Shooting your way to 1,000,000 dollars
by Harry Flashman
I believe just about every semi-serious photographer dreams about getting paid for his pictures. And it does happen. Our own coin collector Jan Olav Aamlid went up the Pattaya Park Tower with a bunch of loonies called BASE jumpers who jumped off the parapet and floated to earth via parachute. Jan Olav got some photographs that ended up being published in Norway and he got paid handsomely. Jan Olav, in fact, couldn’t believe just how much!
Photo by Richard Sharabura
When Harry Flashman became a “pro” do you know what his best piece of equipment was? No, it wasn’t his camera. No, it wasn’t the flash lighting gear. No, it wasn’t the tripod or a reflector. It was a book!
That book was written by a Canadian professional photographer, Richard Sharabura, and was called “Shooting your way to a $ Million”. Harry here, carried that book as his personal bible, and still refers to it. Written in 1981, the advice is just as pertinent today as it was twenty-one years ago. Anyone who has ever contemplated any form of “pay me for my pictures” should read this book. By the way, previously when I wrote about this book, local amateur Ernie Kuehnelt went looking and managed to locate a second hand one through Amazon Dot Com, so it is still possible to find copies.
The opening paragraphs state: “No other profession spawns more eager hopefuls. No other profession calls so many and chooses so few.” He goes on “ … Practically every photographer has a preconceived notion about what he (or she) will shoot or not shoot. This is probably one of the most common stumbling blocks to financial success.”
Sharabura believes in being a generalist. In other words, you should be able to shoot anything. And I mean everything. It is no good saying to a potential customer, “Sorry, but I only shoot camels in mid-summer!” You have no idea of the number of photographic jobs that come from one initial request to shoot one particular subject. Harry started with a shot of a concrete truck, which expanded into a glamour calendar, then an engagement shot and a wedding – all from the same corporate executive. Be versatile is the answer!
There is no secret to becoming versatile. Just as the tennis pro’s play lots of tennis to get to the top, so do the photographic pro’s shoot lots of film to get to the top.
A good exercise is to pretend you are now the ace photographer for the Pattaya Mail! Just take a look at the different pictures in any newspaper and see what I mean about being versatile. There are photos of visiting celebrities, holes in the road, funerals, schools, construction sites, sporting tournaments and even babies.
Each weekend give yourself an assignment and go out and cover it pictorially. Here’s a few for you to try: the bus station, shopping on Beach Road, nightlife, the local laundry, life as a petrol pump attendant, beggars, baht busses. The list is as big as your imagination. Just choose one and get ready to shoot it this weekend.
Go out and illustrate your topic, as if the editor had told you to cover it. Make your shots describe the action, scene or activity. Think about how you are going to do it and how you are going to show it. Make the subject the “hero” and the main item of interest in all the shots.
Do all that and you are already thinking like a “pro”. Do it enough times and you will takes shots like a “pro”. Do that enough times and people will pay you like a “pro”.
The same can happen for you – just keep on shooting film and eventually someone will pay you for your hobby! And being paid for something you like doing is a real buzz! But remember that like all things – practice makes perfect!