Getting My Foot in the Door

[AWMorris1]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post, so if it's been covered by someone else I apologise, but I could use some tips.

Last summer I shot the Pentaport Rock Festival in South Korea ( Flickr - apologies for the shameless plug), and I think they might be worth something.

I really enjoyed myself on the day and I want to try and make money out of shooting events. So has anyone had experience of trying to break into live event (especially music) photography? Are there any tips you can give me?

Thanks for any assistance

[MOmilkman]

Try:
Here> 6 Tips for Budding Live Concert Photographers

Here > Rock Concert Photography ? 9 Tips on How to Get The Shot

And here > How to Photograph Bands in Bars – Equipment

Good luck!

[andyw]

Originally Posted by AWMorris1

Hello everyone,

This is my first post, so if it's been covered by someone else I apologise, but I could use some tips.

Last summer I shot the Pentaport Rock Festival in South Korea ( Flickr - apologies for the shameless plug), and I think they might be worth something.

I really enjoyed myself on the day and I want to try and make money out of shooting events. So has anyone had experience of trying to break into live event (especially music) photography? Are there any tips you can give me?

Thanks for any assistance

OK
First question, why do you think they might be worth something?
2. were there any "official" snappers there? If so then they will have the markets sewn up
3. They were shot last summer, why are you only now thinking about selling? the groups have no doubt done other gigs and there are no doubt more newsworthy shots around.

Lastly, Sorry but the images are not that great.
It is too late for the music mags and they are not really of a quality to make posters or the like for fans.
And definitely lastly, if you try and do anything commercially with them then you could run into problems with the groups, the venue and the music companies who would have restrictions on commercial photography at the concerts.

To be accredited for getting into concerts you need to be working for either the music press, the venue or the groups themselves. Very hard.

[Jack Skunk]

Speaking as someone who is also trying to get that foot in, I would say that next time you shoot an event, try to get a different take on it. At something like this there are already going to be professionals who are getting paid, have the nice equipment and have the rights to shoot there commercially. They are going to get better shots and make the money but if you really work hard and have the skill you can use your position to take some awesome crowd shots or something; just try to shoot something in some way that you haven't seen before. Then when you have a lot of nice shots like that you might just have a portfolio and you can go out and try to find maybe smaller bands who'll let you take their pictures and then you keep rolling with that.

[nickbedford]

It looks like you're taking some great pictures. One thing you could do is send a link to the bands (or their agents if you can find them) to show the pictures and mention if they would like to purchase any high resolution copies or prints.

The only thing you want to give away for free is web sized watermarked images (even if its just a logo/.com in the corner of the image). Trust me, if people and the bands themselves see that you take great photos, the word will spread.

There's obviously other places you could talk to, such as music magazines and the like as well.