I was approached by a collage student asking if she could do an internship with me for the summer. My question is do I pay her for her time? I am a small one amn show and don't really have the money to pay out. Just wondering what the norm is?

It can go either way, internships don't necessarily come with money.. it's all about expectation. Typically the benefit for the intern is the learning, and that's the price of admission but this varies by market.

My suggestion is to detail what an intern would be responsible for, expectations, time commitment, etc. If this intern (or others) are ok without pay then your good... you have the option then to reward them with sort of $$ amount at the end of their commitment.

Good luck, John

I've had about 6 interns over the past 3 years and none of them were paid positions. I interned with 2 photographers and at 1 studio for free when I was a student. It is called "paying your dues."

Since I don't pay them and I make them do all the crap I don't want to do (like burning DVDs and filing stuff) I spend time with them explaining what I'm doing. My studio is open for them to use during the time of their internship. They can borrow gear and use lights and all that. In fact, when I go out of town I expect them to be shooting.

I also always buy their lunch, pay them an assistant fee if they are working on a job that has that in the budget, and give them some sort of nice parting gift or something like that if they have done a good job.

Interns are great but you have to pick ones that you personally gell with. There have been a number of folks who have come in to interview and the main requirement is "can they hang?" Can we hang out and have fun? If they are too stiff or think they are going to cure cancer with a camera or trying way too hard to impress us, then they probably aren't a good match for us.

Interns have saved my butt as well. I've been on the road and got a call for something needed in the studio by a client. I call the intern and they are on it. They make life a bit easier too. I can leave the studio and go home while the intern is painting, or cleaning, or building a web gallery or something that doesn't really require me to be there.

Cheers,
Zack

I have had interns and I didn't pay them either. If they did a good job, I will send a nice letter to the dean of their school letting them know what a great job they did. As far as the structure of the internship; I ask them to do the stuff I don't want to do ie, print orders, take out the trash, etc. BUT I also give them creative experience. I bring them along to shoots, show them photoshop tricks, LR tricks, etc.