First job ever

[amandaggogo]

And I managed to land one in a studio as a photographer.
It was a fun experience to say the least, but since it was during the Christmas season (where studio sales spike) we were very busy and it was quite overwhelming sometimes.

A few complaints I did have were the way the camera was set up, bolted to a tripod that could move up and down, the camera was set on auto permantley, and rather than looking through the camera to take the photo, you look at a tv monitor across the room.

Also the post editing wasn't much, I can't tell you how many times I had people ask me if I could crop it and not zoom it too, or vice versa, or if I could change the font on something.

Granted, it is a corporation studio, not locally owned. I was offered a part time job there, but I am going to look into a few other studios as well, just to get a feel for them.

I had never worked in a "Studio" enviroment per se. I learned quite a bit there, and will take with me some new found knowledge. I feel very lucky that I was able to get a job so quickly involving photography, and they had great respect for me that I took the job not for the money but as a learning experience. As a young photographer looking to one day start her own bussiness, I must say I am thankful to have had that job for a little while. Now it's off to school with me to learn more about it. :0)

Just felt the need to share my mini trip in a photo studio, being thrown in at the peak time of bussiness for them. Over whelming at times, but still quite fun in general.

[Jim Poor]

Sounds like a good experience.

Man, I can't imagine what being "pursed" by timber wolves would be like ;-)

[OsmosisStudios]

Sounds like a Sears/Wal-Mart setup, tbh.

[AnneWynne]

Any experience is better than no experience and it sounds like you learned a lot from this one. Good luck in all of your future endeavors.

[neil916]

I'm dying to know how they taught you to do the poses... Did you have a binder that told you "1 model, age 0-3 months, pose in these three poses", "1 model, age 16-21, pose in these five poses", or did they rely on your ability to come up with poses on the fly? My wife got suckered into a "free photo shoot and one 8x10" at the local mall, and I have to admit, they got a nice pose and expression on our young daughter even though she wasn't in the best of moods at the time. Other than the pose and expression, nothing else about the photo was very amazing, but it has left me wondering about the process behind the scenes.

[monkeygirl123]

Originally Posted by neil916

I'm dying to know how they taught you to do the poses... Did you have a binder that told you "1 model, age 0-3 months, pose in these three poses", "1 model, age 16-21, pose in these five poses", or did they rely on your ability to come up with poses on the fly? My wife got suckered into a "free photo shoot and one 8x10" at the local mall, and I have to admit, they got a nice pose and expression on our young daughter even though she wasn't in the best of moods at the time. Other than the pose and expression, nothing else about the photo was very amazing, but it has left me wondering about the process behind the scenes.

Have a read of this.....it's something I wrote about a few weeks ago

High Street Portrait Studio - Behind The Scenes

[amandaggogo]

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

Sounds like a good experience.

Man, I can't imagine what being "pursed" by timber wolves would be like ;-)

Oh thank you so much for catching that typo! :0) Gotta fix that.

And yes, it was rather exciting.

Originally Posted by AnneWynne

Any experience is better than no experience and it sounds like you learned a lot from this one. Good luck in all of your future endeavors.

Yes, Had it of been at a little walmart studio, locally owned, or my case, a corporation, I would've taken it anyways, just to learn how different studios work in comparison to others. And kind of get a feel for studio photography to see if that's really what I wanna get into as opposed to other types of photography.

Originally Posted by neil916

I'm dying to know how they taught you to do the poses... Did you have a binder that told you "1 model, age 0-3 months, pose in these three poses", "1 model, age 16-21, pose in these five poses", or did they rely on your ability to come up with poses on the fly? My wife got suckered into a "free photo shoot and one 8x10" at the local mall, and I have to admit, they got a nice pose and expression on our young daughter even though she wasn't in the best of moods at the time. Other than the pose and expression, nothing else about the photo was very amazing, but it has left me wondering about the process behind the scenes.

I wasn't taught poses per se, My boss did teach me a few good ones in case my brain went blank, we are supposed to try and get three different poses on four different backgrounds per sitting, but no one ever does, Especially if it just isn't what would work with the sitting. We were actually allowed to do any poses we came up with, but I did a get a book of poses when I was a trainee to kind of teach me some. I was actually quite surprised though seeing as how it is a corporation at the creativity and freedom we were allowed to have as far as posing and use of props go.
I did one Christmas photoshoot of these boys on a sled with a winter background and had them throwing fake snowballs at the camera. Imagine how excited these kids were when they heard they got to throw stuff at the photographer (but only this one time!)
I got some interesting photos and great natural smiles from those. :0)