Just curious... How is Seattle for commercial photographers? What is mostly shot there? Here in Minneapolis most of the work is tabletop and product shooting for Target, Marshall Fields, Best Buy and companies like that. There's some fashion, but very little. Also, is there a good market for photo assisting in Seattle?

  Curiosity killed the cat...

  -Pat-

Seattle was once a strong player in the secondary fashion markets. Companies like Britannia, Genera, and Union Bay started here in the 70's and early 80's.  Through the 90's as local companies like Eddie Bauer, Nordstrom, and REI became large scale retailers with their conservative mass-market styles, Seattle lost a lot of it's independent design energy.  I think also due to other reasons like escalating real-estate costs that made it difficult for small design boutiques to thrive, and mass-market manufacturing that moved off shore.

There seems to be a resurgence of new independent designers in the Seattle area. It is still a very small design market compared to LA, NY and even San Francisco.  But I think it is rapidly gaining strength again.  See http://www.seattlefashionindustry.com

A lot of new things seem to start in Seattle for some reason.

Edit: To answer your question more directly, there is a number of studios in Seattle that do fashion photography for the big retailers.  - and who on ocassion hire assistants.  You can contact the rental dept at Glaziers Camera Supply in Seattle to get the scoop on who might be needing assistants. (http://www.glazerscamera.com/)

One more link to look at Pat -

The Seattle Fashion Industry Meetup Group

http://fashion.meetup.com/14/

Bump!!!

Sorry about that, but I was being ignored...

Da-bump!

Dammit! I want answers (in a Kirk voice)!

Pat if you want an easier entry into the commercial market you have to move to a hub. Seattle is not a hub. There are plenty of opportunities here but there is more competition as well.

If you really want to make the commercial market and you are willing to relocate move to a hub.

If you really want to make a living and don't need to brag about who you shoot for then Seattle is fine. You could make a good living shooting Santa and Easter Bunny shots 3 months a year. and senior portraits, weddings, sports etc the rest of the time.

Have you looked through a copy of the book (periodical) "Photographer's Market" published annually. If not you should find one and spend half an hour with it. If 2006 is out it would be the 29th edition. It might be available at your local library under Dewey Decimal 770.2 probably in the reference section.

re-bump

Basic market research tactic: You could just call some of the studios listed in the Seattle phone book and interview them.