Jul 11, 20233 min read

Working with Canon

I talk a lot about my work and I may be a bit of a workaholic, but I don't think I am someone who brags or shows off much about who I work with...

...until I work with Canon, and then I cannot stop talking about it! Haha 😂

And why should I? I realised that we always focus more onto the negative stuff, at least I do, so I decided I am going to enjoy my happy Canon bubble for a little longer.

Well, till someone tells me... "we know, we know, you worked for Canon..."

Well friends, I have a good reason to brag: this is the 2nd year I worked for Canon!

Okay, I will turn it down a notch, but I just wanted to explain my experience and see if that can help someone else in the same position as me.

How it all started

I remember last year when I applied for the job.

I saw this job offer saying: "We need a photographer for X... they must shoot with Canon".

I always shot with Canon so I thought: "I fit the brief!" and applied.

To my surprise, I was on the next day to the head of the photography department at Canon UK, who is also a well known photographer within the fashion industry - but I am going to respect her privacy and don't use any names-.

So, yes, indeed, I ended up shooting with Canon... at Canon.

Preparing myself

So once all the details were agreed, I started feeling the nerves.

I wanted to do a great job. Canon as a client... who would have thought! Not me, I can tell you that!

So I wanted to impress them.

The good thing of having a client who is a camera company is that they have all the equipment there for you to use. So I didn't have to really take anything with me apart from my memory cards, but just in case I packed my camera and batteries.

So once the technical stuff was sorted, I focused on preparing myself mentally.

I wanted to make sure I was deliverying the best quality service: I wanted to come across as very friendly, approachable and switch on person. Lucky me, I had one of those chatty days so I was very sociable on the job. And thank god, as I had to take portraits of more than 100 people!

I finished the day absolutely exhausted, first on a hype to immediately crashed into my bed once I got home, being very happy but super tired.

So it is also important to book yourself some down time after. If you can, book yourself the next day off or at least a late start.

This year

So for this year to receive a new email from Canon asking me to come back to work with them... it was a breath of fresh air. It made me so feel good and recognised. They said they were really happy with me last year - YES! - and that would love to have me again.

This year, apart from the boost on confidence due to their email, I felt much more confident.

I knew exactly what I was doing, where I was going and what they expected from me.

There is always going to be certain level of stress during a shoot, that is something inevitable, but if you know what you are doing, you are confident in your delivery and things feel under control, that will secure you successful results.