Pros
- Lots of opportunity to learn. I can easily say I am a thousand times better a photographer than I was when I first started! - Easiest way to gain experience in the composition/ human aspect of photography. These are the things a class can't teach you. Deal with enough 1-3 year old kids, and screaming babies, and you will develop some serious skills and speed. - Build relationships with your regular customers. - Pride that comes with your work making someone else happy
Cons
- You will not learn any technical aspects of photography in this field. You don't get to play with the lights. If you try to play with the camera settings, you'll get an error on your screen. Exposure? Aperature? Shutter speed? You could be a successful photographer with Lifetouch and not know what any of those terms mean. The studio set-up is indeed smart, and set up to make work quick and efficient. What it will not do is give you a better understanding of the technical pieces of photography. You'll have to learn that on your own time away from the studio, if you get any. - Pay. Contrary to what most applicants for a studio position are expecting, you are being paid to work in a retail establishment. You are not being paid to be a photographer. I feel as though this company, along with other companies in the same industry, take advantage of the hopes and dreams of their employees. There are other jobs and careers out there where the stress is much lower, the responsibilities aren't as unrealistic, and you are paid for what you do. Photographers and studio managers are grossly underpaid for what they are expected to do. Most people apply and stay just because they love photography just enough to let themselves be taken advantage of. - Flip-flop and Wish-wash. Lifetouch is constantly changing their rules. They might have a meeting for the whole district and want you to focus on key things. They won't give you extra time to do these things with each appointment. You're somehow supposed to materialize more time out of thin air and apply it towards your appointments. You have to do these new things in order to do your job correctly. All the while they try to brainwash you into thinking that a 40-minute experience with 10 minutes in the camera room is what the guest wants. So basically, you'll do well until you have a busy day. Then your sales will drop because you don't have the time to do your job well. Three months later? They never talk about those expectations again. They constantly jump their focus from one thing to the next to the next without ever actually following through with anything or discussing the possible triumphs and/or failures with what has been tried. - No time with studio associates. If you're a studio manager, you can plan on never seeing your staff unless it's super busy. This means that all of the changes I talked about up there^ never really, TRULY get down to your associates. You will have to communicate with them through writing very detailed notes and hoping that they understand and listen. But, you'll never really know how they are doing because you're not allowed to spend any one-on-one time with them to go over things. Cross your fingers that you hired really smart, adaptable staff. Otherwise, everything crumbles. You're basically a studio manager who is not allowed to properly manage your employees. - Christmas season is a joke. Appointments are booked every 10 minutes. There is no wiggle room. I could write a book about this in itself. Just expect to work a lot of 12-hour days with people waiting and angry the entire shift while you don't even have time to go to the bathroom.