Studio Portrait Photographer & Client Experience Specialist at Mark Swinford Photography in Leeds

Studio Portrait Photographer & Client Experience Specialist

Apply for Studio Portrait Photographer & Client Experience Specialist at Mark Swinford Photography in Leeds, ENG, GB. This Full time on site position offers great opportunities for career growth.

Part‑time: 18 hours initially, increasing to approximately 24 hours once fully trained, with potential to grow towards 36 hours.

Starting pay: National Minimum Wage, with additional bonus opportunities available once fully trained.

Free on‑site parking.

A Rare Opportunity to Join an Established Portrait Studio

We have an extremely rare opportunity for an experienced Portrait Photographer to become an important member of our small, specialist studio team in Horsforth, Leeds. We are a family‑run portrait photography business that has been established for over 30 years, and opportunities to join our photography team do not come along very often. This is not simply a job where you arrive, take photographs and go home. It is a genuinely multi‑faceted role where you will become involved in the complete client journey – from the first enquiry and booking, through to the photoshoot itself and eventually helping clients choose the photographs and artwork they would love to own.

The Person We Are Looking For

Personality is incredibly important to us. We are looking for someone with a warm, chatty and empathetic personality who genuinely enjoys meeting people and making them feel comfortable. Many of our clients arrive feeling nervous or unsure about being photographed. Your ability to quickly build rapport, reassure them, make them laugh and help them relax is every bit as important as your technical photography skills. You must be extremely confident communicating with people.

• Face‑to‑face
• On the telephone
• By text and messaging
• Through our CRM system
• During photography sessions
• During client viewing and sales appointments

You need to be approachable, friendly, organised and professional while also being able to confidently follow the systems and frameworks we have developed over many years. Reliability is also extremely important. We run a busy appointment‑based studio and our clients may have organised their whole family around attending a session. We therefore need someone who is 100% dependable and understands the importance of arriving on time and being ready for their clients.

You will also be expected to present yourself professionally and dress smartly and appropriately for a premium client‑facing studio environment.

Professional Photography Experience Is Essential

Applicants must have a minimum of two years’ real‑world photography experience photographing people outside of college or university. We are specifically looking for someone experienced in people and portrait photography. This could include experience photographing:

• Families
• Children
• Babies
• Newborns
• Couples
• Weddings
• Boudoir
• Makeovers
• Fashion
• People‑focused commercial photography

Student‑only photography experience will not be sufficient for this position.

You should have a good understanding of posing and directing people, composition, professional studio lighting, working confidently with different ages and personalities, creating variety within a portrait session, working under time constraints, producing consistently high‑quality portrait photography.

Specialist training in our own photographic styles, studio systems and processes will be provided.

Boudoir Photography

An important part of our studio is our specialist boudoir photography. These sessions can be extremely personal and intimate experiences for our predominantly female boudoir clients. Creating an environment where clients feel completely safe, relaxed, understood and comfortable is absolutely essential. For this reason, a significant part of this position involves working closely with female clients during boudoir and makeover sessions, sometimes while clients are changing outfits or wearing lingerie.

Sensitivity, discretion, empathy and professionalism are essential. Where the nature of particular duties creates a genuine occupational requirement relating to sex, this will be applied in accordance with the Equality Act 2010.

It Is Much More Than a Photography Role

Portrait Photography

You will photograph a varied range of sessions including: Newborn babies, Babies and children, Families, Couples, Pets, Makeover photography, Boudoir photography, Specialist portrait sessions. Our goal is not simply to create technically good photographs. We want every client to leave thinking: “That was a fantastic experience.” Great expressions, relationships, interaction and emotion are incredibly important to our style of photography.

Bookings & Client Communication

You will also help with enquiries and bookings. This can include:

• Following up new enquiries
• Speaking to prospective clients
• Calling clients who have requested information
• Answering questions
• Discussing their photography experience
• Helping people choose suitable appointment times
• Booking sessions into our busy studio diary
• Responding to messages through our CRM
• Confirming appointments
• Following established studio booking procedures

This is not traditional cold calling. Most people you speak with will already have enquired, entered one of our promotions, received a photography voucher or otherwise expressed an interest in visiting the studio. Your job is to build confidence, answer questions and help them take the next step. You must therefore be comfortable picking up the telephone and having natural conversations with people you have never met before.

Client Viewings & Portrait Sales

Once appropriately trained, you will also learn how to conduct photography viewing appointments. After their photoshoot, clients return to see their finished photographs and decide what they would like to purchase. You will guide them through their images, explain our artwork, digital products and packages and help them choose what is right for them.

We are definitely not a hard‑sell studio. We believe successful portrait sales come from: Great photography, Great relationships, Listening, Understanding what the client wants, Excellent product knowledge, Confidence, Following a proven framework. You therefore need to be comfortable discussing products and prices and helping clients make purchasing decisions.

Working Hours

The position will initially start at approximately 18 hours per week. Once you are fully trained and proficient across the different areas of the role, we expect this to increase to approximately 24 hours per week. For the right person, there is potential for the position to continue developing, possibly towards approximately 36 hours per week as the role and responsibilities expand.

Initial Training Period

During your initial training period, you should expect to work: Saturday, Sunday, Selected weekdays, Approximately 1–2 evenings per week. Weekend availability during this initial period is important because weekends are some of our busiest photography days and will allow you to gain experience quickly across a wide variety of sessions.

Once Fully Trained

Once you are fully trained and proficient, weekend working will be shared more evenly amongst the team. You should then expect to work at least one weekend day on a rota basis, alongside weekday work and some evening appointments. Flexibility is therefore essential.

Location

Our studio is based in Horsforth, Leeds. You must be able to travel reliably and easily to our Horsforth studio, including for weekend and evening shifts. Please consider your journey before applying. Free parking is available at the studio.

Pay & Development

The position will initially be paid at the applicable National Minimum Wage while you undertake our training programme and learn the different elements of the role. Once fully trained and proficient, there will be opportunities to earn additional performance‑related bonuses. The role also offers something that we believe is particularly valuable: the opportunity to develop skills across almost every part of a successful professional portrait studio.

You will learn and develop experience in: Professional portrait photography, Studio lighting, Newborn photography, Family photography, Boudoir photography, Client experience, CRM communication, Telephone bookings, Diary management, Portrait viewing, Client sales, Product presentation, Studio operations.

What We Need From You

• Have at least two years’ non‑student professional photography experience photographing people
• Have a strong portfolio of people photography
• Be warm, friendly and naturally chatty
• Be empathetic and able to understand different personalities
• Have excellent face‑to‑face communication skills
• Be extremely confident speaking on the telephone
• Be comfortable communicating with clients through text and CRM messaging
• Be comfortable working within established systems and frameworks
• Be confident directing and posing people
• Be willing to learn different photography disciplines
• Be comfortable discussing photography products and prices
• Be organised
• Be smart and professionally presented
• Be punctual
• Be 100% reliable
• Be comfortable working both independently and as part of a small team
• Be able to travel reliably to Horsforth, Leeds
• Be available for weekend and evening work as described above

Being Part of a Small Team

This is an important position within our business. We are not a large company where you can disappear into a department. You will become an important member of a small team of portrait specialists, and everybody contributes. There will be busy days. There will be challenging clients. There will be babies who don’t want to sleep, children who don’t want to sit still and nervous adults who are convinced they hate having their photograph taken. That’s portrait photography. The satisfaction comes from turning those situations around and creating something the client absolutely loves. We support each other, communicate with each other and rely on every member of the team to play their part.

This Role Probably Isn’t For You

You only want to take photographs. You dislike speaking to clients on the telephone. You don’t enjoy sales or discussing products with people. You want every weekend off. You prefer working by yourself rather than being part of a team. You find following structured systems frustrating. Or you are looking for a photography position based mainly around editing photographs at a computer. This is a very people‑focused role. Photography is central to it, but personality, communication and client care are equally important.

Why Join Us?

We have been photographing people for more than 30 years and have built our business around creating fantastic photography combined with a genuinely enjoyable client experience. We are family‑run, established and passionate about portrait photography. This position gives the right person an unusual opportunity to become a highly rounded portrait professional rather than simply a photographer. You won’t just learn how we photograph. You’ll learn how a successful portrait studio works from the moment somebody first enquires through to the moment their finished artwork is ordered. And because we are a small team, you won’t simply be another employee – you will become an important part of the studio.