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1·1 year agoYes of course. I run a 52 weeks prompt challenge every year (2024 will be year 6). I also am taking over the reddit photo class for next year (r/photoclass). Outside of that, I run workshops and one on ones.
It all collides on my discord server. Here’s an invite link.
To answer your first question, yes. You can even make it easier for yourself and use an online print house and have them white label ship to your customer. I use Nations in the US and Saal-Digital in the EU, but there are multiple options.
But I don‘t think its realistic when it come to concert photography. Like what is there to assist or help? I would probably stnad in the way.
It could be as simple as shadowing a show and then helping with the logistical stuff outside the concert itself. That would be up to the mentor, etc. You could also potentially assist a photographer in a different genre in the events space in order to learn and then transfer those skills to your own concert work.
About the disrespect aspect: I dont think its disrespectfull of asking questions.
It’s not disrespectful to ask. It’s disrespectful to label someone as a gatekeeper when they are unable or unwilling to give you what you were expecting, especially if they never set that expectation themself.
Why does everthing need to be revalued these days?
I’m not sure what you mean by “revalued.” Do you mean how everything needs to have monetary value? Because I absolutely don’t believe in that. In fact, the commercialization of hobbies is something I actively speak out against. That said, if you’re asking someone to do some work for you (ie: teaching, which is work), they have the right to want something of value in return.
What about just helping someone? We all know how hard the beginning is and then when we get our flow we become these kind of people ourselfs?
You’re currently speaking to someone who runs multiple educational photography communities for free. I spend at least 20 hours a week supporting new photographers, for no pay. I believe in helping new photographers. That said, I also do it because I enjoy it and get value out of it in my own way. That isn’t the case for everyone. Not everyone should be expected to teach (which is a skill in its own right), nor should they be labeled a gatekeeper because of that.
The main thing here is expectations. You can reach out and ask, but don’t feel slighted when you get basic responses in return. Not everyone is equipped to impart their knowledge, or maybe just don’t want to. That doesn’t make them a gatekeeper.
There are people out there willing and excited to help newcomers. You just have to find them. I know in my communities we have some concert photographers. You’re welcomed to join and have some willing brains to pick. Let me know if that interests you and I’ll share the link to our discord where we are most active.
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 mean, yes there are gatekeepers, but from my experience this is less about gatekeeping and more about availability/motivation to answer questions. I often get PMs asking for feedback, advice, etc, and I try my best to be helpful, but like most people I have a lot on my plate and it takes actual effort to answer in a constructive and helpful way. You’re asking people to give you their time which has value for nothing in return. Like you don’t want to give your time for free shooting concerts, it’s very feasible that these photographers also don’t want to give their time and effort for free.
Succesfull photographers won‘t have a conversation about their experiences. Hence their the biggest gatekeepers in my opinion!!
I see it more as a cost vs benefit for them. What are they getting out of the conversation? Is it even a conversation, or shooting a bunch of questions at them? At that point, you’re asking someone to mentor or teach you without any value for them in return.
My advice? Find someone who is open to taking on an assistant or mentee. Learn from them while also helping them. There’s value in that for both of you. Just hitting someone up in their PMs with a bunch of questions is not really respectful of their time and the time it took them to acquire the knowledge you’re asking them to just feed you.
I climbed up one in Mostar back in 2016. Maybe it’s still possible.
It’s going again in 2024 at r/photoclass
I’m a woman street photographer in my late 30s. We’re out there, here’s a whole group of us, even. And another.
Though it sounds like you’re describing fashion photography, not street photography. The wiki for street photography is very informative, and I specifically like this definition of street photography by iNPUBLIC.
But when I go online to look for photography tutorials to expand my knowledge I realized that there aren’t many women in the field.
I will agree that there do seem to be fewer women cutting through the YouTube noise than men, especially in Street. I have a (new) podcast and have been running an educational photography community for the past 5 years. My last podcast episode was about Ethics in Street photography, so while not a tutorial, the discussion may be interesting to you, if you’re looking to talk more about Street.
If it’s fashion you’re interested in, Lindsay Adler, another woman in her 30s, does workshops and tutorials. She’s very focused on lighting and posing, which is crucial to fashion.
tl;dr: You are not alone! You just need to weed through a bit more to find us, but we exist.
I run a 52 week challenge which gives 4-5 prompts a month which can be done at your own pace in the given month. We have a sub (/r/clondon52), but I’ve moved it to our discord mostly, which is much more active. Here’s the link to the discord.
You can also just read the prompts and do it on your own. Here’s this year’s set of prompts so far
This is my travel and day to day photo blog: https://www.clondon.me/blog. It’s been a bit quiet recently, though. Some of the posts I am at least a bit proud of are:
This post actually inspired me to get back on my blog, so thanks!
I agree with a lot of what you said - for kinesthetic learners. The thing is, there are different types of learners: visual, auditory, kinesthetic (hands-on). Some people get a lot of value out of watching someone show them their gear. Some get no value out of it. We should be encouraging people to figure out what kind of learner they are, and finding resources to help with that as a basis.
I like this definition from iN-PUBLIC.