My internship experience at Propnspoon has been unlike any other. During the internship I learned many skills I felt were unimportant, but in the real world these skills make the difference between success and failure. In the following I will talk about interaction with other workers, how to work with limited resources, and file management/record keeping.
The day of my interview I learned my first important lesson. I was also unaware that I had a problem until it was pointed out by Sheri, my interviewer. She was quick to notice my handshake was very weak and dull. She told me even though she is a female I still need to give out firm handshakes. She couldn’t stress enough how important a firm handshake is in the real world. This was my very first lesson on how to interact with people in the real world.
As time progressed I learned many different things about interaction with people in general. For example: I had to treat my boss Dyann Klein more of a client rather than my boss. This is because she always wanted everything a certain way and would not be pleased if she didn’t get it that way. Even though the way she thought was correct, the interns and I knew very well it wasn’t always the best way. It didn’t matter how many times you explained the difference between the best way and the harder way, she wanted everything the way she asked. Eventually, I gave up trying to explain things. My new plan was to show her two photos of the same item. One the way she asked for and one my way. This way she could see what I was talking about rather than telling her. This wasn’t as bad as the situation with her partner.
To this day I still don’t know the name of Dyann’s partner. He was very rude and did not introduce himself the first day I meet him. He did not shake my hand, but instead very rudely told me I photographed a piece incorrectly. The rude man then instructed me to do it again properly. Later during that day I was putting away some furniture and the man said “you better not scratch that or I’ll have to kill you.” I knew the man was joking, but in a way I was offended. This was because I didn’t know the man to begin with for him to be joking with me in that manner. I simply ignored the man.
Day one of the internship I noticed that many of the resources provided by Propnspoon were very poor. The first one I noticed was the lighting equipment. I was given three florescent lights with a soft box attached to each one. Even though each one had 6 light bulbs inside of them, they weren’t enough to properly light up the subject. The way I worked around this was to set up my tripod and do long exposures by setting up my shutter speed anywhere below 1/10th of a second. The F stop remained at F11 most of the time and my ISO 400. The downside to this method is that a slower shutter speed captures any other ambient light that is interfering. At the small-low budget studio I was working with, there was a big light right above and also natural light spilling in from the big windows. This wasn’t the ideal studio, but I still managed to get some okay images.
Day two I was asked to come in and also work as a graphic intern. Right before turning on their one and only Mac, I was told about the many issues it had. I was expected to work on the photography log, but I was informed that the Mac can’t update any of the web browser. This caused many problems when working with the photography log. I wasn’t able to put up anything that day because the log would crash or not show me the images that were already up there. The solution to this problem was to simply bring in my own laptop. Fortunately their wifi had no issue and allowed me to work in peace.
Lastly, the main issue that was the most frustrating was that I didn’t work with a professional until week five. For five weeks it was a trial and error process. Everything photographed had to be approved by Dyann. Anyting that was rejected needed to be photographed again. What was most difficult was photographing what they call “vignettes”. Vignettes are similar to a room with the complete set, but without the room. The challenge was trying to light them up with three really weak lights. There was more to it than long exposure, one had to know how to properly place each item to appear proportionate to the other items. Unfortunately Dyann wasn’t really pleased with any of the vignettes due to poor lighting.
Finally, I’ll go over the one problem that plagues Propnspoon, which is file management. Before I was hired there were many interns in the past that did a terrible job storing their files to the hard drive and to the photography log. The issue with this is that it requires someone to go image by image check if they are in the hard drive, making sure file name and item number is correct. If the files names didn’t match what was on the log it causes a big issue when trying to upload to the website because the photos need to be saved the correct item number.
Maggy, the other graphic intern and I were given the annoying task of locating these incorrect photographs and correct them. This task was taking away to much from our editing time. We explained this to them pointing out that the less time we spend editing, the less time anything makes it to the website. This means less money for them. Sheri agreed that I wouldn’t be doing that task anymore. It was easier to control the items that were recent and get them onto the website faster while also keeping them well organized.
These were three main things I learned in my time at Propnspoon. The bright side of this frustrating experience is that I will probably encounter these sooner than I think. Propnspoon has prepared me for the worst.
