Photographer Assistant for Fun and Profit

A little over 10 years ago I sold my house in Phoenix and moved to (almost) LA to learn about the business and craft of photography and become a pro photographer. I had selected several photographers who were doing the type of photography I wanted to get into and doing it well. I met several of them but never made much headway. I assisted one photographer several times but I think I had more gear than she did and based on my lack of proximity to central LA (I lived in Riverside–don’t ask) it wasn’t very consistent. It was fun but I didn’t get the immersion into the LA photography scene I was looking for.

When I returned to LA I didn’t have any intention of looking for assisting work. I thought I might be too old and too experienced for anyone to hire me as an assistant. I have since learned that I couldn’t have been more wrong. I also felt that any additional learning would have to be on-the-job learning. I was wrong about that, too.

Getting the power hooked up at Pier 59 Studios West in Santa Monica.

Last October, out of the blue, I received an email from the studio manager of Michael Grecco asking if I was available to assist. I had met Michael my first time around and he was one of the top three photographers I wanted to work for. At first I thought they had me confused with someone else but figured I’d go with it and they booked me for the shoot.

I was a little nervous on the first shoot because I had only assisted a handful of times and that was over 10 years ago. I planned to just keep my eyes and ears open and count on my experience running my own shoots to get me through. Fortunately, I was the 2^nd assistant so I just followed the 1^st assistant’s lead. It was a cover shoot for People Magazine in Newport Coast. Michael is a patient photographer who keeps a loose and easy-going shoot atmosphere and he really knows his lighting.

After a couple of shoots I did well enough that Michael informed me that I was his go-to 1^st assistant. I have since learned that many assistants work for years to become 1^st assistants. I also learned that Michael only picks assistants who have been shooting for 10+ years.

On most shoots, Michael has two assistants so I have met many other assistants ranging from their early 20’s to their 40’s. I also found out that many of these guys are career assistants, which never occurred to me. Good ones can make a pretty good living working for several different photographers.

We rolled the NASCAR out to the front yard for this shoot for People Magazine in Virginia.

After working with Michael for the past 4 months, I have come to the conclusion that my initial preconceived notions about assisting were way off. To quote Peter Venkman, ‘mother puss-bucket’ I have a lot to learn! I can only credit serendipity and/or divine intervention with hooking me up with Michael. He is not as busy as either of us would like him to be, but he brings 30+ years of experience in shooting and lighting and has opened up new opportunities for me.

Michael is a lighting expert. He has a published a couple of lighting books including, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, along with a personal project book, Naked Ambition, and a companion documentary. He has photographed for every major magazine and most A-List celebrities you can think of. He is also the master of getting endorsements so he has enough gear to do pretty much any shoot he wants. His endorsements include Hasselblad, Dyna-Lite, Chimera, California Sunbounce, and for a while, Canon.

With all this gear, I have had an excellent opportunity to use equipment that I have not used before. This, and Michael’s knowledge, has made assisting him such a great learning experience. In the past, I have rigged ways to shape light for shoots or just given up on my initial vision and now I am finding that there are tools to do exactly what I was trying to do. I have also learned new ways of using light modifiers to get the effects I want.

Shooting in Steamboat Springs, Colorado for People Magazine.

I have traveled across the country assisting Michael and have done some pretty high-production shoots in major LA studios (Pier 59 Studios West, Smashbox) complete with set designers and builders. I have assisted Michael with a couple of celebrity shoots as well as some national ad campaigns. I have also met many people and made a few friends.

Assisting has been a great way to learn, immerse myself in photography and meet new people. It has also opened up new options for me including becoming a Digital Tech. I will post more about that later as I become more involved. But, for now, I’m headed to Las Vegas tomorrow for a shoot for Fortune Magazine. You can follow me on Instagram to see these shoots in action. My Instagram photos also feed to my Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Workshops: The Next Revenue Stream

As a modern photographer it is more important than ever to cultivate multiple revenue streams. Factors for this include a massive influx of new talent due to the lower barriers for entry, the changing face of stock photography and the current evolutionary fits of the publishing industry, to name a few. Many of these factors lead to a commoditization of photography, which makes work harder to come by and can lessen the earning potential of the individual photographer.

Where stock photography and selling prints used to be the mainstay for photographers, the modern photographer has had to get a little more creative in creating additional revenue streams. I’ve seen photographers who have bundled their photography with design services and others who are selling products featuring their images.

Then there are those who teach. In photography, like any craft, the master takes on apprentices so teaching is not a stretch. Given the rate of new photographers, the demand for teachers has never been higher and has yet to reach “critical mass”. I don’t know the statistics but I often wonder when, or if, the demand for teachers will overtake the demand for photography itself. There may well be a photography teaching “bubble” in effect which could eventually collapse when a large portion of new photographers realize how difficult it is to make a decent living in this field. But that is another post altogether.

Almost as long as there has been photography, there have been photography books. A vast majority of these have been how-to manuals. The digital age has given an opportunity for a new wave of how-to books. But, beyond that, there is a growing realization that the digital age has leveled the playing field in a technical sense. It is not that difficult to take a photo that is properly exposed, in focus and color balanced with the modern digital camera. So now many writers are focusing on cultivating that which makes each photographer unique. David duChemen calls it “vision and voice” and has written several books on it. He is on track to be better known for his books than his photography.

Veteran photographer Scott Bourne has had a long career and now focuses most of his time on teaching. His main venue for this is the Photofocus and Going Pro podcasts and respective blogs. He does occasional workshops and speaking engagements but posts every day on the blogs and releases a new podcast every ten days.

In my mind, the photography workshop has the most notable growth in popularity. It stands to reason, all the new photographers are hungry to get some hands on experience with photographer they view as having “made it”. All kinds of people attend them from the career-minded to the hobbiest. I’ve even seen photographers tweet about their latest workshop they are teaching and then tweet about a workshop they are attending the next week. Maybe workshops are addictive.

David duChemen and Jeffery Chapman have teamed up to bring their combined experience as travel and humanitarian photographers in a series of workshops titled “Within the Frame”, named after duChemen’s first book. The have led workshops to Loas, India and Tibet to name a few with ones scheduled for Mexico and Ethiopia next on the list.

David “the Strobist” Hobby and Joe “Numnuts” McNally also teamed up and took it to the road. They visited 26 cities in 6 weeks on the Flash Bus Tour 2011 that just ended last week. Both are considered the authorities on small flash lighting. Each one has a different philosophy and style which was what made the traveling workshop so intriguing. I was actually in Phoenix the week they were there but didn’t realize it until after. I would have liked to attend.

Chase Jarvis has built his career on transparency. He has been sharing his process since before it was cool to share. As he built his photography business, he has also built his teaching business. CreativeLIVE is his teaching empire. Chase is on the cutting edge and has managed to bring small, intimate workshops to hundreds of online viewers. Always the facilitator, Chase not only shares his knowledge but also brings the best in the business to his studio for live-streamed workshops. He brings in such notable photographers as Jasmine Star, Vincent LaForet, Zack Arias and Jeremy Cowart for informative workshops that can be watched live for free. Yup, you read correctly, free. Fortunately, if you miss the live-stream, each workshop is available for download at a ridiculously low price, usually $99 for a 2-day and $149 for a 3-day workshop. So worth it.

This weekend Zack Arias returns for another workshop titled "Foundations of a Working Photographer" which sounds like a soup-to-nuts workshop. If you do nothing else, watch the video promo. It's hilarious. I'll be watching this workshop and probably buying it since I have to go into LA to look at apartments on Saturday.

I could list a hundred more but I think you get the point. So many have said it before: it is an exciting and very scary time to be a photographer. The technology, business and craft of photography are changing so fast it’s virtually impossible to keep up with, let alone predict where it’s going. Whatever it shapes up to be, you can rest assured that there will be someone there to teach. In this age, their business might depend on it.

Contemplating Engagement Photography

When I started my first go around as a photographer I promised myself I would not shoot weddings or porn. Mostly for the same reason. They pay well, lack creativity and you can be very easily pigeonholed into that genre. I only broke that promise one and a half times. I shot a wedding for a friend that turned bad when the photo processor ruined the film. The half was a shoot involving a tattoo shop, a tattoo covered stripper and another stripper in a nurses outfit. It got out of hand.

Times have changed. Terry Richardson has made a mainstream name for himself in fashion after starting in porn and wedding photography has moved away from the traditional to a very creative hybrid of photojournalism, fashion and fine art. I've seen some amazingly creative photographers during a search for my own wedding.

I have agreed to do another wedding for a friend this April and am looking forward to it in large part due to the influence of the next generation of innovative wedding photographers. People like Fer Juaristi, Jasmine Star and Benj Haisch have caught my attention and I've been reading their blogs to prepare for the upcoming event. I still don't think I am interested in making wedding photography an offering because of some personal reasons and I think there's just too much pressure in that environment. But I am starting to get interested in a related field.

Before I got engaged, I never realized there were engagement shoots. Laurel was telling me we needed to do one. I like being behind the lens, not in front of it so I was definitely dragging my feet. We had a non-photographer friend shoot them with me setting up the shots and coaching her. I also did all the post-production. To my surprise, the engagement session was a lot of fun. Laurel and I had a great time and got some fantastic pictures.

It's hard not to get playful when vamping it up for these sessions.

I recently did and engagement session with my friends Katie and Tyler and enjoyed it very much. The shoot was fun and I enjoyed seeing the playful and affectionate side of both of them come out. There is an easy-going attitude for an engagement shoot that is the opposite of a wedding day. It's just about the couple connecting rather than all the pressure of the "special day" with family, friends, pomp and ceremony, not to mention the pressure of everything being "perfect" for one day only.

Katie and Tyler didn't have a serious moment the whole shoot..

So now I am thinking of doing more engagement session work. I'm just not sure about the feasibility of only doing engagement photos. The interesting thing about it is most wedding photographers try to add the engagement session on the the package after they have booked the wedding (or they sell it as part of a larger package from the beginning). How would I market myself as just an engagement photographer? How would I turn down couple who are happy with my work and want me to photograph their wedding as well? Why would a couple hire two different photographers when one would do both events in a package deal? Those are the questions that immediately come to mind. The easy answer would be become so good at it that couples would want me under any terms I set (that's easy, right?).

Obviously, I am not going to limit myself to one type of photography so I wouldn't have to worry about making a living only in this one niche. So if these sessions come along infrequently, it won't be a big deal. The bottom line is that I get some happiness and satisfaction beyond the image and that counts for a lot. Every type of photography I want to do is related. They are some form of portraiture. I think there is a larger journey in this for me. More of that will come out as this blog progresses.

Oaxacan Photographic Adventure

Continuing with the theme of travel to Latin America this year, I have confirmed a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico in October for the Día de los Muertos celebration. I am going with a small group including humanitarian photographers David duChemin and Jeffrey Chapman.

After reading a few of duChemin's books, I was intrigued with the idea of doing some travel and humanitarian photography. I love to travel, and when I get the chance, experience the local culture. I'm not really interested in tourist hotspots. So, in theory, I'd like to do some humanitarian and travel photography. I say in theory because I had a little problem connecting with the locals on my last trip to Mexico.

There was much tequila consumed on my last trip. I suspect there will not be quite as much this time.

I'm excited to go with David and Jeffrey to see them in action and work with them during this special holiday in Oaxaca. They have been all over the world shooting for various NGOs and I think there will be a lot to learn from them. Plus, I'm sure they have plenty of great stories of life in remote locations and cultural shocks a-plenty.

It is a week-long trip traveling around the Oaxacan Valley to various markets in preparation for the festivities and cemeteries for the holidays. The holiday itself is a time of remembering and celebration. There is going to be food, music and lots of decorations to honor the altars of the dead. There should be plenty of people and places to photograph as well as a great time to experience the Mexican culture.

Between Costa Rica and Oaxaca, I'll have to really get fired up on the Rosetta Stone lessons. I would love to go being able to speak Spanish fairly well. At least then I can have some conversations and maybe learn more.