Working in photography it is so easy to make mistakes or miss things we are human its part of our nature. We can’t be everywhere at once and have eyes on everything as much as we would like to.
I have collected a lot of advice form people over the past few years and thought I should share.
“if your on time your late”…
This has probably been the 2nd most helpful advice when working in the industry as especially when Im working on events I should be at least 20minutes early to scout the place and make sure Im comfortable with it. I even had one event where they told me to tun up at a specific time I thought I should be early like I normally do and the event was already closing I was able to quickly grab a few people and take their pictures. So if i was on time I would of missed the opportunity to take the pictures and wouldn’t of got my pictures.
“be prepared for anything”…
“be flexible”…
Again photography is a crazy industry you have to be flexible and work around it and be prepared for anything I have seen a few crazy things and heard a few crazy ideas when working but Im able to get the pictures I need.
I also learnt that advice can come from strange places but be so helpful. As some advice I have been given hasn’t come from photography but working in other areas like waitressing I was trained as a waitress for a well known silver service company and a food chain. They gave me advice that I always took with me and also found it very helpful when Im working in any type of industry.
“presentation is key”….
You have to sell yourself in a way. your face is the business and if your sloppy people won’t use you. People are going to want to use someone who looks professional and who acts professional.
“a smile fixes anything”…
my first day as a waitress I was really nervous I thought I was going to make a lot of mistakes and I think it showed on my face. A waiter that had worked at the company fro a while came up to me and and we where talking about being nervous. The soon said to me to relax, be myself and just smile. And it actually worked I would make a mistake for example a customer had been waiting awhile for their receipt I just smiled and apologised and they instantly calmed down. I took this when i was working in photography especially street photography I had a rather tricky shoot one day when there wasn’t many willing models so I would take the pictures without them looking and if they caught me some would glare, my solution was to smile back at them and they would 99.9% of the time just smile back.
tarammsimpson 