high school teacher

photographer

sales representative

fulfillment associate

account executive

Barksdale School Portraits

Barksale is a family company. this means the priority at the job is to keep the family name going at all cost. Upper Management doesnt really care about the employees who do all the work to keep the family name afloat. When you are hired; you're told its a great place to work, its a family environment, you'll learn a lot, its a joy to service the students and schools, etc. Take all of that with a grain of salt.
1) Pay is not fair. It takes 4 weeks of work before you actually see the amount the job is listed at. You are expected to come into the office daily even though you are NOT BEING PAID FOR IT. AGAIN; this job expected photographers to come in the office during non paid hours. You are not compensated for gas or anything. Not too many jobs in America where employees have to come in on their day off or during non working hours. 
2) During the pandemic; mamagament doesn't care about the safety and well being of any employees. They are desperately booking schools for long 10-12 hour photo days and dont care how it effects the photographers. They agree to terms with schools without ever confiding in the actual people who do the work. A normal school shoot that could take 4 hrs is stretch 8-10 hrs WITHOUT PROPER PAY. They dont care that the longer photographers are in schools; the longer they could possibly be exposed to covid-19.
3) They make you feel guilty for needing time off. NON PAID TIME OFF at that. There's no room to get sick, have a family emergency, car trouble, anything. They want you at work by any means necessary.
4) Managament lacks empathy. Its a family business so all decisions are made in that regard without consideration for any one else.
5)office staff can be rude. Long emails of redicule on a routine basis.
6) 3 very important staff quit the company in the last 12 months. The proof is there. 
7) SEND YOU INTO POSSIBLE HARMFUL SCHOOLS WITHOUT WARNING. No protection against students with behavioral problems. 

Work-life balance
Work-life balance at Barksdale School Portraits is difficult. You’re expected to be available all the time and they get frustrated when you aren’t available. If, for example, you cannot work weekends, they will stop asking you, but will not offer it during slow seasons.

Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at Barksdale School Portraits are adequate after some time spent with the company. The starting rates for photographers are okay if you are young and still live at home, or do not have many expenses. After several years, they are substantial to support one person, if you are good with budgeting.

Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at Barksdale School Portraits, I think there is very little room for advancement. If you prove yourself reliable, they will give you more responsibility in terms of what you can photograph, but it comes with lugging more equipment and without any increase in pay.

Management
In general, managers at Barksdale School Portraits mean well. They are stuck in a hard place a lot of the time between the photographers and the owners.

Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at Barksdale School Portraits is wonderful. Most of my coworkers are lovely people who I truly value having around and have become good friends.

Overall
My experience working at Barksdale School Portraits isn’t negative, but definitely isn’t all positive. You truly have to work hard and out the effort in because you want to, not because you’re looking for any acknowledgement or gratitude. The hardest part is dealing with parents and kids because they don’t tell you the job is primarily customer service until you’re hired.

I have worked at Barksdale for the past 2 seasons. In that time I have learned a variety of skills and processes. While I mostly work in data entry, I have also helped other departments as needed by request. 

Although I have only been employed here for under a year, I have already made plenty of friends. Due to the friendliness and care demonstrated by the people at this company, I can genuinely say I look forward to work almost every day. People here make the effort to know one another, which has made me feel welcomed and encouraged to extend that courtesy to everyone as well.

I have only officially worked in one role at this company, but I have seen a handful of instances where management extended opportunities to other staff members, allowing them to join another department, take on a different role, or secure a permanent position. I have also learned that it is common for the permanent employees here to stay here many years, and it seems that a good amount of seasonal employees return year after year. I find this retention very encouraging.

Overall I am satisfied at Barksdale. While I am not yet a permanent employee, my positive experiences here make me hope I can work at this company long term. I am thankful I found this opportunity on Indeed and I certainly recommend working for this company.






Compared to most photography jobs, this one doesn't require as much. You only take photos, no back-end work. This makes it a good job for beginners in the field. However, the office is not communicative and as a photographer, you will be taking photos for the edit later. As a result, any issues in post-production are blamed on photography. Working in the department is often demoralizing, especially when there is a us-vs.-them company culture regarding the photography department and sales/post-production.
Within photography, the department has an amiable atmosphere, but it is a 'family' business, and this means all the negatives aspects of a family as well. Supervisors who are unpleasant are not reprimanded, and the environment can be as welcoming as it is catty.
There is very little job security. You are paid by day you work, but you may have a cancellation which means you will get no pay. Scheduling is done with an obvious favoritism bias. You will not have a reliable paycheck. Benefits are offered to employees who exceed a certain amount of work, but very few qualify.
There is NO upward mobility for photographers, as there are few managerial positions and they are always filled. If you are looking to succeed within a company, do not apply.

I was misled from the beginning about pt/ft status of the job. I was assured by 3 different people that it would be full time through November. It slowed way down in October with no explanation, yet they kept hiring new photographers. I had to deal with faulty equipment or software constantly, including a broken tripod that collapsed and broke a camera, then a broken camera was  sent to replace that broken camera, so it took weeks to get a working camera.  (I used a backup camera that wasn’t compatible with the software, so I had to keep track of JPG numbers by hand.) The software was constantly glitchy and slow, yet I was expected to keep up the pace of less than one picture per minute. In spite of all that, I loved the job, getting kids of all ages to smile and get great pics. And I definitely learned a lot. But I made a couple of mistakes ( one that I saw others do, but I was called out for it.) On my last job, the camera and software were beyond glitchy causing major delays. I was about to get fired when I resigned. 

This job is from 3 am - 5 pm, pays $12.50 an hour part time and offered no benefits. It was supposed to be a seasonal position, tailored to be for people with minimal to no photography experience. I have a Bachelors in Media production. They make you work long hours, provide little compensation for the long distance driving required. The did pay for flights for people to go to Florida for 2 days, stat in a hotel and then drive themselves back to the airport and go to work the following day, jet lagged. The business caters to schools all over the New England area despite only hiring out of Haverhill MA. They paid me to drive to Maine and stay in a motel to work early morning, then after working an 8 hour shift of photographing an entire school's staff and student body by myself with no assistance. The entire business is understaffed, underpaid and totally unmanaged. 

Working for Barksdale for the past few years has been a joy! When the pandemic occur they really showed just how much the word family means to their employees. They took in and accommodated what was going on in the world and made work scheduling flexible for most employees. 

Working as a Photo Editor in the Imaging Arts Department is a breeze. With the correct people leading you in your day to day it does not make work life hard. If you have a question upper management can always resolve the issue quickly.  

During the busy season there's always overtime available so there's a lot of room to make extra money.

Even though you come in as a seasonal employee there is room to grow. As long as you're dedicated to your job and put the effort in your hard work wont go unnoticed. 

The company I originally worked for was bought by Barksdale right before the fall season. It was a rough transition. I quit because I had to have another job, and it wasn’t acceptable to get my schedule on a Friday night if I wanted to be on the schedule for the job I could make money at year-round. The people there are really nice. I enjoyed working with them. I loved traveling to their office in PA. But we just seemed like a bit of an afterthought. In a job which isn’t going to provide money year-round, it is essential to provide timely schedules, especially when those schedules can land you several hours away from your other job.

I absolutely love working with Barksdale. You certainly can not be a photographer without a car. That being said, there is a lot of traveling involved. However, for me the time at the school and time with all the kids makes up for the travel time. You never really work with a true set of co-workers due to having many photographers. It helps not create work drama. At the same time the co-workers I have worked with are absolutely amazing. The hardest part of the job can be the traveling and getting stuck in traffic. However, everything else makes up for it. I would recommend Barksdale to anyone who is looking for a photography position with a company.

The school photographer position is not worth it. When it gets busy in the fall, you're essentially working a full time job with no benefits and freelance pay. They make you drive all over new england, so in addition to 6 hours of photographing kids, youre also driving 6 hours to the next location. There is also no room for career advancement. I primarily want to be a photographer, yet any "promotion" gets you into the office management and sales roles. The photographing part is also monotonous, mechanical, and requires zero creativity. It's no wonder why their turnover rate is so high. I  have a bachelor's in film and this is not the job for me. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
High school teacher 8 salaries reported	$88.75 per day
Photographer 3 salaries reported	$18.33 per hour
Sales representative 2 salaries reported	$67,500 per year
Fulfillment associate 2 salaries reported	$12.50 per hour
Account executive 6 salaries reported	$70,833 per year

Working at Barksdale School Portraits: Company Overview and Reviews

Barksdale School Portraits

Barksdale School Portraits Ratings

Popular jobs at Barksdale School Portraits

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected