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Response to You've got to have a gimmick!

from alan dale (adale66@excite.com)
John, you seem to feel that people are using you as a punching bag - and you are probably right...but were all in the cheap advice business here on LUSENET so I guess you'll have to live with it.

For a clue as to how and where things went wrong, look at phrases like this one from your initial question:"In the past, if you were at the top of your field, you might become a celebrity. Today, to get to the top of your field, you have to be a celebrity first. Now how do I get that first 15 minutes of fame?" If that phrase didn't make you sound astoundingly self agrandizing, shallow, bitter and cynical then I would be wondering why people were picking on you.< p> I haven't been doing this for a terribly long time, but long enough to call myself "photographer" with confidence.

Enough of my chest thumping. If you really want to do it, you will. I don't consider myself a "people and fashion" photographer but in your place, with the interests you have expressed I would start with wedding photography and assignments for publications in your local area (like city entertainment magazines). I've been a second shooter on 2 weddings and hated it -- would never go back because I can do other assignments that suit me better -- but if one is good one can make a lot of money doing that --- I know people who do. Every city and town has a monthly or quarterly city magazine with features about the arts, entertainment, restaurants, etc. One of my early assignments, 3-4 years ago, was taking interiors of restaurants for restaurant reviews. The money wasn't much but with each passing assignment I could drop another line on my client list. I would shoot extra film and some of thiose are still in my interiors portfolio. That's how you get big magazine assignments -- start with little magazine assignments, always deliver on time, always deliver more than you were asked to, always make your client look good.

I probably shouldn't say this, but I suspect that I will never be called a genius or innovator. I'm probably average smart, average talent, etc., but I work very hard. Maybe there is some secret, some way of getting the whole world to pay attention to you and beat a path to your door --- personally I doubt it and suspect that if it were that easy a lot more people would have done it by now.

My suspicion of Natascha Merritt's biggest secret? A MONTHLY CHECK FROM DADDY!

(posted 8664 days ago)

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