All Photography Jobs Are Not The Same

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One of the best things about being a freelance photo assistant is that almost nothing is ever the same. One day you’re working on a product shoot surrounded by strobes, the next day a lifestyle/fashion shoot for a big ad agency, then maybe a day on location at the L.A. Times press production plant, then a day shooting interior and exterior architecture, and then cap off your week with a grueling day on the beach with body-builders and bikini babes. And yes, that day on the beach will be grueling, if you’re not accustomed to it!

But, I suppose if your existence thrives on rote routine, you’d be just fine with your employee position, working for the man, and you probably wouldn’t even be reading this blog post. To me, the very thought of punching a clock, going to my cubicle or assigned work station, and performing the same mundane duties, day-in and day-out, in the same drab environment, makes me want to dive into a drum of stop bath. There was a time when I played these work-a-day rituals, even while working in the photo industry while at a few different commercial labs, and I was very unhappy and unfulfilled in my ability to eek out a happy and creative existence.

So, being a photo assistant and photographer is usually never boring. But that doesn’t exactly mean it’s all fun and games. In fact, there’s been many times, at the end of the day, when I felt like I had never worked harder in my life…

Try fifteen hours, on location, in an old historic theater in downtown Los Angeles, lugging in every imaginable piece of lighting gear (kino, strobe, HMI), grip, hundreds and hundreds of feet of Bates cable for power distribution, props, and of course, a gazillion pounds of sandbags. Set up six or seven shots for 35mm digital and film, medium-format digital and film, and video. All the while remembering you are in one of the most historic buildings in the L.A. Theater District, and must be careful not to bang shit into the walls and doorways, stay on a track of heavy-duty kraft paper to minimize dirt and wear-and-tear on the carpet, and keep everything moving quick and smooth, despite your every carefully calculated move. Then pack it all up into the truck within an hour because production ran too long and the two security guards are going to bill production triple-time after the hour is up. Then, after that, deal with L.A. traffic for a relaxing two and one-half hour drive home to Palm Springs. Well, that last part is just me whining, but I’m hoping to gather a little sympathy, despite the fact that I was living in Palm Springs at the time.

Then there’s the shoots where you fly into Vegas for a couple of days to shoot young, twenty-something’s partying it up in a newly remodeled Vegas casino and hotel. Call time is 4AM because that’s the slowest time on the casino floor to get that money shot at the craps table. Then you hit the poker room and get the lighting dialed-in for three different angles. Then lunch and right back at it to start staging the big dance club shot, shooting from a boom-lift out on Freemont Street, overlooking the second-level balcony terrace. There’s people everywhere wanting to know what you’re doing and where they can see the photos later, after publication. After four hours of setting up the lighting and layout, the pretty models do their thing and everyone is having fun and then your radio battery dies and you can’t hear the photographer out in the boom-lift and hell breaks loose. After some creative mesaage-relaying, we get the shot, and it’s off to the new sushi restaurant for the last shot of the day. Everything goes off without too much trouble once we get all the lights set just right for all the model positions, but you’re constantly on guard for casino patrons who are busy looking at what’s going on rather than where they are walking, and possibly tripping on the head extension cables, even after you taped them down all nice and neat. Can you say liability? Then you discover one of the strobes isn’t firing and after replacing batteries in the pocket wizard, switching out the head, then the power pack, you finally determine the head-extension cable is bad from some lady stomping on it with her high-heels. Hey what about my dinner? The buffet closes at 10PM? What time is it now? 9:50! Aw man….

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not at all whining and complaining about the long hours, short meal breaks, travel, heavy lifting, gawkers, and inconvenient special circumstances. Well, maybe just a little bit. But if I was crammed into some office or warehouse I’d definitely be kicking and screaming all day long and feeling miserable and making everyone else miserable. But, working on-set, at least I know I’ve been thoroughly challenged, overcome those obstacles creatively, enjoyed myself being a part of the production team, and feel appreciated by the photographer and the client. And hey… I’m in Vegas!

The bottom-line is that every shoot is different. Different photographers, different production crew, different locations, different gear… variety is definitely the spice of life. And, on a photo shoot, you just never really quite know what’s going to happen until you find it staring you in the face. To me, that’s awesome! I would rather work my ass off for a few days a week doing a variety of things I love, instead of mindlessly running on the hamster wheel for someone else. I would never get to have the same experiences that I’ve had sitting in a cubicle and taking two weeks vacation every year.