Category Archives: Getting Hired

Perception Is Everything

I had several conversations last week with photographers about perception. The people doing the hiring arrive at an initial decision about you by factoring in something they think will happen based on their perception of you. I have no real insights into creating a perception about yourself other than there are many factors that go [...]

A Note From A Young Photographer On The Way Up

I received this note from a photographer whose work I enjoy and who you might say is a few years past emerging:
Work has still been pretty good this year. it’s strange because it’s slowing down, but the jobs I’ve been getting this year and the last 2 are bigger paying ones so that means the [...]

The Value Of Behind The Scenes Videos

Heather Morton Art buyer blog seems to be in full swing again and she’s talking about Behind-the-Scenes-Videos today (here). Basically an Art Buyer was asking the rest of the art buyer group if they all liked it when photographers had behind the scenes videos and they all were enthusiastically endorsing them as a great way [...]

After Staff Week On The Resolve Blog

Miki Johnson who runs the Resolve blog had a nice theme running all week called “after staff” (here). She interviewed and gathered advise from people who’ve either moved on or been laid off from a staff job. As a former staffer myself I can tell you… well, I’m not a good example because I worked [...]

Young Photographers Just Don’t Have A Chance Right Now

A reader sent me this:
“I’d like to thank you for the Simon Norfolk article that you brought to our attention recently, and your thoughts on him saying that all of us will soon become amateur photographers with other professions. This really hit home for me. In 2007, I graduated from a photography school with [...]

Shooting Editorial Photography

I gave a lecture last week with Heidi Volpe (former Art Director of the LA Times Magazine) at Art Center in Los Angeles and thought I would highlight a couple things we talked about here for anyone who couldn’t attend and of course to open it up if anyone wants to chime in. The best [...]

There’s No Shortage of Great Photography

There’s so much great photography out there and sure, if the budget and pages are unlimited and you only answer to god then you can go about your merry way picking from the vast variety of photographers but, under a given set of circumstances where you want a specific genre and someone versed in a [...]

Dumbo Gallery Walk Video

(large video here) from Daniel K. Gebhart

Finding the Right Photographer

There are only 4 things to consider when looking to hire a photographer.
1. Genre
2. Style
3. Location
4. Price
Ok, there’s actually a fifth that’s like a recommendation or an impression we have of you and informs us what it will be like to work with you but I’m leaving that out of this discussion.
When making an assignment [...]

Showing Your Book

Bar none, showing your book is the fastest way to get a job in this business. If I meet you and like your work, then shake your hand and look you in the eye, it’s a virtual lock you’ll get an assignment. I was such a pushover in this regard that sometimes photographers wouldn’t even [...]

Contact Info for Every Media Company in the World

Can be found at MediaPhoneBook.com (here)… someday… maybe. For now it’s got contacts for a handful of magazines, but since it’s a wiki anybody can add and make changes so eventually it really could contain all the contact info, book drop information, submission guidelines and anything else that might be useful to photographers for every [...]

Turning Down Jobs

Turning down jobs is one of the smartest things you can do for your photography career.
A reader writes:
“For me it’s been really instrumental in the last couple of years to take shoots that I really think I can knock out of the park, and shoots that feel like I am a good match for to [...]

Photographer Website Design

So, the other day I cranked through 145 websites in about 3 hours for the consultation demo and then I had a conversation with a magazine art director friend about how we look at photographers websites in obviously different ways (design vs. photo) and I realized something: Design and layout has a powerful effect on [...]

Getting Your Foot in the Door

A reader asks if it’s better to approach the Associate or Deputy Photo Editors for a book showing or for sending promos because the Director is usually too busy.
I’d say targeting the photo editors under the Director is an excellent plan of action.
I’ve always encouraged all the photo editors in the department to look at [...]

The Book AKA The Portfolio

The Agent at AVS (here) weighs in on the important issue of portfolios (So did Jackanory (here) but his is more about your style of photography) and I couldn’t agree more with all the points made. He mentions a massive heavy portfolio that was making the rounds awhile back that everyone remembers but no one [...]

Hiring New Photographers- In Action

I received an email from a fellow Director of Photography looking for a photographer who shoots like “so and so” but is less commercial and does smaller productions (you know, 1 assistant instead of 3, that kind of stuff). So I send her a list of people I like and we get on the phone [...]

Smiling Happy People

A creative director once told me “I don’t want to hire that photographer for this because no one is smiling in any of their photographs and we need a smiling person in the photo.”
Are you kidding me? Are you crazy? All I have to do is tell the goddam photographer to take a smiling photo. [...]

Visually Acceptable

Is your photography… Visually Acceptable?
There’s a good discussion in the Fly’n Photographers comments about magazines only hiring from a narrow band of photographic styles that Olivier Laude has coined “Visually Acceptable,” (this also holds true for our writing and design).
There are a few magazines that end up setting the agenda for the rest. They win [...]