Ask and Ye Shall Receive – As Applied to Stock Photography

Written By: admin on December 30, 2009 No Comment

And Wonderful Thought and a Book

A number of years ago I was interviewed as an early adopter of Photoshop, as part of a book on Adobe Photoshop. When the new book came out, the writer sent me a copy. The book was very gorgeous and I phoned her up to congratulate her. I then questioned her what her next project was.

She answered that she didn’t know yet what her next project would be. I immediately suggested that she write a book on me… and she answered that it was a wonderful thought! A year later my book on Photoshop (Adobe Masterclass: Photoshop Compositing with John Lund) came out.

Would You Model For Me?

A few days ago I had just boarded a plot back from New York when a very attractive young woman sat down next to me. After a very brief conversation I questioned her if she would model for me (I always cringe when I question that…). She agreed and two days later we were shooting. The shoot turned out fantastic and I got fantastic model released stock photo images, as excellent or better than I had imagined when I first questioned her if she would model for me.

Photo Shoots of Operations and Physical Therapy

Three times I have questioned surgeons if I can either have my operation photographed, or, if I can use their facilities to stage a stock photo shoot. Amazingly enough, that has resulted in two actual still photo shoots of operations on me (including a video in which a mesh is installed beneath my abdominal muscles) and an extensive shoot in a physical therapy facility virtually for free (OK, the operation did cost me $10,000.00).

Tony Stone and a Career in Stock Photography

Way back before the beginning of time I once questioned Tony Stone if he would loan me enough money to buy a powerful computer so that I could make cool stock photos for him (his company, Tony Stone Images, was the company bought by Jonathan Klein and Mark Getty and turned into Getty Images). Amazingly enough Tony said yes and my career in stock photography took off. Of course, the answer isn’t always yes. I want to point out I first questioned the owner of another stock agency for the money to buy the computer, but he declined. Silly man!

The Most Vital Question

In yet another ancient and audacious act of asking, I approached the owner of a photo lab (remember those?) if he would loan me $5,000.00 to buy a Beta copy of a program called Live Picture.

Back then Live Picture had layers and a liquefy filter as well as “history” and Photoshop did not. He loaned me the money, I bought Live Picture and for quite a few years was able to work far more efficiently for certain tasks than I could with Photoshop. In fact, the very first job I did with Live Picture that I could not do with Photoshop netted me a not-too-paltry $11,000.00 profit!

Of course, Live Picture lost the battle to Photoshop and there are few people left who even remember it. Oh well….

Perhaps the most vital question of all, though, is one to question your self. That question is: Why not?