It's like juggling many different things all at once. In normal day for a school shoot might consist of:
1. Setting up a mobile studio in a tiny, cramped, noisy place.
2. Being really cheery & happy at 8am!
3. Checking for untidy children, ties, jumpers, toothpaste, food, dribbles, snot....
3a. Dealing with untidy children, ties, jumpers, toothpaste, food, dribbles, snot....
4. Attempting to get young siblings to sit still, look at you, not scream, not flop, smile?
5. Keeping mother calm whilst she berates small child for all of the above.
6. Trying to keep attention of children in shot whilst Granny has slipped round behind you & is now shouting "COO-EE" at the top of her high pitched voice. (not helping granny!)
7. Hoping your kit stays in one piece whilst said child bounces of the walls
8. Getting through 450 (ish) children in 6 hours (minus the playtimes & lunch break) and getting every shot in the middle of the frame, nicely lit, decent expression & posture.
9. Praying you don't lose your mind by saying 'Smelly Wellies' for the 400th time today.
10. Packing up kit and lugging through school corridors to your car.
11. Downloading shots from your professional standard, hideously expensive camera & lens to you equally expensive and newly upgraded computer.
12. Editing 600 or so shots using the above computer and specially made, expensive software that is designed for the purpose.
13. Send edited images for proofing.
14. Drive to lab to collect proof images.
15. Spend an day and a half preparing proof cards, images, envelopes into class groups.
16. Deliver proofs to school
17. 10 days later, collect proofs from school.
18. Open all orders, collate them. Count money.
19. Go to bank with money.
20. Keep financial records of money. Set aside tax.
21. Go back to the school to collect more orders from the mass of people who didnt meet the original order date.
22. So step 18, 19, 20 again.
23. Deal with customer emails & phone calls about the fact that they 'think you are too expensive' , 'what are you going to do with the picture if i dont buy it - can i have it for half price then?', 'i dont like any of the packs you have, can i have a different one?', 'can i have a discount because i have 2 children?.'
24. Order all customer photos from lab. Order photo mounts & bags.
25. Collect customer orders from lab.
26. Spend a day putting orders together in mounts & bags.
27. Deliver orders to school along with a nice fat commission cheque taken straight from the gross in the region of 25-30%.
Simple eh?
The picture below is taken at a school I did recently and all of the above had to be dealt with. Makes the £10 for a photo seem quite good value doesn't it?
