3 Reasons I Love Shooting For Pretty Instant
I’m Chris Coe, a rising Senior at Rochester Institute of Technology, and a recent employee of Pretty Instant. I have been photographing professionally for coming up on five years — I love meeting and photographing new people, and experiencing the ever-changing world of photography.
In my education up at RIT, my professors continue to stress the fact being a talented photographer isn’t enough in the modern world. Talent might get my foot in the door, but I’ll never be able to walk through it without an understanding of marketing, self promotion, and good business. The working photographer has to be able to capture worthwhile content, while simultaneously excelling at networking, invoicing, drafting proposals, and so on. Though photography is the deliverable product, I often feel it’s only about 20% of the work. This is one of the reasons why I very much enjoy shooting for Pretty Instant.
I just shoot and get paid
I’ll be shooting an event this coming Saturday, and that’s the end of it. I won’t need to invoice the client or pester them with countless emails — all I need to do is show up and shoot. I fell in love with photography, not paperwork. Pretty Instant helps to streamline the process between shooting and getting paid as a freelancer. I have the pleasure of working here in the main office, and see first hand the tenacity with which my colleagues operate. They’re constantly chasing leads, managing digital assets, preparing documents, and more for their photographers.
I work when I want on gigs I want
I constantly have a number in my head. It’s my monthly goal of revenue to reach as a freelancer. This number is cost of living. It’s the goal my close friends and I hustle towards every month as we book gigs and send out estimates. Pretty Instant grants me the opportunity to diversify my income stream with jobs I wouldn’t have had otherwise. The gigs they send my way to shoot are tailored for my skill set, and my schedule. If I’m available to photograph them, I will. And if I’m unavailable, I rest easy knowing my name hasn’t been crossed off a list. Working with Pretty Instant allows me to easily take on new assignments that will be wrapped the moment I finish shooting. Without hassle, I get paid and inch ever closer to that number in my head.
I bolster my client list with multinational brands
Beyond all of this, being a Pretty Instant photographer feels akin to a merit badge to me — it’s almost a seal of approval. I am part of a vetted, polished network of photographers. I didn’t put my list of skills in a plain text ad on Craigslist, as any individual with a camera could. I applied to work for the leading professional photography marketplace for consumers and business nationwide (and I was thrilled that they accepted me). Through Pretty Instant, I now have the opportunity to bolster my own client list with multinational brands such as Google and Uber.
Yes, I might be shooting for Pretty Instant, but they’re working for me.
