Last week some of photogs met with our employer to discuss about current state of the studio. Issues like shooters pulled out to shoot on location which cause studio stretched thin and overbooking which sacrificed our break. As I sit and listen to my co-workers presented these problems I could not help to shake my head for the response from the employer. He just pulled out a data sheet and said everything worked out fine. Not only that he was accusing us for being slacking around when he comes down (On the note, he usually comes down around the time when we were not busy) and wants photogs not to come at same time for their shifts. He gave an example of the same rule implemented with CSRs at front counter which helped the productivity and most importantly happier employees.
On that note, the example my employer was given at the front counter certainly did not convince me because if system worked perfectly fine why nearly half of the CSRs hired this summer left by now? And does he not know data does not often reflect reality?
Anyway, the only good news came out of me in the mist of all these is that I've been promoted to be a supervisor(at short notice).....something that should happen but came in the time when most of the photogs including me are thinking about not coming back for the next season.
Labels: Notes and Thoughts
Construction site near Metrotown Shopping Center, Burnaby
Labels: photographs, Vancouver, wandering
Not quiet my style of shooting but still can't get this out of my head......
Labels: Notes and Thoughts
Commuters at Broadway Station, Vancouver
Labels: photographs, Vancouver, wandering
For the last month or so the photography studio I'm working in faced a severe shortage in shooters doing on location. This comes when grad photo requests just reach to its climax and orders started to come in like madness so any shortage in hand would put a burden on all of us. It certainly does.
The studio which I'm currently working is specialize in grad photos, which is one of few photography business that can actually make money in Vancouver. It divides its shooter into two teams during the grad photo season which is studio and on location. I've been hired for shooting studio for quite some time now and was never thought about shooting on location. But in the last few weeks most of shooters responsible for on location resigned en masse due to miscommunication in pay rate between management and photographers. Desperate to get the job done management started to pull shooters from studio team out for on location which put us in stretch as far as number of available shooters we can put in studio (just to give you an example for the last week studio was one shooter short because I was on location and supervisor had to cover the job of missing shooter while oversee the work flow). Then yesterday a supervisor was seriously ill while one shooter was pulled out for on location. The result? Me along with the rest of shooters in the morning sacrifice our lunch break and pushed it through till evening shift shooters came by and relief us.
So what do I think of this? I think there need to be a clean up in the management because for the last year or so I have never seen a clear direction from them. But the worse of all the way management trying to squeeze its employees and talented people is just terrifying. For instance while studio in similar business in town offer competitive base rate for shooters this one still resisting on raise the base rate even to a dollar. Not to mention short while ago when we started to feel the stretch the management still think they can squeeze it though the rest of the season.
Now you wonder why very few shooters stayed more than 3 years.
Labels: Notes and Thoughts
The long awaited article on the short lived Photographic Agency Group M35 is finally out on This month's issue of PDN(Photo district News). It is also a relief because for months I've hoped to have this account go public because for what Charles Clark, the man who started all, had done to my friend (and colleague at the time) Joeseph Symanski as well as other fellow photographers. And thanks to him my career path on photography is currently on a detour......
Many thanks to Daryl Lang of PDN for putting his time and effort for this.
Link to the PDN article:
http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003659389P.S. By the way, I think the photo published on the article captured my face(blury one on the left).......
Labels: Cahrles Clark, group m35, Notes and Thoughts, PDN, photography
