I supervise all my photo shoots and sit with the photographer but it's nothing glamorous, we shoot CCTV products. What you need to do is get in with a promising company. You most likely won’t start at the top and if you get the chance to be an assistant to an art director take it. Just coming out of collage with a Masters is great but you need a lot of experience before you can be directing things. You might get lucky so nothing is impossible you know.

Focus on companies you want to work for and look for jobs in these companies, call them up and speak with there Art Department. I don’t know if you’ll find a job like this in the paper but good luck and welcome to the forum.

Is anyone there to reply?

lAF

quite a few people, but perhaps they don't have the direct experience to assist you. be patient! your post has only been up for under an hour. people will help as they float in and out of the forum - most people here are still working.

i don't have much to tell you...every smaller, 'home grown' studio i've worked for or with has sent out an intermediate or senior designer to work with the photographer, much like benjo said. if you can, get whatever job you can and make it clear that you'd love to do this ... depends on your skill, experience and employer!

also, why not try for an internship or get a part-time gig as a photographers assistant? hell, even working reception at a good photographer's studio would lend you photographic experience...

good luck, and welcome to the gdf.

Sex at noon taxes ... I'm, alas, a salami

i guess i need to be a little more clear- i just wrote 'is there anyone here to reply' to make sure i had psoted correctly...anyway, i will be graduating from graduate school, not college (got a b.a. in art in 97) so i do have some experience- at two ad agencies, one web design company, and an architecture firm (as their in house designer). anyway, i guess that is my issue. i am more than happy to take whatever job and do what i have to do to get in somehwere great but at the same time i feel that with my experience i have the qualifications to not be starting at the bottom, probably mid level. so just wondering if there are any art directors out there who do a lot of photoshoot work that could tell me what i shoudl have in my portfolio and emphasize on my resume. and thanks to the people who have replied, your advice is helpful. thanks!

lAF

You sound like you have experience as an assistant AD. You may need to go to one of the metro areas, Boston, NYC, or other large city. You looking for glamour shot work or simply any kind of photo shoot? Cuz shooting product, especially food, is a science in iteself.
I've seen many ads over the years in the Boston area on Monster.com under Advertising/marketing. Also check out 'Production' houses - people who produce events or shows.
Good luck.

PrintDriver is a large format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

I can tell you this from my own experience is that most companies, most not all just drop off the product and let the photographer do his job.

My photographer has a great portfolio and with over 10years of industry experience and being one of the first photographers to shoot digital I hightly value his opinion. When I go it's more of an insurance to oversee the work but I let him direct a couple of product shoots and with the exception of one shoot (which by the way everyone here loves) he does his thing.

Like I said this seems more like the type of job you would have to network with the right poeple to get. Honestly speaking from a Senior Designers point of view anywhere I work that they have product shoots I think I'm going to be there. Thats a certaing look and control you don't want to loose and again you don't want to waist valuable time there when you don't need to be.

Good Luck! Oh and where are you looking for this kind of work?

I alreayd live on Boston. That is where I am looking, although I am somehwat open to other cities, used to live in San Francisco and, if the job was good enough, would go to New York.....

lAF

Laura... look at magazines. that is where you are going to find yourself doing photoshoots with a photographer. some high end Ad agencies also but a CD will most likely take care of that.

you have to build up... make your way up the ranks. no one is going to higher you to do photoshoots right off the bat.

'I will become the most powerful Jedi ever!'

I know no one is going to hire me off the bat, that is why I am asking what people's paths have been who have reached this level. Thanks.

lAF

I worked at a commercial photography studio for two years.. and from what I gather, the only folks directing any photoshoots were the top level employees for the high-end clients. Budweiser, Coors, Purina Mills, Nascar, etc. Most of the ADs & CDs look at a day in the photostudio like a vacation... catered lunches, free beer & wine, TV, etc. They ususally weren't handing off responsiblility like that to the designers.

Look for a job at a firm that services large clients with deep pockets. The only thing that ever gets shot are 'specific' products, places, or people... most shops use stock photography for everything else. So get in somewhere large as a junior-mid level designer, and exhibit an interest in directing photoshoots. They'll eventually put you in a position to do so.

thanks for your help!

lAF