Should You Hire a Wedding Photography Intern?

The ups of hiring a wedding photography intern are				would be implementing our workflow systems. As
obvious. I mean, who wouldn't want college students				such, we benefited from freeing up time. And she
working in your studio for free? But there is so much				would benefit from learning what wedding
more to it than that. This brief article will identify a list				photography really involves.
of things you might want to consider before starting				One of the most important things that we have
an intern program.				done in this process is to continually document our
First, a little background. We are wedding				systems into a manual which literally spells out exactly
photographers in Grand Rapids, Michigan and have				how we do everything. This has been a tremendous
only had an intern program for five months. We have				resource for helping our intern remember how to do
actually just hired our second intern though we have				everything. But more importantly, it's the resource
a third lined up to begin in the fall. However, despite				which will make it easier for our next grand rapids
its infancy, our intern program has been extremely				wedding photography intern.
rewarding and we believe it's because we didn't start				Another consideration that we've wrestled through is
one too early. We took the time to work through				the criteria for selecting our photography interns. And
the following points which we believe have been				more specifically, the issue of how much experience
critical to its success.				they have. We recognize that anyone pursuing our
The first question we asked ourselves is if we were				internship will likely have some experience and may
ready to have an intern. And for the longest time,				even have a website. But some of the intern
our answer was no. The bottom line is that our goal				candidates have actually been marketing themselves
was to build our own business and then have interns				as professional wedding photographers, and that's
help us sustain it. For some time, we were so				where we drew the line. It just seemed odd for
immersed as wedding photographers in Grand Rapids,				them to present themselves as professionals online
Michigan that we didn't feel like we had our own act				and then to be interning for us by day. So we've
together when it came to our systems and				chosen to hire interns who are considering a career
workflow. Honestly, we were embarrassed at the				as professional wedding photographers, but by no
thought of welcoming someone in to witness our				means consider themselves to be such already.
chaos.				And one final consideration is what we do not have
Which leads to the next consideration? What would				our interns do. For us, we've chosen that we will do
we be passing on to our interns? Chaos? Or a good				all of our own shooting and editing. We encourage
example of a well run photography studio? So we				our wedding photography interns to become
nailed down our products and vendors. We				students of their own style and to learn to do that
documented all of our systems and workflow and				themselves. But what we do offer is a realistic
evaluated it for inefficiencies. And once we felt as if				perspective at what it really means to be a grand
we knew what we were doing, we kept doing it				rapids wedding photographer so they can make an
over and over until we were confident that we had				informed decision about pursuing it as a career.
something that worked.				I'm sure there will be many more lessons and
And that's when we brought in our first intern. She				considerations. But for now, these have been the
was a student at a university who was thinking				most critical and the most helpful in developing our
about becoming a grand rapids wedding				wedding photography internship program. I hope they
photographer. We clearly spelled out that we would				will serve you as well as they have served us.
not be teaching photography or editing, but that she