With a Little Help From Our Friends

As an assistant you were totally at the mercy of the photographer who hired you. You would often drive together to the site, and sometimes it was your ride they were borrowing. Sometimes you would regret that ride (depending on the photographer's personality). Occasionally they would borrow your gear. You'd get a call on Tuesday afternoon - "Jason! Hey, are you available Thursday? Great! Do you still have that portable light kit and some stands? Great! Any c-stands? No? OK, not that big a deal; you can hand-hold the flags. What about sandbags? You have any of those?" There were a few of these conversations.

I worked as an assistant for two reasons - to support my family, and to learn more about the trade. Like I mentioned, it could be brutal and the hours were inconsistent. When I had no day-job I used assisting to off-set unemployment. When I did have a day-job I used it as extra income. It was there when I needed it. And eventually I didn't need it anymore. But I did need assistants.

The thing to remember is, assistants are almost always freelance. This means you don't usually work for any one particular person or studio and are likely to get a number of 10-99 (tax) forms at the end of the year. You get a call and if you are free (and want the work) you take the job. Good assistants will be on the call list for a number of photographers and will have a full schedule. But it's important to remember the vast majority of assistants are working to make ends meet, as a second gig to whatever else they have going on - usually their own fledgling photo career.  Over time they get too busy with their own work or they move away.

I was using assistants up until a couple years ago. It cost me extra - I paid out of my normal fees - but it's so worth it to have someone on your side who you can have adjust a light modifier or prep some backup equipment. Hell, even just guarding your equipment when you're working in public is a necessity. Over time, however, my assistants moved away or had life changes and I wasn't able to find consistent replacements. Truth is, Denver doesn't have an assistant community like we did in SF. But that's beside the point.

I recently had a photo session that would have benefited from an assistant. I've gotten into the habit of working alone, having updated my equipment so that I didn't need that second set of hands. The session started off like most, with me showing up to ahead of time on set to start prepping gear while I wait for the talent to show up. While I'm setting up I realized that my lighting plan wasn't working out the way I'd wanted. No big deal, always have Plan B to fall back on. At this point I was running a little behind but so was the client so no big deal. Client shows up, I finalize the lighting and... I realize I had forgotten an adaptor sitting on my desk.

For this series of images, it was important I connect my camera through my laptop. The entire session relied on this point. It was going to allow me to have consistent framing throughout while also giving the client the ability to see the images close to real-time. I had recently updated my laptop which - as most photographers know - Apple is always updating their data ports. To connect my camera to my laptop, I needed a [tech jargon alert] USB-A to USB-C adaptor. Which was sitting on my desk. Boo.

Did I mention we had a significant snowstorm that morning? Yeah. I left the set to run to Walmart in the snow - which further delayed the photo session another 30 minutes or so - in the hopes they would have what I needed. As I was slushing my way back and forth (I eventually found what I needed, btw) I really began missing my assistant. If I'd had an assistant on site, things would have gone more smoothly. My set-up time would have been shorter, it would have been comforting having a second opinion on my lighting solution, and I could have handed them my keys and credit card and asked them to make the run for me.

In the end, the session went well and the client seemed happy enough with the photos. But if I'd had the assistant I could have spent more energy focusing on the client and the end product and less time on the minutia of making everything work.

I miss my assistants.

(Photos, top-to-bottom: Jordyn sitting in for light setup, © Jason McKinsey; Jason at the candy shop session, ©Lisa Lefkowitz; Alexandra begrudgingly standing in, ©Jason McKinsey; Jordyn assessing the seemless backdrop (below), © Jason McKinsey)