Did you ever work as an assistant?

[surfidaho]

There seems to be two ways of progressing in this business. The traditional way

is to work as an assistant for another photographer, schlepping their gear,

holding their lights, and if you're lucky, eventually rising to second

photographer, associate, or even partner, before possibly striking out on your own.

 

The other way is to start out small, do several weddings for free or next to

nothing, gradually raising your prices until you can compete with the

established studios.

 

I tried working as an assistant, but I wanted the entreprenurial experience. Ok,

the truth is that I hated it and quit right away. I can't just stand there while

somebody else has all the fun, and my boss wouldn't let me post images I took as

second photographer on my website.

 

I would be interested in knowing how many other people (in Frank Sinatra's

words) have done it "My Way".

 

Later,

 

Paulsky<div></div>

[paul_fialon]

Hey Paul,

I dove in with both feet back in the late 80's (I think my first payment was a pair of tickets to see Tears for Fears in concert) and never regretted it!

 

-Paul

[brooke_moore]

I did one wedding on my own as a fill in for another photographer, it was a nightmare since they neglected to mention that there were 5 exwives of the father of the bride! All in attendance.

 

Years later helped my husband for a few and then took over the business the following year and he moved to video.

 

Everyone finds their way in this industry. But that said training is not to be ignored the more at ease you are technicaly the more you can be creative and funloving on the day.

 

You will see great pay off not only in your work but in customer satisfaction if you do some education for yourself. Might be reading industry mags, going to seminars, looking at a lot of images and or belonging to an organization like PPA.

 

Good luck

Brooke

[jodi_schlosser]

I am working on my own for engagement shoots and such but for weddings I am getting my feet wet by second shooting.

[surfidaho]

Hi Brooke!

 

Very good points!

 

I did get a lot of education as an engineer for a major imaging company (who I still work for as a day job). That experience probably put me well ahead of the average newbie. There are also lots of other photographers at my day job who I network with.

 

I did the PPA thing for a year, then quit when I found out I could subscribe to the magazine independently of membership. The magazine is great.

 

I'm also an Internet junkie, so any time I had a problem, I would consult the Internet (including this site).

 

Probably the number one thing that helped me was that my next door neighbor was a retired wedding photographer, and he gave me lots of free advice on how to deal with customers, price my services, and get great shots regardless of conditions. So here's a shout-out to Greg Sims. Thanks!

 

Later,

 

Paulsky

[nancy s.]

I worked as an assitant for 4 years under two different Photographers. One became sort of a business partner. I say "sort of" because He wanted to advertise.. I paid for this with the promise to get paid back. I also worked weddings with him to learn. He collected the $$ for the weddings but guess what I never got back (tho I did learn the wedding business).

 

Seriously.. if I had simply PAID a pro to assist I would have been money ahead.. a LOT of money ahead!

 

This guy owned his own studio for awhile but seems to have since gone out of business. He was assisting for $$.. or said he was .. but in reality he was doing something else not related to photography...

 

The other guy I worked for I second shot and assisted. He did something that was a grave error in judgement and I quit. He paid me.. but he was (also?) looking for something beyond photography.

 

I will say I learned a lot about shooting weddings. Due to these two guys, I will not assist again... tho I will recommend everyone does before shooting an event on their own. Just be sure all they want you to do is be an assitant and take photographs and be sure to get paid up front!

[david_schilling___chicago_]

I guess I'm known for "paying your dues" but I never worked as an assistant. As a teen in the 60s I learned my way around a darkroom and was photographing, developing prints for fun....While in the military I traded in an old Coronet and got an SLR that I played with for many years. I learned what the little numbers on the lens meant and the relationship between fstop, shutterspeed, and light and was taking family happy snaps and wildlife photos for fun. Had the same dream that many others have about hooking up with National G.... Also got a gig with a large school portrait studio and did that for a few months.

 

I was laid off a job due to a RIF cut in the early 90s and for fun went into the local pro studio and told him I was interested in shooting. He took me under his wing and I 2nd shot/assisted him for a full wedding. He introduced me to a light bracket and the old Quantum batterry 1. Then they sent me out with another studio shooter to get some shots and serve as an assitant before they turned me loose on a small low budget wedding on my own. That went well and they gave me a full day wedding and told me not to tell the bride it was my first full wedding on my own. I shot part time for several years and worked with 5 major Chicago studios before going on my own. I took courses at the community college and went to seminars with people like Norm Phillips. I completed a training program for a major studio and met probably one of the best wedding photographers on the planet at that time...and served as his assistant for a wedding. I also was trained doing portraits with a long roll camera and covered several high school reunions for a national chain. I joined PPA and WPPI and attended the PPA Convention when it was hosted here in Chicago several years ago. I learned alot about studio work at workshops with Art Ketcham....also belonged to a Glamour photography club for a couple of years.

 

And I'm still paying my dues, I subscribe to photovision, own a library of books, DVDs, and VHS tapes by Monte, Reggie, and several others. I caught David Jay and Kathleen Hawkins last year when they were in town. I've offered my services as an assistant to Parker Pfister the next time he is in town and network with several pros here in the area. My Art Leather rep is also a great source of information and networking.

 

I didn't start actively pursuing my own studio work till about 2 years ago, but once I did I had enuff experience behind me that I was familiar with most of the pitfalls of the bussiness and could trust that even during my transition to digital that I could always give my b/g's some good if not great images.

[surfidaho]

David, that sounds like a much better experience than others have had. I have heard of people schlepping lights for a year before they are even allowed to pick up a camera. Thanks!

 

Later,

 

Paulsky

[sam_ellis]

I took a photography class in college, then taught photography while student teaching. I was into nature photography and studied exposure and light related to that subject while collecting a decent amount of camera gear.

Someone I knew needed a wedding photographer CHEAP and asked if I'd be interested. I studied as much as I could...before the Internet *gasp* and did a decent job. I did a few more here and there over the years and built a decent business. I'm still a teacher, but my wife is able to be a stay at home mom.

 

I now have an assistant who is a former student and going to college. I wish I could have gone that route and thought about it before I started getting too busy on my own. I'm sure that one day I'll be working for him :)

[think27]

Fair warning here... ;-) Please don't respond with an image on this thread.. Paul - This is not an image thread but a informational thread... Images should be posted only for serious critique or when posting an image with a problem or when there is a call for inspiration of a very specific part of the wedding day such as asking for couples on a boat, alter formals, cake cutting ideas, bridal portraits outdoors etc. etc...

[surfidaho]

Okey Day.

 

I meant it as kind of a "Look how far I've come" type of image, but I see your point.

 

Later,

 

Paulsky

[think27]

;-) Exactly... so what you can do in the future is post a link to a folder or your community page so people can see how far you've come!! A link to images is fine.. We try to have some threads that are image heavy and the informational threads clean of images for browsing and archiving.

[jonj]

No assistant I don't think I would want to learn someone else's style of photography. About two years ago I read Bambi Cantrell's first book and felt that's what I wanted to do, but how was I going to learn Photojournalism I knew basics of photography and have used an SLR for 20 years.

 

So I bought DSLR and started shooting anything and everything that could help my PJ skills. I even bought a police scanner and in those 2 years have had many of my photos published.

 

I think photographing a SWAT team in the rain, standing in the middle of a forest fire or climbing a garbage covered cliff in rush hour traffic all on my own accord taught me alot about photographing moments in various conditions.

 

This is my first year doing weddings and have three that I'm shooting for free and have already booked 2 for next year just by word of mouth from the first. I don't know if my way was the right way, but it sure is better to learn on your own even if it takes doing weddings for free or photographing a charity event for a good cause it all helps.

If you ever want to see any of my News photos goto

www.jonathanjonesphotography.ifp3.com click "recent journalism"

[starkitty]

I tried to go the assisting route. I was scared off by interviewing with a very strange, arrogant photographer who hinted that I should wash his car, take out his garbage and drive 40 miles to buy his favorite cookies for the priviledge of working with him. "Or you could just forget the whole thing and marry a rich man." Wow. In retrospect I should have kept searching for a reasonable human being to work with. Learning on the job is not fun!

[stefanie1]

I've jumped right in head first. I never assisted (though I will be doing a little) and booked 8 weddings my first season with no samples (other than my portraits and stuff) and no advertising. Only one of them was for a friend, and when they booked me they didn't know that I was teh Stefanie that I was.

[darrin ballman www.crossl]

I also jumped right in....I was working in a lab years ago - trying to decide if I was going to pursue some form of photography or stick with the wine business - when a customer asked if I would photograph her 25th wedding anniversary for $200...(my processing was free at least...)It turned out it was a full mass, renewal of vows, I think at least 14 attendants and a reception for 300 guests!Baptism of fire...a few weeks later another customer asked if I would photograph her daughter's wedding that was coming up. From there I continued on and kept doing the wine biz too up until a year ago(wholesale sales, and 3 years as sommelier). Nows it's all photography - although I miss the wine samples! Those first weddings were a little under 20 years ago now....Would I have changed things? Nah...not really...I do wish I would have been a bit more aggressive about things earlier on, and planned out what I wanted to do - hec', knowing what I wanted to do would have been a plus! (I can't complain about the wine biz though since I've had some incredible experiences through that too).

[susan_flewelling1]

Well I went to college for photography. Although I learned a lot about shooting trains at night, and had fun in the nude classes snickering at the male models, I didn't learn much about portraiture. So I started working for a budget company doing tons of weddings, within 5 weeks I was going out every weekend most of the time twice. They were nice about letting me use my work in my own portfolio. I shot enough that first year that I ended up doing it myself the following year. Investing WAY to much in advertising. My ad budget did not match even my ability to shoot with days available. But got over that hurdle. Then when I went digital I seconded and assisted for a different photographer since I moved to a different area. I learned a lot from that guy and definatley am better for it today. So that is it in a nutshell. Now I just shoot for myself again and continue to learn every week. Little hint: Let your assistant be in charge of the formals and you go have fun and do some photojournalism, you'll love it!!

[hjoseph7]

I know people that went to school to study photography and winded up as assistants. Ten years later they are still assistants.

[edsel_adams]

How about the 3rd method of entering this field: studying and learning first? We have absolute beginners shooting weddings that don't understand dynamic range, flash photography or how to flatter human beings on flat sheets of paper.

 

 

 

If you haven't a clue why what your eye sees, differs from what your camera sees. Should you really be calling yourself a professional photographer? No amount of assisting will teach you "photography" as a science and an art form. And lacking a photography education is in my mind an insurmountable obstacle to success.

[catherine_oostdyk]

I wanted to shoot weddings so badly, I offered my services for free to be mentored. I assisted one wedding (for free) and I was given the backup camera to snap a few candids and to do the 'table shots'. The photographers were so impressed, I moved up to second shooter (paid!) at the next wedding. From there I probably second shot 3-4 weddings then I started booking my own on the side as well as shooting solo for the other company.

 

I still do color correction and album design for the other company on the side but my biz is doing really well for it's second year. I started out really simple and small but now I'm booking 3 times what I did my first year, raised my prices, and upgraded recently from a 400D to a 5D!! Like going from a Ford Focus to a BMW!

[steve george]

It never occurred to me to work as an assistant until looking on forums I saw lots of people advising everyone do it :-)

 

I was pretty comfortable with the shooting side of things having taken photographs for a long time with a lot of different films before I shot a wedding, and I'd shot a couple of events by then too. Family and friends who liked my other photos asked me to shoot their weddings which got me into the swing of things and got me a portfolio and as I'd been helping run a small business for a couple of years I was happy with that side of things too.

 

Going into wedding photography as a business was just the natural next step - by the point I saw assisting recommended as something people wanting to get into the industry should do it would have felt like a huge step backwards to do so. That's not to say I've found it easy or unstressful (I haven't) but I don't think assisting would have really given me or my clients any benefit over going in head-first and adapting what I already knew and did where necessary. I think the "to assist or not to assist" question is really about confidence in your abilities (and just as importantly knowledge of their limitations).

 

Of course I'm now digital and have had to learn a whole new set of skills but that's all part of the fun :-)

[think27]

Edsal - I didn't know F stop from aperature when I first started assisting. The point to assisting is that is how you study and learn.

It is a valid way to become a pro.

 

The question here is - Have you ever assisted. No one is asking about photographers who shoot weddings and call themselves professionals with no training or study. Please ease up.

[surfidaho]

Edsel does raise an interesting point. The high cost and intimidating nature of shooting film used to be a barrier to entering wedding photography. That barrier has largely disappeared. Now many people are picking up digital cameras and finding out the hard way that there's more to being a wedding photographer than taking snapshots on Program Mode.

 

My contention is that the market will quickly dispose of bad photographers, and that good photographers can still get a decent price for their services, particularly when you take into account the lowered overhead of shooting digital. I do agree that education is necessary, but whether you get your education from individual study, schooling, or apprenticeship is in my opinion irrelevant. There are many self-taught photographers (myself included) who do quite well.

 

Later,

 

Paulsky

[picturesque]

I assisted twice, both non-shooting, and then just "did it". Back when there was no internet, I basically read everything I could, went to some seminars, and taught myself by experimenting and testing at home.

[robbie_caswell]

I second shot for about two dozen weddings, and about a half dozen of my own. Helped greatly to flatten the learning curve.