If this is your first time here, welcome! We are so excited to have you join the team. If you have been here before, welcome back!
We love that you keep yourself informed of Flytographer processes and policies to make every shoot the best customer experience possible.
How do these values translate into great feedback for you? Click here to find out!
Flytographer specializes in vacation photography. What is the difference between this and your typical portrait session?
Make sure you get a variety of long to mid-range shots that showcase the amazing city you live in. There is a reason customers booked you rather than their hometown photographer for a session in a park!
Portrait sessions are all about the people and their relationship to each other, and close-ups work well to illustrate this dynamic. In vacation photography, however, the city is the (non-paying) customer, and it’s important to highlight the relationship of all your customers together, city and people. Close-ups block out the city, and we don’t want the city to feel left out! (Exception: for a proposal, please do get a close-up of the ring)
When you go on holiday, how do you want to remember it? Your vacation is a series of stories, usually happy ones, and definitely colourful! Vacation photos should reflect this feeling in the editing. Posing people in a “smile and stand facing the camera” way should be minimized – try to get people to be natural in posing or movement. (Customers of course want to look good but often don’t know what to do to make that happen, so be sure to guide them. Be on the lookout for bra straps, messy hair, or unslightly sweat stains.)
Please refer to our Brand Style Guide, our blog, and the latest issue of Passport Magazine to see great examples of our brand style.
When you have confirmed you are available for an inquiry, please mark that date in your calendar and hold it there for up to 3 days while we go back to the customer and get them to book and pay for their shoot with you.
🌟 New! You will receive some inquiries labelled as “Hot Lead 🔥” — this means the customers have submitted an inquiry and either a) they don’t have a preferred photographer or b) their preferred photographer is not available.
*Note that if you are the preferred photographer on an inquiry, you will receive the inquiry as usual and reply as usual (it won’t say “Hot Lead🔥” on it).
After the booking is confirmed, you will find all the shoot details, called a “Shoot Scoop,” in your dashboard under the booking name. Read the Shoot Scoop carefully so you know what your customer has requested for style, vision, mood, inspiration, and must-have shots. (Always reconfirm and discuss these notes at the start of the shoot so they know you understand their requests.)
Message your customer through the chat box in your dashboard.
Once the shoot has been booked, the chat boxes will open with your customer. You can now message your customer, say hi, and ask any questions you might have. You can upload images and attachments through the chat box if you need to. This is also a great time to start getting them excited for their shoot and comfortable with you — let them know you’re excited to meet them and how much fun it’s going to be!
Three days prior to the shoot, you will receive a direct email that contains the customer’s phone number along with a link to your chat, in case you haven’t already connected there. The customer will be sent a similar direct email with your phone number and a link directing them to the chat with you.
When you will be meeting the customer (and plan to show up 10-15 minutes early), walk them through the game plan and confirm that they approve. If not, then discuss other options. Ask them if they have any preferences or ‘must-have’ shots, and please discuss their direction requests indicated on the Shoot Scoop.
A: You can submit changes by using a tool in your Flytographer account. Head to the booking and open it up to see choices for changing time/date/route or cancelling the shoot on behalf of yourself or the customer. All changes must be confirmed and agreed upon with your customer BEFORE submitting them through your dashboard.
Head to your dashboard and click the “Check In” button under the booking. You will be asked to rate the shoot out of 5 stars with some details about the experience for you, and to confirm the number of participants, route and whether any additional time was added. (Note that all additional time must be agreed upon by the customer beforehand! Please refer to the points in “During the Shoot” just above.)
Please make sure you do the check-in right after a shoot or by the end of the day at the latest.
Upload the high-resolution edited photos within 72 hours. Contact your Shoot Concierge as soon as possible if photos may be late. Questions or issues uploading? Contact tech support here.
How long should you keep your RAW files from a Flytographer shoot? We have had customers come back months later and ask for things, so we ask that you hold onto your files for at least one year. Flytographer stores all edited files indefinitely for customers.
Package photo minimums are as follows:
If you have extras that you would like to include, please do – we always tell the customer it is a little bonus gift from you! That said, please limit your bonus photos to no more than 2.5 X the required amount.
Note that if you decide to include black & white images in your gallery, you must also include the colour version. B&W image copies do not count towards the shoot package minimum quantities.
Click the button below for visual instructions on uploading photos in our custom uploader.
During the shoot
After the shoot
Please back up your photos ASAP. We recommend backing up files:
*** Also, please remember to keep your RAW files from Fly shoots for a minimum of 1 year ***
This hard drive is worth looking into if you find that you are out in the field a lot or shooting back-to-back shoots often, as you’re able to back up your files even when you’re away from your computer.
General Card Care
Please be sure you are replacing your memory cards every 2-5 years, depending on how often you use them, and that you are only purchasing cards from authorized sellers and using name-brand cards. Remember to label your cards with your phone number and date purchased so you remember which cards should be cycled out of use.
HOT TIP: I personally set an annual reminder to purchase new cards during Black Friday to score great deals!
Photographers generally only charge a travel fee for any location outside of the city centre they are listed as available for, or a location that requires special travel arrangements or an entrance fee/toll. Please note that for locations outside of your home base but where you wish to provide service because there is strong customer demand, Flytographer prefers a shoot-length minimum rather than a travel fee to avoid hidden costs for customers.
Travel fees are intended to compensate you for:
We usually recommend calculating your actual transportation cost, and then rounding up to the next $10 amount, depending on the time involved for travel. Travel fees are a combination of any transportation costs (train or bus ticket, car mileage, etc.) as well as the time spent travelling.
It is important that all travel fees are listed on your profile BEFORE the customer inquires, as we never want to surprise them with unknown fees. Any travel fees for Flytographer routes are saved on your profile so that a note will also show up on the request and booking forms for customers. Please email photographer@flytographer.com with your travel fee info and we will get it on your profile.
We do add a reminder to the customer to bring you travel fee in cash on the day in multiple locations through the booking process, but it is your responsibility to collect the travel fee from the customer on the day, unless it has been otherwise decided ahead of time. Don’t be afraid to mention or ask about the travel fee, as customers may be excited about the shoot and forget!
If you choose to accept a shoot outside your city of residence and require a travel ticket (plane, train, boat) to get there, we advise waiting to purchase the travel ticket until the shoot date is within 5 days. If a customer cancels within 5 days, you are paid the 50% no-show fee per our cancellation policy (see below under Payment Structure), so you will receive some money to help offset the cost.
We understand we are all busy and things come up, but if there is one thing we ask, it is PLEASE do not cancel or reschedule your shoots unless it is an absolute emergency! Cancelling or changing times/dates is frustrating for customers who have been counting on you and costs the company a lot of money in refunds/credits and often an immeasurable amount in brand goodwill.
Follow these steps if you need to cancel a booking:
If a customer needs to cancel a booking:
Please go to the booking and choose “Report Customer Cancellation” and let us know the details as you understand them.
We would also like to express our gratitude for your patience and understanding when customers have to cancel due to unforeseen emergency circumstances like illness or flight cancellations. 🙏 Sadly, photographers and Flytographer lose out on the booking, but customers also lose out as they were wanting that time with you and the gorgeous photos afterward — so emergency cancellations are unfortunate for everyone! Thank you for being sympathetic to our customers.
Please visit this page for set-up instructions and FAQs, including fee schedule and cancellation policy.
For information on what our brand style looks like, click here.
Profile pages will contain a selection of highly-curated, shareable images in your portfolio and any positive testimonials below. Find out more here.
Head on over to our Community Perks page, where you’ll find all kinds of goodies, including:
Header photo by Olga in Paris