The Business of Photography

Advertising is a very demanding field and we cannot afford not to be up to date with what we have and what we know. Having said that, however, we still obey the advice of a banker friend who gave this warning: “Be on the leading, not the bleeding, side of technology.” We don’t buy every new thing that comes along. Internet allows us to research on the equipment that we are interested in, compare features of competitive brands, to read reviews, and to ask other photographers for their experiences with certain equipment before we make a new purchase. Most importantly, we make sure that we stay on the right side of technology.

I’m answering a questionnaire sent by a food stylist who wants to feature John in a local food and beverage magazine, and one of the stories I am sharing is this:

In the mid-1970’s, John was shooting a bowl of spaghetti for a client. What we thought would be a simple assignment turned out to be a series of horrendous experiences, but one that taught us that persistence pays.

Even though everyone who had anything to do with the shoot was there – the test kitchen head, the VP for marketing and the sales manager – all looking at the bowl of spaghetti under the lights, and taking turns at peering under a black and red cloth (remember those) that covered their heads and our rented 4×5 camera to check the inverted image of spaghetti on the camera’s ground glass. We did not stop shooting until they were satisfied with the way the spaghetti was styled and we had run out of Polaroids and films.

Yet, when we presented the transparencies, we were told that the spaghetti looked too arranged. They demanded a re-shoot. Strike one.

We re-shot, and went through the same tedious process. At the end of day, they said they were happy, and would wait for the results of film processing.

After a couple of days, we presented the second batch of transparencies. The people who were present at the shoot approved but when the transparencies were shown to their president, he said the spaghetti was too “disarranged.” Strike two.

We immediately scheduled the third shoot. This time, we took the Polaroid to the president who stayed in his office, so he could approve the arrangement of the pasta. He was happy, and so it was a wrap. We processed the films, and submitted the transparencies. Somebody, (I don’t remember who) objected to a small glare on the bowl. It would have been a simple matter to digitally edit, but this was more than a decade and a half before the advent of Photoshop. Strike three.

At the next shoot, we brought a can of dulling spray, and that took care of the glare. We followed the required styling of the spaghetti, based on the Polaroids and rejected trannies from the previous shoot. It took a while but soon, everyone was saying, “Perfect!” Or so we thought. But something went wrong in the film developing, and our processed transparencies had a magenta cast. Strike four.

After the fourth try, John asked me to tell the client that he was giving up. He said he was having nightmares about spaghetti and he felt that he could not shoot another bowl of spaghetti without going crazy. I was obedient to his wishes. I told him yes, I would tell the client that he was giving up. But, I told him, even though you would no longer be shooting for them, you would still have to shoot that set up.

“What for? “ he asked.
“Well, you would not want to be defeated by a bowl of spaghetti, would you?” I countered. “You’d feel like a failure every time you looked at spaghetti.”

“Okay,” he said, “but if I am doing this for myself, then I might as well do it for them,” and he agreed to one more try. He did and bingo! Everyone loved it.

It was only after the approved tranny was color separated and printed and the product successfully launched that we were told that John was the fourth photographer to be assigned that particular food set up. The first three photographers had given up after two or three tries each. The company stopped calling on them. On the other hand, having persevered, our reward for many years thereafter was the loyal patronage of a client who gave us many food photography projects – thankfully not spaghetti again.