Season Seven Selection

– Posted by Mark

Hi. We’re Leah and Mark. We have the best Photography Internship in the Country.

We’re forever amazed, appreciative and just absolutely grateful to everyone who has ever applied for our Internship – and of course to everyone that has been our Intern and worked with us. The fact that we’re just about to start our Seventh Season is… well… back when we started, we never thought it would last past that first group of Interns. I mean come on – who does this sort of stuff? Who else has an Internship like we do?

No. One.

Of course – our Internship blurs the lines and mixes apprenticeship, internship, mentorship, and training…ship. The experience is also different for every single Intern. Some are simply less involved and they have a completely different experience than some of our Interns who are there, present, and shooting All. The. Time. Intern Marj from Season 4 MOVED HERE from COLORADO for the three months. She literally went on about 56 photoshoots/events during her Season. LITERALLY. (I’m using the word correctly here.)

Our needs change from Season to Season as well. We don’t look for the same type of Interns every time. It might not look like it – but we do mix it up. Skill levels. Personalities. Experience. Other qualities that an Intern might bring to the group, to our business – and just people we want to hangout with. Because we’re all not getting paid for any of this – so we better like hanging out with each other.

(This video is from Season One)

So the selection process goes like this.

– 1st application.
– Each person makes their list. (Leah, Mark, Raven, Debra, Jo)
– 1st Round Cuts.
– 2nd Application.
– Each person makes their list. (Leah, Mark, Raven, Debra, Jo)
– Discussion. Back alley deals are made. More discussion. More back alley deals made.
– Final notifications sent out.

Now. I know it looks like we’re being nice and giving back and all that – but make no mistake – the decisions we make for our Internship are business decisions. So while it seems like we’re choosing ‘students’ – what we’re really selecting are people who will represent us and our business. And like I said earlier – our needs change with every Season. This is why our applications are made the way they are (short answer essay) and why we do some of the things we do (36 hour deadline for the 2nd application – at 3AM. THREE. A.M.)

We also leave a few things open ended – or vague – or just as an unknown test – not because we’re jerks, but because if you’re All. In. then you’ll do these things we ask without hesitation, and unconditionally (well, I’m a jerk – Leah’s not a jerk). We’ve had people cut their vacations short and fly in from Texas just so that they could attend our Intern Graduation/Introduction night. We’ve had people MOVE here from Colorado, and Florida. Why would we select people that have reservations about this whole thing? Or it’s value. Or whether or not it’ll be worth their effort? We’re All. In. and that’s what we expect from anyone that joins us.

So. We have a new batch of Interns. For some of them, this was their 4th time applying – YES. They applied four times. While it doesn’t always guarantee a spot – it’s definitely noted. So here we go. We’ll be introducing our Season Seven Interns next Monday.