I had the good fortune to be hired as an assistant, I stayed for a total of four years. Believe me it wasn't the money. I worked amazingly long hours, but I have to say this, I could never, ever learned in school what I learned with a general commercial photographer. I thought so much of the experience that I went to work for three other photographers over the next three years, a horse photographer, a high end portrait photographer and then a middle higher volume portrait photographer. In each one I learned deep valuable lessons in lighting, handleing the client, listening to the client and every obscure technical aspect to photography including understanding physiognomy, facial architecture etc. When I went out on my own, it was easy to get and retain clientele, I mostly did product illustration, and architectural photography but with my background I was able to satisfy my clienteles diverse needs as they came up, so I did PR, executive portraiture etc, I would reccomend this experience to anyone who is serious about photography as a profession. Joe