Want to be food photographers assistant?
I've had all sorts of different assistants.
The good, the bad and quite a few ugly. If any of them lasted more than 2 weeks they had something.....
*the one who barely spoke for the first month
*the one who didn't stop talking - ever
*the one who deleted a whole job he had retouched because he "wasn't sure he'd done it right"!
*the one who if he wasn't sure if something was right would Google it to make sure
*the one who checked my emails
*the one who flooded the building
*the one who smelt nice
*the one who had "a photoshop action for that"
*the one who deleted all the photoshop actions when he left
*the one who laughed at all my jokes
*the one who went to see all my clients within a week of leaving
*the one who made disgusting tea
*and the ones who are now 'front men' themselves and doing rather well as food photographers
.....most will be life long friends.
I - like most photographers I'm sure - receive many email requests for food photography assistant jobs. I view these as lazy attempts to get in touch. That is unless you are going to follow it up with a call of course but 99.9% don't. Anyone can cut and paste an email to 20+ photographers. Although perhaps not everyone! I've had many over the years where the sender has forgotten to change the name from the previous 'Dear David " or similar.
At the risk of sounding old skool I imagine it won't be long before I get text message or whatsapp applications for work..... But don't be the first!
Wannabe assistants need to realise the importance of the first contact being verbal. A lazy email is not a positive first impression. You find out more about someone if they are brave enough to call and have a chat. If you do get an assistants position you'll end up talking to the photographer all day anyway so you might as well go for it. I do not have time to answer all the emails I get asking for assisting work or placements I'm afraid but if you phone me you'll generally be invited in for a face to face meeting.
After that who knows??
Just stick to the basics.
Be on time, be keen, tidy & professional......and don't be lazy.
Get in touch with Stephen Conroy Food Photography today
