How do you get assisting jobs?
Hello Greg.I am a senior art studio in Knoxville, TN, trying to figure out how to get start actually getting paid to make photos. My knowledge of the business of photography is minimal. While reading blogs like yours is extremely informative (and thank you for providing such information), I’d really like to do some assisting to gain real first hand knowledge. How does one find work as an assistant? I’ve begun offering myself for free to local wedding shooters (only for a few weeks, though two “jobs” have already fallen through. it’s amazing how hard it is to give free labor.), but how do I find more steady work with someone whose work is artful and that I really admire and who might actually throw a couple of dollars my way?
Answer:
Two weeks is really not enough time to say whether or not  you will be getting consistent assisting work where you are located. First, I advocate e mailing photographers, and then follow up with a phone call the next day or e mail in the morning and then call them in the afternoon. If you don’t reach them, leave a message referring to your e mail. One more phone call the next day and one more message should be sufficient. If you don’t hear from them, give it a rest for 3 or 4 weeks. The photographer will know who you are and you don’t want to be a pest or be seen as a stalker. The important thing is to keep a list of photographers and when you contacted them.
In a big city, NY, LA, Chicago, etc., if you are just starting out, it is as important to know really good photo assistants, producers and studio managers, as it is to make contact with photographers. You never know who is going to hire you: it could be a producer or a first assistant, so meeting these people is really key to getting work.
One tactic to take is to try to get work at one of the large studios or rental houses. That way, you meet photographers and assistants just by going in to work. You also learn the grip equipment and lighting systems.
Finally, whether you are in a big town or smaller market, photographers are demanding that their assistants have more and more skills. Lighting skills are great and required for a first and second assistant on-set, but these days, knowing how to set up the computer and run a variety of programs that capture and edit images is a must have skill. Add to that at least light retouching skills, (advanced compositing skills would be great too!) pre-production, post production, shopping for props, returning props, and general studio management and a zillion other little things…. and you may find yourself working a lot more.
Photographers are having to expand their skill sets to stay in business and assistants are having to do the same thing! My life is about 90% office work and 10% shooting. So don’t think of assisting as just on-set work. If you really want to learn the business, learn “THE BUSINESS” first: work as a studio manager, or work as an assistant to a rep or a producer. Then learn as much as you can working with gear and on-set. Because if you just have on-set experience, you won’t know how to get work, or speak to clients or keep your books/pay your taxes or run a studio. You can be a great photographer and know how to light the shit out of everything and retouch it to the highest standards, but if you don’t know how to talk to clients, get clients,  or create a great estimate, and make the work that they want, you will never be successful. That is why there are some very bad photographers or mediocre photographers with great businesses.
One Response to “How do you get assisting jobs?”
Brad Wenner says:
September 16, 2010 at 10:50 am
I think the main thing with getting assisting work (and shooting jobs!) is persistence. I just got a call yesterday for the first time from a photographer I have emailed or called every other week for 2 and a half years. Sending a couple of emails once isn’t enough.
Buy other assistants and studio managers a beer everyone once in a while, referrals are where the majority of the jobs I get come from. Also knowing how to run Capture One and do other digital tasks is not optional anymore.