#digi op

“Capture Conductor” – Running digital capture on the roadway in front of the Toronto Pearson Terminal 1 UP Express train station

People enter this industry from all sorts of directions. I reckon the majority of people that want to become photographers, first become assistants, and its probably 50/50 on whether they went to university or not. I went to university, and before that, college. I spent over 5 years in photographic education, and probably only 2 years was needed. I do not regret spending the time I did though.

After graduation I started learning about Tax Returns, Self Employment & the art of being on the dole. It takes a while to get anywhere in photography if you don't do anything about it. I reckon that is something I will say time and time again, you must make an effort. 

So the first thing I did when starting out was finding out 30 or so top photographers that I could only dream of assisting and then get their e-mails from their agents or themselves. Once gaining that information.. I printed a series of 7x5 postcards at a local printer with this being the front of it.

The response isn't exactly huge, in fact it was going on 2 out of 30 different photographers that responded. This reaffirmed my belief that you always have to follow it up. As with most things, you are much more likely to get the job checking the employer has received your CV than just leaving it to hope.

I got some interesting phone calls in response to this though. One saying that he thought it really stood out as a show of initiative, and I would be one of two assistants out of 400+ that he'd consider because I tried something different.