The Ship's Photographer Workplace FAQ

Pros

Fantastic opportunity to travel the world. Great to work on your sales skills, photography and customer service. Very social job, very multi cultural and a great chance to make new friends.

Cons

Long hours, no full days off so your 6 month contract is 6 months of non stop work. People employed the same as you with none to little qualifications, as you all start as the same tier of photographer. Can be quite easy to feel undervalued.

Advice to Management

Structure the hiring system more fairly based on experience and qualifications. Listen to current staff more on what is working and what isn’t regarding roles of the job and daily tasks. It is important to get opinions from staff on board as it’s very different to many theories held in head office. Have land based training for new staff to avoid current staff being heavily burdened upon new to sea arrivals.

Pros

You get to travel the world, on a 4-5 Star cruise ship. Being delivered to beautiful places around the world. You get to mix with a diverse range of people which helps build character and self awareness. If you enjoy landscape photography, portraits and weddings then its a great way to improve on your skills ,however port time will of course vary depending on the needs of the business. Food onboard if your on P&O is great - Cunard you have to eat in the mess (unless your a manager) in which case you get access to the wardroom and can get a better menu selection. Seeing the world opens up so many doors and makes you appreciate every opportunity. Great to see the other roles within the ships environment (could lead to a career in a different department) Electro, Chef, Bridge Officer, Hotel department, Entertainment, shops etc.. Giving presentations is often a party of the job which I was very nervous about at the time, but thinking back this played its part in helping to make me a better public speaker (tons of character building)

Cons

Costs involved for the US visa C1/D, equipment (flash), Suits and smart clothing. Diversity can sometimes work against you if you've got a very mixed team, cultures languages can clash and its important that people get on as you work so closely and for such long periods. I did find on one of my trips that the manager was incredibly stressed which meant that pressure was passed down to the togs. The office put a fair bit of pressure on managers when sales aren't going particularly well. The margin TSP get is low so don't expect to be paid a great deal. Cabins on Cunard were incredible small and cramped but enough that you don't want to be in there for longer than needed. If you have dietary requirements or are sensitive to certain foods its not always easy to get a great selection of food in a quick time frame.

Advice to Management

Build teams through feedback research especially for world cruises. Invest in personality testing to help match teams to their best abilities and attributes. Better support tough cruises where managers feel pressure to perform, dont apply extra pressure where it isn't needed.

Pros

You show you care, they listen and let you collaborate with TSP, That is great! Also on difficult times like this, TSP showed care and support to the other colleagues onboard. Makes You feel in a safe place. At least to me...

Cons

Not many variety on back grounds, we regularly take photos of the same but with different name. You have to pay your flight ticket back to your home town.

Advice to Management

Gangways are Pointless, we should focus more in portraits and Spot Light. A 99 package feels like you just sold your job to 10 guests that makes you wait 3 hours in the gangway, and the day after they tell you that we were not there...