the picture people?

they said the pay will be between 8-9 dollars an hours which is close to what i make now at my current part time job. they told me its all preset but i think dealing with upset kids and angry mom will be difficult at first but can only help in the long run. plus its hands on with real people in a real studio environment besides the fact i dont get to mess with light set ups or really learn anything about light setups. even if i dont have the job for that long it can only help my in studio people skills

Seriosuly speaking I really don't see how this could hurt you when you go to a "real studio" later on.

Any "real studio" photog that would look down on you cause you work on you cause you worked at a budget studio in the past is most likley someone you don't want to work for anyways (I'll give you a hint: they probably have a huge attitude).

Experience is experience and unless that photog was born with a SLR camera in his/her hands I don't see how they can look down at you.

Everyone starts somewhere.


Your ability to deal with people after you dealt with angry kids and parents parents at a budget studio shop is worth it's weight in gold.

i work at a studio that is similar to the picture people....yea i only make 8 dollars an hour(high in my area for a regular job like this), but you wouldnt believe how much extra income i make doing my own photography on the side...i get weddings, quinceaneras, and band shoots all the time. I learned how to run the business so when im ready to go out on my own, i have a really good idea on what i need to do. It is true its all about volume, but money is money. Business is business. I like to be creative, but i can be creative on my own time. Im here to get paid, and i learned how to run a photography business at the same time. Whats even better, is that my girlfriend is the manager and i come second in command, so basically we run the store. We've made all the stores decisions for the last 3 years seeing that the owners live 6 hours away. Take the job for a while. Learn what you can and then once you feel its not beneficial to you, quit. SIMPLE.
one more thing to add, the people that go there see the picture people as being professional. So youre seen as a pro in their eyes. And when you go out on your own, you're already known as a pro and its a lot easier to get jobs. Atleast thats how it worked for me. I make more money on my own, but staying here has helped pay all my gear and i still can go out to dinner 5 times a week, the movies 2 times a week, and i've made some valuable connections along the way. Good luck

good advice thanks

well guys i got the job heres to a welcome into the world of kind-of-semi-professional haha

REXTi wrote in post #5423664
well guys i got the job heres to a welcome into the world of kind-of-semi-professional haha

Congrats! Good luck and hopefully they let you play a little. I know of one Picture people that did. Sometimes.

dou_b_14 wrote in post #5407980
i work at a studio that is similar to the picture people....yea i only make 8 dollars an hour(high in my area for a regular job like this), but you wouldnt believe how much extra income i make doing my own photography on the side...i get weddings, quinceaneras, and band shoots all the time. I learned how to run the business so when im ready to go out on my own, i have a really good idea on what i need to do. It is true its all about volume, but money is money. Business is business. I like to be creative, but i can be creative on my own time. Im here to get paid, and i learned how to run a photography business at the same time. Whats even better, is that my girlfriend is the manager and i come second in command, so basically we run the store. We've made all the stores decisions for the last 3 years seeing that the owners live 6 hours away. Take the job for a while. Learn what you can and then once you feel its not beneficial to you, quit. SIMPLE.
one more thing to add, the people that go there see the picture people as being professional. So youre seen as a pro in their eyes. And when you go out on your own, you're already known as a pro and its a lot easier to get jobs. Atleast thats how it worked for me. I make more money on my own, but staying here has helped pay all my gear and i still can go out to dinner 5 times a week, the movies 2 times a week, and i've made some valuable connections along the way. Good luck

One thing to consider, not knowing what the policies are for the studio your work for and not knowing what the Picture People's policies are, but in respect to drumming up side business while working at these studios, make sure you are not violating any Non-compete Agreements. Most companies are aware of this and have the foresight to have this in place. Depending on the state you live in, this can be really serious. Not only is it grounds for termination, but also lawsuits for damages.

Also, come on there is something called ethics, right? If you had your own studio one day, and your employees are there stealing your clients. How would you feel?

People skills, you'll learn people skills. It can't hurt you and will only make you stronger. Have fun, do your best, smile, say please and thank you like you mean it and when it comes time say thank you and leave.

Good luck with the job man.

00silvergt wrote in post #5427711
One thing to consider, not knowing what the policies are for the studio your work for and not knowing what the Picture People's policies are, but in respect to drumming up side business while working at these studios, make sure you are not violating any Non-compete Agreements. Most companies are aware of this and have the foresight to have this in place. Depending on the state you live in, this can be really serious. Not only is it grounds for termination, but also lawsuits for damages.

Also, come on there is something called ethics, right? If you had your own studio one day, and your employees are there stealing your clients. How would you feel?

Good point about that....in my case, i have permission from the owners to do what i want as long as it doesnt interferre with their business...so i do not touch studio pictures what so ever on my own. Infact, i try to make them more money when i do weddings or things of that sort. I bring in the couples to take their studio pictures at the studio and sell the studio pkg to them...so we all win

I worked for them for about five months...at first all I did was clean. Clean the back drops , clean the rooms,dust, etc....very boring. And then they found out I am a very good printer. So on Saturdays, I was stuck on the printer printing all the pictures(they were still using film cameras at the time and printing straight from the negative wasn't hard for me).
But saturdays are crazy, everyone shows up on either Saturdays or Sundays. The rest of the time you are trying to drum up business. Hand out cards etc. You also will have a specific style in which you will be shooting the customers, there are five seperate poses that you have to do. You can not deviate, except for the last photo soetimes. And you are graded on your pictures and their consistancy with their guidelines.

Now, somethings I did like....I learned how to work with children, I may be a mother but some children can try everyone's patience. I learned how to pose babies without it looking weird.Taught me that a baby on an all back background looks like a floating baby....and I learned how to load a medium foramt camera, never had the chance before this job and it wa fun working with the film cameras. But the draw back were out of focus shots sometimes.
The only thing I truly hated was the cold calling that you had to do...

I had to quit working for them because we(my family) had no health insurance and I found a full time job that did.

Not every job is fun, but it isn't that bad....

I worked for a similier outfit called PCA way back in the 80's, after I got out of the Army.
I taught me many things. I was mobile so I had an entire studio packed into my 70 Dodge Charger. I roamed from Bakerfield to Marsyville, Sac to Oakland and even a few times in Modesto, Turlock and San Jose.

I would typically setup for a weeks shoot on a Sunday and cold call Mondays and shoot Tuesday through Sat. You learn real quick about speed posing, Family groups, and how to shoot kids of all ages. I primarily worked in Monky Wards, Banks and Credit Unions as well as a few small regional stores on a promo basis. We used at that time a Camerz RC II long roll 35mm camera with no perforations in the film, Speedotron or other strobes and eveything was preset to bounce off of a white reflector that was the top of the large booth we used. Curtains on the side and approx 10ft x 25 ft inside. I could do groups of up to 25 within that space successfully.

With a job like this won't hone your photo skills. But your people skills, baby/child play, sales ability and best of all your posing will all get quite the workout. Speed is the name of game and then quality, and then the ability to overcome negative vibe to bring in the shot are all tools that will work for you in the future no matte the job,

Good luck and keep shooting.

ya its a little scary to me at how fast you have to get them posed and crank it out. then the selling part is a little weird as well because im not that good at selling items so hopefully this will build my confidence in talking to people and ordering people around haha... thanks for the input guys, and what is cold calling?

I don't have a have experience, per say, but a friend of mine works with them. From what he says, he hates it. They only give him a work schedule of about 3-5 days a week and no more than 6 hours a day... if he's lucky. The one that he works at uses the Canon 30D, but it's pretty much locked. What I mean is that all you have to do is zoom and click. Everything else is already set up for you.

i know im not going to learn much of anything about photog but i will learn people skills and gain confidence in myself and this is a second job as well because i need the money to pay off to much stuff