At big box stores where photographers are basically hired follow a pre-determined composition, push a button and print, are paid between $7-11/hr. References :
About $10 an hour. The sales people make more than the photographers do. Industry does not recognize the artistic expertise of a truly talented portrait photographer. Instead, at places like lifetouch, the picture people, or sears and jcpenny’s, the photographer is relegated to just the person who makes the camera go click. To industry, the engine that drives their profits is in the sales. Remember back to the last time you went to penny’s to get portraits done. You go, and talk to a sales person. You pick out the backgrounds, or sets in which you wish to be sat. You go in, sit down, are posed, then 30 seconds later you go back out to see the sales person, who will then show you all of the cutsy little packages they have for you to buy, 8×10’s, 5×7’s, wallets, and all those cute little coffee mugs and t-shirts. That’s what drives the Mcphoto business, sales. Not the photographer. And industry has made it cheap, too! All because it’s francised and mass produced. You ever wonder why real portrait photographers charge more? Becuase their sitting is usually an hour and a half to 3 hours, he or she talks with you, makes you feel comfortable, then tries to imagine how you will best be photographed. He doesn’t ask you what kind of mug you want your picture on. He looks at you, and decides how best to shoot your portrait. And 99 times out of a hundred, if you have taste, you will happily pay him for it.
The moral of this story is, if you want to be a portrait photographer, learn how to capture someone, anyone beautifully, then do the work to achieve the goal of being a portrait photographer. Because you are not going to get anywhere close to doing good work at penny’s.
THAT is no joke. My best friend, also a photographer (only she’s an aspiring pro, while I work a day job to support my photography habbit), started off at lifetouch and hated every minute of it, and it did nothing for her "career" in photography. It’s just a job that snot nosed kids who just dropped 80 grand on a commercial photography degree get when they graduate because they’ve got no experience in commecial photography, and can’t get signed to an agency with no experience, and were misinformed by the school’s attrition rate to the industry (because it’s used to sell degrees like picture mugs at penny’s), and they have a huge student loan to pay off, so the job ends up being better than no job. That is a dead end.
I am a photographer, and I mostly do modeling portfolios and artistc photography. I worked at Penny’s two years ago as a way to make a little extra cash for the holiday season, then went to Flash last holiday season. I was paid about $8 an hour at Penny’s, and close to $10 an hour at Flash. Both are owned by Lifetouch who also own the Target portrait studio. Being a photographer, I hated every second of it, and would never do it again. I would rather work at McDonald’s or something next holiday season, and would never go back to either one of those places.
Penny’s gives you basically 15 minutes to get 6 – 10 poses on one background, then switch over to get 6 – 10 poses on a different one. For 15 minutes, you need to think fast, and be able to handle crying kids while photographing, all while getting their required shots. They are a bodyfarm and care nothing about photography as an art. Flash was a little different, you actually got 30 minutes. They say that you have artisitc and creative freedom, but in reality, you don’t. You may be able to get a little more creative, but are still limited to the shots that you have to get for them as well as the time that you get.
If you have an artistic or creative bone in your body, avoid these places and struggle on your own until you build up a name for yourself. If you care nothing about your own creative and expressive freedom, but would like to have a job where you push a button all day while families scream at each other, and moms go nuts when you can’t get their kids to cooperate, then it would be a perfect job. References :
Minimum wage. They’d rather teach salespeople to shoot than photographers to sell. I too hated every minute of working there. You get 15 min tops (less when it’s busy, like during the holidays) and have to churn out at least 6 sale-able poses. But I have to admit, I did get some really good experience working with and interacting with customers and posing ideas. Nothing in the way of running a studio or lighting experience. My advice would be to find an actual photographer and see if they’re hiring assistants at their studio. That way you’d probably get more than just portraiture experience- maybe even wedding or some commercial shoots. Good luck! References :
November 13th, 2009 at 8:08 am
At big box stores where photographers are basically hired follow a pre-determined composition, push a button and print, are paid between $7-11/hr.
References :
November 13th, 2009 at 8:35 am
not much. but the work isnt very hard.
References :
pro photog
November 13th, 2009 at 9:25 am
About $10 an hour. The sales people make more than the photographers do. Industry does not recognize the artistic expertise of a truly talented portrait photographer. Instead, at places like lifetouch, the picture people, or sears and jcpenny’s, the photographer is relegated to just the person who makes the camera go click. To industry, the engine that drives their profits is in the sales. Remember back to the last time you went to penny’s to get portraits done. You go, and talk to a sales person. You pick out the backgrounds, or sets in which you wish to be sat. You go in, sit down, are posed, then 30 seconds later you go back out to see the sales person, who will then show you all of the cutsy little packages they have for you to buy, 8×10’s, 5×7’s, wallets, and all those cute little coffee mugs and t-shirts. That’s what drives the Mcphoto business, sales. Not the photographer. And industry has made it cheap, too! All because it’s francised and mass produced. You ever wonder why real portrait photographers charge more? Becuase their sitting is usually an hour and a half to 3 hours, he or she talks with you, makes you feel comfortable, then tries to imagine how you will best be photographed. He doesn’t ask you what kind of mug you want your picture on. He looks at you, and decides how best to shoot your portrait. And 99 times out of a hundred, if you have taste, you will happily pay him for it.
The moral of this story is, if you want to be a portrait photographer, learn how to capture someone, anyone beautifully, then do the work to achieve the goal of being a portrait photographer. Because you are not going to get anywhere close to doing good work at penny’s.
THAT is no joke. My best friend, also a photographer (only she’s an aspiring pro, while I work a day job to support my photography habbit), started off at lifetouch and hated every minute of it, and it did nothing for her "career" in photography. It’s just a job that snot nosed kids who just dropped 80 grand on a commercial photography degree get when they graduate because they’ve got no experience in commecial photography, and can’t get signed to an agency with no experience, and were misinformed by the school’s attrition rate to the industry (because it’s used to sell degrees like picture mugs at penny’s), and they have a huge student loan to pay off, so the job ends up being better than no job. That is a dead end.
Be your own photographer.
References :
November 13th, 2009 at 10:04 am
I am a photographer, and I mostly do modeling portfolios and artistc photography. I worked at Penny’s two years ago as a way to make a little extra cash for the holiday season, then went to Flash last holiday season. I was paid about $8 an hour at Penny’s, and close to $10 an hour at Flash. Both are owned by Lifetouch who also own the Target portrait studio. Being a photographer, I hated every second of it, and would never do it again. I would rather work at McDonald’s or something next holiday season, and would never go back to either one of those places.
Penny’s gives you basically 15 minutes to get 6 – 10 poses on one background, then switch over to get 6 – 10 poses on a different one. For 15 minutes, you need to think fast, and be able to handle crying kids while photographing, all while getting their required shots. They are a bodyfarm and care nothing about photography as an art. Flash was a little different, you actually got 30 minutes. They say that you have artisitc and creative freedom, but in reality, you don’t. You may be able to get a little more creative, but are still limited to the shots that you have to get for them as well as the time that you get.
If you have an artistic or creative bone in your body, avoid these places and struggle on your own until you build up a name for yourself. If you care nothing about your own creative and expressive freedom, but would like to have a job where you push a button all day while families scream at each other, and moms go nuts when you can’t get their kids to cooperate, then it would be a perfect job.
References :
November 13th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Minimum wage. They’d rather teach salespeople to shoot than photographers to sell. I too hated every minute of working there. You get 15 min tops (less when it’s busy, like during the holidays) and have to churn out at least 6 sale-able poses. But I have to admit, I did get some really good experience working with and interacting with customers and posing ideas. Nothing in the way of running a studio or lighting experience. My advice would be to find an actual photographer and see if they’re hiring assistants at their studio. That way you’d probably get more than just portraiture experience- maybe even wedding or some commercial shoots. Good luck!
References :