I gotta agree with Bad Habit here... and it's not that I don't feel that the girls don't deserve the rates they are asking. But with the current economy, it's becoming more difficult to pay these rates. I'm working more on trade shoots, since so many girls have websites. That seems to work fairly well-- they get free high quality content for their sites, and I get to lower my production budget a bit. All of the agents, including Derek, have been pretty fair with us in helping to negotiate rates/trade. I don't want to undercut the girls in any way, but times are really tough right now, and everyone is feeling it. And BTW, some of the girls that have been listed as "ugly" I've gotten some pretty great shoots on... I'll post a few samples a little later in the week.