Live the same

In my first month in the new department, a problem arose. Since I didn’t have my own photo shoot orders, unlike the other 4 photographers who were swamped with them, they started asking me to cover for them — and I did. Sometimes I would leave for the first shoot at 6am and finish the last one at sunset, doing up to six sessions in a row. Photographers would simply negotiate with drivers, and clients would be brought directly to me on the beach. I would do the shoot and send them back without leaving the place.

This didn’t happen every day, but I didn’t have any days off, and on average I was doing three shoots a day. But at the end of the month, both me and my department director were called to a meeting with the director of the company, because... my salary turned out to be really big, haha! They started to figure out how this happened, but quickly realized that I did more sessions than all the other photographers put together. From what I heard, the others claimed that they were “sick” 😅

One might wonder: if other photographers had so many clients of their own, why would they work for a company that imposed so many rules and paid less for a photo shoot than they could earn on their own? The answer is simple – the company offered very good and affordable insurance (getting sick in the Dominican Republic is very expensive, trust me, I lived through it!). They also took care of our taxes, and part of our salary was fixed, meaning we got paid regardless of how much work we actually did.

There were also less obvious and perhaps controversial perks, such as free excursions and similar perks. Plus, private bookings were seasonal. Although the Dominican Republic is technically beautiful year-round, many people think it has a rainy season and prefer to visit mainly from mid-fall to late spring. In reality, there is no “rainy season” – but there is a hurricane season, haha 😅

ahaha, now everyone is even more tense - hurricane season))

The end of September and the first half of October usually. But usually they pass by, although I got into one.