meet any parents who don’t, and we have a mile-long list of references to back it up. We like parents, too, and have spent a lot of time making it easy to work with them in model testing and model portfolio photography work. Speaking of consultations, we have recently changed our consultation process to make it a bit easier. Changes aside, clients still must deposit at least 50% down in order to book our services (and those between 18 and 21 should have their parents involved.). Lately, our schedule has been getting tight, and booking deposits help us manage all of that and make it work. Saturday, April 8, 2006 - Client Choice Some of our work in the past twelve weeks has even surprised us. Some of our clients and even other photographers have told us that we’ve been doing the best work in our history in the past quarter. That’s a start, but it won’t compare to what is coming. Just wait until they see what we’ll be coming up with in the near future. What exactly does “writing photography” mean? It is a conceptual process that will become the foundation of the future of Aurora PhotoArts, and it will enable us to compete with highly regarded professional photographers and photography studios on a national and international level. We are going to become famous for our editorial and conceptual work. The irony is that you will seldom see anything editorial or conceptual in our present work. That will change. Photography is much more than great composition and taking well-lit, sharp pictures of models, actors, and talent. We are going to demonstrate that shortly. Aurora PhotoArts is about to become a legendary brand, and our already-excellent photography work will improve ten-fold in the next year. Why do others worry about famous photographers flying down from markets like New York and booking work in Tampa Bay? We don’t. That’s something to think about (if you’re not in the loop, it’ll only be more confusing than anything, and that’s just fine with us- we would rather that most would see the results and not have to think about the process). For now, we have to work on the studio, get it ready for models, and work on studio lighting. We’ll be working on the studio all night tonight and into tomorrow morning. The fact that 99% of all of our work is done on location and not in a studio should be raising some eyebrows, and should make the above information even more compelling. Good. We wouldn’t have it any other way. We are already the choice of our clients. We will soon become the choice of the established clients of our competition, and we look forward to making the bigger and better deal obvious. We’re going to give a level of work that you simply won’t be able to get anywhere else, and that’s the way that it should be. Thursday, April 6 2006 - Site Expansion Coming The Aurora PhotoArts web site will be expanded soon. This site has been very successful since its launch last fall, and although it weighs in at a hefty 1,500 pages, some of the features and other sections await expansion. We will be tripling the size of this site in 2006. We will be adding and updating the following site content: SEO We are now increasing this sites effectiveness on Internet search engines. The advanced SEO techniques coded into this site have been working well, and we will be adding SEO support features to double what we’ve been able to do so far. Much of our business comes from people who find us using the Internet, and while sales efforts are now focusing offline, our online efforts will increase. For the time being, smart people are finding exactly what they need. They are finding us, and feedback that we’ve obtained from our new clients indicate that they love our site and they love our work. Our web site is the most effective marketing engine in the Florida photography and design services market at the moment, and it will only get better as we grow into our designed potential. PORTFOLIO We will be adding several hundred new images to our online portfolio section, and will be activating all channels. We are thinking about adding additional portfolio channels, too. One of the largest channels will be our Stock Photography channel with stock sale-enables images for sale. We plan an additional 50 stock photography sessions this year to fill our stock library. DESIGN Our design services will be expanded to support commercial photography and other services. Consumer design services will be added. FEATURES We will be adding a FAQ section (like we had back in 2001-2002), articles, tutorials, DIY features, interviews, support content, an expanded client support section, and a store where our services can be booked and products such as art pieces can be purchased. ART Our first framed art will be available for purchase. Some pieces will be limited edition collectors items. We are presently in talks with a framing company to be able to frame our art prints. Most of these prints will be art derived from photographs and photographs themselves, but we have other product lines in the works. Aurora PhotoArts art work will be displayed in art galleries and shows, too. This is just the beginning. This Venus Class web site was designed to be more than a photography marketing site, and the directions that it could expand to in the future are limitless. There is a third market that we will be working in by 2008, and it will join our photography and design services as well as our art work. We will need a new studio, equipment, and top-of-the-line computer workstations to reach into that market, however. What we are working with right now cannot begin to touch what we need. Like most Passinault.Com companies, we are far more than a company with limited services. Aurora PhotoArts is far more than just a photography and design services company. Our present services only cover a third of what we’ve been planning all along, and all of the service and product lines are designed to compliment and enhance each other. Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - Advanced Marketing Aurora PhotoArts will roll out an advanced marketing program this month. One line of marketing material will be a joint marketing effort with both Aurora PhotoArts and event planning/ stage production company Eventi Events. The Aurora/ Eventi marketing will include service packages that no one in Florida can offer, and that alone is projected to increase our bookings over 500%. Both Eventi Events and Aurora PhotoArts are Passinault.Com companies. The advanced marketing program, which has been in the works since January, ties exclusively into our new testing, sales, referral, client delivery, and the Round Table Photography Association project programs. Currently, Aurora PhotoArts is the top photography company in the Tampa Bay market, and all these efforts will dramatically increase our lead over our competition in this market and others in Florida. By 2007, the advantages that our company will enjoy over other photography companies will become obvious and easily apparent to everyone in Tampa Bay, and this would be possible even if we were not tied into an advertising agency. That, however, is another scenario altogether, and will serve to further amplify the Aurora PhotoArts market advantage. Those who work with us will enjoy some of those advantages, too. Currently, we have several programs and projects in the works that have not been announced or revealed yet. Some of these will serve to revolutionize the Tampa Bay photography services market and will change the way that photographers, models, talent, and their clients interact and do business. We have looked at other photography companies and the way business is done in this market and are not very impressed. We do, however, have the ability to change things and improve the market. We will enhance our ability to do business by helping the market, and every genuine professional will ultimately benefit from this. The responsibility of leadership is something that we take as seriously as the quality services that we offer and the comprehensive support of our clients. The foundation of support resources and advanced business protocols are now in place. It is time to make a difference and make photography services a better business. Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - New Client Delivery System To ensure quality control on photography session output, we have brought a brand new client delivery system online which will cover the output of all photography services that we offer. This includes ESPY Reduced Rate Model Test Sessions, Model Portfolio Photography, and Talent Head Shot Photography. An earlier version of this system was already in place for wedding and commercial photography. Effective immediately, we will be working with two printing companies. Clients will have a range of different photograph printing options available. Prints will utilize a specialized format unveiled today which brands each photograph and ties in with our marketing program. This format is critical at this time since it has come to our attention that at least ten models will be taking our images to top model and talent agencies and businesses this month. All print files will come in a standard print resolution of 355 DPI/PPI in RGB mode @ 8 X 10 inch default sizes. Other print sizes and images files in professional CMYK mode/ file types are also available. Commercial clients will now be able to order files that can support poster, magazine, and billboard-size TIF image files in a CYMK format. The ESPY and closely connected FIRST LOOK programs will have an advanced online client delivery system by next week. This will replace the old Photoshop-generated web galleries and links that we had been using, and clients will be to see adjusted proofs on the web. For those who have been complaining of sideways proofs, this is good news. You can now view images proofs that have been adjusted. Our photographers will pick the overall proofs and allow the clients to choose, and the option to obtain contact sheets of the full session output will be available. Due to the fact that we now have new equipment and client support technology, full session output consultations where we can go over all the proofs with our clients and answer questions will also be made available. Effective immediately, we will discourage clients from printing their own pictures, although that option will remain available (there are seven pending bookings that will have expanded options available to them to ease the transition). Quality of the delivered images and photograph prints are very important to us, and we will make it as easy for the clients to get high quality prints of their photographs as possible. This new client delivery system is neccessary to support a ten-fold increase in business in the second quarter of 2006. Aurora PhotoArts is projected to grow substantially in the Tampa Bay market in the next year. In the past, our clients were able to choose their own printing company and print their pictures from our sessions. Since we cannot control the quality of the picture prints in those situations, a change was needed. This will make our services much easier to use from now on. Tampa Bay's best photography company just became a lot more effective. Thursday, March 30, 2006 - Joint Studio Name Not Set The new Joint Photography Studio (JPS) in the works for the Tampa Bay market may not end up being called Fusia Studios when it launches. The name is currently tentative, and other names are being considered while the studio and the advanced technology behind it are being finalized. The joint photography studio will set a new standard in the Tampa Bay market, and it will serve as a collaborative home to several professional photography companies, photographers, and businesses (advertising agency EOS MediaArts may be based there). Specialized services will include commercial photography, model portfolio development, and actor/ talent head shot photography. There is a genuine need for this studio in the Tampa Bay market, and work is proceeding. Currently, the studio project is being administered by the Round Table Photography association and Aurora PhotoArts, but a new business, which would be a Passinault.Com company, may be created to run the operational studio. Thursday, March 30, 2006 - Client Promotion And Support Our new client promotion and support program is completed and will be fully operational on April 2, 2006. All clients from the past six years are eligible for the program and we extend the offer free of charge, with no obligation to obtain any additional services. Present and future clients will be connected to the program automatically, and it will come as a free bonus to any booked model portfolio photography session or actor and talent head shot photography session. Other services that we offer may also be eligible for this service. All client promotions include a free inquiry-screening service to help reduce inappropriate offers. For details on how this works, you will have to call us. We are unable to provide this information on our web site at this time. Our service agreement contracts are currently being updated to support this new service. Thursday, March 30, 2006 - Alert System Role Increased There is a new alert for a client by the name of Samantha Sweat. She can read it HERE. Effective immediately, we will be using our alert system for far more than long-lost clients and dormant client accounts. We will use it as a means of getting in touch with any client who we are having difficulty reaching. Our NEWS DIRECTORY menu will link directly to these alerts (with the exception of this one). To date, our experimental alert system has proven to be very useful and highly successful. It has put us in touch with many models and other clients. As of now, it is no longer classified as experimental and is now fully operational with expanded roles. to see current alerts in our system, go HERE. Thursday, March 30, 2006 - Call Backs Currently, we have been playing phone tag with over thirty clients in the past month. We will have this corrected in a matter of days. Please note that it is our goal to call back all clients on the same day. If you cannot reach anyone in our client services department during normal business hours (9AM-5PM M-F), it probably means that we are all out working on projects, and a call back would normally occur after 6PM that same day (depending upon work load). Normally, you can reach a live person in client services before 9AM and after 6PM on any day, as there would be someone either prepping or winding down from the day's work at those times. Another good time to reach one of our representatives would be between 9PM and 6AM, as we sometimes have someone working in the studio overnight. If you call our client services department and are prompted to leave a message, please do so (If you don't get any answer, please E-Mail us- The system became overloaded with messages on the morning of 3/29. We've since rectified that issue, but it can happen). Please indicate the best time to reach you, and include more than one phone number if you can. We will have someone contact you. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Thursday, March 30, 2006 - MUA Saturation We have done over a dozen interviews with leading Make Up Artists in the past month, and are still swamped in submissions for MUA work. Please note that Make Up Artists that we subcontract must be licensed as a Make Up Artist through the department of business and professional regulation. If you don't have a license, we cannot consider you until you are qualified and licensed as a professional Make Up Artist. This said, the market is already saturated with licensed Make Up Artists, and we are taking our time looking for additional professionals to work with (there is one MUA who is contacting us daily, and we will be getting back to them shortly). Our call-back times with MUA inquiries are now at an average of two to three weeks, due to current high booking levels of work. Currently, we are selectively considering MUA's to work with, and are no longer accepting inquiries from Make Up Artists. We are also looking into setting MUA Rates for our referral program, and booked MUA's would be locked into those rates (Note: This is nothing against the Make Up Artists, but if we do not do this, it is going to become very difficult to get any of our clients to book a MUA for their photography session during our consultations). Thursday, March 30, 2006 - Business Process We are in the process of streamlining our business operations. Consultations, booking, and programs such as ESPY are being optimized for high-volume business. It is becoming so busy at this time that it is very difficult to keep up, and we will be able to handle more business by the first week of April. In April, we will get even busier as new marketing and sales programs launch, adding to our word-of-mouth bookings and repeat client sales. It is going to be a record-setting spring and summer for sales. The sales and service processes, which have been proven and refined over time, are now in place. We are ready to push what we have to offer and increase our lead in the Tampa Bay photography and design market. Increased profits will be reinvested into out company, with new equipment procured this Summer. This new equipment will lead to a ten-fold increase in the quality of our work late this year, as we have a ton of great, creative ideas and are waiting on the equipment to bring those ideas to life. Tuesday, March 28, 2006 - Next Reduced Rate Model Testing Saturday, April 15, 2006 is the magic date for our very next ESPY reduced-rate model testing session for aspiring models and experienced professional models (if they are looking for professional pictures to pad the looks in their portfolio, as all ESPY photography is professional quality). This should take the edge off of the normal tax-day crunch, especially for parents who want to get their kids into modeling. For more, check out our ESPY SECTION. Friday, March 24, 2006 - Security Upgrades In Place Security upgrades to our leading operations are now in place and are in effect. Most of the measures are invisible to most people. We are no longer in the unintentional business of training those who aspire to compete with us, and have ensured that Aurora PhotoArts will continue to the top choice and the undisputed leader of photography and design services in the Tampa Bay market. While we strive to educate our clients about the entertainment industry and about true quality in photography and design services, we have further increased security efforts in career promotion so they will not be bothered by offers that have no chance in giving them the quality and professionalism that they deserve. Friday, March 24, 2006 - April Showers As we move into the second quarter of 2006, we're going to be pouring it on in April! We've been booking and shooting a lot throughout February and March, and work will only increase in April. Expect a new marketing strategy in April (we may use the "Higher Resolutions" one again in Q1 2007 because this one worked really well), another in the summer, and yet another in the fall- one for each quarter may be the trend here. Expect lots of new pictures to be uploaded in April, too. We've been really busy lately, and have a backlog of client calls to return and updates to upload. We will be caught up with client callbacks this weekend. Once again, Aurora PhotoArts is proving to be the photography and design services leader in the Tampa Bay market, and the top choice for entertainment professionals. Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - ESPY Session Rescheduled The March 25, 2006 ESPY session has been postponed to April 8, 2006. C. A. Passinault, who normally does these sessions, has an obligation in another industry which is not photography related. C. A. Passinault will be available for the next ESPY session on April 8. Sunday, February 26, 2006 - Sales On Upswing Bookings and sales have been increasing in the past few weeks. Everything we have rolled out has seen better than expected success. Our stock photography program has attracted top professional models and other professionals in the industry. ESPY is seeing some of its best bookings in years, with experienced models as well as aspiring taking advantage of the unmatched service that we offer. Other services, such as our actor head shot photography sessions, have been doing so well that we had to scale back some of our special offers. We are now booked well in advance, and this trend will only continue. Sunday, February 19, 2006 - Stock Images For Sale Our first batch of stock images are now online, and sales start immediately. Stock photography sessions are booking up fast, and lots more will be available soon. Go HERE to check them out. Saturday, February 18, 2006 - Site Upgrades Site upgrades are now being done, and it will lead to small differences in continuity with some parts of the site (for example, the new stock photography part of our online portfolio has been slightly restructured). This is of little consequence, as the site was designed to be updated from time to time. We are currently working on enhancing the portfolio section and tweaking our thumbnail formats. Friday, February 17, 2006 - Stock Photography Session Our first official Stock Photography Session was done today at a secluded beach in Ruskin with Jacksonville model Michelle Natasha and Aurora PhotoArts senior photographer C. A. Passinault. The images that we selected for stock use came out well, and you can see them all by going HERE. Thursday, February 16, 2006 - System Reset Due to the competitive nature of our business, we have reset our NEWS - DEVELOPMENTS AND UPDATES section to comply with new security and public relations measures. New posts in this section will be overseen by our new head of corporate security, and sensitive information will not be included. Thursday, February 16, 2006 - Market Focus Shifts Directive 1903152120091407 (KEY A1) has been implemented, with full operations commencing. We have been preparing for this for the past six months, and now that infrastructure, contracts, and new business tools are online, we are now shifting our work to other operations within the Tampa Bay photography services market. We will have a senior staff meeting in the main studio this evening to go over specifics. Our staff and support teams will know what this means, with disclosure on a need-to-know basis only. Subcontracted professionals will only have access to the relevant information that they need to follow through on their bookings. A meeting with our attorney is scheduled for next week as well. The plan is in motion, and we are on schedule. New security protocols are also now active. Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - It's A Secret For Now Could it be that the information released on this site that others studied was done by elaborate design and completely intentional? We’re not saying what the plan was or how it worked, but lets just say that we’re happy with the outcome so far. Effective immediately, and per strict orders from C. A. Passinault, information security for all of the companies of Passinault.Com and affiliates has been enhanced, and new measures designed to maintain (and ultimately increase our) market superiority are in place. This covers us, too, as we are presently the most profitable company in the Passinault.Com arsenal and we are leaders in a very competitive industry. We are sitting on a mountain of revolutionary ideas, some which have the potential to change the course of industries and the way that business is done. In many cases, entire business models and even web sites will be worked on in secret, to be unveiled and unleashed upon different markets in blitzkrieg fashion with the assistance of overwhelming support infrastructure that has been in the works for years. The idea is to keep our ideas a secret until we can properly push them. Competitors will not have time to react and adapt, enabling us to dominate markets and establish indisputable leadership. We are the answer to the problems that the photography services market is swamped with presently, and we will begin by reshaping the Tampa Bay market and leading by example. We have already accomplished things that no one else can do or had been able to do. This trend will dramatically increase shortly. While some information on the Aurora PhotoArts site will be adjusted for security purposes, most of the current information will remain. After all, it’s common knowledge already for all of the people who spend their time studying this site, and we are going to keep material that can be referenced on the site for people who are looking for the true source of some really good ideas floating around out there. Additionally, the business models expressed on this web site are now outdated compared to what we are now working on while remaining compatible. We are confident that most businesses using our ideas will not be able to fulfil the potential of those ideas, as they do not fully understand what they are working with and are missing the pieces that make them work as-intended, and what we are working on behind the scenes is even better. How are we so sure that what we have works? Experience and education. We have experimented and studied our results over the years. We constantly study business, marketing, and other industries and apply those concepts to our industry when we can make it work. We have hard data to back it up, and at this point in the game more and more of our ideas are as effective as we want them to be. We have a business research and development department that most Fortune 500 companies can only dream of, and we will soon prove our advantages. Our claims are about to become facts, and will be obvious to everyone in the photography services and design industry. Crazy claims? We hope that most think that and underestimate what we are going to do. As a matter of fact, we’re counting on it. We have enjoyed watching both aspiring and professionally competent competitors react to our simpler ideas and attempt to counter some of the things that we have been successful with. The real fun will be watching them try to react to things that they won’t know about until the last moments. Expect informational posts in our developments section to drop off, effective immediately, as our business completes a transition that will shape the industry of the future. Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - New Round Table Site A brand new Round Table Photography Association web site is now up and running - on a EOS MediaArts laptop in the studio. The site, a brand new Huey Class photography and project marketing web site, is said to be one of the most advanced sites yet, and is even a bit more refined than our Aurora PhotoArts Venus Class site. More content and features will be added to the site over the next few weeks, and there are standing orders to keep the new site offline until it can be properly pushed (You can see the site at TampaBayPhotographers.Com when it is up). We have huge plans for our little elite association. Which brings us to a big secret................. Monday, February 13, 2006 - Stock Photography Our stock photography program is starting to book red-hot. We have a lot of highly experienced, professional models lined up to participate with the program, and since the quality requirements are a bit on the high side we’re going to be selective. Models who need details about the program only have to spend a minute or two reading about it on our web site. If they have questions, they need to call us and simply ask. Competition is stiff, and we require that instructions are followed for consideration and participation. The PhotoStock sessions are going to become team efforts as the weeks progress, with Make Up Artists and additional photographers brought into them. With specific requirements and high standards needed to pull off some of our concepts, most can see why we are asking for professional models only. The program is about to shift gears, too, as our other services are about to be marketed aggressively and we don’t want to compete with ourselves and have aspiring models get the wrong idea. See that friendly link on our front page for professional models to use to check out the program? The link is about to be removed and other efforts will take its place. So far, 2006 is looking to be our busiest development year since 2001. It will be a year of transitions in many areas, and our stock photography program alone will see dozens of sessions. To be considered, models need to submit a cover letter concerning which session or type of modeling they want be considered for, a resume with references, and a current composite card. Sunday, February 12, 2006 - Site Success The current Aurora PhotoArts site continues to surprise us. Not only is the site extremely effective as a marketing tool and is instrumental in helping us book record levels of work, but an experimental feature is proving to be a brilliant addition to the site design. We’re talking about our CLIENT ALERT system, which not only works, but is inspiring a lot of curiosity about the great ideas that our staff seems to come up with all of the time. We have a bet going on around here that some photographers will start using a similar system (as long as they don’t claim that they came up with it and give credit where it is due, we don’t really mind). The irony is that the alert system works best when you A.) Have at least a few years of working in a market like Tampa Bay, and B). Are actually booking enough work and have worked with enough models to use it with. For most of the people who would do that out there, neither is the case. So what is our alert system all about? Well, it stemmed from research and study of our web logs over the years. We noticed that some of our traffic and the patterns that emerged were from models and other clients going on our web site to look at their pictures, and they would often forward the web site profiles to their friends and professional contacts (we have the same issue with our web proofs that we send to clients who have finished their photography sessions). After a few years of heavy bookings, life throws a monkey wrench into our client contact flow, and we lose touch with some of our clients. It’s not, mind you, intentional for either our clients or ourselves, but it does happen. C. A. Passinault, after noticing that there were several clients who vanished and had the opportunity to go over the final design documents of this present site a week before it was coded, realized that there was an answer to his problem. He inked in the alert system, figured out how it would work in a day of sorting out details, and then forwarded the design addition to the EOS Web Team so they could implement the experimental feature. There is a lot of psychology behind the alert system. We know people and human nature (one of the reasons that our sell-through numbers are so good). C. A. Passinault realized that such a system was the perfect way to get important messages to unavailable clients who eventually came back to the site to look at their pictures. None of us were prepared for just how effective this idea would be. Many of our clients are now checking in after they see an alert for them, and we are reconnecting with our past clients, who are very enthusiastic about working with us again. One client, Jinelsa Rosado, was a fifteen year old child model when we last worked with her. She’s now nineteen, very much grown up, and we are booking her into our stock photography program because we know she’s an experienced model and can deliver the professional looks that the project needs. We have some really interesting features that we will be adding to the site design soon, such as a PHP based database system that will allow the interactive serving of the right pictures for individual visitors based on their activity on the site. We’ll check that out later. Saturday, February 11, 2006 - Our Market Intentions The Tampa Bay photography market is in great need of improvement. We are in the position to help it change for the better, and we are committed to helping it by educating other professionals and assisting reputable photographers in the market. Our advantages are about to become the advantages of professional photographers who deserve to book more work, and it’s also important for us to help others clarify the true source of all the good ideas in the Tampa Bay market. Saturday, February 11, 2006 - Images Uploaded More images have been uploaded to our growing portfolio core. Pictures of model Ann Poonkasem, taken two days ago, were uploaded. We have also added other types of pictures, as we are working on adding range to our portfolio with both existing and future pictures, and our portfolio core will have different channels soon. Check out the latest additions by going to our PORTFOLIO SECTION or by checking our newest images to the left. Friday, February 10, 2006 - Photography Association Our Round Table Photography Association, founded in 2004, has been a tremendous success and is making an impact in the Tampa Bay market. We are all booking an increasing amount of work and business is thriving, with the highest client satisfaction rates and client referrals in the Tampa Bay and Florida photography industry! The influence this association of top photographers has on the Tampa Bay market will only increase, as we are investing more of our marketing technology and ideas into it and into our photographer partners. We would not be the photography company that we are today without the help and support of professional photographers Andy Meng and Craig Huey. Is what we offer not what you are looking for? Not to worry- you have a choice. Look at the work of our partner photographers and see if they offer what you need. They all do excellent work, and we’re happy regardless of who among us that you book. Unfortunately, we cannot recommend anyone who we do not work with and who is not in our photography association. We will be inducting other professional photographers who we can vouch for shortly, further increasing your choices. It’s just not us that our competition has to worry about, now. It’s all of us. We are very concerned about the professionalism and the ethics of this photography market, and are dedicated to helping it improve. After all, an ethical and professional market is also good for us, and everyone wins, including those who are looking for high quality pictures that they can use and that will help them in their careers as professionals. The Round Table Photography Association can be found at TampaBayPhotographers.Com. The site is a little old right now, but it is usable. The EOS Web Team, however, is on the case, and word is that they will be launching a brand new Round Table Photography Association site this month, if not this weekend! Thursday, February 9, 2006 - Images Uploaded We have uploaded a variety of images to our online portfolio core. Many of these images were from our archives, but a few, such as those of Tampa model and actress Harmony Oswald, were done just days ago. Check them out by going to our PORTFOLIO SECTION or by looking through our newest images on the left. We spent a lot of time today in Brandon shooting model/ entertainer/ Passinault.Com staffer Ann Poonkasem. Some of those pictures will be uploaded on Saturday. More non-model and talent pictures, which include landscapes and things, will be uploaded shortly. Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - Portfolio Core Online This is what a lot of people have been waiting for. Our official Aurora PhotoArts Portfolio Core is now online, and the images on our web site can be accessed from the main portfolio page, now! We currently have over 60 images in our online portfolio, and more will be added shortly. Most of the work consists of model portfolio pictures, talent/ actor head shots, and portraits. Landscapes, things, and art will be added shortly, and once those new genres are added our portfolio core channels will be added. The Aurora PhotoArts site is now up to 100%, and will see expansion soon. While our portfolio images have been on this site since it launched, we lacked a main portfolio section menu and all of our online portfolio was accessed from thumbnails used throughout our site. This was effective, but it was also inconvenient. With the new portfolio core, our site is now much easier to use! Monday, February 6, 2006 - More Updates And Studio Work We will be working on the studio today with cleaning, reorganizing, and installing equipment.We will be locating more image and support files in our archives during this work, which will lead to large site updates sometime this week, which will include bringing our portfolio core online. By next week, the studio work should be done, and we will be able to focus much of our time on marketing and business. New service contracts will be finalized by Wednesday (C. A. Passinault was not completely happy with the design that we came up with last week, and has introduced a new format and made adjustments. The new design is superior in every way, with ease of updates being a major addition). Our Client Services department work was finished last week, and we are completely up. We are able to return calls, book clients, and follow up on client needs faster and more efficiently than we have in the past five years. This new level of performance is needed for our new marketing efforts, which come as soon as this weekend. Friday, February 3, 2006 - Enhanced Client Support Besides our deal with Independent Modeling, which is already well known to those who keep up with our site news and where we give our modeling and talent clients featured one-year profiles on the Independent Sites, we are working on new ways of enhancing client support and building professional relationships with our clients and affiliates. This information, and most of our newest ideas, will not be posted anywhere on this web site or dispensed on the Internet. We will utilize what we have developed where it is appropriate; to help and support our valued clients. Thursday, February 2, 2006 - TFP Article Our first article is now online in our support section! It is a controversial piece about TFP photography and Aurora PhotoArts coming to the rescue with a professional alternative to TFP. This article was written by Aurora PhotoArts senior photographer and director C. A. Passinault, and it's sure to be hotly debated in the industry. Read it by going HERE. Thursday, February 2, 2006 - Preparations We've been working on the studio, contracts, and on support equipment for a bust month. We will be archiving and backing up over 200 photography session files this week, and will be clearing hard drive space for record-setting levels of work. Our Aurora PhotoStock program will be extremely busy this year, and could amount to up to 50% of our work. New stock photography agreements will be completed this weekend, with stock photography sessions starting next week. Services such as our model portfolio photography, ESPY model testing sessions, and actor head shot photography sessions are also booking well. Monday, January 30, 2006 - Rates Adjusted Our rates have been adjusted, with new services and client support benefits taken into account. Rates for wedding photography have doubled, and this is the only large increase done with this rate adjustment (we will showcase new wedding pictures shortly). Rates that were quoted before today are now longer valid, although we will honor rates that are locked by services that have been booked and rates quoted on the consultations that we have pending for this week. Note to aspiring (beginning) models: We do not offer TFP or free services, although we do offer reduced-rate model testing sessions. There seems to be a little confusion with some people that we offer free TFP shoots and will help a model build a portfolio at no charge. This is not the case. We are a business, and not a charity. If you sincerely want professional portfolios and tools (and you NEED them), you must invest in them. Note to professional, established models (those with professional portfolios and composite cards who have no need for portfolio photography): We do not offer free (TFP) services, although we do have an ongoing stock photography program and the occasional model print job that you may be interested in. We can only consider professional models for any model job or our stock photography program. If you do not have composite cards or a portfolio, we recommend that you invest in them somewhere. If you don’t, we will see what you have, but you may not be able to compete with the professionals who are using professional tools. Saturday, January 28, 2006 - Project Schedule Drafted We have our project schedule that we will do our best to meet or exceed until summer 2006. It will begin in February and will run until August. This does not include our client bookings and portfolio photography. We have allocated the resources to do between six to eight PhotoStock sessions a month. These sessions will book up to 24 professional models per month. During this six month schedule, we should have 48 Photostock sessions completed, yielding 20,000 professional, stock-enabled pictures featuring 192 established professional models. During this same period, we are projecting booking an additional 156 models in our portfolio photography services and ESPY model test sessions, which are very different from our stock photography work. We are forecasting 200 model portfolio bookings in 2006, which is far more than any photography company in the State, including those who get agency referred model portfolio shoots. Saturday, January 28, 2006 - Rates And Contracts We are adjusting our rates again, fine tuning our services, and will be rolling our brand new service agreements on Monday. Our rates should be good until this fall, but in this business you never can tell when we'll have to adjust them again. Some rates are dropping and others are rising, but the adjustments are not by much this time. ESPY reduced rate model testing session rates will be adjusted often, however, especially as demand rises and our ability to support them is reduced. We have projects that are cutting into our ESPY resources, and with a second photography company in the works that we have to support, these projects are critical right now and will be a priority until this summer. At this point, between projects and our normal photography bookings (which are projected to increase this year by a factor of TEN), we will be lucky if we have an ESPY session every month or TWO. Saturday, January 28, 2006 - Site Updated The Aurora PhotoArts site has been updated with new information, and we even removed new image thumbnails for pictures that we were not too fond of (it seems that certain pictures looked good on some computers and not others). We will be adding more pictures and will be bringing our portfolio core online in a few days. Pictures added starting in February will truly be our newest 2006 pictures, as we will be caught up with building the portfolio database and our extremely heavy workload for the next sixteen months will give us a plentiful supply of awesome pictures of professional models and other subjects to pick and choose from. We are also looking forward to adding the long awaited interview with our visionary prodigy photographer C. A. Passinault, which should provide some interesting insights to Aurora PhotoArts and what we are working on. Friday, January 27, 2006 - Studio Overhauled The Geomedia 3 production facility south of Brandon has been overhauled and upgraded with new computers and equipment. Older systems have been taken offline; they will be refurbished and designated as additional backups. The entire studio has been cleaned. Storm damage has been repaired, security systems enhanced, and temporary measures in place since the Hurricanes of 2004 have been replaced with permanent solutions. Our client services telephone system has been rebuilt, and the database has been reformatted. New tools are in place, and our responses, consultation set ups, booking systems, and client communications are now dramatically improved. Check lists, rate sheets, and phone aids will be installed this weekend for our client services area. Our advanced marketing, sales, and work tools have all been primed for record-breaking workloads (which, of course, are set to begin in February). An actress will be in the studio next week to record a new phone system interface. A new hold system and hands-free head sets for our representatives are coming in the next few weeks. Thursday, January 26, 2006 - New Passinault.Com Site The newest Passinault.Com web site is now online. You can use this site to keep up with everything that all of the Passinault.Com companies are doing. This Extensive web site is your direct link to all of the Passinault.Com companies, which includes Aurora PhotoArts, and the next entertainment industry! You can access the site from any page on our site by clicking on the Passinault.Com link on the top, and use this to switch over to the sites of our sister companies and back again. Sunday, January 22, 2006 - Aurora PhotoArts Breaks 450 We've been working on updating the Aurora PhotoArts web site all weekend, and we audited the web site files after one particularly lengthy update. We were shocked to discover that this web site no exceeds 450 pages in size, making it easily one of the largest and most elaborate web sites in the Tampa Bay market. Our marketing team is planning to have the site exceed 1,000 by the end of 2006, but at the rate we are adding to the site, they are projecting that we might hit 1,500. That's a hefty-size site! AuroraPhotoArts.Com is presently one of the most advanced end effective photography services marketing web sites ever unleashed on any market, and it is a balanced blend of quality pictures and information. Sunday, January 22, 2006 - Rates And Pictures We have posted special rates for our Valentines Day Photography Special, which is one of the few exceptions that we have to the rule. Please do not try to figure out our other rates using the posted rates as an example, as there is no correlation between the terms and rates of specials and our normal services. We do not post our rates on this web site, as we promote total value over having the lowest rates in the Tampa Bay market. Do we have the lowest rates in this market? That may or may not be the case. Please call for all rate information, and note that rates may not be current after being quoted, as we adjust them periodically. Rates are only good when they are booked and locked into a written contract, although we will lock them as a courtesy between initial client contact and a client consultation. In other news, more pictures were added to our site today. Check them out using the newest images menu on the left. Some specials may have rate information. We normally do not provide service rate information on this web site, and shown rates pertain only to the listed special which they are associated with. Listed rates for specials have no relation to our other service rates. Please call for most rates. Saturday, January 21, 2006 - Site Updated The site has been updated, with more images added and work done to our Composite Card and Web Comp sections. We also did some work to our online portfolio section. There will be another large update tomorrow, completing this work, too, as we have to look for some files that we need today. Saturday, January 14, 2006 - Swimsuit Stock At least 50% of Aurora PhotoArts stock photography efforts this year will go toward swimsuit and related photography, according to latest reports. We will be working with leading professional swimsuit and fitness models throughout 2006, with the heaviest workload planned for early Summer. Keep checking the PhotoStock section for more, and if you are a swimsuit model, we want to talk to you. Aurora PhotoArts has not focused on swimwear photography much in our history, and this will now change as we shift focus to other projects. Effective immediately, we will be adding a swimsuit look for our portfolio packages. All swimsuit photography will be in good taste. Saturday, January 14, 2006 - Second Company Confirmed C. A. Passinault confirmed today that a second photography company had been formed with the intent purpose of aggressively leading new markets. "We have been watching others attempt to move into the photography and design markets that Aurora PhotoArts presently leads in" Passinault stated, "Although Aurora PhotoArts will continue to lead in the markets that it services, we formed another photography company to go after their markets and their clients in response. The family-friendly and commercial markets that Aurora PhotoArts works is not compatible with the other markets, so it was necessary to come up with a new brand. The new company will share resources with Aurora PhotoArts, and both companies will work together. Our competition and aspiring competition now have to worry about two companies". The new company is currently building a portfolio and will launch services later this year . Saturday, January 14, 2006 - Site Design Adjustments We are adjusting site copy throughout the site and are tweaking design elements. We may add a new format to the site pictures, too, but may not end up doing that because it would alter the design of the site and clash with older pictures. Our image files are also designed to be used on other sites. We will be heavily updating our online portfolio once we have moved image files onto our new computers. Friday, January 13, 2006 - Next ESPY Session The next ESPY reduced-rate model testing session will be on Monday, January 30, 2006 in the Tampa Bay area. For details and to book, contact us. There may only be one ESPY session in February, and future sessions may be rarer as our photography resources are diverted over to our portfolio development, commercial photography, and stock photography programs; the stock photography will be the largest drain on ESPY work. Saturday, December 31, 2005 - January Plans We're still waiting on some equipment shipments to arrive, and next week will have a bit of unpacking and configuring equipment. Until the second week of January, expect updates in spurts (we will be uploading articles in our FEATURES section next week and the entire site will see a massive update during that time, too). By the second week of January, we will be ready for constant web updates and heavy marketing. The next ESPY session will be on Monday, January 16, 2006. Also in January, we will be booking swimsuit models for a new stock photography project that we are working on, and our stock photography program will go into high gear (we will be collaborating with professional models starting in January at work levels not seen since 2001, and we will exceed those efforts by far in 2006). For now, swimsuit models shouldn't wait for our job announcements. Send your information NOW. Monday, December 26, 2005 - New Equipment Obtained We have obtained brand new, powerful computers for the studio and portable production/ support applications and are also equipping our field teams with new Palm TX PDA's and other high-end devices such as blue tooth enhanced cell phones. The equipment is now being configured and will be operational before the end of the week. Full Wi-Fi Support for a range of over a dozen device formats is now in place with enhanced security. Service contracts and booking forms will be upgraded this week, as well. Expect increased efficiency in business operations and an obvious increase in web site updates (expect our online portfolio to triple in size by next week and our main portfolio section to come online). The new equipment is optimized for heavy maintenance of multiple web sites and enhanced communications with our staff (some of you know what this means for us and our affiliates, and we're excited about it, too). Preparation for FY 2006 is now complete. Existing equipment will be upgraded and used for back-up purposes. Friday, December 23, 2005 - 2006 Market Forecast The last three months have been very busy for us, setting new records and helping us to prepare for the first third of 2006, which statistically is our busy season (from 2001 all the way to 2005, each and every period between January and April has been very busy, with our busiest occurring in 2004. We expect 2006 to easily beat this many times over). The 2006 fiscal year is forecast to be our best yet, with up to a 1,000% increase in business across the board due to new sales and marketing efforts that will be set into motion in January. In the first six months, we will be doing more photography than we have in all the combined years of work that we've done since 1994. The year will see something special happen with our photography, and this company branching out into new and previously unheard of markets. We are the best at what we do, and we are about to show those who think that they are competing with us just how it's done and how this business can work. If nothing else, what we are going to do will change the Tampa Bay market forever and will have a strong ripple effect among others in the industry. Some may ask themselves how we are going to do all of this. We can't reveal all that we've been up to in the last six months, but we can say that between booking work and doing the top quality photography in this market we've been spending a lot of time and money with business investments and building infrastructure designed to support and enhance what we have planned. We also have the most comprehensive strategy outlined that any photography and design services market has ever seen, with a ten-year long term plan that has already been set into motion. We've said this before, but it needs to be repeated and emphasized- our plans are more than educated speculation, and we have hard numbers and experience backing up what we have set out to do. Simply put, we will achieve, and perhaps exceed, our market objectives. While it is true that the companies of Passinault.Com (which includes us) have been historically slow to do what we set out to do, the track record speaks for itself. While we're often late to the party, we accomplish 90% of everything that we set out to do eventually. Starting next year, expect the time lag to become a thing of the past, as profits from both Aurora PhotoArts and Eventi Events will be invested into our sister companies, such as the troubled- but promising - Dream Nine Studios. While we can speak for ourselves in the accomplishment department, we have seen what is going on with Dream Nine Studios and our other sister companies, and we can say that what is in the works is awesome. For example, with Dream Nine Studios, we found out today that they will do business in FOUR different industries, being motion picture production, video game development, a music label, and now work in manga (Trust us on this one- they have a very detailed plan on how this all works together, and it is brilliant). Why invest in our sister companies? Because their success will ensure our leadership of not only the Tampa Bay market, but any market that we choose to operate in. Imagine what will happen to our business when professionals realize that we are fully associated with the top companies in several industries? For now, we can already offer our clients much more than anyone else can, and that is a well known fact. That's probably one of the reasons that we consistently do better in the business than just about anyone else. Expect the advantage that we have to increase ten-fold in January. How? Sit back and watch. The observant will find out for themselves what is to come. Aurora PhotoArts is much more than a photography and design services company, and in 2006 we will often demonstrate that we can do much more than mere photographers and designers are capable of. That is only once facet that will define us as being a top company in the Tampa Bay market. Most photographers and designers will find out the hard way that they simply cannot compete with us because of their limits in talent, resources, and sheer capability. There ARE lot of great photographers and designers out there, but they are not us. We'll bet on us every time. This said, if there are exceptionally talented photographers and designers out there that exceed our capabilities in any of our service lines, we have advanced plans to work with them rather than against them, enhancing all of our businesses and increasing the integrity of the market. How will we do this? We'll let them know in due time, and some of this collaborative work will become obvious by the spring. We have to say that our company wouldn't be where it is today without the friendship, professional collaboration, and support of great professionals. Two professionals who have been great to us would be Orlando photographer Craig Huey and Tampa photographer Andy Meng. These guys have our respect and dedication, and both will benefit from what we are working on, although neither one needs any help in the photography department. They are both excellent, and the Tampa Bay market needs more professionals like them. We're booked solid through the end of the year, but will be here throughout the holiday season to set up consultations and to book new work. We will also invest some money into special projects and procure new equipment next week. Early next year, we will be investing heavily into new studio lighting and photography support equipment. Monday, December 19, 2005 - Holiday Specials End The holiday portrait specials end today. While we will honor our holiday specials until midnight tonight, effective tomorrow you will have to pay full rates for portrait photography. If you're one of the hold-outs, you owe it to yourself to call today and book a session. Hours are left, and tomorrow it's gone. Friday, December 16, 2005 - The Next Ten Years Aurora PhotoArts Senior Photographer/ Director and Passinault.Com Executive Producer C. A. Passinault revealed a ten year plan for Aurora PhotoArts today, and the details left our jaws on the floor. It is safe to say that what this company is today is nothing compared to what it will become, existing services are only a tiny fraction of what is to come, and they will be dramatically enhanced by what is coming. Starting in 2006, expect a revolution in what photography and design services should be, as well as new standards in what consumers and professionals looking for such services should expect. Passinault and his team have identified what the market needs as well as what it wants, and Aurora PhotoArts is being prepared to offer services that will exceed those of any other photography and design services company as well as services serving markets that DO NOT EXIST YET. These future markets, more than just educated speculation, are what really floored us. Passinault stated that these new markets were identified through experience with clients and being creative with our professional services, and we have to agree that the demand for these services in these new markets will be high. We are surprised that no one has thought of these services before, and it will be interesting to see how the competition reacts to these services and new markets once they see how successful they will be. Passinault informed us that he expected the competition to scramble to compete, but was confident that such competition would fall short and would be publically perceived as low quality, second-rate counterfeits of what we will offer. One thing is certain: No matter what happens, the innovations and quality services that our company will introduce will change the face of the photography and design services industries for all time. Passinault told us that he is not impressed with the current state of the photography market in Tampa Bay, and is especially concerned about the deplorable state of the modeling and talent industries here. He and his team have come up with solutions, however, and by this time next year it will be improved. Expect an interview with our resident visionary, C. A. Passinault, to be published soon on this web site in our FEATURES section. Aurora PhotoArts is currently the top photography services company for the Tampa Bay market, and we bring much more to the table than photography when it comes to the support of professional models, actors, and talent. Our photography is hard to beat and we have no real competition in model and talent support; this trend will spread to our other photography and design services as well as the new markets that we will open in the future. We have a ten year plan that extends to 2016 and we know exactly where we are going and what we have to do to get there, while remaining flexible enough to adapt to market changes that may happen along the way. How many others can say the same? Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - Booked Up Due to a holiday-induced staff shortage and heavy bookings, we will be making client call-backs on Friday. We will be out today doing client consultations and have bookings all day tomorrow, which include obligations with several models. If no one is available on the client services line, please leave a message and information regarding the best time to reach you on Friday; the next call-back time that we have available will be on Monday, December 19, as we are booked solid throughout the weekend. Thank you for your attention and your patience. In related news, our new service contracts will be released next week, and this comes with adjusted rates. Most rates are not expected to go up much, but most will be adjusted. Call for most rates. Saturday, December 10, 2005 - Site Files Refreshed Due to support, file cleanup, and SEO purposes, we have refreshed 100% of our current site code. We've made some secret adjustments, too; the extent of which will not be known for months. Expect large follow-up updates to come in the coming days. In other notes, the image that you see to the left of model Roxanne Kowalska was taken on December 10, 2001 (exactly four years ago today) on Clearwater Beach. Going through all of the content on the site, we noticed the date and realized that our work really goes back a long way. That shoot was so long ago, it almost feels like another lifetime. What is even more haunting is looking over old pictures while listening to Moby's Grace, and realizing that, to an extent, the pictures are ghosts of a single moment in time. Those moments now only exist in a single image, and can never be found again. Here is to an awesome model and a perfect day. Friday, December 9, 2005 - Support Content Coming This just in from our marketing department and the SEO team over at EOS MediaArts: Our support section will be seeing just as many updates as our image uploads. New content will include Independent Modeling-style articles and tutorials aimed at educating the consumer about photography, photography services, and value versus flat-out rate shopping. Nothing about TFP? Since we do not do it nor do we want anything controversial on this site, we'll leave that issue to our friends at the modeling resource sites- word has it that the professional models are now annoyed about TFP's and will be dealing with them head-on in 2006. We will have a lot of written content on this site in the near future, and it will be useful to anyone looking for professional photography services regardless of if they get those services from us or not; it is our full intention to help the integrity of the photography services market even if it costs us short-term market share. Thursday, December 8, 2005 - Site Ready For 2006 Our site is ready for what we have planned in 2006. We will be updating certain files throughout this month, and will be bring the main portfolio menus online. We've been very happy with the performance and the marketing effectiveness of this site lately, and we project that a new site will not be needed until 2008. This is good news for our marketing plans, and this site will see strong updates and strong support next year as it supports our new agenda. We will be adding more pictures to our online portfolio overnight tonight, as we have been very busy doing shoots and have a backlog of image uploads. See the "newest images" on the left to see them as they are added; scroll down through them to see all the new images. There is a second web site, which is completely new, in development for the second photography company which has been licensed and formed for business initialization next year. The web team is trying a lot of innovative and brilliant ideas with this new site, and if it changes the World (which it might), it may inspire the next generation Aurora PhotoArts site to launch before 2008. We are very much looking forward for what is coming in 2006, and we're confident that it will be our best year ever! Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - Testimonials Updated Our testimonial section has been updated, and will be further enhanced in January! For more, go HERE. Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - Holidays Are Amost Over Our popular holiday portrait specials for 2005 are coming to an end. The last day that we will perform this service, which is done at a substantial reduced rate for top value, will be on December 23, 2005. To take advantage of this, you MUST book before Monday, December 19, 2005. We cannot guarantee sessions will be available after that deadline, as we will not be booking any work for Christmas Eve, Christmas, or New Years day (although we will be busy doing other types of work on New Years eve, and have been booked solid for this date since September; we are also presently booked out for New Years Eve 2006, too!). Thank you all for your participation, and we look forward to offering more holiday specials starting on November 1, 2006. Happy Holidays from the staff and team here at Aurora PhotoArts! Sunday, December 4, 2005 - New Year Marketing We will be launching a new marketing campaign around Christmas designed to promote and support our sales and service work for the first third of 2006. This period, which covers January through May, is statistically our busiest time. This year, due to new marketing and sales, we expect to smash the records, booking more work than in the past five years combined. A good portion of the money earned will be re-invested into new equipment and ongoing client support, dramatically increasing our leadership in the Tampa Bay and Florida photography services markets. Aurora PhotoArts will not only become a major brand in photography services, but we will set new standards in innovation, creativity, and quality. Next week, we will be updating our composite card and head shot support sections, revealing a new two-tier format for these services. We have decided to post rates for these services, too, which is the exception from what we do on this site. Wednesday, November 23, 2005 - Updates Coming We are on the verge of another large upload of new pictures and much-needed updates to our web site. We are also planning on bringing the main portfolio section online in the coming weeks, as we need it to support new marketing efforts. Expect most of this in December; this is the beginning of our year-end project of tripling our portfolio core size. Most of the new updates for the rest of this year will be the addition of many, many new pictures. We will also be providing quality pictures to Independent Modeling, the Independent Sites, Tampa Bay Modeling, Frontier Society, and Advanced Model. Sunday, November 20, 2005 - Site Exceeds Expectations The ongoing numbers coming back so far look really good. This newest version of the Aurora PhotoArts web site has been online for 91/2 weeks now, and the numbers for Internet-based referrals, inquiries, and sales are up 600% compared to this time last year (we should be batting over 1,000%, or ten-fold, by January 2006). Our web team needs to be congratulated, as they did an awesome job of putting together an effective, well-designed web site that continues to surprise us. We track competitor's online marketing efforts, too, and the results of those efforts. At this point, we not only can claim leadership of the Tampa Bay talent photography market, but we have numbers that back us up when we assert that our photography web site is the most effective online marketing tool in the Tampa Bay and west-central Florida markets. As we are engaging other types of photography markets at this time, growth and continued market superiority is a certainty. With the procurement of new equipment, obtaining studio space, an alliance with Independent Modeling and the Independent Sites, and a second photography company, our effectiveness in this market will only increase from this point. Our busy season starts in January. We're going to start it in late November this year. Friday, November 18, 2005 - ESPY Changes There have been some major changes to our ESPY reduced rate model testing program, which has been in operation since 2003. To date, the program has been an outstanding success, with hundreds of participants. Changes have been made to the program to improve it, however, and make it fit in to both our heavy booking schedule and our new First Look program. Other changes are to make it more compatible with our aggressive marketing and sales program. Some of these changes include, but are not limited to: Rates We will be increasing the rate for ESPY, but it is still reduced from what our normal rate is. The new reduced rate is merely a guideline, and rates are up to the discretion of Aurora PhotoArts. We will honor rates quoted over the phone, and rates may vary with different sessions and participants. Limited Sessions We will average ONE session per month. This will enable us to put more effort into every session and schedule them more efficiently. Limited Availability Effective immediately, we must approve all participants who are seeking to book a session in the program. We will approve participants based on what we feel their modeling potential is, and not every applicant will be accepted into the program. Aurora PhotoArts reserves the right to deny participation with no given cause or reason specified, but we will honor quoted rates, terms, and bookings. In the past, we have been swamped with prospects who would be ineligible for this program, and our new First Look program requires a measure of quality control. If anyone has any questions, wants rate information, or needs additional details, we ask that they please contact our client services department at (813) 671-9507. ESPY is a reduced rate model testing program with the exclusive purpose of testing aspiring models. Other purposes are entirely up to our discretion, and this exciting program is not intended to replace or augment our other photography services. Thursday, November 17, 2005 - Rates Adjusted Rates have been adjusted across the board for the holiday season. Current rate quotes are no longer valid, as some rates have increased, some have decreased, and new specials are running. Rates were last adjusted on September 1, 2005. Rates will be adjusted again in January, 2006, for our traditional busy season that runs between January and April. Major holiday marketing will commence next week and run until late December. Please call our client services number at (813) 671-9507 for rates. Monday, November 14, 2005 - We Have A Secret It's been brought up a few times in our news section, but as of now our secret project is a go. What is it? We can't say much at this point, and even when it is in operation we won't say much about it. We can tell you that it is a brand new photography company designed from the ground-up to go after markets that we won't touch. The company will experiment with the market, which is something else that we can't really do at this point, and try some groundbreaking new ideas out. Although it will not be a Passinault.Com company for some reason, it will share our equipment, technology, marketing resources, and our client services department. Why won't we get too close to the company? It's nothing bad, but there are strict orders to keep the companies and the markets separate for business reasons, and we are guessing that it has to do with certain market experiments (we are told that if the experiments work out, then it may change some things here in the future). EOS MediaArts is now designing the site for the company, which is rumored to be a hybrid Venus/ Athena format. The photography company will specialize in modeling photography, and will sell much more than photography, which has some of us who are not in the loop even more curious. The ideas that we have seen so far are brilliant, and we might also add revolutionary. We get to spend a few months helping them develop their portfolio, which will be interesting from what we can see. The name of the company? It's a secret. Expect this new kind of photography company to surface sometime next year. Saturday, November 12, 2005 - Call For Rates We no longer E-Mail rate information, as rates are specific to what you need as a client and we have rate guidelines that we go by that are sometimes adjusted depending on specifics on what you need. We also have specials that go on from time to time. We want to show you the entire picture so you can invest in the high quality services that you need, and shopping by rates alone is a false economy. Call our Client Services department at (813) 671-9507 for rate information. Future E-Mailed inquiries for rates will be responded to with an E-Mail instructing you to call us. If a described service does not have rate information attached to it, you must call us to find out more. Thank you. Items and specials sold through the Internet will have prices and rates attached to them, such as our framed artwork. Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - The Art In PhotoArts The reason that the word "Art" is in Aurora PhotoArts is about to be revealed. Simply put, photography and photography support services were always meant to only be a mere THIRD (33%) of our business model. We are much more than a photography services company, and it was always meant to be that way since the beginning. As of this moment, 100% of everything on this web site is about photography and photography support services in the the Tampa Bay market. Knowing this, where is the remaining 66% of the business and service/ product lines? We are now getting to it. The second-third of our business will be rolled out in the coming weeks; the creation and sale of photographic based framed artwork. This line may be expanded in the future to include other types of artwork, too, so this is only the beginning. The plot for the Tampa Bay market thickens......... especially when this art work will be marketed worldwide and not just locally. More will be revealed soon as our company grows and expands into different markets. Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - Composite Card Printing Line Our new Composite Card printing line is now active. We have subcontracted a new printing service and will now be referring our clients to this service so we can set them up with the best quality tools for their career. Set up-only services are still available. The Composite Card section will soon be updated to reflect the new line, and anyone wanting to know specifics or prices can contact us. We have already started receiving inquiries about our composite cards. For samples, please note that Aurora Photoarts business cards are printed on the same stock and are the same quality as the larger composite cards. Special thanks to Orlando photographer and friend Craig Huey for his assistance, advice, and the referral for setting this printing line up. Thank you, Craig! Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - Sales Shift Offline Effective immediately, most of our sales and business efforts will be shifting offline, and by offline we are not talking about reducing or canceling what we are doing. We are referring to playing up to the strengths of both the Internet and offline facets of doing business while avoiding the weaknesses and drawbacks. More specifically, the strengths of one will cover the weaknesses of the other and vice-versa. The Internet is very important to us, and we have had more success with using it than 99% of everyone else. We now have it down to a science, and know what works and what does not. The past year, while this new web site was being developed, we have studied this issue extensively while paying attention to the hard information that we have on-hand. We have identified what we need specifically to market our services and drive sales, while also nailing down what we don't need. Quite simply, there are things that are appropriate to post on the Internet, and other things that are not. Monday, November 7, 2005 - Site Perspectives We have some good news and some bad news. Actually, though, the bad news isn't so much as bad, but it is disappointing for this month. The good news comes first. The early numbers are in. This new site has exceeded our expectations as a marketing tool, and is easily the best photography web site in the Tampa Bay market. Some people can have their fancy flash-based sites which only half of their visitors can see because of low speed Internet connections or browser plug-ins that they do not have. Another thing about fancy flash-based sites: they don't update easily unless you're the web developer, and in most cases, the photographer or photography company who owns such sites didn't build them and have no direct or easy way to update them. We will settle for intuitive, effective, and 100% compatible with all browsers and connection speeds. Just because it isn't full of flash doesn't mean that it isn't the best. Before you think that we are knocking flash-based sites, we are not. We realize that new technology has its advantages as well as its drawbacks, and we will be using that technology ourselves as soon as it can be used effectively. It's just that most of those efforts are overdone with no clue or thought toward the business model or the target market and are ultimately uneffective; a point that we will be more than happy to prove in the next year. This new Aurora PhotoArts web site is designed to be pushed by a sales team and is built around a massive online portfolio so potential clients can see the high quality and obvious value of our work firsthand. We haven't abandoned the old-school Internet/ search engine based market, however, and the new site is designed to be search engine friendly. At the moment, we are ranking very high in some search engines but not others. Google, for starters, has changed and is no longer ranking our site high. That will change in the next six weeks, and it must, as our work and our site deserve to be at the top. We feel that what this company offers is much more relevant than what is now coming up in some searches (look and see. Other than an Orlando based photographer who does exceptional work, you need to look at those search results and compare them to us and what we offer. Is it really relevant? We think not). This said, the site has exceeded our projections so far, and the numbers are looking good. We won't know the final score, however, and won't have a solid base of reference until the market picks up in January like it normally does; after years in business in the Tampa Bay market, there are definite market patterns that have been established that allow us to accurately forecast the cycles of business. So far, this year has been slower than the past few years, but it is only because of all of the support work that we've had to do. We are now focusing our efforts on marketing, sales, and service, and are looking forward to a record breaking year in 2006. We're going to put all of that expanded business to work, too- we are on the verge of procuring even more equipment and new lights, and will even be setting up a new joint-photography studio now known as Fusia. The new gear is not necessarily needed for the Tampa Bay market, but we need it for both our commercial photography work and to compete with photography companies in big cities such as Chicago and New York. Of course, this will increase our lead in this market by default, too, and we might add it will increase our market leadership dramatically. There is a saying in business, and that saying goes like this: "Good equipment does not make up for lack of talent". We know by observing others that you can fake your skill and knowledge in this business; we call such "competitors" Fools Gold. In our case, we have lots of talent, lots of experience, and lots of skill. When we obtain the rest of our tools, people are going to wonder how our work became ten times better overnight. The actual reason, of course, would be that the work always existed, but was held back by a lack of tools. In the case of the Fools Gold analogy, what will happen is that we will be subjecting them to a lot of heat and pressure in the market, they will become known for what they really are when they start to stink, and they will fall out of business. We're not putting down our present work, however, by any means- especially when the Fools Gold people like to learn from it whenever they can. We are very proud of the quality of our work, and it really is the best value in the Tampa Bay market; our photography and photography support services are what we would want and need if we were clients. It's just that we also realize that there is room for improvement; we know where we need to go and know how to get there. We're just now getting what we need to bring a new vision into reality, and, quite frankly, this market needs it. Get ready to witness the greatest growth of this company in our history. Now, it's time for the bad news. The news deals with site updates for the month of November. While we will be working to get our portfolio core menu online and add more images to our portfolio database, there won't be a lot of updates like there have been the past six weeks except for a handful of news and update postings. The reason? There are two. First of all, we will be busy booking and working photography sessions, and it may be some time before the next big update. We have some catching up to do. The other reason is that the EOS web team has shifted its attention to completing Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, Independent Performer, and TALON. That is a huge project that will take a while. They also have to complete upgrades to the Eventi Events site, launch a new Tampa Bay Modeling site, and continue developing a new modeling resource site called Advanced Model. They are telling us November, but we're telling you this: Don't expect a lot of updates to this site until the new year at least. 2006 will be the year that it will be heavily updated and it will really grow. Thank you all for your patience. Wednesday, November 2, 2005 - ESPY Into Overdrive The ESPY Model Reduced Rate Test Photography program has been overhauled and improved. Combined with a new program called First Look (which doesn't need to be explained on this web site and will be explained to clients in person or over the phone before they book), ESPY is a really cool deal for both aspiring and experienced professional models. ESPY is finally out of the experimental phase and is fully operational. Since debuting in the Summer of 2003, ESPY has serviced over 300 model clients. Many of those clients are working professional models today. The refined ESPY is more than simple model testing, however, and has been enhanced with other markets in mind. Effective immediately, we are ramping up operations to have weekly ESPY Sessions. The ESPY and First Look programs will become a driving force for model portfolio photography and other services. Tuesday, November 1, 2005 - New Passinault.Com Web Sites The EOS Web Team has been working on two Passinault.Com web sites, and both will debut before the end of the year. The main Passinault.Com web site, which is a new Diana Class site much like the Eventi Events site, was nearly finished five months ago, back in May, and is days away from launching. The site will expand upon and connect the existing three Passinault.Com sites; this one (Aurora PhotoArts), Eventi Events, and Dream Nine Studios. The new Passinault.Com site will report on general news of all of its companies, and leave the details to us. The Eventi Events site is presently on standby mode as the team applies an upgrade from the older HTML format to a new CSS/ DHTML version (AuroraPhotoArts.Com, the site you are now on, is an advanced CSS/DHTML web site optimized for photography and design services marketing). The DHTML frame set is making it slow, as all the existing content has to be ported page by page before the new version of the site can be launched (presently designated as V2.0). Eventi Events is also having some staffing issues that have forced them to abort Holiday marketing this year, with limited booking and basic services available. For a company older than ours, and one that was making money long before we were, this is a little sad, but we can understand that what they are going through is necessary to meet their ambitious market goals in the near future. We can understand because we had to go through the same thing the last seven months, a lot longer than they will have to endure, and we only recently completed our new support infrastructure. Eventi Events is still working on support resources, and if you thought our marketing was slick, wait until you see what is in the works for them. The company will resume major operations in February, when it is ready to do so. From what we hear, expect conventional event and party services to be available early next year, with the heavy hitting interactive theme events, stage productions, and a new kind of independent film festival to slam the market next Fall. Eventi Events has a lot of hard work to do, and they are going to start with some reorganization before staffing up. Rumors persist that Eventi will become a binary company with a dual marketing agenda, and we think that is a great idea- by all means, take your time and do things right. We did. At the moment, the only Passinault.Com company going strong is Aurora PhotoArts, but that will change next year as Eventi Events overtakes us in profitability, and advertising agency EOS MediaArts outdoes us all. This means that Aurora PhotoArts will be pushed harder in the next six months than it has in the past eleven years combined, and we stand to take this market and set new, higher standards of what photography and a photography services company should be. Additionally, once EOS begins marketing its services, Aurora PhotoArts will become the leading supplier of modeling print work in Tampa Bay and, shortly thereafter, the rest of Florida. Models, you can thank us later. Dream Nine Studios is another Passinault.Com company that has seen its fair share of setbacks. Back in 2003, Dream Nine Studios had to drop its "Reverence" feature film project. The over- budget production took its toll, and the aftermath not only came close to shuttering Dream Nine Studios, but almost took the other companies with it, too. It took over a year to repair the fiscal and organizational damage. Dream Nine Studios has been refurbished and is almost a new company today, with major operations slated to begin in 2007, fed by profits from Aurora PhotoArts, Eventi Events, and EOS MediaArts. The new Dream Nine Studios company will work on independent film production work, video game development, and producing music; three industries that ultimately compliment each other. We're hearing that the company will most likely debut some video game properties first, perhaps as soon as next year. With some projects appearing in 2006, the new Dream Nine Studios web site, another Diana Class site which was finished months ago, will be upgraded with new CSS/ DHTML enhancements (much like Eventi is getting), and may debut as early as December 2005. The new site is looking great and will feature screener downloads and cool things like recently cleared scripts. The new site will have a Reverence section where visitors can read the 120 page final draft of the Reverence script, too! With the curtains rising on what is left of Reverence, we're not betting that the project will ever be done in its current form. The script, however, is an interesting read, and wait until you see some really cool concept photographs by Aurora PhotoArts done for the project! Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts will finally offer and market services in 2006, once its new web site debuts. The Passinault.Com company has been busy working on web projects and marketing for its sister Passinault.Com companies for the last two years. Its web site is presently in development. Projected Passinault.Com profit leaders for FY 2006 1. EOS MediaArts, Advertising agency 2. Eventi Events, Events and stage production 3. Aurora PhotoArts, Photography and design services. Art production. 4. Dream Nine Studios, Motion pictures, video games, and music Monday, October 31, 2005 - Next Updates Starting in November, the majority of the updates to the AuroraPhotoArts.Com site will be new images and images added to our online portfolio, which should be completely online by next week with a main menu and portfolio channels. The reason for this is that we are in the process of booking a record number of photography sessions, and will not have as much time to update the site news and text content. Since the new image updates are directly related to our post-photography and editing work (and therefore paid for by our clients with the cost of their default session editing- See how nice that works out?), it takes mere minutes to post them to our online portfolio, which means that new images updates will be a regular part and a natural extension of our photography work. Overall, expect fewer updates to the site as most of our time will be spent offline doing photography and design work. We will be doing a lot of updates to our client support part of this site, but most of that will only be accessible to our clients and access to that material will be highly regulated and monitored. Friday, October 28, 2005 - Consumer Market Engaged As of today, Aurora PhotoArts has rolled out full support and marketing for consumer photography services. Although we have always offered consumer services, we haven't begun to push them until now, and this is only the beginning. Already leaders and the top photography company in modeling portfolio photography and actor/ talent head shot photography in the Tampa Bay market, Aurora PhotoArts is committed to expanding our service lines to other markets. We will achieve market superiority in every photography services market by 2007. Recently, we found the notebook with the design specs for this web site and the company business plan for 2006, dated this past Summer. Scrawled at the bottom in pen, bolded and underlined by C. A. Passinault himself, were the words "Do NOT ignore the consumer market". Today marks the first step to honoring those words and turning them into an action plan. Friday, October 28, 2005 - Site Code Update We had to take away some of our picture editing time to go over all of the site code and finish some of the back-end of this site. One of the most time consuming parts of this work was updating and expanding our Client Testimonial section (due for yet another upgrade next year). The site has been updated now and we even uploaded some new pictures (although not as many as we wanted to). Expect more updates soon, perhaps as early as tomorrow; we're already working on uploading more pictures. Besides adding more pictures, we're working on two big things for this site due in November- our online store and an exclusive interview with Aurora PhotoArts senior photographer C. A. Passinault. We can't wait, and it will be nice to see Aurora PhotoArts coffee mugs around Tampa Bay as well as some of our valuable framed art hanging up in South Tampa mansions (the art work will be expensive and sold in limited editions). It'll be great to see what C. A. Passinault will have to say, too. Wednesday, October 26, 2005 - Ready To Work It We've been finalizing our newest contracts, client support forms, sales support, and marketing strategies. We've been cleaning the studio and are setting up a new Client Services system. Our new marketing and sales material arrives today from California. We're editing the rest of 48 new images. We're also taking time to finish our marketing plans for the rest of the year. As you can tell, we've been busy.... and a lack of online updates usually indicates offline work like client bookings, sales, consultations, and administrative things. What's the rush? We will start pushing our services aggressively on Saturday, and we need to get everything ready to support our hard work. As of this weekend, sales will increase ten-fold, and we intend to benefit the Tampa Bay photography services market with quality work that we know is the top value for our clients. This new site has been online almost six weeks now (since September 16th), and we are about to use it like it's designed to be used. It is time to get to work and bring our advanced marketing tools up to speed. Expect large updates on Friday as the site nearly doubles in size and we work to get our main portfolio menu system online. We're also uploading the rest of actress and model Harmony Oswald's pictures, among others. Friday, October 21, 2005 - Copy And Image Work We've been adjusting site copy and prepared a new batch of images all day for our online portfolio. The online portfolio section will expand by over 120 images by November to support offline marketing and sales. This extra work will be worth it, as January through April is our busiest season traditionally, and the site alone should see an increase of business around 400% from people finding this site on the Internet (The true measure of the success of this new site will be known around this time). The portfolio section will see a lot of new copy added, especially since the anecdote/ notes sections are lacking. We've also uncovered typos and have corrected them when we find them, as we strive for perfect image and copy content on our web site. Due to the sheer volume of updates to this site on a daily basis, mistakes are a certainty, although we work hard to avoid them. We' would like the help of our visitors to help us proof the site every day. If anyone see's a mistake, please let us know so we can correct it. A new batch of images will be uploaded shortly, perhaps as soon as this weekend, as our shoots have been rescheduled and we will be spending our spare time in the studio working. Friday, October 21, 2005 - November Starts A Revolution At the moment, our business in the Tampa Bay photography services market is routine, and much like it was last year, with a lot of referrals from satisfied clients and Internet referrals. Although business is good, this is the silence before the storm in the market, and November will begin a photography services revolution for the Tampa Bay market that will lead into a record year in 2006! On Monday, new marketing and sales material will arrive, and we'll put it to immediate use. While we are not a public company and don't really have to report our sales, we will throw this much out- We are looking at exceeding $100,000.00 in business next year, earning revenues that will put us in competition with our sister company, Tampa Bay event planning company Eventi Events (Eventi should always pull in more business than us due to market realities- although Eventi is not quite at 100% at the moment, and they will need a cash infusion from us to get there). What makes this most impressive are a number of facts, which include the event services market being larger than the photography market, and the fact that we are only now beginning to book work in the consumer, wedding, and commercial markets. Once all of our markets are engaged, we are looking at over $500,000.00 in revenue in 2007, and aim to be the largest Tampa Bay photography company within three years! We planned ahead, and now you know why we put so much work and planning into this web site. We know where we are going and what we have to do to get there. How many of our competitors can say the same? Thursday, October 20, 2005 - Shoots Rescheduled We're still watching Hurricane Wilma, and we are still waiting for its turn to the northeast. Due to uncertainty in storm track, intensity, and time of arrival, we have rescheduled shoots for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday's ESPY model test photography session. We will continue to book clients and do consultations; our client services department will remain completely operational unless the storm track shifts toward Tampa Bay and evacuations are ordered. Thursday, October 20, 2005 - Online Portfolio We've been editing and adding images to our database in preparation for bringing our main portfolio section menu online. Once we have a batch of at least 32 images added, we will upload and update the site with them. Before the end of the month, the online portfolio section core and menu will be online, enabling access to every image in our database. Until we get our main portfolio section up, you can still look at our online portfolio by clicking on images throughout the site. This newest Aurora PhotoArts site is built around a portfolio core, and we have lots of great work online now that you can look at. The main portfolio section is more for convenience and is our portfolio "supercharger". Wednesday, October 19, 2005 - Marketing Transition We've been getting a lot of business off of Internet search engines the last few years, and that's all great, but we are now at the point where we can push services rather than pull clients in. Effective later this week, the focus of our marketing and sales efforts will shift offline rather than online. This new site is designed for high search engine rankings, and we will only get more online referrals, but starting this Fall most of our business will be coming from offline sources, with the web site supporting these endeavors (this web site was actually designed with this in mind, too). This will be the key to expanding our business ten-fold. Marketing and sales will now be both aggressive and high volume, with more solid rate negotiations before booking to improve the performance of our limited special offers. Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - Supporting Indie Film Senior Photographer and Executive Producer C. A. Passinault has set up a special program for Aurora PhotoArts to support independent film in Tampa Bay and Florida. Aurora PhotoArts, along with event planning sister company Eventi Events, and affiliate actor resource site Independent Acting, are now set up and looking forward to supporting independent film markets in Florida. Contact us for details. Eventi Events is undergoing an upgrade at the moment, and they have yet to announce this in their news section because the news section is not being updated due to the upgrade in progress. Monday, October 17, 2005 - Hurricane Watch We've been looking at those numbers coming in to the studio concerning Tropical Storm Wilma, and it does not look good for the west coast of Florida this weekend. We're leveling a 50% chance that a major Hurricane by the name of Wilma will be either influencing or impacting the Tampa Bay region sometime this weekend. What does this mean for us? That we may be doing a three hour evacuation of the studio later this week and that Monday's ESPY session may have to be rescheduled. Whatever happens, please note that we're not gutting the studio and removing everything again like we did when Hurricane Charley threatened last year. We are still putting this place back together from that one, and the Hurricane never came close to us. This time, we're only taking pictures, files, computers, cameras, and critical equipment. Ironically, we'll be done getting the studio back up to speed from last year sometime this week. Eventi Events will delay reinstalling its sound equipment to next week as we all wait and see what's going to happen with this soon-to-be major Hurricane. We projected weeks ago that October would be the month to watch, and so far it's proven to be a valid prediction. Monday, October 17, 2005 - Domain Name Issues As some of you know, there are four or five domain names for this web site, which includes the obvious AuroraPhotoArts.Com. There is a domain name for this site which was on fliers passed out this past weekend. This domain name, which will remain unnamed for security reasons, is among those our Passinault.Com overlords are dumping (they are dumping at least 6 domain names this year that have either been replaced by something better or have fallen into disuse). The domain name was replaced by an easier domain name which is optimized for radio and television advertising. Our fliers and business cards are being updated with this new domain name, as the old one is no longer working. This does not mean that our web site is going down or that our business is in any sort of trouble, but rather indicates that we are growing and making adjustments to our marketing as we grow. We are thinking about buying it to ease the transition, but have not made a decision as the number of old fliers with it are just a few. We're hoping that squatters will buy the old domain name and try to extort it back to us for some obscene price, as that would protect it from others using it. Sorry about the inconvenience if you tried to use the fliers, but if you're reading this you found our AuroraPhotoArts.Com domain name on the flier header and already know about the old domain name being discontinued. Monday, October 10, 2005 - Eventi Technology Licensed Today, in groundbreaking news, Aurora PhotoArts announced the licensing of the Eventi Events Artificial Environment Technology used in their Interactive Theme Events. The event technology that will be used most would be custom lighting, wardrobe, and property fabrication, and Eventi Events artificial environment equipment is now clear to be used in Aurora PhotoArts photography sessions. This "theme photography" capability will support our goals for amazing editorial, fashion editorial, and creative commercial photography work in 2006, and will allow us to go beyond the capabilities and work of photographers and photography companies in New York and Europe. The creativity and the range of photography style is about to become unmatched, and our photography work will certainly get more creative. Tampa Bay Advertising agency EOS MediaArts is working on new market branding for Aurora PhotoArts. Additionally, Aurora PhotoArts will be working with Eventi Events to come up with photography-friendly lighting for their fashion runway shows, modeling events, and their theme events. Aurora PhotoArts will be granted exclusive prime photography positions at all Eventi Events productions, and while other photographers may be there covering the program too, Aurora PhotoArts is the official photography company at all of these events. Our market lead is about to become much more pronounced. Friday, October 7, 2005 - Advertising Agency Almost Ready We were just informed by the EOS web team that their EOS MediaArts advertising agency web site is almost finished and will launch shortly! Additionally, a new Passinault.Com web site was finished months ago and is waiting to launch after a few minor tweaks. This revelation is a bit of a surprise, but with some of their projects facing delays we're now figuring out where some of the lost time and work went. EOS MediaArts, a new Tampa Bay advertising agency and a Passinault.Com company, has been doing nothing but internal marketing development work for the Passinault.Com companies, Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, Independent Performer, TALON, Frontier Society, Tampa Bay Modeling, and Advanced Model the past two years. Once their new web site launches and their sales team is up to speed, they will switch gears and offer services to the Tampa Bay and Florida markets. Why did they spend all that time doing internal affiliation development? To set up support infrastructure for what is coming. Aurora PhotoArts and event planning sister company Eventi Events will offer support services to the advertising agency, which will enhance business operations in the Tampa Bay market. Friday, October 7, 2005 - New Marketing Tools Ordered New marketing tools were ordered today, and are due next week. We are in for a busy week, and have a lot going on starting on Monday. Some of these new tools will be coming from a new printing vendor, which we intend to utilize for our new lines of composite cards and head shots. We are also aiming to upload another 100 images to our online portfolio and will be categorizing the portfolio database before the end of the month. As of now, we have over 1,200 images in line to be optimized for our online portfolio from the past eleven years of market leadership, and it will take months to upload them all. We are still going over our archives, and it's possible that several thousand more images will be selected and readied next year, in addition to the flood of images that we have coming in from current photography work. Business and our workload will increase by a factor of ten by January 2006, and we are looking to set serious sales and service records during 2006. It is now possible that the 2006 workload will exceed the work done by us in all the years since we started business in 1994! Friday, October 7, 2005 - Major Site And Portfolio Additions We updated our site today, polishing the content and adding another 16 images to our online portfolio. To see the latest images, look on the left of this screen, scroll through the selection, and click an image to look at it. Some of the images added today are from our large back catalog and archives, but you can see that we've been doing top-quality work for many years. Enjoy! More recent pictures will be added shortly. Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - Studio Upgrades We are about to do some much needed upgrades to the Geomedia 3 facility and our client services system, as we have had issues with our present system with dropped calls and overloaded memory on those busy days. We're adding two more computer workstations for photo editing work, a new Voice Response Unit (VRU) with music and hold music libraries, hands-free head sets for talking and typing, a new credit card booking system, and a call hold/ que system. The upgrades are scheduled for late November. An actress will supply the "voice" of our new system, and sister company Eventi Events will mix the music and information tracks. Aurora PhotoArts, Eventi Events, and the other Passinault.Com system will all share the same client services system. The system is needed now as we anticipate a large increase in business from January 2006 to April 2006, and we aim to get back to clients much faster than we do today. Thursday, September 29, 2005 - Contact Us For Rates Going into October, we are tweaking and adjusting the content of this web site as business increases. The first adjustment? Removing rates from the site. If you want to know our service rates, you must now contact us. The reason for this? One less thing to maintain on the web site, especially as we work to enhance our already high quality and top value photography service lines. There are too many variables, mainly depending upon client needs, to post cut-dry rates, and it wouldn't be fair to our valued clients to throw out rate quotes when we don't know what their unique service requirements are. An exception to this would be our ongoing special offers. This step is necessary to maintain market superiority in the Tampa Bay region. Contact us and talk to us, and we'll set you up with services that you will agree are the top value in Tampa Bay and Florida. Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - Return To Print Back in 2002, we partnered with a quality Northdale Printing company that helped us develop our Italian Style Composite Cards. The printing arrangement fell apart, however, when the company went out of business. Since then, we have had a printing program where we referred our clients to printers. This has worked somewhat well, but is no longer desirable for us, especially when one of those printers is actually a competitor in certain services and we have referred a lot of our clients to them free of charge. We are returning to the business of quality printing through partners, as there is an urgent need for this. With the recently increased rates for certain services, we now have room to work this into our service packages. In fact, the main reason that we did increase rates was to enhance and improve our services while discounting basic packages. This move further increases our market advantage over our competition. Aurora PhotoArts will be setting up a two-pronged printing service with long term service contracts with at least two printing companies- one for composite cards, headshots, lithographs, artwork, and posters, and another for photographic prints, contact sheets, and proof work. This will enable us to ensure the quality of our work in the area of printing, and will ensure a trouble-free experience for our clients. Expect a new line of Aurora PhotoArts branded print products in the near future. Monday, September 26, 2005 - ESPY Rate Increases Some special services, such as our ESPY reduced rate model test sessions, may see increasing rates in the coming weeks as demand increases and we see faster bookings. These are group sessions with a limit on how many clients we can comfortably accommodate. CONTACT US for current rates. There may be further increases in later sessions depending on the resources we have available for them and the demand. We only guarantee rates for the listed session. Friday, September 23, 2005 - Aiming For Chicago And New York Aurora PhotoArts is on the verge of a buildup of new lighting equipment and a whole new way of shooting photography and editing our images. This acquisition of equipment and resources has one goal- to work towards entering competition with Chicago and New York photography companies. We've been planning on breaking into the "next level" of photography for a while now, as we feel there is always room for improvement, and once the extra tools are online we will bridge the gap quickly and exceed what is being done in those markets within two years. Our new sister photography company will share the new tools, and maybe even drive innovation. It's going to be very hard work- don't get us wrong- but we are used to working tough challenges and know what we need to do. One thing can be said- In the near future, if an "A" list national company or celebrity wants to contract a Florida photography company, it's going to be us. There will be no more lost business to those markets. In site related new, we will be uploading a new batch of pictures shortly, and will be categorizing and expanding our online portfolio section in October. Friday, September 23, 2005 - Stock Photography Program Online We have brought the Aurora PhotoStock program back online, with shoots booking for October. At the present time, we're pushing Independent Modeling to get their model job board up so we can market this program on their site. We've been told that Independent Modeling will see heavy updates by Monday. Our Stock Photography program is primarily for experienced models who have professional portfolios and composite cards in their professional toolkit. There are three reasons for this, and other photographers may want to take notes. If you want to do it all, as far as doing a range of services while avoiding conflict of interests or scandals which can hurt your business credibility, this is how to do it. You may have to give up a possible booking, but in the long run you will come out ahead, and we will be among those in the industry who will extend a grateful hand of earned respect and thank you for keeping the competition clean. 1. Professional models have the skills that will give us the pictures that will sell. It's really that simple, and they will automatically have what they need to book work. The fact that the models have their professional tools goes a long way to eliminating any conflict of interest, as it precludes them from our other services. 2. We've seen bait and switch scams over the years where "professionals" offer model jobs and then try to sell them pictures, portfolios, comps, runway training, or model classes. Misleading models is just wrong. In regards to us, we are very careful not to mix our modeling jobs with our portfolio development services, simply because even if the offer is innocent, the perception of wrong-doing alone undermines professional credibility. By trying to limit these jobs to professional models who already have established portfolios, we automatically eliminate most of these risks because the models are not in the market for portfolio development services. We will never tell a model who is being considered for a booking that they need portfolio development, and avoid bring up those services when we are in the context of considering or booking them for a job. 3. On the flip side, we do a lot of business in portfolio development, and we don't want to undermine this market. We don't want aspiring models trying to build the portfolios that they lack by booking work. By default, it won't happen. If you don't have the tools, you probably won't be considered. If, by rare chance, we REALLY like your look and end up booking one of those jobs as an aspiring model, you will only get the looks specified. Granted, you will get our usual professional quality images and you'll get them for use in your portfolio, but you won't have enough to make your portfolio, as a portfolio needs at least a good range of six looks or more. Just the same, if you're booked for one of our jobs and you are in need of a portfolio, we are professionally obligated to bite our tongue and avoid bringing it up or telling you about those services. If you initiate it, that's fine, but otherwise it is an ethical conflict of interest that we wish to avoid. So, why are we so strict about these rules and why aren't we tempted to bend them? Simply because we also know that most models like our work and chances are that they will come back to us for portfolios long after the job is done. That's their obligation, and if they choose to do so, that's fine. So, what this means is that there will be two major lines of model photography done here, and those lines don't mix. The first line is where aspiring and experienced models pay us to invest in quality portfolios that show a range of looks and will book them work. The second is where we book professional models and pay them for a job. Any questions? Feel free to E-Mail or call us. For our official statement on this, go HERE. Thursday, September 22, 2005 - Three Companies In One We are pleased to announce that Aurora PhotoArts will be splitting into a second photography company, a model photography company, and both companies will be referring our clients to a third one, which is the world's first advertising company for models and talent, Edge Portfolios. Going back to the second photography company, this new company would focus on modeling, fashion, and swimsuit photography. Some of that photography would be Maxim and FHM style studio and location work, work that we have determined is incompatible with what the Aurora PhotoArts brand is all about. That work, however, is very popular, and there is a big market for it. We can no longer afford to ignore that market, and will serve it while not risking the Aurora PhotoArts brand (Example: Think Disney and Viacom). The second photography company will be a Passinault.Com company under our license, and will launch in the Spring of 2006. Currently, we don't have a name for the company, but the EOS MediaArts team is working on branding for the new photography company. Those of you who have been reading our updates all year may note that this spin-off company is hardly a new idea, and that we have been planning this move for some time. So, in the wake of our brand new photography services web site, the web team begins work on a brand new Venus Class site, which may be totally different in design and layout than our current one, for the new company. Both companies would share the same production resources, and some of the newest Aurora PhotoArts work output would be branded for the new company. There is talk that most of the work under the new company would be stock-ready, and we can confirm that most of it will be developed with stock use in mind. Edge Portfolios, the third company in our strategic triad, launched last year, but has yet to begin business operations. It is a subsidiary of Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts, operating under their license, and it will be expanded this year to handle the client load from Aurora PhotoArts and the second photography company. We have a lot to do, but the Tampa Bay and Florida photography markets will benefit from it. Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - Rates May Increase Some special services, such as our ESPY reduced rate model test sessions, may see increasing rates in the coming weeks as demand increases and we see faster bookings. These are group sessions with a limit on how many clients we can comfortably accommodate. The September 26 Session, which is now booked to capacity, was $49.99. Our October 3 Session is $59.99, and there may be further increases in later sessions depending on the resources we have available for them and the demand. We only guarantee rates for the listed session. Other rates for other services may increase as well, so we highly recommend booking sooner rather than later. Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - Next ESPY Session With the September 26 Session now booked, our next available reduced rate model testing session, known as ESPY, is Monday, October 3, 2005. Expect these to book up faster than normal from now on, as we will be pushing these heavily. Terms and the reduced rate may change from session to session. For more, go HERE. Monday, September 19, 2005 - Site Updated We have finished porting the remainder of the content. We have also have edited and added more images to the portfolio core which powers the new site. Promotion of the new site has started, with heavy promotion later this week. Although completed with Initial Operational Capability (IOC), the site is still designated a BETA version and will be adjusted throughout the week as promotion increases. The BETA designation will probably be dropped around the end of the week and the site would then be designated as fully operational. Friday, September 16, 2005 - New Site Online We spent 4 hours today porting more web content, and the site is now at a BETA stage where it can be uploaded and the bugs worked out over the next few days. We uploaded it at 7:15 PM EST and brought it online. It will be fully operational and polished sometime next week, with very little work able to be done over the weekend. Heavy promotion of the new site is scheduled to start on Monday afternoon. It has been a long and tiring week, and we are looking forward to relaxing a bit over the weekend. We have scheduled the next ESPY reduced rate model test session for Monday, September 26, although we are not sure of the time that we will have booking this session next week. The reduced rate has been set as $49.99 for this session, and that rate covers the first look (terms and conditions apply). Thursday, September 15, 2005 - Site Construction The portfolio core, although minimal at this time, is complete, and we spent 17 hours today working on the site itself and porting existing content. Because of the extensive amount of preparation and planning behind this new site, there were no technical surprises and the work progressed smoothly, although it was bit tedious. We finally saw the finished site today, after we had a portfolio core to interconnect the pages to, and we must say that all of the hard work is paying off! We're very pleased with the outcome, which is exactly to spec. There is a LOT of site to code, however, and it is taking a while. The site is approaching BETA form, which means that it can be brought online as a work in progress and the finalized online over a period of several days. We uploaded support files today, which was invisible to the visitors of the current site online. Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - Online Portfolio Assembly Today, we spent another 16 hours formatting, tweaking, and assembling the portfolio core of the new site. This core is especially critical because the entire site revolves around it and interconnects heavily with it. The work has been very tedious, and because we have to finish this before finalizing the code for the site itself, we haven't even seen what the actual site will look like yet. We have a book of design specs and polished layouts, however, so we are well prepared, and the site will come out to spec. Tuesday, September 13, 2005 - Preparing Image Files We spent 16 hours today editing and formatting over 60 images for the new portfolio core. We have selected over 300 portfolio-quality images to use in this portfolio from over 200 satisfied clients and at least the last five years of hard work. It will take a while to edit and upload all of these images, especially with new ones coming in every week. Programs such as our stock photography program and ESPY will further increase the amount of new, professional quality images that we have to work with; we are especially excited about the work that will come from the stock photography program, as this program is limited to experienced, professional models. Monday, September 12, 2005 - Copy And Contracts In preparation of the work on the new site, we are adjusting the site copy that we will be porting from the old to the new and am working on contracts and tools. We also have to finish some client work orders today, which ends in a delivery of images to a model later this evening; once this work is done, we have long days ahead dedicated to building our new site. Most of our work has been rescheduled to next week to accommodate this ambitious schedule. Our radio and television marketing support tools are now finished and are slated to be rolled out early in 2006. As it was stated last month, our rates changed on September 1. Most of these changes are in place to accommodate a flexible rate system, advanced sales, and special promotions. Base rates have increased, but some design rates have actually been reduced (example: Our $89.99 five look Composite Card set up rate is now $79.99 and covers additional looks). Sunday, September 11, 2005 - New Site Design Finalized C. A. Passinault approved the final design spec today for the new Venus Class Aurora PhotoArts marketing site. Details concerning the new alerts system, compatibility with older site design, online subcontracting, client support, and the large amount of images required were finalized. The new site, unlike the last site, is designed around a massive online portfolio core, making it a heavily updated picture portfolio machine. The design spec basically takes what works with the existing site and combines it with what worked with the site that we had up in early 2004, and then adds all the nice enhancements that we've developed in the past year but haven't had the chance to unveil. Those enhancements are tried and true, and have been tested by the experience that we've had marketing, doing client consultations, selling, booking clients, the process of performing our photography and design sessions, delivering our work to our clients, and client support. One area that has been lacking was in the client support area, and that changes now. We've been so busy working on the quality of our services that some areas, such as follow-up work, fell short. Our client support enhancements are a hundred fold better now, and while we will go on record that the new site will be ten times more effective that past sites, the reality will be that we are shooting for 100 times more effective, and we are confident that we will exceed even that high standard. We have much more than a brand new kind of photography services site, however. What this is the new face of a new and improved way of doing business and ensuring our continued market superiority. It is really a whole new era, and some of these new business concepts will find their way over to our sister companies, like event planning company Eventi Events. Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - Updates Suspended News updates and adjustments to this present version of the Aurora PhotoArts web site have been suspended pending the imminent release of the next Aurora PhotoArts web site, which is the Venus class site by EOS MediaArts that has been in the works the past several months and is the 5th Aurora PhotoArts web site. We may elect to port over relevant archived news items and other content, but we haven't decided yet if we are going to do this, and we will be resetting the News section and the archives upon the launch of the new site. The new Aurora PhotoArts site will have a new News section which will have new update link features and an alerts database system keyed into the portfolio system where we can post messages for clients and other information. This will be the last post on this site, and the next update will be the launch of something really special. Monday, August 15, 2005 - Capabilities To Increase It was announced today that Aurora PhotoArts would increase its market capabilities through collaborative efforts with professional affiliates. This will allow us to offer professional, quality services in all photography and photography support markets. Effective immediately, Aurora PhotoArts will be subcontracting several photographers who each specialize in photography work such as wedding photography and event photography. While our main photographer specializes in model portfolio, talent head shot, and commercial photography work, we will be booking top photographers in other specialized fields to increase both our capabilities as a company and our extensive portfolio. We just signed two of the top photographers in wedding and event photography, and will be working with over twelve top photographers by the end of the year. We were already the best value for professional photography in the Tampa Bay market, and this move increases our lead over the competition another ten-fold. Our online and print portfolios are about to become a lot larger, with far more choices to choose from. New marketing and sales efforts are well on their way to increasing our sales by over 800% as of September 2005. By December, we should further increase our market share by another 3000%, and the enhanced service capabilities will facilitate increased sales. Early next year, we will begin print, radio, and television advertising in the Tampa Bay market, and our marketing infrastructure is already in place to support those plans. The bottom line? We're growing faster than we have since we began business in 1994, and the next year should see increased growth which will exceed what we have done in the past eleven years. This is great news for the Tampa Bay and Florida photography markets. Sunday, August 14, 2005 - Free Featured Talent Profiles Effective immediately, all of our paid talent clients will be receiving a one year featured talent profile on either Independent Modeling (models), Independent Acting (actors), or Independent Performer (singers, dancers, and other talent professions). This profile will be a free bonus and will run for a period of one year! Web Comps and web-ready head shots are included in this offer, so there will be no set up charge involved. There are two main reasons for this special offer: it will help to promote our clients on the leading talent resource web sites, and it will make it really easy for future clients to check our references before booking our services. Why are we announcing this today? Because the featured talent sections are due up this week! What should professionals be expected to pay if they want to be featured on these sites and they are not one of our clients? We've been told it's $80.00 per year for models on Independent Modeling, $50.00 per year for actors on Independent Acting, and $50.00 per year for other talent on Independent Performer. We've also heard rumors of a $100.00 per-year special for talent who have several professions and who want to be featured on all three sites. When you look at their advertising rates, this is a very good deal! As rates and terms can change at any time and without warning, we strongly suggest going directly to IndependentModeling.Com for the latest and most current information. Aurora PhotoArts is affiliated with the three Independent Sites, and we are directly involved with them with part-ownership. We advertise on and advise all of these sites. Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - Portfolio Updates Holding We have images from over forty clients worthy of our online and hard-book portfolios from the past few months of work. These "Grail" (i.e. top images worth highlighting) images are presently on hold for the online version of our portfolio, and we be available for viewing when the new Aurora PhotoArts web site launches this month (will it be tomorrow? Next week? Maybe in the next seven days? Check back daily for a big surprise!). The new site, a Venus class prototype from Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts, will feature image based navigation and new visual and link-up update sections. The EOS team is making the new site, which is now in its third and final draft, compatible with the image format used on Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer; because most of the images on those sites are ours, we get a portfolio library boost by default since we can use those images that have been optimized for those sites. This will greatly increase our turn-around time, especially since the new Venus class Aurora PhotoArts site will use 80% of the existing site code and content but in a new layout format. We can't wait to see what is coming next! Saturday, August 6, 2005 - Rate Increase Due Some service rates are slated to increase as much as 25% on September 1. Current rates will be honored until until August 31 if they are booked by the deadline. For details on which rates are changing, please call us at (813) 671-9507. The increased rates will compensate for increased bookings and will facilitate rate flexibility in special offer incentives. All of our services will be expanded and improved across the board in the last quarter of 2005. The first step to these improvements will be in our marketing, and will begin with the next Aurora PhotoArts site due this month. As of January 1, 2006, we will be subcontracting several more photographers to help our work load. All these photographers are "A" rated photographers who deliver work to our specifications, and the quality of our work will increase due to the diverse talent available. Due to professional obligations and attention to specialized commercial photography work, models who specifically wish to book photographer C. A. Passinault for their model portfolio photography can expect to pay commercial photography rates over our normal ones. C. A. Passinault will have extremely limited availability. The rates to book him will be three to four times the standard portfolio photography rates, which may actually be a deal worth consideration due to the fact that the portfolio session will be booked and treated as a commercial shoot with greater attention to detail and additional support. C. A. Passinault is our senior photographer. He is the Executive Producer of the Passinault.Com (Passinault Entertainment Group and Passinault Industries LLC) companies and the Director of Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer. He is professionally certified in over twenty different entertainment and business professions. Of note is his work as a photographer, writer, event planner, film director, and modeling expert. Thursday, August 4, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts Branding A Go As it is known in business, it's not enough to deliver quality services at a fair rate. You have to market yourself well, and in the best cases employ a process known as branding. Our marketing team has come up with a new, comprehensive branding campaign that will begin this month. We've already achieved a standard of quality photography services and the best value for those services in the Tampa Bay market. We are now going to make our name alone an icon, and our services will become coveted simply because of the Aurora PhotoArts advantage, an overall and genuine cool image, and the name attached. More will be revealed soon. Tuesday, August 2, 2005 - Best Shoot Ever? We did a shoot this morning that produced some of our best work in years, due in large part to the talent of model Harmony Oswald. Expect her pictures to be featured heavily on the new Aurora PhotoArts site due this month. This work will first be used on Independent Modeling and Independent Acting this week. Harmony joins the ranks of some of the best models who we have worked with over the years, which include Diana Furka, Lowie Narvaez, Jessica Leigh, Roxanne Kowalska, Michael Christian, Ann Poonkasem, Sarah Bray, Melissa Maxim, and Jennifer McCallister. All of these models had a level of professionalism, skill, and raw talent which is both rare and appreciated in this industry. Could it be that the reason that these models were exceptional is that most of them had additional careers as actors and performers? It could be! We are strongly considering working with an exceptional Orlando-based model in a project that we are working on. We will be contacting her in the next few days, as she contacted us several weeks ago expressing an interest in working with us. Due to the heavy bookings, we've been a little slow with getting back to some people, but we haven't forgotten anyone. We feel that, due in large part to several model-centric programs later this year, that we are on the verge of another renaissance in our legendary work with models that we have not seen since 2001. We expect what is to come to exceed what was done in the past by a factor of ten or more! We are beginning to surprise ourselves again. Speaking of shoots, our rates are due to be adjusted again and will change on September 1, 2005. We can confirm that our model portfolio photography sessions and our actor head shot photography sessions will be increasing in rates, so book now or invest more later for the best value in professional photography services. Friday, July 29, 2005 - August Developments To Increase Business August is going to be a big month for us, with a new web site optimized for the photography services industry, new service contracts with new rates, increased sales due to the implementation of our new marketing strategies, and a client promotion alliance with the improved and advanced Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer sites; these site being proven leaders in the industry for talent resources and as an un-equaled tool for the entertainment industry. We'll say it now, and we'll say it along with our sister company Eventi Events. The last three months of 2005 will see sales of historic proportions, easily exceeding the amount of business that has been done in the past three years. Eventi will see sales which should exceed what they've booked in the past five years. What is about to happen will be very effective, and we have scalable operational capabilities in place now which can handle anything that our sales team can throw our way. Here is a brief breakdown of what's going to happen in the wonderful, but too hot, month of August. New Web Site Our new Venus Class web site, which is specifically designed for the marketing of photography and design services, is nearing completion. The site is now in the third beta version, with final adjustments being made before the final version, and is due in August. We can't wait! Segmented Service Contracts We will be doing larger, and more elaborate projects, especially as we increase work in commercial photography projects (due in large part to our work with Tampa Bay and Florida advertising agencies). These expanded services require the subcontracting of additional photographers, make up artists, stylists, and support professionals. The new service contracts will define terms with both our clients and subcontractors. Rate Changes It's time again to adjust some of our photography and service support rates. Some will rise, and some will fall, but rest assured that the quality will increase, making the value unbeatable in this market. Rates will change on September 1, 2005; current rates will be honored until August 31. Sales and Marketing Considered to be our secret weapon. While the web assets are at the top, most of our work will come from our sales team, and we've just finished spending the past two years working out the details. Our sales team will be massive, and good salespeople will be cross-qualified to sell services from our entire portfolio of Passinault.Com companies. Many of these services are designed to be compatible with services from our sister companies, creating a one-stop-shop which will truly be the top choice in this market. Client Promotion Another incentive for clients will be that we can now offer a one-year free featured talent profile on Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer. This will be a bonus that will come with any photography services that they invest in. They will also enjoy advertiser status on these sites, too, which will enhance their marketing potential. As a benefit for us, it will also enable future clients to easily check our references. Contact us for details. Monday, July 25, 2005 - New Aurora PhotoArts Site Almost Ready The new Aurora PhotoArts web site, which is the very first Venus Class web site from the geniuses over at EOS MediaArts, is almost done and ready to go. Due in August, the layout and design is done, and the team is waiting on us to complete delivery of the 60 initial images that the portfolio core of the new site needs. This present site should have been built around a functional online portfolio, and it was not, which is the reason that our image reference system and the present portfolio was never completely activated and never achieved its full potential. We are now taking steps to build one of the most effective online portfolios ever designed, and the new site will be built around an online portfolio with assorted categories and an easy-to-use, intuitive interface. Main navigation keys will be horizontally arrayed and reduced to seven buttons from the existing twelve. Image based navigation will be a dominant design feature, too. The site will utilize 90% of the design and color components of the existing site, which will be reformatted in a new visual-based layout. Each page will have scalable image display templates which will allow for large images in a vertical or a horizontal orientation, and will also display a minimum of 24 thumbnailed images that link directly to the online portfolio. Recently added images will be selectable from a section menu on the main page. Expanded text-based content will be available deeper within the site, with the images taking priority for those who are not inclined to read and who would rather look at pictures. This is a main reason that we have not added a whole lot to this site or the online portfolio. The new site is not much more work than putting together a comprehensive online portfolio, especially since most of the features on this existing site were done right and they can be made more effective in the new design format layout. The new site is mostly an evolution on the tried-and-true. The directories will remain unchanged. Our testimonials will be expanded, as will our career and client support. Our clients can also expect free support from Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer (all clients will get a one year featured talent listing on the relevant site for free with any paid head shot photography or model portfolio photography session). As has been our policy, clients will still have to CONTACT US for rates and schedule information, as there are many variables which limit a comprehensive listing. The new site may launch as early as this week, as the image library is almost ready. Monday, July 18, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts Spins Off It happened... We've been hinting at it for months, and have finally taken a much needed step, now that other things are done and we have the time and resources to invest in this. Aurora PhotoArts spun off a separate company today that will cater to the fashion modeling, swimsuit, and glamour photography markets. The new company will share Aurora PhotoArts resources, and the market branding will be separate. With Aurora PhotoArts a strong brand in commercial type and family friendly photography, the division of branding is appropriate. Both photography companies will work with Edge Portfolios, which is the first advertising agency for models, actors, and talent. This announcement comes just before the dawn of a new Aurora PhotoArts web site, which will be a Venus class photography services and support business site. Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - Sales Increase Due Our extended support infrastructure is now in place, and we are ready for the largest sales force build up in our history. Through a partnership with leading modeling resource site Independent Modeling, we will be utilizing the site to promote our model clients. Sales are expected increase dramatically starting in August, with an emphasis on commercial photography business working with Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts, which is a sister company, too. Sales for the latter half of 2005 will set records. In 2006, Aurora PhotoArts will become one of the leading sources of print work for models in the Florida market, due in large part to our commercial photography services. As usual, models do not have to be a client and are not obligated to get their portfolios done through us in order to be considered. We will also book models without an agency involved if they so choose, as we acknowledge that the agency way is no longer the only way. Friday, July 8, 2005 - Weekend ESPY Session Postponed Due to inclement weather, our ESPY session for tomorrow afternoon in north Tampa has been rescheduled. We have contacted all booked clients today; for more information on the next ESPY session, give our client services department a call at (813) 671-9507. Thursday, July 7, 2005 - Two ESPY Sessions This Month We have another two ESPY model test sessions coming up this month! Give our client services department a call at (813) 671-9507 for more information. Friday, June 24, 2005 - Web Developments The past few days, we have adjusted some content on our web site in order to prepare for what is coming. The next generation Aurora PhotoArts web site will come sooner rather than later, and that means as early as late August. The next site will be a visual based Venus class web site, and will replace this text-content based first-generation Diana class site. Marketing has determined that Diana class sites are better suited for businesses such as Tampa event planning company Eventi Events, and Eventi has an outstanding site (they are completely happy with their site and, other than a CSS code update later this year, will not need a new site for a long time). The new Aurora site will be heavy on the pictures and light on the content, but we will also have lots of text-based content available deeper in the site if our clients want it. Another thing that has to be fixed, and something that we are not happy about with the current site, is our online portfolio. While our pictures are good, there are not enough of them, the navigation is spotty at best, and the image linkup is not working like it was intended to because it wasn't set up right. That, of course, is not entirely the fault of the web team, and is more the cause of a lack of planning; we would have had to have a large number of pictures on the site and an operational online portfolio first in order to have implemented that feature correctly. We will be going through hundreds of our best pictures over the next few weeks to prepare the foundation of the next Aurora PhotoArts web site now in development, so the next site will not have that handicap. Also, you will not have to read as much on the next one, either, unless you want to. Photographs will come first. This said, what DO we like about our present site? Staying will be our client testimonials, the file layout structure, the graphics, and the color scheme (The design layout will be changing, of course- the button design may not). We will be expanding our client testimonials, too, and now have a partnership set up with the next generation Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer sites to assist and promote our talent clients. What will be great about this? Well, for starters, what this means is that it will be very easy by default for people who are checking out our services to get references on us, and that's a good thing for everyone. Friday, June 10, 2005 - Web Sites Sold We have sold our first ten modeling web sites, just before they are ready to be marketed. We now have a waiting list. Through a partnership with talent advertising agency Edge Portfolios (a subsidiary of Tampa advertising agency EOS MediaArts), we are offering high value talent web site packages at low rates and at the same high quality that you have come to expect from EOS web projects. The high value talent sites are fully compatible with top resource sites such as Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and Independent Performer. Speaking of these resource sites, we also have a partnership program with them where our modeling and talent clients will be featured on their web sites. Several other photographers and photography companies have similar agreements with these sites, also. The featured talent profiles are designed to be linked to their TALON talent/ industry database system, which in turn will drive traffic to their high value web sites. The web site packages will be marketed starting in July, and we will be coming up with a cool name for the program shortly. Independent Modeling is expected to be reformatted this month, and by the end of July should be up to full strength. Interested models and talent should call for rates, as packages vary depending upon their professional needs. Wednesday, June 8, 2005 - First Look Program Initiated Our First Look program was initiated today. This sales program is designed to work with ongoing projects such as our ESPY test photography sessions. First Look is expected to increase overall sales and marketing efforts. Tuesday, June 7, 2005 - Major Marketing And Sales Begins Our sales and marketing teams initiated a sales and marketing plan today that has been in the works since March. Bookings are expected to increase dramatically in the next few days. ESPY model test sessions for June are almost booked up, and we have begun to book July sessions. At the present time, we have not determined if there will be more than one July ESPY session. Our client services department has begun a cleanup of outstanding leads, and has certified our booking system as a business standard (outstanding leads were closed yesterday- we had over eight in the system that needed to be concluded). It has been very successful to date, and will be improved in the coming weeks. Wednesday, June 1, 2005 - Target Marketing Summer 2005 This month, we are launching some of our most advanced marketing concepts, and will further diversify and separate our target markets. The EOS web team is now developing a new Venus Class Aurora PhotoArts web site specifically designed for the model and talent photography markets. We will also be offering low cost, high quality talent web sites, which will be compatible with leading modeling and talent resource sites. These web site talent marketing services will be offered with the assistance of sister company Edge Portfolios, which is based in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and is the worlds first advertising agency for models and talent. We intend to become the leading one stop shop for models and talent for the Florida market, and will make the Tampa Bay market a leading one for models and talent. Models and talent will have an unfair advantage in their careers, and that advantage will be us. The new talent photography Aurora PhotoArts web site will not be announced on this web site, and the domain name will a trade secret. The prototype Venus Class site will be built with the latest web technologies, including new stealth enhancements, and may serve as a development exercise for the next generation AuroraPhotoArts.Com web site due in 2006. Once the site is up, this site will focus more on the range of photography and support services that we offer, and will be heavily promoting our quality commercial photography services. Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - What Is A "Code Blue"? Last Hurricane season, there was a little confusion as to what our "Code Blue" was. Simply put, Code Blue is a Hurricane evacuation plan that we drafted back in 1999 that covers the steps that need to be taken to remove key equipment and files in order to preserve business continuity. 2004 was the first time that we have ever has to activate our Code Blue plan, and we had to do it three times. When we enact a Code Blue, we can remove and relocate these key components within four hours. Servicing our clients is very important to us, and we have a professional obligation to define the steps needed to preserve the ability to deliver the quality services that our clients have come to expect from us. Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - Two ESPY Model Testing Sessions In June We have been booked solid lately, leaving little time for ESPY Sessions and web site updates. We have managed, however, to set aside some time in June and will be offering two afternoon ESPY sessions south of Brandon and in north Tampa this month. Several models are already booked, and we expect to be booked up in the next few days. Contact us for details, as the first look will be available at a rock-bottom rate (if you received another offer, we will honor it). For more, go HERE. Friday, May 27, 2005 - AuroraPhotoArts.Com Site Updated We have updated our web site in several areas. Normally, we would let you know where the updates are. We won't make it that easy, however, unless we need to specifically show people important additions. You'll have to find them for yourself this time. Friday, May 20, 2005 - The 411 About Independent Modeling Not only are we affiliated with this popular modeling resource site, but we are also their official photography company. As of yesterday, the site and the sister sites were parked, due to the 2006 next generation versions coming along in the next few weeks. We can tell a little about what they won't. The new site will combine several in "channels", being Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, Independent Performer, a database, and Frontier Society (the last one being a different site that will use the same format). The site will be a new Athena Class site by the EOS team, and will be their most advanced yet, with full CSS coded. At the moment, each site in their "channel" has 11 main menu buttons (15 if you count the channel buttons), which tend to overwhelm visitors. The new sites have a menu on the top with six buttons! Other news? Servers are being installed, a high bandwidth connection is online, and the teams are working with PHP code for the first time, advancing beyond static HTML that has made up the site since day one. Whatever could that mean? We can only guess, but this may be the Independent Modeling that finally exceeds the potential that it's had since late 2001. What we can tell you is this thing is going to be awesome and it will dominate the industry in 2006. Expect something big to be revealed shortly. Aurora PhotoArts and Eventi Events will partner with Independent Modeling late this Summer for several joint projects. Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - More Site Additions The news format that first debuted with the Eventi Events Diana class web site has been applied to the Aurora PhotoArts web site effective completely. We will be phasing out our text-heavy content format. Starting today, we will also have a news index of all posts, mirroring the format of the Eventi Events site. Thursday, May 12, 2005 - New Dream Nine Studios Site Launches The new fourth edition Dream Nine Studios web site launched today. This new site is also the fourth Diana Class web site by EOS MediaArts, and it follows the Aurora PhotoArts, Eventi Events, and Passinault.Com Diana Class web sites launched in 2005. The Dream Nine Studios web site is coded more closely to Eventi Events than the others, and it has been stated that the Eventi Events web site is as advanced as it is because work on the Dream Nine Studios site was applied to it as it was being put together (each site is in development for at least eight months, so work on the present site started last year- each site existed in some form as the other was put together). Dream Nine Studios is our sister company, a Passinault.Com company, and it is a motion picture production company, video game development company, and a music label. Currently, the new Dream Nine Studios site is the most refined and advanced Diana Class web site. The present Aurora PhotoArts site, being the prototype Diana class site, is the least advanced of them all, but it still works well. Check out the new Dream Nine Studios site by clicking the link below: DreamNineStudios.Com Thursday, May 12, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts Developments Section Upgraded The news format that first debuted with the Eventi Events Diana class web site has been applied to the Aurora PhotoArts web site effective immediately. What you see now is still a work in progress, and we may abandon the content page format to keep the look of the site consistent. More is to be announced soon. The Aurora PhotoArts Diana Class site, being the first in the line, is the least refined of all four Diana Class web sites, and it has been noted that a new Aurora PhotoArts web site better suited for photography services will have to be rolled out a year early in 2006. The next Aurora PhotoArts web site is rumored to be a new Venus Class site, which uses visual based navigation and is optimized for photography and design services. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, May 6, 2005 - Another Aurora PhotoArts Web Site? Rumors persist of another Aurora PhotoArts site which is said to be in the works. This site is supposedly a second web site and will not replace this one. The new site is said to be a Venus class prototype which is easy on text content, heavy on pictures, and will be highly experimental. The site is also said to use a new visual navigation interface. The EOS representative that leaked this information to us has stated that the new site will be geared for model and talent photography as the present Aurora PhotoArts company site is expanded to push other kinds of photography such as commercial work. It is also rumored that the new site will be optimized for sales and referral tracking. This rumored site will not be the same one as the next Aurora PhotoArts web site, which will also be a Venus class site and is scheduled to launch in 2006. The present Diana class Aurora PhotoArts web site has been highly successfull, but it is known that the format is not optimized for photography services and is more suited for services such as event planning (see sister company Eventi Events for an example, which is the best, refined, and most advanced Diana class site to date- The new site has already won design awards). The present Aurora PhotoArts Diana class site will continue to be supported. If and when this thing launches, we'll let you know, although we may not be permitted to show you anything. It is unknown if we will be allowed to promote or link to the second site, and the reasons that we have heard concerning this make sense, especially since it may contain rate and schedule information. If the rumors turn out to be true, it will be exciting for next years main site because the experience earned from the second site will advance efforts for our next main web site. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - Now Booking For May! We are now booking photography services for May, as we have been busy the past few weeks and are booked solid until the end of the month. We have ESPY reduced rate model photography sessions available for May. Call us at (813) 671- 9507 for availability information and our schedule, which may change on a daily basis. For rate information, please call our client services department at (813) 671-9507. Packages and rates vary. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, April 16, 2005 - Online Portfolios Aurora PhotoArts has deleted our paid portfolio networking site profile. We have come to the conclusion that the service is not cost-effective and that our target market (namely real professional models) are not being served, especially since there are so few on the site. We have long maintained that we do not need to use portfolio networking sites, and the facts support that position. We have not had one solid professional model contact through such a site. We get lots of bookings, however, through our web site and real marketing efforts. We have voted with our feet and have left the site without any concern or consequence of lost business. For more about the flaws of large portfolio networking sites and what is being done to rectify the situation, please check out Independent Modeling for an article that is coming soon. In related news, Independent Modeling and EOS MediaArts will all be doing programs to offer models and photographers low cost, effective web site that are professionally designed. These programs will include everything from domain name registration to hosting. These web site packages will be the best value, because, like our site, they will actually work and get results. Aurora PhotoArts proudly supports these offers. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, April 12, 2005 - EventiEvents.Com Launches! After a long wait, the new Eventi Events web site, EventiEvents.Com, has launched! While the new site is at an initial operations capability level right now, a lot will be added to the site in the coming days weeks. The Aurora PhotoArts web site you are now on was the debut of a new line of web site template design by EOS MediaArts called the Diana class. We are the prototype, and it took a V1.1 code addition to fix a few bugs and bring us up to speed. Even so, the new Eventi Events web site is the second Diana class web site in existence, and it brings even more enhancements to the table. It is superior to our web site in every way, and is more interactive and polished. Everything about the web site screams "refinement", and the only thing it is lacking at this time would be images and content (coming rather soon, we are told). The site benefits from some serious work on a Diana class site now being built for Passinault.Com company Dream Nine Studios, and some of the ideas for that web site, which were derived from their present site, were used on the Eventi Events site. It seems that the Diana class web site for Dream Nine Studios is closer to a code twin of Eventi's site than we are. There is no ETA on the Dream Nine Studios Diana class site, because it was not deemed a priority. It may end up being the fourth Diana class site, as a new Diana class Passinault.Com is rumored to be moved ahead of it. Although our Diana class site is now considered old, it's working great, and it can still work for us until the projected 2007 life span. We may not keep this Diana class site that long, however, because the EOS web team is working on a new web site class optimized for photography companies, and we'll have ours by 2006, or at least once development is done. The new class of photographer optimized web site is known as the Venus class. Venus class sites will be based on visual navigation, and will utilize CSS, Flash animated graphics, and sound samples. An insider at EOS told us today that they are now going to get Frontier-Society.Com up this week, which should prove interesting. The site will debut a brand new web site class called Athena. You can see the new Eventi Events site now at EventiEvents.Com!. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, April 8, 2005 - Search Engine Issues Our web team audited the search engines today, and it seems that we are pulling an average performance in that area. The AuroraPhotoArts.Com web site code is still relatively new, and it does take time for the search engines to index us appropriately. This said, we are getting a good amount of traffic every day, and much more than most other photography sites in this market. Our friends over at Independent Modeling seem to have a virtual monopoly on search engine rankings, and the EOS web team behind them is also behind the creation of our web site. The EOS team has promised us that new WCE technology developed for Independent Modeling will be made available to us for improving our search engine performance. We have also contracted Independent Modeling to steer some of their traffic our way starting today. Ironically, WCE technology has yet to be used by Independent Modeling, and they have told us that they are waiting for some new additions to their site before using the new tactics to boost their already impressive search engine standings. Aurora PhotoArts will begin a short term program that will optimize our site code and content for search engine results with different photography markets. This program will be completed by early Summer, 2005. Another irony is that our business model for 2005 downplays the importance of search engines and puts more emphasis on direct marketing and sales. This does not, however, mean that we are going to disregard our Internet marketing, and are now working to make it as effective as possible. In related news, we are in the process of removing a portfolio networking site profile that we have had for several years, as it has not been cost-effective. This is the first of many changes. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, April 5, 2005 - Web Site Copy Adjusted The EOS web team have gone through the Aurora Photoarts web site and have adjusted content to support new marketing protocols now in place. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, April 4, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts To Split Into Second Company In the interest of segmenting markets of markets that are inappropriate to mix, Aurora PhotoArts has announced that it will create a second company that will deal exclusively with markets that we will not touch. This company will launch in the Tampa Bay market the Summer of 2005. Aurora PhotoArts does work which is considered to be safe and family friendly. There are other markets out there that are also part of normal business marketing and the modeling industry, and this twin company will go after those markets while separating its market definition from what we do. The company will share full Aurora PhotoArts technology, marketing material, and other assets. The markets that this company services will be different than the ones that we do, so this company will not technically compete with anything that we do and will complement us in this market. The markets that this company will service will benefit from the superior ethics and integrity that the company will have. Due to the nature of the markets that this company will service, this company will do far more studio photography than we do. The name of this company will not be revealed until the web site and marketing are launched. The targeted markets will not be revealed until launch, either. EOS MediaArts will assist. The web site that this company will have will be more advanced than the present Aurora PhotoArts web site and will be more of a visual based design. Both photography companies will be Passinault.Com companies, and both will work with Passinault.Com companies EOS MediArts, Edge Portfolios, and Eventi Events. Aurora PhotoArts and EOS MediaArts will also assist our photographer friends with segmenting their marketing, too. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, April 3, 2005 - Online Portfolio We expect to have the final online portfolio drafted by next week, and will be uploading over one hundred new images. Some of these images will be stock enabled. When the new portfolio is designed, we will roll out a new visual navigation interface, which will make viewing the portfolio intuitive and easy. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, April 2, 2005 - More Updates We launched a new ad campaign today and some aggressive marketing, but we can't go into details about it on this web site. Ask us about it. If we talk to you, you'll know about it. We've been very busy lately, which is the reason why we've had fewer updates on the web site. This will continue for at least a week, as we have a lot to do in the next few days. Bookings will increase ten-fold in the next two weeks. In related developments (we just love that word- developments), the Eventi Events web site is now three weeks behind schedule. This is for a good reason, and it should be up and online soon. Watch for it. It will be well worth the wait. Now, where is the EOS site? Well, it's coming soon, too. The EOS team has been so busy on other web sites this past year that they have not had a chance to do their own. Expect it soon after Eventi is up. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - More Models To Be Added We've been getting calls from many of our model clients who have been wondering why they are not on our new Aurora PhotoArts web site. Well, we are just now exiting our shake down period, and more additions are coming. RETURN TO NEW -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts To Partner With Printing Company Three years ago, Aurora PhotoArts enjoyed a professional relationship with a printing company. Although this is for our commercial photography division, it will benefit other services such as model portfolio photography and actor head shots. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - Studio Work For Next 48 Hours The studio will be down for the next two days for a scheduled overhaul. The client services center, which is normally available 24 hours a day 7 days a week, will be offline between 10 PM EST and 6 AM EST both Tuesday and Wednesday (believe it or not, we do get client calls overnight). We need to completely re-wire our telecommunication systems, clean, and overhaul much of what we have. We have things such as furniture and aquariums that need to be moved around or altogether removed, too. Much of this work is leftover from the Hurricane evacuations over six months ago. Additionally, we are preparing for staff meetings here next week and some support upgrades due next month. We also have a few shoots scheduled here next week. Client support and our work load will have minor impacts, and no delays are expected as this work will be mostly overnight on both days. There will be few Internet updates for the next two days due to the fact that our computers are wired into our telecom network and most of our updates are done between 9 PM and 9 AM EST. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, March 26, 2005 - Eventi Events Update The EOS web team is almost done with the Eventi Events web site, and they are simultaneously coding the new Passinault.Com web site, too, which is old and has not been updated in over eighteen months. Regarding Eventi, they have reduced the number of links on the main menu to eight (compared to our twelve, which is a reduction of 33% and should allow for more intricate button designs). Although the main menu will look smaller, the Eventi Events site will actually end up being larger than AuroraPhotoArts.Com due to the myriad of different services and productions that the company has. The site structure is designed much like a pyramid made up of smaller pyramids, which leads to an intuitive interface that should prove superior to this site despite sharing the same overall layout. The menu interface will be put together differently than ours, too, with contextual keys with mouse-over code that will cause them to change as the mouse cursor moves over them. Our site menu does not do that, but EOS tells us that all future sites will, starting with Eventi Events. Some of you may be wondering what services and productions Eventi will do. Glad you asked. A sample of the ton of things that they will be doing include Parties, Theme Events, Weddings, Stage Plays, Dinner Theater Productions, Stage Productions, Film Festivals, Expositions, Concerts, Pageants, Runway Shows, and much more. For those that need to know, Eventi Events is the oldest Passinault.Com company, and it is almost 3 ½ years older than Aurora PhotoArts. The business analysis team from Passinault.Com, which analyzes the interactions between our sister companies and forecasts profit potential, has filed a recent report. As you know, this new Aurora PhotoArts web site is ending its shakedown period, and major marketing is about to begin. In the next twelve months, Aurora PhotoArts will see a 100 fold increase in business, dominating the photography market here in Tampa Bay. Between 2001 and the present, Aurora PhotoArts has been the top earning Passinault.Com company, but that is expected to change. Even with our 100 fold increase in business due by next year, we have been projected to become the third top earning company. Eventi Events is expected to book more business, making them number two, and advertising agency EOS MediaArts is projected to become the top earning Passinault.Com company, at least until sometime in 2008. With all of our companies networking and supporting each other, this is going to be an exciting time for the Tampa Bay market. With all this going on, who should be the most excited? We'd have to say models. Aurora PhotoArts will become the leading supplier of model print work in this market, and Eventi Events will require promotional, trade show, and convention models for all of the productions that it will be doing. We can't wait! By the way, we wish everyone, including our valued clients, a happy Easter weekend! RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - New Tools, Rates, And Site Additions We will be adding a visual navigation interface to our web site soon, and the present V1.1 site code supports it already. This week, we will also be adding more pictures to the site, completing the SERVICES SECTION, and moving content from our navigation pages to content pages (more lines of links- see a pattern with the move toward visual navigation? This sets the stage). Another web site adjustment will be to our reference and referral system; the advancements here are nothing less than revolutionary and we cannot discuss any details on this site, although you will see the results in time. In business developments, we will be adjusting our rates this week. With adjusted rates comes an effort to balance things out with incentives, discount programs, and special offers. We will also be rolling out new contracts, marketing tools, and new applications regarding our service support and our client work flow. RETURN TO NEW -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - Busy Week We've been booked tight all week, with photography sessions in the day and consultations in the evening. This week is shaping up to be exceptionally busy as business increases, and starting tomorrow it will further increase. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, March 21, 2005 - Edge Portfolios Gives You An Unfair Advantage A year ago, Aurora PhotoArts was a key player in the formation of the world's first advertising agency for models, actors, and talent. We are pleased to announce a major expansion of the services of sister company Edge Portfolios, which make it the real "one stop shop" for model, actor, and talent portfolio photography and marketing tools in the Tampa Bay area and Florida. Edge Portfolios is a real advertising agency, working with EOS MediaArts, which will help models, actors, talent, and business professionals put together impressive portfolio tools, come up with promotion and marketing plans, and implement those plans to take the advantage over your competition! The same marketing advantage that Aurora PhotoArts enjoys can work for models, actors, and talent, also! Businesses go to advertising agencies to market their services and product. Why shouldn't models, actors, and talent be any different? Aurora PhotoArts and other professional photographers are contracted to provide quality photography for Edge Portfolios clients. Edge Portfolios will also have its in-house team of photographers who will do work ranging from modeling portfolio photography up to swim wear, lingerie, and glamour (the last which we do not do). Edge Portfolios will also be the place to go for to get the ever-popular Maxim-style photography that some people seem to want, but, again, something that we normally do not offer. EOS MediaArts will be launching a new Edge Portfolios site in April, 2005. The services that Edge Portfolios offers include model portfolios, model composite cards, model web comps, actor head shots, actor demo reels, corporate head shots, business cards, web sites, career marketing workshops, cover letter writing, resume writing courses, and other services. Edge Portfolios also has a team of professional copy writers on staff to supply their clients with professional copy for marketing and promotion efforts! Models should note that this company will be teaching models how to manage themselves, too. There is no other choice. Teamed up with Aurora PhotoArts, Edge Portfolios is the smart choice of models, actors, and talent who want an edge in their career! If you want high quality photography, Aurora PhotoArts does exactly that. For our clients that want more, we refer them to Edge Portfolios! Edge Portfolios is a Passinault.Com company and a sister company of Aurora PhotoArts. Edge Portfolios is a division of Tampa Bay advertising agency EOS MediaArts, which engineered our web site and marketing material. Edge Portfolio was founded in early 2004. Find out more at Edge-Portfolios.Com. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, March 21, 2005 - New Photography Technology Trials In Summer 2005 Our AURA technology is on the road to field testing and Initial Operational Capability (IOC). We will also be testing other development projects. Aurora PhotoArts will be conducting field trials and operational testing of no less than six new photography concepts and technology that we have developed over the past year. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, March 16, 2005 - Joint Photography Studio Named Our marketing team named our new joint photography studio today. Our sister companies, Eventi Events and EOS MediaArts, will be assisting us with the layout and design of the studio and its remarkable technology. When this new studio debuts, it will be Tampa Bay's most advanced photography studio, and the top choice for professional photographers who want to collaborate with other professionals. The studio is expected to launch in 2005, and will be located in the Tampa Bay area. Members of the Round Table Photography association, found at TampaBayPhotographers.Com, will get reduced rates and special offers. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, March 15, 2005 - Aurora PhotoArts 2007 Business Model Completed The Aurora PhotoArts web site you are now on is brand new for 2005, and is the fifth edition web site for the company. The layout and content of AuroraPhotoArts.Com are designed to support 2005 business operations, and although it is designed from scratch to be expandable and upgradable for changing market dynamics, the site was only meant to last for two years. Throughout this year Aurora PhotoArts will be increasing our influence on the Tampa Bay and Florida photography markets. We will be able to do this with our high quality photography services, superior marketing, and our wide range of business resources. In the Spring of 2006 , Aurora PhotoArts will push services into other markets. The AuroraPhotoArts.Com web site will be upgraded to support these new business models in preparation for the next generation Aurora PhotoArts web site due in 2007. In 2007, photography services will not be the only market that we will lead in. Two more are to follow, and most will not even know what those markets are until we are ready for them to know. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, March 11, 2005 - Business Transition Starts Now Starting now, updates to our web site will be reduced as more of our efforts are concentrated on photography, marketing, sales, client consultations, and business operations. This web site is only one component of our marketing efforts, and is more of a support function. The Aurora PhotoArts web site will see regular weekly or bi-weekly updates; come here to the news section for immediate notification of updates to the site; our SERVICES SECTION will be done next week and more pictures will be added to our online PORTFOLIO. We will be doing photography sessions all weekend, and have to finish ten jobs that we are working on. We are very happy that so many people love our work and want to invest in Tampa Bay's top photography services by booking Aurora PhotoArts. Our new infrastructure is finally in place! It's a good time to be in the photography services business. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, March 10, 2005 - Next ESPY Reduced Model Rate Session Is now scheduled for Sunday, April 10, 2005. This session is now open for booking. Other scheduled ESPY sessions are booked solid. Our busy session, which usually is between February and June of every year, is expected to continue all year long because of our new marketing and sales efforts. For more, go HERE. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, March 10, 2005 - More Portfolio Images And Updates Coming We will be updating our online portfolio shortly with more pictures and our services section will be completed. Our online portfolio will employ several categories and a new image based navigation format which our V1.1 code currently supports. We are waiting for the work to be completed by our team, and they are busy on the Eventi Events site right now. A tremendous amount of progress has been made on our event planning sister lately, with the additional acquisition of more talent such as DJ's and Choreographers. More is to come when the site goes live. Eventi Events, by the way is the oldest Passinault.Com company, and one with a long track record of excellent events. It was founded in 1990, and Aurora PhotoArts didn't come along until 1994. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, March 9, 2005 - Model Jobs Added We added some more MODEL JOBS in our PROJECTS SECTION. Please follow submission requirements to be considered, and read our DISCLAIMER concerning potential conflicts of interest. Good luck! RETURN TO NEW -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - Site Marketing Results Are In! The first numbers are in, and the new Aurora PhotoArts web site that you are now on is not only successful, but it is exceeding our expectations in marketing our services. Bookings have quadrupled in the past week alone, and it has been extremely busy. Our design and web team have done an outstanding job, and the site has been a dream, both to update and for visitors to use. The EOS Team is now coding the Eventi Events web site, which is almost done and should be online in the next 48 hours. The Eventi Events web site is formatted exactly like this one with a few minor modifications, so it's our twin sister; the difference being that it will be all about quality event services instead of photography. Since the marketing teams have deemed that event services will drive wedding and event photography services, the Eventi Events site will have a photography link on its main menu that will lead to us! RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, March 5, 2005 - Online Portfolio To Be Updated We just finished updating our PORTFOLIO SECTION, and will be adding a ton of pictures soon. we are also going to be adding a visual interface on the main portfolio hub and will be organizing portfolio directories in different categories! We are also going to be linking models pictures to their online profiles on Independent Modeling's TALON Database so they can be contacted (all of our model clients will receive safety and online security instruction). Aurora PhotoArts has literally thousands of portfolio worthy images and, of those, hundreds of "Grail" shots (i.e. money shots- pictures with legendary quality). We just have to go through all of them. Our online portfolio will become the largest part of this site, and hopefully the most exciting! RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, March 4, 2005 - Model Job Consideration Requirements Our PROJECTS SECTION listing our print jobs for models is now up, and we are being flooded with submissions by models who are simply not reading the job posts and are not following instructions. To be considered, read the instructions and mail us a composite card, a resume, and a cover letter using snail mail to our P.O. Box. DO NOT E-Mail us pictures, attachments, and files that have to be opened or downloaded, because we will not do that for security and professional reasons. We don't have time to scan every file using anti-virus software, and we will not have art directors spend all day in front of a computer looking at what normally consist of unprofessional pictures clustered online. We will also not waste paper and ink printing out crude looking web print outs to hand to our art directors and commercial clients. Please send us the required material and read our simple instructions or simply do not get considered; if you need to learn professional methods of promoting your modeling career, read the free information on Independent Modeling, IndependentModeling.Com . If you send us a composite card, a resume, and a cover letter, you MAY send us a URL (Domain Name) link to your professional web site (although a link to a portfolio networking site profile may be disregarded completely due to the fact that too many unprofessionals use these sites and it is too easy for anyone to take camera phone images or web cam pictures and upload them to a free profile, which, quite frankly, professionals should not be doing). If you have your own domain name, by all means include it, but this is not a substitute for mailing us the required material. A web site would compliment a submission, and we may look at your site if we are interested in considering you after you mail us your material and we feel that your look is one that we can use. You do not have to be one of our clients and are not obligated to book any of our services to be considered. Additionally, we cannot pitch you any service if you are being considered for a job, and take great measures to avoid unethical conflicts of interest. Thank you all for your attention and professional compliance. RETURN TO NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, March 3, 2005 - Expanding Markets Aurora PhotoArts is already the top photography company in Tampa Bay for model testing, model portfolio photography, and actor head shot photography. Our work history in the talent photography market has been incredible. We are now going to set our market agenda in other photography fields. Effective this year, Aurora PhotoArts will be pushing into the commercial photography, wedding photography, event photography, and consumer portrait photography markets (corporate and business head shot photography is going to be a big market). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, March 3, 2005 - Updates For Portfolio And Project Sections The PROJECTS SECTION is now completely up, as is the PORTFOLIO SECTION. We are working on the SERVICES SECTION, but that will have to wait and may be up in another day or two as the EOS web team has to go and work on the web site for our sister company Eventi Events, Tampa Bay's best event planning and services company, and another Passinault.Com company. Next up? A new Passinault.Com site and the EOS MediaArts site! The EOS Team has done an incredible amount of work for us over the last 48 hours, and we're impressed! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, March 2, 2005 - Site Upgrade 1.1 Uploaded The site may not look different upon first glance, but the underlying code and table layout structure has been completely changed out. Scheduled improvements have been made, and the graphic break-up glitch has been fixed. Notice that we now can scroll content further down without compromising the layout of the site. An image navigation feature has also been installed, and the code to support this is now working. We have not yet rolled out image based navigation, but the upgrade allows us to do it in minutes. This site is now at 100%! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, February 27, 2005 - Next ESPY Reduced Rate Model Photography Session Now scheduled for Sunday, March 20, 2005. Currently, ESPY sessions are for testing aspiring models and experienced professional models who need to add a look or more to their portfolio. We are extremely busy right now with booked work at normal rates, so we can only offer reduced rate ESPY sessions every four weeks or so at best. To be considered, you need to contact us now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - Passinault.Com Maintenance EOS MediaArts is adjusting the Passinault.Com domain name. It may be unavailable over the next 24 hours. Aurora PhotoArts file directories will become a subdirectory of Passinault.Com, along with the web sites of our sister companies. Old directories on the Passinault.Com server will be deleted this morning, which means certain web pages will not work properly until adjustments can be made. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - Stock Photography And Other Updates Our PhotoStock stock photography rolls out at the end of the week. We also have many other updates coming, and we'll also be uploading more pictures soon. In other news, the EOS team will be working on the Eventi Events site today. Once the new Eventi Events site is up, we should see a massive increase in event and wedding photography business. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, February 20, 2005 - ESPY Model Testing Changes. We will honor free testing offers until our next ESPY session on March 6, 2005. If you did not get an offer, then we will start charging a reduced rate of $49.99 to book these sessions starting on March 6, 2005. This is still dramatically lower than our standard one look rate, and mainly covers administrative costs. ESPY will only be offered once a month starting now. Call for specific terms and conditions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, February 19, 2005 - New Content Coming. We have some awesome new content for our SERVICES SECTION (which will bring it online) and our PROJECTS SECTION, but we are going over it to make sure that is safe to post. The content should be posted shortly. We have had issues with plagiarism in the past, and this won't continue. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, February 18, 2005 - ESPY Adjusted. The February 20 ESPY Session has been booked up, and the next session will be in March. We are also adjusting some details, such as MUA availability. We have been very busy with bookings, so the time that we have for testing will be limited. ESPY sessions will be held every three weeks to once a month. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, February 17, 2005 - Busy Week. It has been another busy week with lots of work and very little Internet time for our staff. We will be doing call backs today, so if you called over the past few days we should be calling today. Our phone volume has spiked, too, which leads to call back delays. In other news, our regular ESPY MUA, who is a professional actress, is doing a television series in Los Angeles and won't be available for a few weeks. Our other MUA's are currently involved in other projects, so we may not have a MUA on our next session. Our MUA's are also professional entertainers, so scheduling can be tricky with their busy careers. They are often available in advance for portfolio and head shot sessions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, February 14, 2005 - ESPY Session. The next ESPY SESSION scheduled for Sunday, February 20 will be an afternoon session. Past sessions were always in the early mornings. We are currently scheduling in a MUA, but we are still locked on schedule. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, February 13, 2005 - Updates In Progress. Most of our SERVICES section will be up tomorrow. We will also be adding extensively to our CAREER and our PROJECTS sections. While we have the first batch of our PORTFOLIO images up, we are having issues with our server storage space and we have to delete 70 Megs of files this week before adding more images. Our primary server that this site is on is full. In other news, we will be adding text content pages like this section has in the archives for copy and will be adjusting the format of the copy on all the pages in the next few days. You'll know it when it happens. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, February 12, 2005 - News Of The Others. News from the EOS web team today is that coding our sister sites is well underway. Next up will be the Eventi Events Tampa Bay event planning site and a brand new Passinault.Com site (Aurora PhotoArts is a Passinault.Com company, and the Passinault.Com site hasn't been touched since 2003, which is a shame). After those site, EOS will finally be able to gets its own web site up, which is long overdue after spending the last year working on everything else. The sites for Aurora PhotoArts, Eventi Events, Passinault.Com, and EOS MediaArts will all interconnect, and the sites will be subdirectories of Passinault.Com. See a pattern here? We see a powerful marketing force in the Tampa Bay market. We also hear that some modeling events are coming up- We only wish that we had an event link on our main menu. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, February 12, 2005 - Sales Efforts. Our new sales efforts, this web site, and our other Internet marketing assets are working better than expected. Tomorrow we will be doing a lot of offline sales. While we will have our portfolio up sometime tomorrow afternoon, the next web updates will probably come on Monday. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, February 11, 2005 - Next ESPY Session. The next ESPY free model testing session has been scheduled for Sunday, February 20, 2005. We are now booking models for this session, but we have already booked several models into it, and it should be booked up shortly. Book now, as surplus models will be booked into the following session, which could be a wait and may be scheduled in March. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, February 11, 2005 - Site Adjustments. The last version of our site was a little flawed, with a minimal portfolio because we were developing this one. So, we created a band aid . We had a portfolio-only site using the domain name RangeOfLooks.Com to make up for it and give people 99% pictures to look at. Well, this new site is great so far, so we have diverted that domain name to our portfolio section. Speaking of our portfolio section, it will be up sometime today, along with some of our services section! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, February 10, 2005 - References Online. Like many photographers and photography companies are doing, we will be using Independent Modeling's TALON Talent Online database for references; both to check references and for some of our select clients to give them. It is very, very important to check all references before you work with someone. Aurora PhotoArts respects the privacy rights of our valued clients and keeps information confidential, although many of our clients have made themselves available to provide references on our services with no financial or service incentive involved. Aurora PhotoArts prides itself as being one of the top ethical professional photography companies in Florida. Aurora PhotoArts senior photographer C. A. Passinault was recently named director of Independent Modeling, Acting, and Performer; all companies will be working together on projects and to help models and talent. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, February 9, 2005 - ESPY Session Delayed. Due to scheduling conflicts, we have rescheduled the ESPY session for Saturday February 12 to Saturday February 19, 2005. This session date is tentative and may change. We apologize for any inconvenience that may be experienced by models who have already booked into Saturday's session. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, February 9, 2005 - Updates and ESPY Schedule. It's been very busy the past few days, with many photography sessions, post production, marketing, and other offline work. We should be updating the site later tonight. Regarding Saturday's ESPY session, we may be pushing it to 2PM rather than 9AM. We are waiting for our Make Up Artist to call back and confirm before deciding, because if she can't do it, we might have to postpone it a week. Tomorrow we will update the ESPY SECTION to reflect any changes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, February 6, 2005 - More Updates. We are rolling out a lot tomorrow, including aggressive marketing on six fronts. Today, we are working hard to get the SERVICES section and subsections up. The services section will include a Client Support area, which was done last night and should be up tomorrow. We are also working on our PORTFOLIO section, which should be active tomorrow. Clients should CALL US today, as we should have someone in the studio who will be available to take calls. As of tomorrow, our client call backs should be the same or next day. This is our busy season, but we try to return calls as soon as possible. Thank you all for your patience during all this work. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, February 5, 2005 - Rate Change On Monday New rates and service terms go into effect on Monday (Lisa, call us about the terms of your shoot- we can't offer you a discount much longer). New service agreements and terms go into effect, too. We roll out massive marketing today, which means that ESPY will become a fast booker. We are returning more client calls from early this week today, too. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, February 4, 2005 - Catch Up Time. With everything going on this week, like shoots and web site development, we are a little bit behind on our client call backs. We usually like to call back clients within 24 hours, but the call back time has been more like three or four days. Additionally, client bookings have priority over work such as ESPY. We are now wrapping up this weeks work and should be in a more standard schedule by next week. We are about to begin aggressive marketing and we really needed excellent marketing tools like this web site. Incidentally, this new web site has been getting rave reviews from models, photographers, and web designers. We are very proud of the work that we did, and love having a site that approaches the quality of our photography. We are behind, we apologize for the inconvenience, and we'll be getting to those call backs today and Saturday. Next week, the EOS team will be putting together the new Eventi Events web site (Marlon, get ready for some awesome events!). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, February 3, 2005 - New Site Launches! Our web team has taken the best from our last web site design and has improved upon it with a brand new Aurora PhotoArts web site! Explore the new site and let us know what you think. The new Aurora PhotoArts web site, still found at AuroraPhotoArts.Com, is part of the Passinault.Com domain. Our sister site for event planning company Eventi Events will share our site format. For those of you who are keeping track, the new site is our 5th edition web site. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, January 31, 2005 - Long Weekend. Our photographers have been shooting non-stop since Friday, and we now have hundreds of pictures to edit and a lot of new client consultation calls to return. Some of our best photographs in years were created yesterday, and they will be featured on the new site perhaps as early as Wednesday. Our busy season is in full swing; please call NOW for consultations or there will be a wait. The Saturday, February 5 ESPY Session is booked up, and we are now booking for the February 12 ESPY Session. We've also had writers working hard on copy for the new Aurora PhotoArts site which will be up this week, so this will be the last post on the old site. The new site will be formatted so users won't have to do a lot of scrolling, and the menu will be back on the left hand side of the screen. We will keep the color formatting and the basic design. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - Changes Are Coming. NEW WEB SITE - The EOS web team is finishing work on Independent Modeling and its sister sites this week, at which point it will be putting together our sister site, event planning company Eventi Events. Once the Eventi site is up, a new Aurora PhotoArts site will launch, too, along with the overdue EOS MediaArts site. All three of our companies will be working together in team projects this year and from now on, and a working relationship with an advertising agency should enable our commercial photography division to offer more professional print modeling opportunities than anywhere else in Florida (important to note- our portfolio services and commercial services will not cross due to it being a conflict of interest). With all those print jobs, it will be interesting to see what happens with our relationships with both modeling agencies and professional models, as we will go on record as saying that we will be booking independent models just like EOS intends to. NEW STUDIO - We are looking into decommissioning the Geomedia 3 facility this year. Our present studio is located south of Brandon, but after the recent Hurricanes we are strongly reconsidering our location and may move to either Tampa or Clearwater. We have already had an offer for a Tampa location with the help from several models. Geomedia 3 will undergo renovations in the coming weeks to remove sensitive proprietary material and prepare the studio building for sale; we bought commercial shredders to prepare this week. A final decision will be made in the Spring, with a possible move this Summer. NEW PROGRAMS - We will be starting several programs this year, such as a stock photography production and sales program. We will also be expanding present programs such as our ESPY model testing program to work with modeling agencies and other industry contacts. NEW PARTNERSHIPS - Despite the working alliance described above with Eventi Events and EOS MediaArts, we have another important partnership with a leading model resource site. We have been a contributor to Independent Modeling over the years. Our contributions to this awesome web site have only enhanced our credibility in the in the industry, and once models find out that we work with them they look forward to working with us. Our director and senior photographer, C.A. Passinault, was recently appointed executive director of Independent Modeling, which changes a lot of dynamics here in the industry. Both Aurora PhotoArts and Independent Modeling will be working as partners from now on, with the goal of helping models; one section being added to the new Aurora PhotoArts site will be an advice section, and we will help to advertise and promote Independent Modeling. Please note that this does NOT mean that we are controlling them, just like they won't control us. It is a partnership, and any possible conflicts of interest will be clarified. Aurora PhotoArts will also work with other photographers and subcontract work out when needed through the Round Table Photography Association, found at TampaBayPhotographers.Com . NEW MARKETING AND SALES STRATEGIES - Details are not available online. Contact us for information. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, January 17, 2005 - ESPY Sessions Booking. Our marketing and sales departments are about to put in some overtime, and we are now booking up the last session in January (The January 29 session, which will be a joint session with Andy Meng photography in Brandon for studio photography- January 29 and 30 will be very busy) and both of sessions for February. We normally like to have one ESPY group session per week but the increase in photography session sales booked is taking up much of our time and has cut our ESPY sessions in half. Book a session now unless you want to wait until Spring. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, December 20, 2004 - Preparing For Our Busy Season. Every year, January through March books up fast for model portfolio photography and other services. Last year set records. The first quarter of 2005 is projected to be our busiest yet. January is already close to being booked up, with model testing sessions prescheduled earlier this month. We will start booking for February and March later this week. If you want to book a shoot and our schedule is booked, we refer overflow work to our photography partners who are allied with us in the Round Table Photography Association , found at TampaBayPhotographers.Com . You cannot go wrong with any of us, as we provide the best model portfolio photography services in the Tampa Bay area with fair rates. Our photography is quality guaranteed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, December 19, 2004 - Free Model Test Sessions Now Booking. Free model testing for groups of models! Photography sessions are now booking for Sunday, January 2, 2005 and Saturday, January 8, 2005. Sessions are completely free of charge with no obligation to book services. A make up artist who is also a professional fashion model will be provided at no charge. Sessions will be in the Tampa Bay area. Please call our client services department at (813) 671-9507 for details. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, December 18, 2004 - Present Site To Be Adjusted. We've made a decision. Our web team really likes this site design, and the new versions looked the same but were less efficient. So, some of the content that we have developed for the "new" site will be added, and the menus may be adjusted. We are also adjusting the portfolio pages so you won't have to scroll down for images. When some of us get a break from doing shoots, we'll get to update the site for you. Expect many more pictures and a lot more references and testimonials. Stay tuned. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, December 6, 2004 - January Model Testing Booking. First session booking is for Sunday, January 2. Additional bookings TBA. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, October 15, 2004 - Work increases. We have booked shoots with over fifteen models and other clients in the coming week. To be considered for our services, please book today, as our schedule is filling fast. We expect to book a lot more every week from now on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, October 15, 2004 - Stylist positions frozen. We currently subcontract five MUA/ stylists, and they represent the best in the Tampa Bay and Orlando market . Our stylists are professionals who do not work with unethical photographers. Currently, we are not seeking to subcontract any more stylists, and if we do in the future we will take who they work with in the consideration of subcontracting them. We will not consider working with MUA/ Stylists who work with unethical photographers (not that there will be a temptation to do so in the near future, simply because the unethical photographers may experience some cash flow problems in the market - If you only knew what we knew right now. Enjoy the weekend.) Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - Geomedia 3 studio operational. Hurricane Jeanne did what we expected but did not want to happen. The studio took damage on the exterior that exceeded what was done from Frances and there are huge branches blocking the doors and the parking area. Nothing that a little money can't fix. The facility itself is fine, however, and our main computer is now up. We have a subcontracted team working on the outside to clean up, and photography sessions resume tomorrow morning. Despite the Hurricanes, we have been very busy, and continue to remain booked up. Video footage from our exterior security cameras of the Hurricane is a bit scary, but it's interesting. The security system is designed to work even if the main power is out, and it worked very well on the backup UPS system. Internal sensors designed to record pressure and vibration reported gusts of over 80 MPH were hitting the structure, and it withstood it. The main studio section, which has reinforced walls which are soundproofed for recording work done by our sister companies took the brunt of the wind. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, September 25, 2004 - Geomedia 3 studio declares code blue. For the third time in six weeks, we have declared code blue. Since we have very little time to act, we are removing the main computer, backup files, our portfolios, and our cameras. The studio will be locked down and the security system will be battery enabled. We are expecting minor structural damage like we had with Frances. We're looking at that guiding high, however, and there is a small chance that the Hurricane could track right over Tampa Bay, and if that happens we're in big trouble. We've rescheduled Monday's shoots, and expect to be ok. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, September 24, 2004 - Model Go See Section Added. We've added a Go See Section for experienced professional models (added to our current CAREERS section). These are jobs that we are referring models to. We are not an agency, so all models are referred to our commercial clients at no charge. Agency bookers are welcome to submit models. In other news, we are standing by for another code blue, as another Hurricane is approaching. We are praying for cold weather. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, September 20, 2004 - Busy Times. Hurricanes? What Hurricanes? Despite all of the storm threats lately, business has been increasing, and we have been working well with a studio and production facility that is only half put back together. The damage to the facility has been repaired, and we will have it back to 100% as of Wednesday. Starting this weekend, we will catch up with the backlog of shoots, and should be caught up with work by late October. Special thanks to all of our friends who are helping out. Thank you! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, September 18, 2004 - Internet Developments. Aurora PhotoArts is now working on an annex web site specifically for model portfolio photography and testing. While you can still get all of that information here, the other site will be designed to cater to the modeling market, and will touch on actor head shot photography. The domain name is now working, and marketing material will be branded with the new domain as well as this one. The new site will be hosted on another server, as it will be image heavy. In other news, we have removed our profile on the portfolio networking site. While the administrators on the site have been good to us, we are much too busy actually doing shoots to keep up with it. Unlike the so-called "professional complainers"- er, we mean "photographers" who are afraid of us on the site, we do not need to use a portfolio networking site to market ourselves, especially since we already have Internet superiority. In business news, we are booked up until early October. We will have no model portfolio photography or TFP Select sessions available until then, so book today. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, September 17, 2004 - Aurora PhotoArts Expands Model Portfolio Marketing. Activity increased today regarding advanced promotions of model portfolio photography and model testing services. We bought a marketing domain name leading to a picture heavy section of our site which is only accessible by the new domain name, and the new marketing will begin next week. Thanks to sister company and ad agency EOS MediaArts for the domain name idea! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, September 12, 2004 - Booked Up. Despite the Hurricanes, photography bookings have increased. We are now booked with a backlog of photography sessions until November, and scheduling is tight due to evacuations pushing back booked sessions. If you wish to book a photography session before November, give us a call at (813) 671-9507, and we will see if we can fit you in (we may be able to). Lisa Marie and Mrs Goldburg, please give the studio a call. We also need to get with Kinsley. In regards to Hurricane Ivan, we are taking a wait and see approach. If the storm heads our way, we are calling code blue and will evacuate. Currently, if the storm passes us by, we will have repairs to the studio done this week, and will have the studio back to 100% next week. There was no damage to the studio facilities themselves or to the systems- most damage was cosmetic or to the area outside. The A/C is now working, too. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - Geomedia 3 Online. Sort of. Due to the threat of Hurricane Ivan early next week, we have brought in the minimum equipment necessary to do business. We had to get the studio online as quickly as possible because we have a backlog of photography sessions to do. This means that scheduling will be tight for the next two weeks. Due to storm damage to the exterior of the studio, we are suspending bringing models to the main studio until it is safe to walk to and from parking- we are holding off on making repairs until the next Hurricane threat is gone. Our A/C is also working erratically, which is not a concern because we seldom do photography here. This said, we are open for business and fully operational. We are working on a new program which will make our operations Hurricane resistant. In the near future, we will be back in business as soon as power is restored, and it will not matter if our production facilities are destroyed or not. There are rumors that due to the weather threats of the past month we are planning on moving out of the state of Florida. While our competition would love this, it isn't true. We are staying in Tampa Bay. We have many reasons to stay here, and among those reasons is the reason that we fully intend to be around to see a group of photographers put themselves out of business, as what they are doing will catch up to them. That alone is reason to ride out any Hurricanes and keep going. After all, who else can you trust for quality photography services? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, September 2, 2004 - Key Component Evacuation Ordered. 7:00 PM - Evacuation of key equipment and files has been ordered, with our three hour plan extended to four. We will evacuate most of our equipment starting tonight. Due to expectations of the studio receiving minor damage at the most, a total evacuation gutting the studio will not be necessary this time. The Hurricane is expected to slow as it crosses the State of Florida and should weaken to Tropical Storm strength upon arrival in the Tampa Bay area. We will probably be offline until early next week in regards to our Internet operations. The phone system will be left online. We will return client calls after the storm has passed and key components are brought back online- obviously, if the studio is damaged or destroyed, this will change. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, September 2, 2004 - Online portfolio now up. Our online portfolio is now up, and will probably be the last update for a while as we may be tearing down the computer system in the next 24 hours. This time, we do not intend to gut the studio facility, and will leave the phone system online. The four hour plan will remove cameras, marketing material, media, and computers. If the storm maintains the forecast track, the Geomedia 3 facility may take severe damage, but parts of it may still be intact and salvageable. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another Andrew? We would kick back and admire the beauty of these NASA photographs if we weren't so scared. Perhaps we'll be able to from Geomedia 3 after the storm in the best case scenario. God help us all. You can see Tampa Bay in the foreground in the top image. Wednesday, September 1, 2004 - Geomedia 3 studio declares code blue again. This was a 1 in 10,000 shot, but we are declaring code blue AGAIN, as another Hurricane is threatening the studio. The storm is expected to effect the Tampa Bay area Saturday evening, and a decision to evacuate will be made late Thursday or early Friday. The studio isn't even back together after the last Hurricane evacuation, and only 40% of all equipment has been re-installed. Most items are still boxed, which will speed another evacuation. What are the odds of this happening? We are amazed and horrified at the same time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, August 28, 2004 - New Site Additions Coming. Our online portfolio and incomplete sections will be available sometime this week. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, August 28, 2004 - TFP Select Photography Services Rolls Out Today. Other photographers who over rate their services and are hostile competitors can start losing sleep now. Their market nightmare has arrived. Today we are pleased to announce the full roll out of our TFP Select program, and all of our staff photographers and fashion stylists/ MUA's are on board. Got a look that we like? We'll give it to exceptional models at no charge! Contact us for details, and on how TFP photography works for both our business and models. For the first time, TFP is available with professional quality and no strings attached. TFP Select is available for a limited time, and availability depends upon schedule. Not all models will qualify. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, August 28, 2004 - Measures To Prevent Shopping In Place. With the assistance of our attorney and the start of aggressive marketing, we have come up with some powerful tools and have taken measures to prevent unethical photographers and hostile competitors from shopping our rates and trade secrets. Trying to find out our confidential information? Stop while you are ahead. Theft of our information will backfire. Here is a wake up call to everyone out there- Most so-called professionals who try to denounce us are the very ones trying to steal from us (Our friends over at Independent Modeling have the same problem, and they are helping us fix it). They are afraid of high quality photography services and superior marketing, and will go to great lengths to minimize a perceived threat to their business. Some services, such as our TFP Select program, are high risk, and we have taken great measures to address this threat. Wise Rule: Never volunteer information. Information security is important, and we exercise it. We are not in business to train our competition. Any unethical photographer or hostile competitor caught using our material will face a lawsuit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, August 28, 2004 - New Pricing Due On September 1. Our legal team has been working on new contracts, and we expect the new contracts to be deployed on September 1, 2004. On September 1, new rates will go into effect, too. If anyone has a photography session or services pending, please contact us so we can grandfather your quoted rate in and insert a waiver code for our financing department. Call for new rates. Thank you. A special thanks goes out to Round Table Photography Association member and photographer friend Craig Huey for the idea behind the new split rate sheet/ Fall 2004 contract series. Excellent idea, and a great paper saver! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, August 27, 2004 - We've been busy. The lack of updates are due to being backed up in shoots and work. We have over 20 clients to call back at the time of this update, and should be able to tackle the calls and get those consultations scheduled today. We will be doing several photography projects this weekend. If no one is available in the studio when you call, please leave a message and we will get back to you as quickly as possible. In early September, we are forecasting an increase of business of over 500%. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - Dimension Stageforms web site is almost here. Our sister company, event planning company Dimension Stageforms, will have a new web site available, perhaps as early as tonight. Why are we announcing it here? We have many joint projects and modeling events in the works, that's why. Just like we are the best photography services company in the Tampa Bay area, Dimension Stageforms is the best event services company in Tampa Bay. They have been in business longer than we have, since October 1990, and the theme event technology that they have is second to none! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - Aurora PhotoArts Web Site Additions Coming Soon Now that our studio is back up, we can work on the site additions that were due last week. Expect missing information to be added and an online portfolio to be up shortly. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - Geomedia 3 Studio Resumes Operations The Geomedia 3 production facility was spared by the Hurricane last Friday after the Hurricane changed course with hours to spare. During the evacuation, we extended our three hour plan to a twelve hour plan, effectively stripping the studio of all wiring, critical components, paperwork, computers, and electronic systems.The facility was gutted. The only thing left online was the ISIS security system, the CCTV cameras, and the battery backups. While we are very happy that the Tampa Bay area was spared from a dangerous storm that would have been a category five by the time it reached us, and we are happy that we have a studio facility that suffered no damage, it has taken us five days of wiring and component installation to get back to basic business capability. We should be at full capacity by tomorrow, and it will take us at least a week to complete that work that remains to be done on Geomedia 3. This has not been easy, but we have passed the first implementation of our code blue Hurricane plan. Thank God we did not have to put our business continuity plan to test. Our consolation goes out to the communities in Florida that were hit by the Hurricane. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, August 12, 2004 - Geomedia 3 Studio key component evacuation ordered What we projected back on Tuesday is still holding true as of 6:41 AM this morning, and is actually a lot worse, as the storm is projected to be a category three Hurricane, which is a major Hurricane that leaves studio survivability at zero. The Hurricane is forecast to come up the mouth of Tampa Bay, which is the worst news possible regarding our studio location. We have cancelled today's meetings and have changed our schedule to implement emergency operations. We have ordered the three hour evacuation of key components and technology from the studio so we can resume service operations in whatever capacity that circumstances enable after the storm. If the storm impacts the Tampa Bay area as currently predicted, we expect a total loss of the Geomedia 3 production facility, and there will be a major operations disruption. The Hurricane is forecast to arrive Friday evening. Studio phone lines will remain in automatic mode and will be available as long as the studio is standing and power is still on. Ironically, the ISIS security system has battery back up and will operate until the studio is lost. The embedded CCTV cameras will continue to record and document what is happening until the structural failure of the facility, and the recorders will survive to be located in the debris field and recovered later, much like a black box after a crash. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - Geomedia 3 Studio declares code blue All photography sessions scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday have been rescheduled for early next week due to the increasing likelihood that a category 2 Hurricane will affect the Tampa Bay area this weekend. Studio evacuation protocols were reviewed by our team this evening, with the planned three hour evacuation of critical business components and trade secrets possible as planned. The Geomedia 3 production facility, an 1100 square foot studio which is located very close to the mouth of the Alafia River and Tampa Bay waters, has been operational since the Spring of 1999, and is currently scheduled for a major overhaul this Fall. It would not survive any Hurricane, and has not been built to. If a Hurricane does hit Tampa Bay directly, this would have a severe impact on operations for years to come, but we would still remain in business, and our survival is ensured in one form or another. If the Hurricane does hit, our Internet assets will go on standby, as it will affect our ability to update. We wish the Tampa Bay community luck as we prepare for the worst. Due to the fact that we do a lot of location work, Geomedia 3 is equipped to project possible weather conditions as far as a week in advance, with a solid track record of accurate projections. Since last night, the probability that Hurricane Charley will affect us has increased dramatically, and as of 10:48 PM we project a 50% chance of the storm hitting the Tampa Bay area directly with sustained winds in excess of 100 MPH. The estimated storm surge alone would destroy the studio, although the winds from the storm would cause structural failure long before that happens. We will update our clients as weather updates come in. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, August 5, 2004 - New Aurora PhotoArts web site launches The new Aurora PhotoArts web site, the fourth in a series, launched today. The new site is expected to be current for at least one year, and is an integral part of the marketing of our quality photography services. Our OMP marketing has been in place since July 23, and additional marketing enhancements are in progress. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OLDER ARCHIVES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, August 5, 2004 New Web Site Launches. The new Aurora PhotoArts web site launched today. Go HERE to see it. This is an old directory, and will not be updated anymore. Tuesday, June 29, 2004 Out With The Old. We are days away from a new Aurora PhotoArts web site! Check back for a surprise....... Thursday, June 10, 2004 Aurora PhotoArts Turns Ten! Aurora PhotoArts turned ten today! Ten years ago today the company was created to supply pictures for a DJ Mix project by sister company Geomedia Productions titled Futura. The first model photographed was none other than then 18 year old Nicole Angel. Since then, the company has worked with hundreds of great models and has turned out many excellent photographs which are considered by critics to be legendary, and Geomedia Productions became the advertising agency EOS MediaArts. The next Aurora PhotoArts web site, the 10th anniversary special edition, is due out this month! Thursday, May 6, 2004 Aurora PhotoArts Prepares POS Marketing. Aurora PhotoArts will be preparing POS marketing in the Tampa Bay area. The roll out is expected next week. Wednesday, April 28, 2004 EOS Team Removes Content. An EOS MediaArts web team went through the Aurora PhotoArts web site today and removed content in preparation for June's new site. An EOS director expressed disappointment in the present site, and indicated that while it has been satisfactory for the most part, the the advancements developed for search engine indexing in the Summer of 2003 did not work. In some instances, the super metas and embedded content backfired. Content has been removed because of evidence that "photographers" have been going through the site shopping for ideas and stealing content, too (in one example, we know of a composite card design services site in Tampa which has content directly developed from the study of this site. The entire business model was stolen from us, and our attorney is now involved- We are surprised that people with no professional experience and no talent would choose to rip us off and bad mouth us while using our information to sell their counterfeit, derived services). What was stolen, however, was already outdated compared to new techniques developed late last year. "This is a special year for Aurora PhotoArts" a team member stated, "and the new web site will not only support new business directions but will exceed our design expectations. The dinosaur will be retired, and the new site will work like it is supposed to." According to design protocol adopted in 1999, no trade secrets have ever been on the Aurora PhotoArts web site, and that protocol prevented market damage due to the theft of material. Since the information was outdated, the stolen material would have done more harm than good to the party that stole it. They copied things that simply do not work or are not cost effective, and it will cost them time and money because they used material that is outdated. Content on the new site will be limited, with new material created for it. Aurora PhotoArts photography and support services have always been excellent, however, with high client satisfaction rates and quality that most photography companies cannot match. Things will get substantially better this year, too. Monday, April 19, 2004 Aurora PhotoArts Web Site Makes Progress. With a strong emphasis on commercial photography work and a simplified layout, EOS MediaArts is already out of the planning stage for the next Aurora PhotoArts web site and is making progress. They've been busy lately. The team is tweaking Independent Modeling (today they are fixing the model job board), is putting together a new site called Independent Performer, and just wrapped and launched the new Dream Nine Studios site a few days ago. The new Aurora PhotoArts web site will be due around the time of our tenth anniversary in June, and work on Dimension Stageforms is almost done, too. Work on the EOS web site, delayed because of the backlog of work on all of these sites, will be completed in early Summer. Aurora PhotoArts has set sales records with model portfolio photography, ESPY test photography sessions, and actor head shot photography in the first quarter of 2004. Even though the direction of services will focus on commercial photography in 2004, Aurora PhotoArts will continue to provide our quality talent photography services. With commercial photography and working with EOS, Aurora PhotoArts will become the leading source of print work for models in 2004 for the State of Florida (and no, we will not cross service lines and use the promise of jobs to sell models portfolio services, as that would be unethical. Models do not have to use our portfolio services to be eligible to book work with our clients). We will push to book independent models before agency models, although we will accept agency referred models too. In both cases, we will consult the Professional Model Bureau of Independent Modeling, IndependentModeling.Com to get references. Professional models only, as we will check your profile for a reference, and will not even consider you if your PMB score is under 500. Aurora PhotoArts is a photography company, too, and is not an agency, so models will be referred to our clients at no charge. Saturday, March 6, 2004 Aurora PhotoArts To Focus On Commercial Photography Services in 2004. Aurora PhotoArts has been in the top of the model portfolio and actor head shot market in Florida, and especially Tampa Bay, but there will be a focus on commercial photography this year. Model portfolio and actor head shot services will still be offered, of course, but not marketed nearly as aggressively as to not dilute our commercial photography branding;we do not wish to create a conflict of interest situation in the eyes of our corporate clients. This change in market direction is a first in the ten years, and will set the tone for the next ten years as Aurora PhotoArts focuses on commercial photography work with sister company EOS MediaArts, Tampa Bay's newest and most innovative advertising agency! Being the best with working with models, this is a logical move, as this means that Aurora PhotoArts will become the leading source of paid print work for models in the coming months! Saturday, March 6, 2004 Aurora PhotoArts To Launch Tampa Location Preservation Project. Similar to the efforts of the legendary Burgess Bros photography company of the early 1900's, Aurora PhotoArts will embark on a project to photograph and archive Tampa Bay locations for future generations to enjoy. More details on this ten year project to be announced. Friday, February 13, 2004 Aurora PhotoArts Plans New Photography Studio. Aurora PhotoArts is planning a joint photography studio in Tampa with other photographer partners, and the focus will be on commercial photography. Other types of work will include model portfolios, actor head shots, consumer portraiture, wedding photography, and photographic art. The studio will also house the offices and creative studios of EOS MediaArts, an advertising agency which is the newest Passinault.Com company. The name of the studio has been selected, but will not be announced until it is ready. The new studio will include Aurora PhotoArts AURA technology, and a new security system know as THOR, which is the successor of the ISIS system currently protecting the Geomedia 3 facility. Speaking of ISIS, security upgrades were done in recent weeks which include remote monitoring and a sophisticated video surveillance system with dual backups. ISIS is designed to neutralize any attempts of intrusion and to generate and archive the evidence used for prosecution. THOR is designed to eliminate intrusions with brute sonic force, and also incorporates a technology-friendly fire suppression system which uses halon. Tuesday, February 3, 2004 Business sets an all-time record. Model portfolio bookings set a record in January, and we are also seeing a large increase in actor head shot photography services sold through. Client satisfaction for this year is at 100%, another record, with several new client referrals from past clients. As bookings continue to increase, we are working hard to maintain our clients satisfaction ratio of 100%. The toughest critic of our work, however, continues to be us, and our satisfaction is at 95%. We are very proud of the quality of professional work that we have done this year so far, and will shatter expectations later this year as we field new equipment and new photographic techniques. In related news, our new services which were rolled out last week have inspired an overwhelming response. For those models wanting TFP Select, please be patient as we prepare to set up consultations, as there are a lot of models in line for this. Thursday, January 29, 2004 Aura will change everything. More Aura tools were designed yesterday, and nothing like it exists anywhere else. Aura technology will provide a quantum leap in our production quality as early as this spring. Patents are pending on some of the technology, and we expect other photographers to study our ideas in the future after they try to figure out how we manage to get some of the most incredible pictures in the Florida market. Presently, our work is all high quality and our clients are happy, but we aspire to produce better things. Tuesday, January 27, 2004 New Photography Services Roll Out This Week. Aurora PhotoArts is rolling out a TFP project and a new Portfolio Service this week. Check back for the roll out! Ironically, our new TFP program is a real TFP offer- we don't do TFP and then give models useless web only images with huge logos on them. Models get all of the images, and we do not sell them back anything. Additionally, the quality is professional. What you see on this web site and in our portfolio is the type of work that you can expect. Friday, January 23, 2004 A New Aurora PhotoArts Web Site Is In The Works. Our new sister company EOS MediaArts has been working overtime, and they announced today that the 4th Aurora PhotoArts web site is in development, and it will be launched in time for our tenth anniversary in June! The present web site, which is the third in the series, was launched in June of 2003, and is already overloaded with information, and our services have outgrown it. The technology on this site is extremely obsolete compared to the new technologies that the EOS team are rolling out for the new site. Some of that new technology was developed for the new Independent Modeling web site, which an EOS team has been developing for the past year, and which is due to launch in early February. The new Aurora PhotoArts site will contain simpler, less confusing content, a comprehensive and easy to navigate layout, and an awesome design. Additionally, the site will use "Net Component" technology based on the next Independent Modeling site's WCE web array system, a highly secure and virtually impossible to steal technology. The new Aurora PhotoArts site, with all of its advanced innovations, will be online this spring, replacing the fairly young site that you now are on less than a year after it was launched. Tuesday, January 20, 2004 New Services On The Way. Aurora PhotoArts is now finalizing plans to roll out new services, including two new ones for models. The model services are rumored to include a new low cost portfolio photography line and a professional quality TFP offering. We are hearing that there will be a portfolio service available for under $100.00, but have yet to confirm that with planners. Some of us are curious to see just how that is going to work, especially since price points on other services are not going to come down, and in fact may be increasing later this year. Aurora PhotoArts Now Using New Equipment. Aurora PhotoArts now has access to new equipment such as the Canon EOS 10D, the Fuji S2 Pro, and the Nikon D2H, as well as new studio lighting and accessories such as lenses. Combined with the new AURA™ lighting technology, 2004 should be a very productive year. The equipment upgrades were needed for commercial photography work, and the skills and talent of our photographers will no longer be limited by minimal equipment. A new photography studio is in development for commercial photography work and talent portfolios. Client Satisfaction Surveys Complete. Our first run of Client Satisfaction Surveys are back. Over 95% of our clients are completely satisfied, with 85% of them indicating that they would not hesitate to refer other clients to our services. For a service company, especially one in the competitive world of photography, we are very proud of our record of satisfied clients. Sales for the first quarter of 2004, some of them referrals from other clients, are very strong, and have exceeded projections. We are now projecting that we will do more work in 2004 than in the past three years combined, and will exceed our total production output since we began operations in 1994. Aurora PhotoArts Announces Location Photography Mobile Studio Gear. Aurora PhotoArts announced on Friday, January 9, 2004 a new line of professional studio equipment designed to work on location and in adverse weather conditions. Code named AURA, the new gear will allow our teams to out perform any studio lighting setup while taking advantage of the photographic range of composition that working on location provides. AURA technology was originally developed two years ago for the Aurora PhotoArts project RTR 60. Some of the gear includes portable soft boxes, spots, reflectors, key lights, and fills. To date, location shoots have been done without any additional lighting, and this will change this year. Inexpensive Model Portfolio Photography. Modeling photography introduction starting at a low price for the best value! Go HERE for more information. Sessions are limited, and we recommend booking as soon as possible. Aurora PhotoArts Uses Professional References. Aurora PhotoArts is a proud supporter of Independent Modeling's Professional Model Reference database. We use professional references of all models, and give them, too. For more, go HERE. Aurora PhotoArts is a proud sponsor of the free, no obligation talent web resources Independent Modeling and Independent Acting. You do not have to use our services to use these sites. These web sites are making a difference in the entertainment industry, and have already changed many things for the best! Model Submission Instructions For Commercial Photography Booking. Aurora PhotoArts is working with sister company EOS MediaArts to book models into jobs free of charge. We are proud of our modeling connections, and it helps us sell the client our services when we book commercial work. Since we are not a modeling agency, we are not licensed to make money off model fees, and therefore refer models to our clients as a professional courtesy. Models who we are familiar with professionally are always given first referrals. Models, please do not send us large E-mails if you are trying to land a go see for one of our jobs! Some models have been spamming us with the same E-Mails and large picture files for each posting, and this is uncalled for. Large E-Mails will be deleted and not read. If you must E-Mail us, please send us a COVER LETTER, YOUR RESUME with YOUR MEASUREMENTS AND STATS, and a LINK to your web site or your pictures which are already on the Internet elsewhere. If you cannot do this, PLEASE mail us a COMPOSITE CARD, a COVER LETTER, and a RESUME including your measurements and stats to PO Box 1224, Riverview, FL 33568-1224. Some professional advice: Please write a cover letter to us and use a word processor when you do so. Please send us an accurate, up to date resume so we can check your references. As a reminder, if we are not professionally familiar with a model, we use Independent Modeling's Professional Model Bureau for professional model reference scores. Since their database now contains over 1,000 models in Florida, most of you already have scores that we can check. Models who do not follow these instructions or models who fail to have a satisfactory PMB score from Independent Modeling's Professional Model Bureau will not be considered. For those of you who need help with this, please go HERE to study up. One final note: Professional models only. These jobs are not for beginning models, and we are looking for models that have established portfolios and composite cards. One reason is that they reflect on us with our clients, and these jobs are not easy. Another reason is that we do not want a conflict of interest between aspiring models who need to invest in portfolios and experienced models who no longer need to spend money on portfolio photography. It would undermine our professional credibility if aspiring models were trying for these jobs and we were unable to provide them the services that they really need because it would be a conflict of interest. If we book you, you are already the professional model that we are seeking. Our clients are paying professional rates for professional models, and that is what we need. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER Due to the potential for an ethical conflict of interest, we do not mix prospective jobs that we book models into with our portfolio photography and development services. To be considered for any model job, models should already have a solid portfolio and composite cards, as we rarely book aspiring models into any job. Models who contract our portfolio photography services and other services are not coerced into booking us with the promise of booking any work, neither directly or implied. We are not obligated to book any models into work if they are clients. Aurora PhotoArts is not a model and talent agency. We are a photography services company with a large spread of services that have the potential to be conflicts of interest. We do not charge models any fees or make money from fees by referring models into client jobs, as we make our money from photography. Shopping for photography services by rates alone is a false economy. You often get what you pay for. You need to look at the whole picture. Ask to see samples of the quality of their work and take the time to interview them when you evaluate a photographer for your service needs. Be safe- verify their references. For more on verifying photographer references and checking them out, go to our friends at Independent Modeling, IndependentModeling.Com . Disclaimer Updated March 9, 2008
Photograph: Tampa Bay actor Jinelsa Rosado, photographed by Tampa Headshot photographer Chris Passinault.

ALERTS - UPDATES - BLOG - ARTICLES - ABOUT - NEWS - PORTFOLIO - TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHY - TAMPA - ART - JOBS - SUPPORT - TESTIMONIALS - CONTACT TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHY AND DESIGN DISCLAIMER - CLIENT TESTIMONIALS - CLIENT REFERENCES - TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHY SHOOT VIDEOS TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG BY TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHER CHRIS PASSINAULT Aurora PhotoArts Site V6. Venus Class Web Site by Eos MediaArts. Tampa Bay events by Eventi Events. Videos by Dream Nine Studios. Tampa advertising agency Eos MediaArts, Tampa event planning company Eventi Events, and Tampa production company Dream Nine Studios are Passinault.Com companies and are directly affiliated with Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Bay photography and design. Tampa Bay Photographers - Orlando Convention Photography - Orlando Convention Photographer - Orlando Tradeshow Photography A founding member of the Tampa Photography Society, an association of professional photographers - True integrity, trust, and quality among qualified professionals. Tampa Bay Photography, Design, and Art services markets serviced, but not limited to: Tampa, Ybor City, Hyde Park, Westshore, Apollo Beach, Clearwater, Clearwater Beach, Saint Pete (St Petersburg), Palm Harbour, Brandon, Plant City, Lakeland, Orlando, Winter Park, Sarasota, Bradenton, Daytona Beach, Miami, Miami Beach, South Beach, Deerfield Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Key West, and Palm Springs. Aurora PhotoArts, a Passinault.Com company. Aurora PhotoArts is a photography services, design, and art production company based in the Tampa Bay area and serving Florida. It is a company of Passinault Industries LLC. Venus Class Web Site by Tampa advertising agency Eos MediaArts, a Passinault.Com company. Venus Class 0001, commissioned 073107.0900 hrs. Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Bay photography and design V6 web site template and site directories refreshed on 03/14/08. TAMPA PHOTOGRAPHY DESIGN WEB SITE UPDATED 03/14/08 Tampa Bay, Florida © Copyright 1994-2008 Aurora PhotoArts. All rights reserved. Clients and models under the age of 21 are encouraged to involve their parents in the consultation, booking, and service process of any of our services that they wish to book. Anyone under the age of 18 is required to have the full participation of their parents or legal guardian. We do not knowingly solicit minors for any service that we offer. Unauthorized duplication and use of all images is expressly forbidden. Releases and proof of copyright ownership are on on file at our offices in the Tampa Bay area. Images cannot be licensed or sold without a model release or the appropriate release. Aurora PhotoArts is affiliated with Tampa advertising agency Eos MediaArts, a Passinault.Com company and one of our many sister companies. We often refer our model, actor, and talent clients to advertising agencies for booked model jobs in the Tampa Bay markets as well as other major markets. Talent do not have to be our clients in order to be referred to the advertising agency bookings, as they only need to have professional career tools such as portfolios, composite cards, and head shots in order to be considered. Referred talent may use the professional tools that they have and are not required to book any services from us in order for us to refer them. Aurora PhotoArts allows our clients to bring along a friend or a family member to any service that they book as long as it is not a professional conflict of interest (no unauthorized photographers, aspiring photographers who are trying to learn from us, parties with the intention of competing with us, service shoppers, or parties affiliated with any competitor). We only refer models to top model and talent agencies who have professional clients and who are associated with ethical professionals. Aurora PhotoArts is not affiliated with any model and talent agency or agencies, and our photography and design services company is not represented by any agency. We are not responsible for the opinions and actions of any agencies who we may refer our clients to. Additionally, we recommend that models invest in portfolio pictures and composite cards before going to any agency, as this will avoid any potential professional or ethical conflicts of interest without compromising the integrity or quality of the portfolio pictures and modeling career tools that they need. Aurora PhotoArts Blinder Security enabled. APS Version optimized for photography and design services marketing. Blinder web site security protocols by Tampa advertising agency Eos MediaArts. This web site is used for marketing purposes only and does not include detailed information about our service lines. We do not post information such as photography rates or design rates on this web site. If you have any questions about our services, would like to set up a free consultation, or would like to know our rates, please contact us by calling our Client Services department today at (813) 671-9507. We would be more than happy to answer your questions over the phone or in person. General Aurora PhotoArts disclaimer for the Tampa Bay photography and Florida markets updated 03/14/08