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Fast Track Photographer, Revised and Expanded Edition: Leverage Your Unique Strengths for a More Successful Photography Business |  | Author: Dane Sanders
Creator: Richard N. Bolles
Publisher: Amphoto Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $9.83
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Seller: pbshopus
Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 24493
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2 Exp Rev
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 081740001X
Dewey Decimal Number: 770.23
EAN: 9780817400019
ASIN: 081740001X
Publication Date: May 18, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780817400019 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
Become the professional photographer you were meant to be.
Competition in the photography industry has never been fiercer. But in this empowering guide, acclaimed photographer and speaker Dane Sanders reveals that the key to success is to stop worrying about what everyone else is doing and start focusing on your most powerful resource: you. Discover how to:
· Use your unique skills and talents to carve out a niche all your own.
· Avoid the mistakes most photographers make.
· Choose a business style that fits the way you want to spend your time—and live your life.
Fast Track Photographer is not just another how-to book—it’s an entirely fresh way of thinking about your business, whether you’re just starting out, or an industry veteran wondering why all your hard work isn’t working. If you want to build a competition-proof creative business in the twenty-first century, it’s time to throw out the old rulebook and get on the fast track!
Includes free access to Dane’s popular self-assessment test (a $20 value) to jumpstart your journey!
"I can't think of a better way for anyone to start their professional photo career than to read Fast Track Photographer."
—Scott Bourne, publisher and host of Photofocus.com
"As much about finding out who you are as it is about how to become a truly great photographer. Highly recommended!”
—Amit Gupta, founder of Photojojo.com
“This book is worth its weight in gold.”
—Gary Fong, photographer, author, and creator of the Lightsphere
“The best resource for today’s photographer—BAR NONE!”
—Scott Sheppard, host of “Inside Digital Photography”
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 52
 An interesting (and different) approach to a photo career June 17, 2010
Jeff Wignall (Stratford, CT USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I'm still in the process of reading and digesting this book and while I'm pretty wary of "career" books (most of them are written by people who have never actually done what they're talking about) Dane Sanders is actually a very talented wedding and portrait photographer and so he's succeeded at what he's writing about. (Interestingly, by the way, he didn't become a photographer until he was 35.). Also, I write books about photography and have been a photographer for about 40 years, so usually anyone promising a "fast track" to a profitable photo career is either a huckster or, again, someone who has never done it for a living. But Sanders is not a huckster and he does do it for a living--so again, there is some authority behind the book. Still, being a photographer is tough enough, making a career out of it is much tougher so when I come across a photo-career book, I tend to look at it askance. What I'm trying to say is that I approached the book with a fair degree of skepticism.
But one of the points that Sanders makes in the book (Chapter 2: "The Power of Choosing Your Own Adventure"), and the one that caused me to give him more credence as someone who had something very worthwhile to say, was his very good advice to enhance the things that you are already good at rather than trying to fix all of the things you're not that good at doing. This is such fantastic (and rarely offered) advice. For example, I'm a travel photographer by trade and I realized, after a lot of frustrating years of trying to be all things to all clients, that what I was good at was revealing the soul of a place--period. (No doubt because I love to travel so much.) I'm not a wedding photographer, I'm not a very good portrait photographer, I'm not a great corporate photographer (don't tell my corporate clients that), but I am very good at landing in a far-off place and coming home with good photos of that place. So Sander's advice is to stop trying to get better at all the things you may not be that good at (you might need a second lifetime to get through that anyway--though it certainly can't hurt to get better at those things) but to show off and revel in the things that you are really good at doing. Accentuate the positive. The point is, I think, is that there is a *reason* you're good at the things you excel at--because you love to do those things.
That actually goes to a significant point that Sanders makes time and time again in the book: be who you are. It's *you* that you are ultimately selling, not photography. This is another very valid point that is often ignored in the attempt to build your career from your portfolio instead of your personality. In my books, for example, I talk as much about my life and my own fears and failures, as I do about f/stops and shutter speeds. And when people review my books, the one thing they point at over and over is the warmth of the writing and the humanity (and the lame humor). I can teach you to take a good technical photograph in half a day, but I can never teach you how to blend in with another culture or to make friends with people when there is a language barrier--that has to come from you. It's in you, you just have to let it out. And Sanders gives a lot of advice (and provides a good argument) for letting your personality shine through as you try to build a career. You might resist this advice and still think you build a career on having a studio full of equipment and a great and diverse portfolio--but clients could care less. They want to know that they can trust you, that they like you and that you are human enough to understand what it is they are trying to do in their business.
As I said, I'm still reading the book and I'm at the point now where he is talking more about assessing who you really are and how you can apply that to building a career. The book tends to have a few too many fictional examples for my taste, but they're short and not enough to put me off and they tend to make good points. Also, the book is a big new-agey for me (hey, the author is from California!), but again, the info is worthwhile and I like that he writes from his own perspective rather than trying to write yet one more plastic book without a human voice. I don't know Sanders, by the way, have never spoken to him. But I think that if you're seriously think that if you're thinking of starting a photo career, or career-changing, you will get an interesting perspective from this book, as well as a good outline for figuring out just who you should be as a photographer.
I'll finish this review when I finish the book--but right now I'd say for the few bucks it costs, it's a good investment (or ask your library to buy the book). You still have to work on mastering camera skills and that takes many years regardless of what cameras you own, but you also have to know where you want to head if you ever expect to get there. [...]
Focuses on YOU, not on how to be like THEM June 8, 2010
JackOfMostTrades (Washington, DC)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
FastTrack Photographer offers a career guide to photography in a way unconventional to photography books, but perhaps not to general career books. It's major thesis is 'know thyself,' and by knowing who you are and what your interests are (particularly in the world of photography) will give you the guidance to get on the right track to a photographic career. In this sense, I think a better title is 'The Right Track Photographer.' As someone who considers himself an artist (moi), it is refreshing to read someone who believes 'build it and they will come (but make sure you have a good marketing plan).' Another way of thinking about the "fast track" philosophy stated here is that your life in photography shouldn't be 'give them what they want.' Why? because they don't know what they want. If you're thoughtful and proficient and skilled, you will be selected by clients/customers who share your perspective. The writer provides a plan to identify your interests, and it's as good a plan as I can think of -- basically, a questionnaire (available on the author's website) to help you identify what interests you about photography.
Now if this general advice and the specific exercises work in the real world is probably impossible to determine since there are so many variables. If you are successful, how do you know the book helped? If you're not successful, how can you determine your not because you didn't follow the author's advice. One side note the author doesn't seem to mention specifically is that if you're planning to figure out how to make a good income, and that's your main goal, why pick photography as a profession when there are so many other fields where you're chances are much greater?
That's the first thing that came to mind as I read through this 'career guide.' However, the author suggests this is actually a good time to be a photographer, given the new markets and the need for photography in older markets where it previously wasn't a factor. But The author makes this claim and other global claims without providing much evidence. That to me is the main weakness of the book. There are no statistics, data, quotes from authorities, people in the 'business,' etc. I understand this sort of empirical evidence isn't relevant to much of the book, but why make statements about the great opportunities in photography at all if you're not going to back them up?
Basically, I'd sum up the approach and method in the book as being something like this: "I'll show you the best way to focus your interest on photography so you know what to do with it (even if in the end you realize you don't want to pursue it as a profession). The rest is up to you." In that regard, it serves a good purpose.
Not About How To Take Pictures; It's About Being A Photographer August 12, 2010
Julie S.C.Y,
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My first impression was disappointment. There is absolutely no information on how to use your camera more effectively...how to compose better photos...how to improve what you've taken using post-production software.
But then I got into the spirit of the book--which is about being a photographer, a -real- professional photographer with a business--and a wide range of issues and themes related to that goal. Is it practical? For anyone thinking of selling photos...yes. Sanders helps the reader evaluate himself--his personality and skillset--in terms of the demands of a photography business. He presents the difficulties of pursuing photography as a business--but also the excitement and advantages and possibilities of doing it.
He offers realistic, clear-eyed self-appraisal, nuts-and-bolts of trying to find work (and get paid for your photos) and also that important intangible in a book like this--inspiration.
It will not teach you how to take photos, but I liked it very much. Recommended.
How to Suceed in the Photography Business (or better understand it) June 29, 2010
John D. Hillmer (Waukesha, WI USA)
I'm not usually a reader of "how to do it" books, but the title of Dane Sanders book, "Fast Track Photographer" caught my eye, and I ordered a copy from Amazon. This is not what I thought it would be; it's not a book on photography techniques or skills with the camera or composition. This is a very practical book about how to run a photography business, and what to expect doing so. Sanders says in his preface that he asked his peers in the photography business world to weigh in on his thoughts, and to provide him with honest feedback, so this book is just that, something for all of us photographers to benefit from, something that people in that business have discovered, and something we can leverage (learn from others, rather than trial and error and making all the same mistakes).
While I do not own or run a photography business, I am like many of you; I like to shoot pictures as a hobby, and I have all the cameras and lenses and have traveled much with my hobby. And like you, I wonder from time to time, what would it take to actually make a living at doing this?
Sanders says, there are generally two paths (business models) that you need to pick from in going into this field of business. You'll either start (or join) a freelance photographer business or you will specialize in a signature brand photographer business. (Sanders, a photographer himself did the latter, and spends a bit more time in this book on that side because as he says, he understands that side more, and it's probably the more complex of the two to make work).
I got hooked early in this book when he told a story of two (mostly fictitious people, but people we could easily relate to). One was very much into the art of photography, he excelled at it and was good at all the details and tools and technique that are involved with shooting, but he didn't know how to run a business, and the story tells of his challenges. The other was a good photographer, though maybe not as into the details as the first, but she knew how to organize and plan, and how to run the business.
When I think of myself, I enjoy the shooting process and the post-processing techniques with all the tools we have these days on our computers and on the internet (web sites and such). But if I were to try and run my own photography business, I'd have to give up some of that to run the business, or I'd need to hire people to run my business for me so I could continue with that parts that I enjoy. Sanders explains the various business models, and he will point you to an assessment tool that is free with the book, that will help you understand what you'd be best at (he calls this a photographer's DNA assessment, or the pDNA Assessment Tool).
I appreciated the different aspects of the models, the insights, and have decided photography for me is still a great hobby, and freelancing at times for someone else is a good thing, but setting up a business, well, I think I'll keep my day job for now!
Brilliant book - thoughtful, insightful and empowering July 3, 2010
Ria Mishaal Cooke (England)
Fast track photographer is a book focussed on the 'skill of being a photographer', rather than the skill of photography. I believe it is a unique take on a business-orientated book, guiding your development by helping you think for yourself and shape your own unique path. This 'greater self knowledge' is something many shy away from, especially if they have trained for a particular path, and I trust that many will benefit greatly from being brave and reading this book with an open mind. Dane's writing is charming, honest, personable and a joy to read; I felt that I was in conversation with him, which is a real gift.
I am in my late twenties with a full time academic position. I see in my own profession, and those varied professions of my peers, that the world is changing - we are no longer able to succeed following the formula that those before us devised - it is clear that we will need to write new rules to succeed in this new climate. The principles Dane lays out in this book are of value to a much wider audience than aspiring photographers, and I urge you to read it. If you, like me, have been searching for your place, then this book is for you - it asks thorough and difficult questions about who you are and what you want. With excellent guided exercises, it has given me great direction, not only in the business of photography but in a general approach to both my professional and personal life.
The book comes with free access to one round of the online assessment tool `pDNA' - 150 multiple choice questions, the outcome of which is a breakdown of your personality traits as a photographer. This is designed to help you recognise where you are starting from, and it is suggested you take this test once a year to follow your development. You can also join the online forum to connect with other photographers who have used `pDNA' - another invaluable resource. I would strongly suggest that you take the test when advised to in the book (not before reading or when you finish the book) and follow the exercises through as directed, to explore your results and get the most out of it. Take your time with this book - I believe you will feel empowered by what you learn about yourself.
Read `Fast Track Photographer' with an open mind and Dane's considered guidance will arm you with an incredible set of tools to allow you to flourish is what is undoubtedly a changing world. Read this if you don't have an open mind, and find your cynicism softened by Dane's honesty and genuine desire to help enable the success of fellow creative people. Whoever you are, I believe that you will take away something which will beneficially alter your perceptions.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 52
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