PixelatedImage Blog

A week ago I wrote a post for Scott Kelby’s blog. You can read it all HERE. While there are so many things I could add to it, there’s one I left out, so this is the bonus.

6. Be An Assistant

Assisting another photographer is not only a great deal of fun, it’s a chance to learn technique and vision from a photographer with more experience and a different skill set than you. For the last two weeks I’ve been putting on my location assistant hat and working with my friend Kevin Clark on a print campaign for a high-end fitness studio in Vancouver. I don’t shoot this kind of stuff. Ever. I photograph children in Africa, or Yaks in Mongolia. Ferrari’s in Vancouver? No idea what to do with that. But Kevin does and working with him allows me to learn new skills, all of them transferable. It also, and this is key, gives me a chance to do some exciting creative collaboration and learn a little more about this whole craft.

The moment you put on your big-man hat and are too good to assist another photographer, you’re depriving yourself of the chance to learn, to branch out and learn transferable skills.

The shot above is a composite of a number of images taken over several hours and transformed by Robert Marks, Kevin’s brilliant studio manager and photoshop guru. I just mostly carried gear and took mental notes, and every time I’m out schlepping gear I learn something new about lights, or process, or vision. Or I get sore. But I also get to play, and to contribute my own vision and thoughts. I love it. It’s hard work, but a great deal of fun.

If you can find someone to assist, and you have the time, do it.

Check out Kevin’s exceptional work HERE, and his food photography HERE. And his blog HERE.