On the 24th April 2017, I stepped through the doors of SNS towers for the very first time. Having never been exposed to the mad world of photography, I was quickly flung into a maze of terminology that had my head spinning. Having just been working in a garden centre less than a week before my world was suddenly turned upside down. In the blink of an eye, my days had gone from gardening to galleries, lawnmowers to light boxes, pressure washers to portrait… you get the idea.
As a Digital Media Assistant (one of these new-fangled job titles as my Grandad would say) there is a lot more to the job than meets the eye than simply editing pictures and sending them out to the papers. The editing of pictures still plays a huge role in my day to day tasks at SNS but quickly after joining I realised there was a whole other side to my role than that.
I was quickly surprised at the level of planning and communication that takes place in order to achieve the best possible picture. No stone is ever left unturned with every job we do, be it on a football match day or private jobs for clients. A lot of thought and planning goes into taking a picture than just turning up on the day and snapping away.
Being sports-daft and in particular a bit of a football fanatic, I had always been exposed to sports photographs in my everyday life, be it in the newspapers or online but I had never given much thought into the ‘journey of the photograph’ and how a picture goes from an idea in someone’s mind to the back pages of the national newspapers.
All of the snappers (another part of industry lingo) at SNS are very talented and skilled in what they do but I always find it nice when I flick open the Metro on my subway ride into work and you see a particular picture that I had been working on the day before making it into the newspaper pages.
A part of the job that is becoming ever more prominent is the use of social media. I know that myself and others on the desk have spent many moments agonising over how to word a particular tweet to ensure it gains the most traction online. It may sound simple to just send out a tweet but I have driven myself close to insanity on how to word a post just right. Having said that, from a selfish point of view, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing your tweet or Instagram post gain plenty of coverage- it’s all about them likes after all!
Trying to come up with new and exciting ways to interact with followers on social media is also challenging but it’s also good fun and rewarding when it comes off.
Having always been a bit unsure on what I wanted to do once I graduated from university, SNS has started to steer my career in the right direction and I hope to continue to develop and gain much more experience throughout my time here.
Hopefully, I have sown some seeds into your mind about what a Digital Media Assistant actually does at SNS.
