Ask And Ye Shall Receive...Why Not?

And Wonderful Idea And A Book
A number of years ago I was interviewed, as an early adopter of Photoshop, as part of a book on Adobe. When the book came out the writer sent me a copy. It was beautiful and I phoned her up to congratulate her. I then asked her what her next project was. She replied that she didn’t know yet. I suggested that she write a book on me…and she said that was a wonderful idea! 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 plan back from New York when a very attractive young woman sat down next to me. After a very brief conversation I asked her if she would model for me (I always cringe when I ask that…). She agreed and two days later we were shooting. The first image from that shoot can be seen above.

Photo Shoots of Operations And Physical Therapy
Three times I have asked surgeons if I can either have my operation photographed, or if I can use their facilities to stage a shoot in. 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 asked Tony Stone if he would loan me enough money to buy a powerful computer so that I could create cool stock photos for him (his company, Tony Stone Images, was the company purchased 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 would like to point out I first asked the owner of another stock agency for the money to buy the computer, but he declined.  Silly man!

The Most Important 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 purchase 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 important question of all, though, is one to ask your self. That question is:Why not?