The Accidental Millionaire

If you are not a photographer you have probably never heard of Gary Fong. If you are a photographer you know he is the guy that sells pieces of plastic (lightsphere, origami, etc.) that sit on top of your flash and diffuse the light so it does not look so harsh. You may also know that he is the person who came up the concept of Wedding photogaphy storybooking.

You probably have heard that he has made a lot of money and been married a few times.

Recently he published his autobiography, The Accidental Millionaire: How to Succeed in Life Without Really Trying.

If you read the book you will learn a lot about his relationships, a bit about his various business ventures, his childhood but not a lot about photography. That is fair enough since this is the story of Gary Fong, not a how to take wedding pictures book.

Not a great book, but not a bad one either. You can read it in an evening and see how ties in with various things (pictage, selling an early Canon digital camera on ebay, etc.).

I guess the thing that surprised me most was that he actually did make money out of photography. My impression had been that he had been lucky or smart in real estate (he was that too).
 
His title seems a little misleading to me. Mr. Fong seems to have worked awfully hard most of the time. I think by accidental he mainly means that he didn't really follow a fixed plan; he took advantage of what came up.
 
So far, I have bought a couple of hundred dollars worth of his flash diffusers, most recently the origami.Yes, I know that you could make something like it yourself but it is handy to have come all ready to use. It is not a miracle tool but I have found it useful and do not regret buying it. Nothing looks worse that pictures taken with flash aimed right at the subject. You can still end up with nasty shadows even if you use a diffuser but you have a better chance at turning out a decent shot.