I’m Jonathan, and I’ve been Delta Region’s photographer for the past two years. It’s completely exhausting and I wouldn’t trade it for any other job. A lot of people will come up to me at Conventions asking for their photo to be taken, and that’s great, but there are a few things that I wish people knew about us teen photographers (these may or may not apply to the pros brought in by BBYO, I’m not certain.)

1. We love when people ask for their picture! Never feel awkward about asking to have your picture taken because, trust me, we do love it. I know for me I can sometimes feel awkward taking pictures of people who I don’t know for fear that they don’t want their picture taken, but those fears all melt away when you ask us for pictures.

2. Be patient. We’re amateurs, sometimes stuff will go wrong and we may not know why. We don’t want to be having camera trouble either and are just as frustrated as you are. Just give us a little bit of time to troubleshoot, and we’ll be back as soon as possible.

3. If you want your pictures now, you can always ask us to take a picture on your phone. Our job as photographers isn’t limited to our own camera. This technically applies less to summer and IC photographers who are generally Summer or IC Press Corps photography team members than it does to event and convention photographers who are generally Mazkirim, but most summer and IC photographers will be happy to help anyway. Don’t feel afraid to ask one of us to take a picture with your phone’s camera, it’s a part of our job too!

4. We might take a bit to get you your pictures. This definitely depends on the photographer, but some of us will do meticulous editing which can take a lot of time. Others will be faster, maybe even getting pictures out day of if they leave the pictures closer to what they were when they were taken. We’re working to get the pictures out as fast as possible. Plus, you can always text or email us and ask if we have any of your pictures done early. There’s no guarantee that we will have them or even that we will send them early if we have them, but it never hurts to ask.

5. We may not let you try our cameras. You can totally ask, once again, no harm in asking, but depending on a variety of factors such as how much we know you and how nice the camera is, we may not let you borrow it. It’s not personal, it’s just that these cameras can sometimes be hard to replace if you were to somehow break it. Sorry.

6. We’re always willing to show you the picture. If you want to see how a picture turned out, don’t hesitate to ask to see it in the moment. You may have to squint to see the tiny screen (especially in broad daylight, those camera screens don’t always have the best backlights), but we’re always willing to let you take a quick look.

If you’ll be at ILTC this summer, feel free to ask me for a picture whenever!

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