Notice: This post is made out of frustration and you can leave your thoughts and anger here too.
I am 25, female, german and a freelance photographer. Since a year I am trying to get into concert photograpy with pay. The first 10 concerts I did of course for free to build my portfolio but now I reached the point where I want to get real jobs and some respect for my work.
But as many fellows know it is a hard world out there and you have to give 200% effort to get 2% chance on landing a job. So one of my strategies were writing pm‘s to concert photographers on instagram with the question if they could be so kind and spill the tea about experiences in the business.
Guess what? The answers were vague and short or you would get ignored. Further it would stop at telling the simple thing of which lens they used. I get it that everyone has their own style and tries to protect it but you can nit be replaced that quickly by just helping one out with some info.
Can someone tell me about similar experiences? Is there someone who is not afraid of giving informations about this photography sector? I would really like to not feel alone anymore with this behavior.
Thanks guys!
Summary: Freelance photographer trying to get into concert sector but struggles to get paid jobs. Succesfull photographers won‘t have a conversation about their experiences. Hence their the biggest gatekeepers in my opinion!!
I get your point of view but I think there is a difference between the subjects you keep information from. I am not a friend of everyone on their own. Sharing knowledge and helping each other out is beneficial for everyone. This competition mentallity is so tiresome don‘t you think?
I bet there were moments in your career where someone gave you a tip and it helped you out a lot. Did the person who gave you the information Benifit negativly from their action? I bet not. I bet you helped them out with something in return.
Lets be better than that.
I’m honestly asking what do you expect? What information did they not tell you? You asked a very vague question and got a vague answer. Just like I asked in my original comment, what do you want to know?
Not a professional photographer but cold messaging you like did works in almost no line of work. The rule of thumb is to provide value before having an ask. You started with the ask as a complete rando on the internet which is bound to fail
But you’re thinking of it as ‘competition’ whereas I don’t. I don’t engage with it, I just want to do my own thing. I’m not actively saying ‘no I won’t tell you’ but rather just ignoring it. If I wasn’t managing to break into a particular type of photography (say concerts), then I would email every venue in my locale, reach out to tens of artists, approach community music projects etc. I wouldn’t just put it down to ‘gatekeeping’.
Not trying to sound dickish but I learn by absorbing information in my own time - I seldom use other people as a source of improvement (other than looking at other people’s work online etc).
The wolrd will eat you alive if u don’t change that mentality, just an advice from a stranger .
I am curious how exactly it would be beneficial for a photographer to share the secret to their success with you? And specifically via PM where the conversation would only be between you two, only you would get the info and no larger audience would see?
Many seasoned and successful photogs create courses and do coaching about this exact question. The privileged to receive one-on-one time and answers to your personal questions usually has a decent cost associated because their time and experience matters and they have worked hard to get to where they are.
Photography may be their passion, but it is also their business.