lol... getting a 20d and 24-105 btw
The presentation was good, gave me excellent insight into the life of a cruiseship photographer and this is ultimately where it sort of fell apart. Let me explain:
The "contract" is basically a fullt ime job but each contract is you being on a cruiseshi whereever it is in the world for 5 months photographing the passengers and each itinerary - The work hours are 10-12 hours but on first boarding of each new passenger load the first day can be in excess of 14 hours especially with the cocktail party and captains circle dinner which are to be photographed etc...
Now I don't mind workng hard but the pay to me wasn't worth the hard work and the shore/port leave time was only like a day or so to do a spot of sight seeing which was alright. The pay at level 1 which most people start at is $700 a month with a $700 commission, this is the pay that a photographer is to expect, he or she can get more depending on the ships sales figures for that itinerary. You get paid in cash and do not get tax taken off though. The ship has its own banking system so you can wire your pay over to a UK bank but this takes around 2 weeks which isn't ideal and using an offshore bank will just cause hassle due to the language barrier and also incase funds go "missing".
This also ultimately means I won't be able to keep my car at home since each contract is 6 months, when you are flown back home you have 4-6 weeks leave time in which you use as holiday/home time then will be flown to the next ship that you will be on so paying tax/insurance on a car that will hardly be driven would not be a wise decision. I do not want to do this nor do I want to spend such long periods away from home. Before the presentation I was under the impression it was only a brief contract period to earn a bit of good money and have fun too. Sure it is fun because you get full use of the ships features but the long hours means most peeps would probably be too tired to do anything fun with the time they do get spare throughout each week.
Also each photographer needs to apply for a USA C1 Visa in order to be able to be flown in and out of the states, this costs £70 or so and we also have to have a eng1 medical cert giiven which also costs around £60. The visa lasts however long *** US embasy grants you the visa for and the med cert lasts for a similar timeframe so these need to be renewed which is a pain in the butt having to go to london and wait several hours at the embassy and suchlike.
The 5 of us at the interiew/presentation today will be notified by mail if we have been accepted or not within a few days and can then make a final yes/no decision.
Oh well, in the end it's not a job I can say yes too, sure it's great for uni/college leavers who want a minimum expense job but can save some cash in the process and see the world but the long hours, weak pay and sales driven performance required as well as the time away from home and the adaptation of my funds means it's not suited to me.
Gonna try Packshot Factory I think and also await to hear from Captec
The hunt continues!
