Selling my soul to Lucifer....
Creativesifu
Registered Users Posts: 16 Big grins
:dunno I am a newbie photographer, this is still my first year shooting on a loosely worded professional basis, i.e. for money. I have made about a $1000 dollars so far, but have spent waaaaay more than that on equipment.
I have an opportunity to get a job at a local portrait studio, I.e. Sears/Walmart, and wonder if I should. It would pay more than I make at my present job (Pizza Delivery Driver) and I do graphic design freelance at night and on weekends (very fulfilling). This position would allow me to take more photography classes, so I can be come certified.
In the meantime I have been working on revising my graphic design business plan to include a portrait studio and event photography.
Thoughts, feedback, opinions!
I have an opportunity to get a job at a local portrait studio, I.e. Sears/Walmart, and wonder if I should. It would pay more than I make at my present job (Pizza Delivery Driver) and I do graphic design freelance at night and on weekends (very fulfilling). This position would allow me to take more photography classes, so I can be come certified.
In the meantime I have been working on revising my graphic design business plan to include a portrait studio and event photography.
Thoughts, feedback, opinions!
0
Comments
If what you want is to start a business, then working in someone's is a
good start. You will get a taste for the business without having to make
a significant investment. And you can probably get an idea whether you'll
like it or not. If work pays for the lessons and they are of value to you, then
I'd say go for it.
Ian
Hey, you have a chance to make *more* money AND take pics? And you are hesitating? Just the experience of working with studio lighting and someone elses equipment would be enough to get me fired up.
I know that this type of photography has a stigma on it, but if you are just learning what the heck-why not? If you find that you hate it after a bit, just move on, that's what youth is all about
Seriously, I've even thought about trying one of those positions out part time just for the experience....
I'd go for it if I were you.
both WalMart and Sears portrait studios are hiring, as is Jostens for an 11 week stint as school photographer. I was thinking about it simply to learn studio lighting! The Josten's gig pays $550 per week, the other two about $22,000 per annum....not very much, but to learn the lighting etc on someone else might be a good payoff.
ann
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I understand the stigma attached to a job like that, and how it might feel you are working with the devil, but there's really no reason to feel that way. You will make more money, as you said. You will learn on the job. Concentrate not just on the photography, lighting and posing you do. But also look at the business end as well. What does it take to market? To sell? How are the packages created, and why? What really goes into the costs of a business? I would doubt your schooling goes much into the business side of things, so take this as your chance.
A former sports shooter
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Seriously get the job. Make more money, Have more fun, get more expeirience. Then steal all their customers.
www.zxstudios.com
http://creativedragonstudios.smugmug.com
As a graphic designer, who used to work at Kinko's; they make you sign a non competitive agreement once you got into management, or maybe just worked as a regular employee, its been so long I can't remember.
I didn't want to work for them and then find out:
1) I can't shoot freelance for my school or my alumni association
ie football and other sports.
2) When I decide to leave they say I can't work for a competitor for 5 years per the agreement you signed when you started.
3) Will their portrait business infringe on my right to seek outside of the studio work, i.e. If a cheerleader wants some model stuff, and I shoot it outdoors or in my own studio/office with my own equipment, will that be conflict of interest.
I wouldn't do it unless it paid a gazillion dollars.
And he doesn't learn anything, either. He uses on camera flash, ON THE CAMERA. He is treated like dirt. He does make 32, 000 to 35, 000 a year, we could not live without it, but I won't do it.
Also, everything is automated, in other words, where the lights are is set, no moving them, no creativity, nothing.
that is the short answer.
If you need money badly, it is OK. But to learn, there are better ways, more informative ways.
Actually, he does do candids, so what he is doing, school photography might be more down your line. But his hours are atrocious, leaving no time for dates like weddings, etc. No overtime either.
YOu would HATE it. Especially if you like photography. I have been tempted when I knew that place needed someone, then I realize what I would be doing.
ginger
Check it out carefully first. Pizza delivery sucks, too, but the hours might be better. This stuff is NOT photography, it is automated.
Most non-compete clauses are actually not enforceable. Its bordering on indentured servitude. After all, few of us can actually quit our job and wait an additional 5 years to get a new job in the very field we are best suited. I have a good savings account balance, but not THAT good. Then after 5 years out of your primary industry you are no longer employable because you missed all that changed in that 5 years.
Are you in a right-to-work state?
A former sports shooter
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I'm gona be less kind. Your way over thinking this thing. Kinda like, "I better not do anything because something might happen".
Fromm what you have written, there is only one choice, go forward or stay on the porch.
Sam
Go for it. I am a photographer of High school seniors, I love it. I work for Life touch or Prestige portraits the senior department. I love it and I am very creative in my work. We use digital and large format cameras. I have learned so much thru this company. I would recomend it to anyone who loves to capture memories. I am sure they have a Life touch studio in your area. I have also learned that we are now also part of JC Pennys, so you might want to start with this. The Life touch studio is employee owed and it is like a big family with everyone there to help you reach your goals.. So I hope this encourages you to go forward. Feel free to e-mail me any time with questions......
If that job pays more than you earn now
and it's in the field you want to get into (photography)
and you don't have a pile of other photographic employment offers, TAKE IT.
It sure sounds like there's clear upside for you and almost no downside. It's not like you'll be contracted to stay in that particular job for years... as a previous poster said, "that's what youth is for!"
(I'd certainly enjoy photographic employment, but would have to take a huge pay cut and move my family from our house to under a freeway overpass to do it, so my family wouldn't be turnning cartwheels, showing their support for that move. So it's impractical for me, but you don't have such factors holding you back!)
I doubt very much that they have that kind of clause in an employment contract for this type of job. Isn't that much more common in jobs where a lot of IP (Intellectual Property) is involved, and they don't want you going to a competitor with your current employer's latest-and-greatest technology in your head?
I work in the high-tech in Silicon Valley and there are such employment agreements here, but (a) they're only enforceable if you're taking a very similar position at a direct competitor (not if you moonlight doing something unrelated) and (b) a hiring company, if it wants you badly enough, knows how to work around it ... like hiring you and keeping you in a "glass bubble", isolated from their main development work for a while so there's no breach of contract.
Supported by: Benro C-298 Flexpod tripod, MC96 monopod, Induro PHQ1 head
Also play with: studio strobes, umbrellas, softboxes, ...and a partridge in a pear tree...
I managed a Target studio for 3 years, it was my first job in photography.
I have been photographing weddings for 3 years, and I am STILL sub-contracting. The questions you have to ask yourself are.
Do I like screaming kids?
Am I comfortable enough being goofy to produce great expressions?
Can I sell over priced pictures of ugly kids to poor and gullible parents and sleep at night?
Can I work under the stress of the holiday season?
Can I put up with the corporate BS?
on the other hand....
Do I like to eat?
Are benefits important to me?
I became a 'certified' photographer through Lifetouch and it did not get me squat in the real world. I started assisting an old-school medium format all metering by hand wedding photographer 3 years ago, and humped equipment, and set up lights, and sweat, and I learned more doing that in 2 weekends than in 3 years in a perfect little climate controlled studio with a remote control camera. You CAN learn the basics of posing, composition, and developing expression in a corporate studio. But you will learn nothing about lighting, exposure, or developing a client relationship. Corporate studios are just that, and if robots could zerbert, fall down, and make faces, they could be corporate studio photographers.