Ok, last post wasn't planned and was pretty negative, don't want to leave that up on top of the heap for too long, so here is another update. I am just finishing up my first well paying contract shooting assignment. Nothing glamorous, I am going around San Diego taking pictures of various storage facilities for a nationwide advertising firm that is pretty much positioning themselves as the Hotels DotCom of storage units. Not a very glamorous assignment but it pays pretty well, enough so that by the time I am done I will almost be able to get either a D800 secondary body or some studio strobes, or even pay for a couple of months of childcare if I am really feeling froggy.
Prior to this assignment the only paying gigs I have gotten are McSportrait gigs shooting posed kids kids at sports tournaments and also shooting a couple of soccer tournaments. I have to say this storage gig is a step up from the McSportrait gigs. (ps- I think I should copyright the McSportrait name I gave those gigs, how's that for a corporate name?) Shooting the actual tournament did require some skill and decent gear, that was a challenge and I would do that again. Covered that assignment in an earlier post so I won't rehash that here. The McSportrait gig was specifically designed to require as little skill or artistic ability whatsoever. There was a posing guide for exactly how to set each shot up and they actually wanted pop-up or on camera undifused flash. Taking longer than about 1 minute with each kid was considered failure. But wait, you cry, this is supposed to be about learning from any job, so what did I learn from the McSportrait gig? A couple of things: First, the small paycheck and complete lack of any ability to try and take a good picture were not worth the time away from my family. So I learned about setting boundaries and not just taking any job that came my way in order to get a paltry paycheck. There is something to be said for working in the trenches and putting in time on the bottom to grow and learn, but this wasn't it. This job taught me to really think about it and try to learn the difference between a job that offered growth opportunities and one that was not worth it. Second, I learned that unless it's my own, I do not really enjoy working with kids until they get to about high school age. That pretty much rules out several large fields of work I could otherwise have potentially wasted my own time and energy making a run at.
So what about the storage assignment? I took it mainly because it was something new that I hadn't tried yet and it looked like it paid well relative to the time/energy commitment. I thought it would be a bit easier and less enjoyable that it has turned out to be so far. At first I thought it was just going to be a better paying version of the McSportrait gig, with buildings instead of kids. But a few facilities into it I figured out it was more than that. It's my introduction to the field of architectural photography and it is clear that I have a lot to learn about this field. Each location, although similar in concept, is quite different in lots of key ways: layout, lighting, colors, etc. The challenge is to take the same boring pics at each facility but still find a way to convey a feel of the place while showing it in the best possible way. In other words, how to make the boring interesting. I am also getting a crash course in shooting wide angle and having to deal with converging lines, straight horizons, lens distortion, shooting angles and all the other challenges that come with shooting wide. I am also having to deal with shooting at the limits of the D4's dynamic range; since the only times the offices are open is the middle of the day, I get the fun of shooting from an extremely bright and sunny exterior into completely dark, cavernous storage units without time to set up a tripod and go HDR. I also decided I would shoot everything in full manual mode so I am getting a lot of practice adjusting for different lighting conditions, picking a metering method and paying attention to the meter.
But by far the biggest learning curve on this one has been workflow management and efficiency. I get paid on a per facility basis, not a time scale. So the more efficient I can make my workflow, the more profitable it is for me. Even more than just the money, lack of an efficient workflow would drive me nuts on this job and could cause embarrassing errors. I am shooting 5-10 facilities a day, so I need to workflow that lets me keep track of which shots are of which facility, which facilities I have shot and which I haven't, naming and key wording files on import, editing as rapidly as possible, client delivery and an accurate invoicing so I can get paid promptly and correctly. This has been the biggest learning curve for me. I think I have a flow now that works pretty well, I have only had to unscrew myself a few times when I mislabeled a few shots during upload. And I also learned that shooting architectural shots is fun and seems to pay well. I will have to do a lot more research and learning in the field and see what happens.
But really, what I wanted to say is that no matter how mundane you think the work you are doing is, there is something there to learn and a way to use the experience to grow, even if you don't see it at first. There is always a different perspective if you can learn to see it.
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