Hi Marc and thanks for your point of view. It may easily be just that, but I don't think it can be any easier to bring talent from outside, host it , etc than dealing with locals who know local things in detail, and have the same or more talent to do the shootings. I am Board Director for the AMerican Society of Media Photographers( ASMP), a National organization that has over 5000 members, all professional photographers, and which has a South Florida Chapter with some 150 Pros. THis chapter is probably the one in all of the US with the most varied list of talents, from undewater, to aerial, passing through all earthly things. I am pushing changes and improvements to our presence in the market ( upgrading the local website, www.asmpflorida.org, making strategic alliances with local organizations, like the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce), and other marketing strategies as to promote a more in depth awareness as to our presence here. If "easy" is the response to my query, then we will make life easy for many. Thanks again!

Hey Jorge. It's probably that Miami, being a relatively small city and all, it's hard to find good talent. Even in larger cities you have to wade through a pile of crap to find maybe 1% of the people being useful. If you have much less people there, then it might seem hopeless, so they just hire from cities where people have made names for themselves. Usually the answer to every single question of "why do they do it that way" when it comes to advertising practices is "it's easier." And, you're talking to someone who wrote and designed an ad campaign for the Orlando Board of Tourism while sitting in my apartment, freezing my ass off in the mountains in Western Massachusetts, having never been to Orlando and relying purely on reading random things on the Internet. :)

Hi Marc. Maybe the name is not all the more apropriate to describe what is going on, but what I am basically saying is that agencies in MIami outsource photographers from outside Florida and photographers in florida outsource their clients ( and the agencies they work for ) outside Miami. I don't intend to criticize this, as I am being told that I will "understand" by the time I start getting calls from outside Miami and my income won't depend on local clients, but still the situation keeps me wondering as something quite odd. The situation hasa reached such strange levels, that I can mention a campaign for Board of Tourism, here in Miami, a goverment thing, and they hired a location scouter from Los Angeles and a photogrpaher from CHicago, both of whm knew nothing about Miami. A very strong voice against this , issued from the ASMP ( American Society of Media Photographers, South Florida CHpater), managed to reduce the damage, and finally one local photog was hired for this. My point does not even relate to fees so far, as local photographers may be even more expensive than "imported" ones, but there is like a twisted perception of the market that is not favorable to anyone in the long term. Thanks for your words Marc. The idea of the breakfast is a good one adn there are other variants that I am considering as an option to meet creatives directly, face to face. Best Jorge

Hi Jorge - I'm actually not too sure what you mean by "double outsourcing" but to answer your question about connecting with agencies, when I worked at bigger ones we'd often have "portfolio breakfasts." The art buyers would usually have a rep bring in all of their portfolios, and we could come down to a conference room and eat a danish, have some coffee, look at the portfolios, meet the reps and get some samples. If you don't have a rep, and you're by yourself, maybe you can connect with other photographers in the area and share the labor of calling reps and arranging such an event at each agency. It makes the art buyer's job easier because they can expose a lot of talent to their creative department at once and you can cut down your labor by splitting it among other people in a similar situation. Hope that helps. Looking forward to an explanation of "double outsourcing." :)