Are We Hiring?

We’re always on the look out for new talent. As you may know, our team is composed of three master photographers and a group of very talented assistant photographers. Each assistant operates his or her own studio; and each were carefully selected for their combination of talent, creativity, and personality.

Locations

We’re located in Orange County, CA, but we shoot weddings and events all over the globe. Each year, on average, we shoot the majority of our weddings right here in the Los Angeles and Orange County Area. Another 10%-15% are shot in Santa Barbara, 10%-15% in San Diego, 10%-15% in the San Francisco Bay Area, and 10%-15% in destination locations. With that said, the majority of our assistant needs are for photographers located in the LA/OC area, but we would love to extend our network to Santa Barbara, San Diego, and San Francisco.

Qualifications

There are three important qualifications for all of our assistants.

I. A genuine personality - This doesn’t necessarily mean the most talkative or outgoing. However, both our clients and our lead photographers appreciate honest, genuine, and easy-to-work-with individuals.

II. Minimum Equipment - We’re strong believers in a true photographer’s abilities to create lasting imagery with minimal equipment. However, with that said, the wedding industry is a client serving industry, and with that comes the importance of client perception. As such, we’ve established a minimum set of equipment, as well as a preferred set of equipment. In order to be an assistant of LJP, we require you to have access to, either by owning, borrowing, or renting, this equipment.
a. Camera Body:

Minimum – Prosumer Camera (Canon 40D or above, Nikon D90 or above)
Preferred – Professional Camera (Canon 5D and above, Nikon D700 and above)

b. Lenses:

Minimum – At least one fixed aperture zoom lens (17-105mm f/4.0, 24-70 f/2.8, or 70-200 either f/2.8 or f/4.0)
Preferred – Full set of lenses at fixed apertures, including a 50mm, 27-70mm f/2.8, and 70-200mm f/2.8

c. Lighting:

Minimum – Canon 430EX or Nikon SB600
Preferred – Canon 580EX or Nikon SB900, Flash Diffuser, PocketWizard Plus II

d. Accessories:

Minimum – 16GB of storage
Preferred – 24GB of storage, External Flash Battery Power Pack

III. Creativity + Technical Skills – The last qualification is possessing both creativity and technical skills. These are developed over time with experience and training, but in general, it’s important that you start with a minimum foundation of these two skills upon which we can build.

How Does it Work? Do I get Paid?

We are not offering full time employment. We highly encourage all of our assistants to operate their own studios, and in fact, we’ll send all of our client inquiries for booked dates or below budget weddings to our assistants. With that said, becoming an assistant is more like joining a network of established photographers who share their knowledge and help each other out. We have plenty of opportunities for you to meet our other assistants; and many of our assistants second shoot or assist each other on their own shoots.

In general, payment depends on the length of the wedding, the budget of the wedding, and the quality of your work. In the past, payment has ranged from $20/hr to $500 for the day. On weddings where no assistant is in the contract for the wedding, we still invite those who would like to shoot for their portfolio or for experience to come out and help for part of the day.

How To Get Started

To get started, we ask that you submit the form below. If you are chosen, we’ll give you a call and set up a time to meet. After that, the first wedding you shoot with us will be one for which the client has not booked an assistant; and it will be unpaid. If we work well together, we would then call you whenever there is a need for an assistant and our current assistants are unavailable.

Thank you all for your interest in working with our studio. If you would like information on workshops or other LJP news, feel free to sign up for our newsletter; and feel free to check out our tips and tutorials website, SLR Lounge

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