Become a Sidekick

You already have the eye. Now it can earn.

If people keep handing you their phone because your photos come out better, that is a skill and it is worth money. Bring a professional camera or bring the phone in your pocket. We have bookings for both.

A creator sitting on a low park wall at dusk, reviewing photographs on her phone with her camera bag beside her.
You keep70%of every session
Paid24 to 48 hrsafter the client accepts
ScheduleYoursaccept only what suits you
The two tiers

Which one you join is decided by your work, not your gear list.

We score what you send us. Most people land as a Sidekick, and plenty of Sidekicks out-earn people with better cameras because they get booked more often.

Sidekick

Shoots on their own phone

Nights out, events, social content, anything vertical. No equipment to buy and nothing to carry.

$34 to $111per session, depending on length

Sidekick Pro

Brings professional gear

Proposals, milestones, listings, menus, anything that has to hold up printed or on a website.

$83 to $244per session, depending on length
What happens next

Five steps, and four of them are free.

Today, 10 minutes

Send this form and eight photos

The form below. The photos matter more than anything you write.

Within 3 days

We score your work

A person looks at every image against a fixed sheet: exposure, focus, framing, how you handled the light, and whether the subject looks good. You get the score back either way.

About 15 minutes

A short video call

We check you are who you say you are, match your face to your ID, and you get to ask us anything. If you are applying as a Pro, show us the camera.

2 to 5 days, we pay

Background check

A standard criminal background check, run by Checkr. We ask your permission in writing first and you see the result. Shotzi pays for it, never you.

Then you are in

Sign, set your hours, start accepting

You are an independent contractor, not an employee. You choose your own availability, you see the exact payout before you accept anything, and you can turn down any booking without it counting against you.

Before you start

The honest bit.

  • You must be 18 or over. There is no version of this for under 18, and it is not about the hours. The agreement you sign would not hold, and a lot of these bookings are in places that serve alcohol.
  • You deliver finished photos, not raw files. We give you the Shotzi preset. You apply it to the whole set in one batch, which takes about two minutes, and upload. It is part of the job and it is already in your 70%.
  • You bring your own equipment and insurance. Your phone or camera, your phone plan, your transport. This agreement is not exclusive, so you can take other photography work alongside it.
  • We are pre-launch. Greenville opens first and bookings will be thin at the start. We would rather tell you that than have you sign up expecting a full diary in week one.
The application

Tell us about you.

Have eight photos ready before you start. One person outdoors in daylight, one person indoors in poor light, a group of three or more, and one detail shot such as food, a drink or an object. Two of each. We ask for the awkward indoor one on purpose, because that is where the job actually gets hard.

Who you are
What you shoot with

Be honest here. A phone that you use brilliantly beats a camera you are still learning, and we pay for bookings either way.

Your photos

Choose your eight images straight from your phone or computer. They are resized in your browser before sending, so this works fine on cellular and nothing large gets uploaded.

Availability

Be honest here rather than optimistic. We match bookings to the availability you give us, so the more accurate this is the better the jobs you get offered.