Just a quick note before we start – some of the owners of Shoot and Thrive also partly own and work for ShootWith.Me. Just want to be transparent about this before sharing info about the platform!
ShootWith.Me is an innovative platform that brings photography + videography studios and photographers together to fill rolls as assistants, 2nd shooters, and associate lead photographers.
For photography studios, it’s an easy solution to use for finding qualified and reliable talent to help you with your booked work. For photographers, it’s the best solution available for finding additional work to fill the gaps in your calendar.
In this post, we’re going to do a full walkthrough of ShootWith.Me and how you can use it to book more photography clients.
Who is ShootWith.Me For?
ShootWith.Me is for photography + videography studios looking to hire, and photographers looking to fill the gaps in their schedules.
It’s really the perfect solution if you are looking to work with strong photographers for your events, or if you’re a photographer wanting to break into the industry or make consistent income by working for other studios from time to time (or a ton – it’s up to you!).
While any style of photographer is welcome, the audience for this platform will cater best to wedding, elopement, event, and portrait photographers – as these are the most typical to be subcontracting out work in this format.
Before ShootWith.Me, the only solution for matching photographers and studios has been through Facebook groups and direct messaging other photographers that you find through search and other social media platforms. While these methods can work, they can be unreliable as it can be difficult to vet people in this way, and you’re typically speaking to a wider audience that you’d really want too.
This brings us to…
ShootWith.Me Main Features
Photography Studios Create Jobs, Talented Photographers Get Hired
This is the foundation of ShootWith.Me.
If you are a photography business owner needing to hire assistants, 2nd shooters, or lead photographers for your scheduled events – it’s an easy platform for getting a list of qualified candidates who are available for your date.
As a photographer looking for extra work, you can respond to gigs you are interested in, get booked, and make more money by filling in gaps in your calendar.
Detailed User Profiles
When you sign up for a ShootWith.Me account, one of the first steps you’ll want to take is setting up your profile.
Having a detailed user profile and portfolio will be key to helping you secure more bookings.
Main features of your user profile:
- Portfolio
- Your location
- Your website and social media handles
- What kind of openings you’re available for (assistant, second shooter, lead shooter)
- Bio
- Equipment information
- Your skills and languages you speak
- Set your availability
- Reviews
Set Your Rates
On ShootWith.Me, photographers have more control than ever over how much they will be paid. You can set your hourly rate for how much you charge to assist, second shoot, and lead shoot for others.
No Commissions by ShootWith.Me
When you book a job, you get to keep all the money you earn – there are no fees or commissions taken by ShootWith.Me.
Accountability Features for Long Term Success
One of the best aspects of ShootWith.Me is the ability for studios to review photographers, and photographers to review the studios they work for.
As a studio, this can make it easier to curate a list of photographers that have been trusted by others. As a photographer, this can also ensure that you are working with reputable companies.
How ShootWith.Me Works (For Studios and Photographers)
For studios –
Once you set up your studio profile, the next step will be to Create a Job.
When looking to hire help for a job, you will need to provide job details such as the kind of help you’re looking for (assistant, second shooter, lead shooter), job name, job date, hours, location(s), and other information.
You will then have to select candidates that are currently available on ShootWith.Me for your date.
You can review their profile, rates, and other information. SWM features an intuitive sorting feature that can allow you to narrow down your results by things like photographer experience, hourly rate, rating, and more.
Once you’ve selected the photographers you’d be interested in working with, you can Build a Job Offer Queue. This queue allows you to organize the list of photographers in order of which you’d like to work with them, then submits the job request to them to confirm or deny.
Once you have a photographer confirm they’d like to work with you on your project, you’re next steps will be to communicate together to arrange payment for work and any other requirements for the project.
When hiring an assistant, 2nd shooter, or lead shooter for your work – we always recommend having a contract in place. This is one of the foundations of running your photography business legally.
For photographers –
Once you set up your core profile, you will want to make sure that you go through your calendar and set your availability.
While this may take a little time, you will not get any job opportunities without it!
After this is completed, you don’t have to do anything additional except for wait for the job offers to role in.
Struggling to get job offers on ShootWith.Me?
A few things to check include…
- Makes sure your calendar availability is up to date
- Fill in your profile information
- Add sample portfolio images
- Add links to your website and/or full galleries
Keep in mind, ShootWith.Me is a new platform and has been rolling out in markets across the United States. The more users that join, the better results everyone will have when using it.
ShootWith.Me Pricing Breakdown
ShootWith.Me currently features an unlimited free trial. You only begin paying once you’ve seen how it can work for you, when you’re about to accept your first paid job.
After this trial period, the pricing breakdown looks like this…
For Studios – free.
For those who want to get hired as an Assistant – $7.99/month
For those who want to get hired as a Second Shooter – $16.99/month
For those who want to get hired as a Lead Shooter – $29.99/month
Your subscription will pay for itself (and then some) after accepting even one booking at a standard rate!
See the full pricing breakdown on the site:
Final Thoughts
ShootWith.Me is a really cool solution for an issue that has impacted photographers for decades. To our knowledge, there is no comparable platform available to so easily connect photo studios with photographers (and videgraphers) looking to fill the gaps in their schedule.
At its best, ShootWith.Me presents a great opportunity for photographers to fill in their schedules with work. For photographers who are just looking for side gigs and part time income, you can easily earn this by just being a second shooter for others – actually shooting the gigs, then not having to worry about anything behind the scenes like client communication or photo editing.
We anticipate ShootWith.Me’s community to grow substantially as more users join and reap the benefits. Right now, some markets have limited photographer pools, so jobs may be slow coming. Fortunately, the unlimited free trial option makes it easy to spend 10 minutes signing up, filling out your profile and portfolio, and setting your availability.
ShootWith.Me is a great tool and one we recommend!
Chris is a SEO professional with a passion for helping photography businesses succeed online. With years of experience in the industry, he has a proven track record of increasing website traffic, improving search rankings, and driving revenue growth for his clients.
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