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Old G…I’m going to go to Miami Ink and have that entire reply tattooed on my ass…just so when the shooter I’m assisting, give me that puzzling look…I can drop the tighty-whities to the ankles and point to the particular reference number.

I , TJ – dumb-assed college student, offer my humblest thanks and praise for all these wonderful, battle-tested insights.

Looks like I need to seriously think about appling #5 as I set out to get my ticket for the next Burningman Festival 2008.

As far as #3…The US Navy flew me ALL over the world on your tax dollars(thanks for the 4 1/2 year vacation in Kailua, Oahu) and I’ve seen man at his absolute best and I’ve seen him at his most horrendous worst… The two biggest things I’ve learned from 16 years , 52 different countries and two wars @ 5,000 hrs of flight time…

1 Men are fucking up this planet.
2. Women are the answer to fixing it.

Gotcha : More technical it is, while I’m a Stoooopid student.

Anyone need a “Gofer” monkey…I don’t throw shit when I get upset and I work for peanuts?

* quickly shows his big, red “I’m available” Baboon ass.

Handle your rent; handle your car. Handle your parking tickets. Nobody wants the Sheriff to show up in the middle of a job, with a bunch of parking tickets in his hand, asking to see the assistant. Don’t ask to leave early, “cause you gotta go pay your rent or your phone bill”. Handle all that stuff outside of work. Again, you are Support; you are not the star.

And I forgot the worst one, #27: Don’t approach the client to “show him your work sometime”. It’s the cardinal rule. If you’re there on the job as an assistant, then be in the assistant role. Every client will ask you if you shoot, because they don’t know what else to talk to you about at lunch, but trust me, they really don’t care. They might care a little bit, but they don’t want to see your book. The right way to do it is — Stop Assisting, then become a photographer. Don’t approach a client when you’re on somebody else’s job.

1. In college, learn as much tech stuff as you can. This will make you more valuable as an assistant. Don’t just be a navel gazer with a 5D.

2. In college, take business classes too. You don’t want to be one of those stoner kids that just reads and ponders life. You want to APPLY what you learned.

3. In college, take as many philosophy classes as you can. Try to think BIG. Try to care about the world. Try to get a grip on the big picture.

4. In college, take a year off and drive across the country, and camp along the way. Do it with good friends that are smart; not dumbasses that just want to get high. Bring some books. Bring some audio books if you can’t read.

5. Make sure and take some acid somewhere along the way. Preferably in Monument Valley or Canyonlands. I know that sounds dumb, but everybody needs to do that once or twice.

6. When you start assisting, consider putting away your cameras entirely for a few years, and concentrate on being a servant. Get into a servant mindspace. Be in a supportive role. Trust me, it helps. This is your time to be a giant sponge and learn as much as you can. It’s not your time to shoot. (Ok, maybe with your iphone, but nothing more serious than that).

7. Think how you can be most useful to a photographer. That will get you hired, and keep you getting hired.

8. Eliminate excess Drama from your life.

9. Live beneath your means. Keep things simple.

10. Be a good conversationalist. Be well read. No one wants to drive five hours with an assistant that doesn’t have anything to add to the conversation. And it better be better than how to make web galleries from Bridge, or something geeky like that.

11. Keep your mouth shut around clients. Just be a good energy, but sure as hell, don’t offer ideas. The photographer has his own agenda, and he needs to work that out with the client.

12. Don’t be late for work. And if you are, call ahead and let the photographer know. Don’t just show up thirty minutes late, especially if it’s on the way to LaGuardia.

13. Be loyal.

14. Go beyond the call of duty.

15. Don’t order expensive drinks after the job, especially if it’s editorial. Be aware of the budget.

16. Turn off your fucking cell phone during the job. Fine to check messages during lunch, when it’s your time, but don’t be sending text messages to your girlfriend, even if nothing is going on in the job. Trust me, even though you’re not aware of it, there is something ALWAYS going on in the job.

17. Reread 16.

18. Be prompt when submitting Invoices. Don’t bitch about photographers always paying late, if you wait twenty days before you Invoice a job.

19. Be a sponge. Notice everything. Notice the way the photographer deals with the client. Notice the issues that the clients have, and be sensitive to these. You, as an assistant, are privy to a ton of valuable unspoken information; make the best use of it. Learn from it.

20. Travel out of the country as much as possible. Learn how other people live. Learn that America is not the center of the universe, and learn that you don’t need your cell phone 24 hours a day. Again, be a sponge, about how other people live.

21. Don’t show up hung over to a job. It’s just not cool. No matter how hard you worked the day before.

22. Dress well. Doesn’t have to be Prada, but try to look competent.

23. Learn your job. Learn the subtleties of a Profoto pack. Learn about the fuses in a Pro 7b. Try to learn CaptureOne, even just the basics of it. You are Support; try to know your craft. Even the geeky details. It’s the geeky details that’ll sometimes save a job. That’s when you’ll be the hero, and you’ll get an extra beer that night at dinner. (But don’t show up the next day hung over).

24. Go to the Times today, and read the Norman Mailer Obit. Try to create your life to be half as interesting as his life. If you do that, you’ll be fine.

25. Always order good Catering. That’s all the client really cares about. And make sure they get put up in a nice hotel.

26. Learn as much technical stuff as you can, because Rule Number One is, the client doesn’t really care about your vision of the world. They care about their vision. If you show one thing in your book, chances are, you’ll be called for something else. So have a good grab bag of tricks, for those days when you walk into a beige conference room, and have to shoot a fat guy on the corner of a desk.

That’s all that Old Geezer knows for now. Maybe someone older can write up another twenty-six.

Good luck with your careers, young people. God knows the world needs another photographer. With SVA and Art Center and the like cranking them out by the hundreds, soon we’ll have enough photographers to handle all those big budget jobs that we all turn down.

I should have gotten into insurance sales…

TJ… I have an intern every semester that works in my studio. My advice…take the technical courses. You need that foundation. But the creative stuff…either you have it or you don’t. Granted, it will develop (no pun intended) over time…but you can’t teach creativity. But no matter what, you need to know the basics of how the camera works and you need to understand lighting. I took classes and dropped each one once I saw the teacher’s work. Not the kind of work I was aspiring to do. That’s why they have to teach. Can’t make a living as a pro. And, by the way…I do make a good living shooting weddings and portraits. MOST of my living is from the portraits because I don’t do a ton of weddings. So if you’re good, you can more than live on it WITHOUT shooting celebs or fashion. I like to shoot real people.

It’s not so much learning anything in the classroom (as I’m sure the photo students have all noticed) outside of the technical aspects, it’s practice. It’s instead of having to do a flow chart for homework, you go and shoot 10 rolls of film. Then, assuming you’re working as a photographer (which most should be by junior year in some way or another) go to work and take more pictures. Then, in your spare time, take some pictures. And, assuming you have decent faculty in the program, you get some extra crit on all of it. That, and it forces me to get off my lazy ass and do those pesky picture stories that I always manage to find excuses not to do otherwise, even though I always find myself happiest after a shoot for a picture story.

I’ll take that over a flow chart, or whatever the hell it is that business majors do.

First I am James Russell http://www.russellrutherford.com/html/ , not Russell James http://www.russelljames.com/ and some of the blogs have got us mixed up, showing my work, his quotes, my quotes, his site, etc. etc. until I had to look at my driver’s license and make sure I was really me.

The second thing that strikes close to home is this year we we’re offered a segment on a different reality show. Though not the scope or host roll as Russell James’, it was a fairly large part of an episode where the host moderator comes into a “big time shoot” (their quotes, not mine) and tapes the whole process from start to finish.

The thing that finally put me off, other than the all blaming typical Hollywood release, was at the end of the segment, the host would take my camera and shoot the session to really understand what it takes to be a photographer.

I somewhat laughed to myself thinking if they really knew what it takes to be a photographer 85% would be unsuitable, or too boring for air play, then I somewhat bristled at the thought of someone taking the camera and “playing” photographer.

Like most of us that do this for a living, this is not my job, or my hobby, or a vehicle for me to get noticed, it’s my 18 hour a day calling and as difficult and challenging as this industry can be, I respect the photograph too much to let somebody play at doing my work.

As much as the lure of publicity pulled me and as much as it probably would have done no harm to get my name out in the general public, it just wasn’t where I want my life, or my work to go.

At this point I should also say that I haven’t seen the show and probably won’t, for no other reason than I have to devote my time to my art and my business and that was the real reason I decided to stay on the back side of the camera.

BTW: I should insert here that this is no implied disrespect towards Russell as though I don’t know him, I believe he’s a fine accomplished photographer.

Given all of this it helps to cut Russell some slack. We all know this is a demanding and consuming business and it’s very difficult to turn down an opportunity to play on a large stage. For some client’s the host of a show like this would mean a lot, for other’s it may have the opposite effect, but in the end of the day it’s really difficult to judge anybody’s motives without knowing them first hand.

Personally I try to keep my loyalties and energy on the side of the creative team; photographer, photo editor, art buyer and art director.

If this type of program helps further our cause then I’m all for it, but if it makes it look like anyone can do this, then I don’t believe it will benifit any of us, because the last thing we want to hear from a client is that anyone can be a photographer.

James Russell

I wouldn’t even go to school for photography unless you’re gonna go to a place like SVA or Art Center and take full advantage of the people and things you have access to there. Otherwise, you’re probably better off getting a degree in something like business, taking photo classes as electives, shooting in you’re spare time and assisting people who’s work you like.

I hope that “The Shot” doesn’t set off negative repercussions to the photo industry, that’s the last thing photogs need.

Do you think that “The Shot” really could launch someones career? or will it chew them up and spit them out like the rest of the reality shows?

I wonder if enrollment at colleges that offer photography degrees will increase because of the show?

“I started 3-4 years ago and I’m still struggling to really know what’s my thing as photographer and to develop as a real pro.”

Does it ever really settle down at all (your definition of you as a photographer – defined that is). It seems to me to be a continually flowing “out of reach” – thing. Or moreover yet, for me, I continually catalog all these shots in my head I would love to attempt and I pounce on them when the opportunity presents itself…even if the chance to shoot it doesn’t appear before me for years.

Should I just start drinking the hard stuff now, while I’m still in school?

and do I have to grow that free-flowing main like RJ and wear a belt-buckle-hair-fan attachment to amplify the “wind blown” effect while on a windless set?

Do you have to go to school to learn how to toss the hair aside “Professionally”, like that?

Same could be said, I suppose, for the Idol and the Model shows, too. They really are tedious to watch.

it is still about the photography isnt it? thanks again for the comments

jonathan

jonathanbeller.com

“How do I zoom in?”
“It’s a fixed lens.”