The Octopus’ Garden

Being good in photography is not all about books, workshops, and practice. Sometimes it takes more than that. and what’s a better way to learn the ropes than learning from the pros themselves? This way, one learns of the skills or techniques that are not necessarily documented in some book. And since photography as a profession is not just about mastering the technical skills, knowing the business aspect of it is also as important.

As they say, before one becomes a teacher, one must learn and before one becomes a leader, one must follow. And this is exactly what I’m trying to do by volunteering as an assistant to professional photographers. In a way, it also serves as one of my therapies (the other is writing songs and playing music) in treating work stress. It may be tiring at times, sometimes, competing with sleep, but the satisfaction one gets out of photography (whether i’m shooting or assisting) is worth it all.

There may be some debate whether assistants should be paid or not. In the US, assisting or apprenticeship is already an industry in itself. yes, people do get paid by assisting professionals and I hope the same can be said here. However, it’s not all that bad and sometimes, the benefits of learning new stuff outweighs any amount of money can give. Besides, it’s always fun to work with pros, to see them do their stuff so effortlessly. And the camaraderie one gets out of such an experience is always something to look forward to.

I have only been assisting for a short while, and I’ll probably be doing this for a long time. In each session, I find that there is really a lot to learn. There are things that were there all along but were left unnoticed. Sometimes, it’s amusing to know that the simplest solution to a complex shooting problem can be found in the kitchen. And it’s these stuff that is most probably not found in any book, but can be easily learned by learning how pros do it.

So, what does it take to be a good assistant? A desire to learn. and everything else will fall under that. Assisting is no walk in the park. It also takes an effort to be a good assistant. As I said, there is an industry for assisting and people are getting paid for it. Sometimes, it means crawling into difficult spaces or being a gofer. Sometimes, you just sit there and watch the masters move. But whatever it is, one better make sure primadonna modes are safely turned off.

Some of the things you learn from assisting is how to set the lights up for different shooting situations, metering the amount of light, reloading and organizing film and imagecards, getting the right lenses ready, knowing when to shoot high or low, positioning the subject well, and making a good cup of coffee. I’m sure there will always be something new to learn. After all, we learn new things everyday. In the end, it’s just the desire to learn and to be good at whatever we do which will get us to where we want to go.