We often receive emails from photographers who are looking to start working with us. If the photographer has a good portfolio which has some decent portrait work in it, we go one to discuss how we undertake commissions and what their role would be. In an ideal world, we could pass on work to lots of these photographers but we do have our regular people and when one of them moves on there is a position to be filled. There are several factors that determine who we choose to start working with us.
The first being, that their portfolio has some relatable work to our industry. If they have samples of professional corporate headshots, this makes the process much quicker. If they have some good portraits but are not business-related then we have to go through a series of test shoots to see if they can match our headshot styles. We would estimate that 90% of the portfolios that are emailed in do not have these two factors. When we look at portfolios of weddings, product shots and nature photography we have to ask ourselves if the photographers who sent them in, have even looked at what we do.
The second thing that we look for is their location. All our work is in The City and West End of London and we need the photographer to be able to get into London quickly and not to have any heavy travel expenses. Lastly, we need potential photographers to be presentable to corporate clients along with punctual and respond quickly to booking enquires. Corporate clients run their offices and businesses on a very organised and functional system and we need the new photographer to fit into that system as well as delivering high-quality corporate photography.
One final thing we would like to mention. If you feel you would like to start working with us, then please look at what we do. We are not looking for a new photographer to come into the team bringing with them a new style of headshots. We need them to fit into our current corporate headshot styles as this is what the client has seen on our website and is expecting it to be replicated on their commission.