[Leica] Odds at the Book

[Mark Rabiner <mark@rabinergroup.com>]

A nice good looking and knowing it (good for them!) person at a coffee
shop after i did a grab shot which felt like a bit of a  winner in the
spirt of international love said I'd have to put that in my portfolio. A
nice thing to say. But displaying a slight naiveté.
I wondered if the shot was quite that good. Close! But no cigar i
suspected. 
Why? I'm about to tell you. It goes like this.

I'm 52 and I've shot about ten thousand rolls of film a modest amount
for someone calling themselves a photographer or serious Shutterbug. Sal
shoots that on a Sunday morning before breakfast and Paper when he's got
a new lens and he's not sure how well if does wide open.
If he had a motor drive one Shutters to thing!  :)  

So a 20 print portfolio out of 360,000 shots. If that sounds way off
it's 333 and a third per rolls of film for me yearly so that really is
no big deal.  Also I think it's one NA article we've found out lately.
Isnt it?

So the odds of that nice I'm sure shot going into the old book - crème
de la crème mode is one in 18 thousand. I'll not spread that around when
the time comes it may not go over right.
"You didn't' smile so it's one in 5 zillion!"     ???

The odd's of it getting into my enlarger.
Getting sold to a collector or gallery thing. 
And odds of just matting and hanging it. 
Numbers numbers numbers. Thought i was a visual guy. But I just like to know.

Also a typical shoot for me is 5 rolls. That's a 1 in 72,000 shot at my
book for one of those images to COME ON DOWN. What's the odds of even
scanning them now? 
The odds of it going into say a fashion models book is two out of three
for me.
In the past the odds of Eileen Ford taking the prints out of the book is
to my knowledge zero out of zero. She'd clean books out. I understand
she left my shots in among very few others. Maybe she liked my signature
in pencil in the corners. I may have not gotten many magazine covers but
in the promo photo world i did get that.

What's the odds if it being one of those images that i spend hours doing
photoshop on at 4 AM?

However numerical life is complicated by rolls with 12 on it or 24. I
can see what i should have done.


Mark Rabiner, The Numbers Guy.
Portland, Oregon USA
http://www.rabinergroup.com
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