There’s a photographer in Australia named John Raptis.

He’s in Melbun.

He has photographed artists, laneways, streetscapes, Ace Frehley (while on tour with Ace), and bands like Metallica.

Nobody gave him a shot until I did.

Way back in the late 2000s, John applied to photograph gigs for me at Metal as F–k. When I saw some examples of his work, I knew that this guy had the goods. Not only did he know his machinery (rare, in an age in which everyone thinks Photoshop will do everything), but he had the right timing, the right eye, and understood the requirements of the job.

Shooting a live show, for those of you who don’t know, is tough.

Really tough.

The rules are:

Three songs, no flash.

Plus, I was demanding: I wanted photographers who could capture the spirit of an entire show just from those first three songs.

You have to be able to get into that photographer pit, work out what’s going on, have the right machinery set to the right settings (because so many shows are lit with submarine-red lights), and be poised to capture that incredible, elusive moment that flies past in the blink of an eye. You know the one: The guitarist, dripping sweat, hanging over the edge of the stage and grinning maniacally at someone in the crowd, his guitar hanging loosely from his left shoulder; or the drummer who stands up and throws a stick into the crowd; or that split second in which the vocalist and the bassist lock eyes and share a moment of sheer ecstasy in the performance.

Anyway!

When the opportunity came up for someone to shoot Metallica, I knew that John was the only guy to do it.

I also knew that he was a fan. A big fan. A HUGE fan. He’d been a fan since he was a kid and was almost in tears at the opportunity.

One of his photographs, which shows Lars Ulrich standing up behind his drum kit, sticks raised to the sky, yelling with absolute joy in front of tens of thousands of fans, graces the cover of his book Three Songs No Flash.

He was also selling prints of the photograph.

It’s the photo that caused Metallica to send him a cease-and-desist letter demanding that he pull the cover and the photograph from sale.

Not only did John get to shoot that band, but he ended up hearing directly from their lawyers as a result of his art.

Depending on who you are, that is success with a capital S.

Maybe your success story could be like this?

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~ Leticia “enabling stars” Mooney