i remember reading a story in one of those UK photo mags about a prielli calendar shoot. the photographer, i can't remember his name, was paid some huge sum to shoot the images for the calendar for a particular year (i think it was early 00's or there abouts).
i don't remember the location or model, but what stuck in my head were the following:
- he used exclusively film, hundreds of rolls
- his equipment of choice was the pentax 6x7 (half a dozen units or so), and apparently he had some exclusive arrangement with pentax to make parts in order to keep his cameras working.
and what really got me was that he had an army of 'assistants' who loaded the film, changed the lenses, constatnly checked and set the exposure of the cameras. all he did was compose, focus and shoot (probably with a bit of directing thrown in). and when the roll was empty, he'd hand the camera over to one of his assistants and a fresh camera would immediately replace that.
but that was what he was paid for, his vision. and the pirelli people thought he was worth every dollar.
gear does help
knowing how your gear works definitely helps (having assistants who know how your gear works helps too)
but knowing what to do with your gear and your vision is what make the money
