After working as a behind the scenes photographer on my first fashion photoshoot ever I realised that if I wanted to become a fashion photographer I needed to learn from people who were actually working as ones. During the aforementioned shoot I tried to learn as much as I could and ask as many questions as possible, including questions related to the organisation of the shoot itself. And one of the things that I learned from them was that there are a lot of websites where you can place or apply to job posts related to the creative industry: ModelMayhem.com, StarNow.co.uk, PurplePort.com, FashionWorkie.com, FashionJobs.com, Mandy.com, Total-Talent.com, among others.
So I went online and applied to as many posts as possible in which a fashion photographer was looking for an assistant. And I was lucky enough to get a reply right away from a photographer who was shooting a fashion editorial for an online magazine and was desperately looking for someone to assist him after his assistant had to cancel last minute. I was not only going to assist during a fashion shoot but also I was going to learn what it meant to work on a shoot for a magazine.
The night before the shoot I didn’t sleep. I spent the whole night in google researching what it meant to be an assistant to another photographer. Assistant Photographers have to assist a photographer in all aspects of the shoot doing whatever is necessary to ensure that the shoot runs smoothly in everything from administration, to the shoot, to dealing with other crew members and clients.
Basically, an assistant photographer must be organised and practical, understand photography equipment, anticipate the needs of the photographer, have excellent communication skills, be able to foresee and evaluate potential problems, and deal with them calmly, be skilled in image-manipulation and image-management software, pay close attention to detail and be open and willing to learn. During the shoot, the assistant photographer is in charge of transporting the equipment, preparing the set and the lights, metering lights, tidy up and even make sure that the photographer’s coffee is warm.
So the next day during the shoot I applied everything that I had learned the night before and kept my eyes and ears open to absorb all the things that were going on around me. And I had the time of my life! And while having fun I learned so much!
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