First off, I have to say that when you see all the postive reviews, look at them heavily with big grains of salt, as the person before me mentioned. Thomas (the owner) pushes you to leave a good review on here and he does so fairly early on in your time working at FPM so you don't have enough time to smarten up to the exploitative ship he's captaining. He seems nice at first but all he cares about is the bottom line. If you value photography even 1% as an art form, then you will hate seeing the way this business is run. His goal is to be the Amazon or McDonald's of real estate photography, and the only way he sees to get there is to totally devalue the art form to some sterile brain dead process that will make you never want to use a camera again.
As others have mentioned, once you factor in gas, car maintenence, the time you spend driving to shoots, the lack of benefits since you are an independent contractor (but not getting paid like one) you might as well just get a $15/hr job at a retail store. The only people who make any money are the top photographers and even they are not making that much. Don't trick yourself into thinking that if you get to the top then it'll be some rosey cash filled paradise. Wrong. Some days you will have to drive an hour and a half across Dallas from one shoot to another to make $20 for that shoot. You might as well have stayed home. Especially with today's gas prices, it's a joke.
Worst part is that Thomas is fully aware of these issues but he just doesn't care. Just like Amazon, he would rather have super high turn over with new people constantly coming in and out than realize that MAYBE he should change his business model to at least APPEAR that he gives a damn about his employees. If he could replace you with a robot, he would, but sadly they aren't so good at walking around with a camera yet. Also he has a fragile little ego that if you poke the wrong way, the "nice guy" facade will fall in .2 seconds and you'll get to see who he really is. That real person is someone who just wants to make money and use you as the tool to get there. The niceness is only there when it benefits his business just like the rest of souless corporate America. That is all.
If you, as I once thought, think that this company looks great to work at because of how big and reputable they seem, think again, and again, and then maybe hit yourself over the head to make sure your brain is really functioning just to be sure. Trust me, or find out yourself.
The only people I could see this being good for is someone who is brand new to photoraphy and wants to learn how to get better. Come here, get lots of shoots in a few months to hone your skills, then as soon as you have any ounce of confidence and want to continue to do photography professionally, get the hell out and go start your own business.
To the photographers still working here, I feel for you. Just please don't remain silent on the FPM sweatshop because then many others will get hypnotized and fall into the trap just like we did. You can do better and you deserve better. Same goes to you potential newbies. Be warned. Go out there and use your artistic abilities for something better than supporting the millionaire dreams of someone who doesn't care if you are eating off the dollar menu every day because you can't afford anything else.
