Shooting Your Way to A $-Million is a book I have a long history with. I acquired a copy of the 1981 book sometime before 2005. I read it back then, as I do all the photography books I have collected as soon as I acquire them, but just recently acquired a second copy. So I read it again.
Written by Richard Sharabura—but conceived, edited and coordinated by Tina Sharabura—it is both dazzling, inspiring and slightly confusing.
Starting at the beginning Richard has no formal training in photography. What he has is a couple of guiding principals. Take the subtitle of the book. It is — A photographer’s strategy for success. The field of commercial photography is almost a closed shop with many, many photographers unable to enter the business. Richard explains how the parts of the business work together and how to avoid the pitfalls. He has made some mistakes, but never twice, and along the way found what works.
Just one example will illustrate this. Richard’s first disaster was a day’s shoot in winter, shooting three models dressed in evening gowns at night. The next day all the film came back from the processor completely black.
So he returned to the shoot’s location with the equipment to try to understand what had gone wrong. The camera’s shutter seemed to fire. The shutter speed dial was taped (Taped!) to 125 sec, the correct sync speed. The flash output was checked with a flash meter and found to be what was used.
The next step was trying to accuse the lab of somehow botching the development. The lab pointed out transparency film when developed will be black if unexposed. At that moment Richard was out of business.
Sitting with the camera in his lap he noticed the X/M sync setting on the lens was on “M”. He never checks that, as the only reason to set the shutter to M sync is when using flashbulbs. He always used electronic flash and it requires “X” sync. Basically the flash was going off and all the light was finished before the shutter opened.
An assistant confessed he must have changed the setting while toying with the lens—but the damage had been done.
Richard decided he would always use Polaroid tests—during the shoot—to absolutely guarantee he would be getting results. Later he evolved his technique using the same tests to keep the client’s rep satisfied during a shoot. He found having the reps in the room during a shoot always led to conflicts, while keeping them in another part of the building but supplied with the Polaroid shots worked well for everyone.
And that is the real beauty of Shooting Your Way to $-Million. By having chapters that explore the theme with plenty of wonderful examples from actual advertisements you slowly take in the way the industry works.
And it isn’t limited to just advertising.
Subjects as separate as dye-transfer printing—so you can develop as an “Art” photographer—to shooting magazine layouts—which turn out to be low income but raises your reputation—are all covered.
This book was given to a member of my community. Her name is written in the book. I found the book at the dump’s “Take-Away Shed” and grabbed it, just for old times sake.
When I moved to town I had to choose just some of my book collection to bring with me. Shooting Your Way to $-Million was one of the books I brought—it is that impressive!
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