Photographer Onboarding
Photographer Onboarding
From booking to delivery
Every shoot
1. Once you are set up in Aryeo, every shoot lands on your calendar as an invite plus an email with the date, time window, lockbox or combo codes, and any special instructions, notes, or orders for that property.
2. Connect your own calendar to Aryeo during your first week so those shoots land in the app you actually check. In Aryeo open More, then App Store, then the Calendar section, and connect Google Calendar or Outlook. Zillow's Calendar Setup and Sync guide walks you through every click. Two things to know: only shoots booked after you connect will appear, so set it up before your first solo house, and Aryeo does not sync reliably with Apple iCal, so pick Google or Outlook and then add that same account to the Calendar app on your iPhone.
3. Work the phases: prep the home, floor plan scan, wide angles, close ups, aerial if ordered, wrap up. Lights off, doors locked, key back in the lockbox.
4. Upload the files the same night, to the property's folder in our Google Drive, as soon as you can after your last shoot and no later than 10 PM. Editors work overnight and the agent gets everything the next morning, so a next-day upload is a missed delivery. Late twilight or a long drive home? Text Jose your ETA before 10 and upload the moment you get in.
Shoot day at a glance
Running late after a twilight
Late twilight or a long drive home? Text Jose your ETA before 10 and upload the moment you get in.
Jose sends you the CubiCasa, Zillow 3D Home, and Matterport logins directly. Never share them, and never save them in a shared note.
Every Friday, no invoice
Pay day is every Friday. Each Friday Jose pays every shoot you completed and delivered Monday through Sunday of the previous week. You never have to ask.
Payment method: ACH from Mercury to the account you entered in the invite. It lands the same day or the next business day.
No invoices needed. Jose goes through the week's shoots and sends you a short statement with the payment each Friday: date, address, services, gas allowance, total. It looks like this:
Your rates are in Exhibit B of your agreement. Trip fees, late-cancellation fees, and the gas allowance are added automatically.
Gas allowance: counted per day on your total driving, home to every shoot and back, by the shortest Google Maps route. Under 60 miles: none. 60 to under 80: $30. 80 to under 100: $40. 100 or more: $50. Four shoots that add up to 105 miles pay $50; one shoot 10 miles away pays nothing.
If a statement looks off to you, text Jose within two weeks and the fix goes on the next Friday's payment. You can always send your own invoice for anything you think is missing.
Taxes are yours to handle as a contractor. We send a 1099-NEC each January when the IRS requires one.
Gas allowance, by miles driven that day
The short version
On time means inside the time window. Running late? Text before the window opens, not after.
Lockbox codes and keys are for the shoot only. Never share them, and always put the key back.
Move things for a better frame, then put them back exactly as they were.
Nothing gets posted or sent to the agent by you. Deliveries go through Listing Light. Once a listing is public you are welcome to use your best shots in your portfolio without the address.
You are free to shoot for other companies. We only ask that you keep our client list, pricing, and lockbox details private.
The three habits
Never leaves your hands
Trainings
In this order
Watch these six first, in this order. They cover almost the whole job.
1. Floor Plan Scanning, the whole CubiCasa job.
2. Settings, camera settings and centering.
3. How to Shoot on a Gimbal, why we shoot on a gimbal.
4. Composition, prioritize windows.
5. Exterior Shooting, the 4-shot exterior set.
6. Shooting Flow, arrival to lock-up.
Then the rest, in any order:
The checklist links back to the training that explains each phase, so if a check does not make sense, tap the phase header.
Questions go straight to Jose by text. On shoot day, call.
Back to all trainings