Gary Fong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gary Fong (b. December 6, 1960 in Seattle, WA, USA) is a world-famous photographer who ended his 20 year long career in 2002 to pursue other interests.
Those interests would include finding a solution to unflattering digital images with direct, harsh camera flash lighting. He invented the "Lightsphere", basically a specially colored "dome" that is held in place over the flash unit. Before long, over 300,000 units were sold worldwide, thus creating a multi-million dollar plastics business.
Since inventing the "Lightsphere", Fong has built a veritable cottage industry around variations on his popular dome-shaped Lightsphere light diffuser including variations called, "The Origami" and "The Puffer".
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[edit] Early Inspirations
Fong began assisting wedding photographer Rocky Gunn (whose work he had seen highlighted in LIFE magazine one week earlier). Fong developed a style of wedding photography called "The Storybook", which used a sequential approach instead of contrived posed images.
[edit] Education
Fong holds a B.S. Pharm degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara. After working in clinics and emergency rooms, Fong made an about face after graduation, discarded his medical training and picked up a camera to shoot weddings.
[edit] Career
Starting in a bedroom of his parent's apartment, Fong started shooting weddings for $150/no time limit. While this entry price severely undermined the pricing standards, he was able to sell comprehensive designs at an option that was far more costly than the basic package. Thus he built instantly a high level clientele, including Sylvester Stallone, President Ronald Reagan, Hollywood Magnate Sidney Sheldon, Actress Lee Remick, Paul McCartney, Peter Criss (of Kiss) Bruce Lee, Todd Rundgren, Priscilla Presley, Pia Zadora, Michael Landon, Florence Henderson, Shelly Fabares, among many others. Here Comes the Guide, a highly respected "bible" of wedding planning has said, "Every once in a while someone comes along to revolutionize an art form; for wedding photography, that someone Is Gary Fong."
His photographic images have been used for national ad campaigns for Fuji, Kodak, Canon and Hasselblad.
Fong was selected in the world telecast, "Weddings 2000" as one of the top ten wedding photographers in the world. This live simulcast was broadcast to movie theaters around the world, and was a first of its kind.
[edit] Fees
When starting his career with used cameras in 1983, Fong had a start price of $150.00 per day. By the last shoot of his career, his fee to shoot a wedding had published a minimum fee of $120,000.
[edit] Co Founder of Pictage, Inc.
Fong is also the co-founder of Pictage, Inc. With the advent of digital, Fong knew that online presentation of images would be best matched to an instant print delivery service. So, joining up with Pictage's online presence, Fong brought his own personal print lab into Pictage's headquarters, and installed it in the kitchen. Joining the Board of Directors and Senior Management team, Pictage started with seven employees in a small office, and within years the employee count would top 150, making Pictage the largest dedicated online digital/web solution anywhere in the United States. Pictage, Inc. was acquired by Apax partners in 2006 for $35 million dollars.
[edit] Post-retirement
After retiring from wedding photography in 2002, Fong co-founded and became director of Pictage, Inc. Fong expanded into extensive real estate holdings with properties in the U.S. and Canada (with a focus in lakefront homes, ski properties a horse ranch in British Columbia, and a yacht chartering business in Los Angeles.
