While I try to keep a balance and well-rounded portfolio here on my website, a quick scroll through my Instagram profile will tell you what I am drawn to as a photographer. I shot my first concert in May 2017 and I have been absolutely hooked ever since. As somebody with a music background, I spend a lot of time going to live shows as it is. Bringing my passion for photography to my first love, music, just made sense and I think it makes my approach to shooting concerts unique in comparison to some of my peers. So let's dive in, talk about what goes into shooting concerts, what my experience has been like, and hopefully give you some insight into how to get started shooting shows yourself!
Dylan Mattheisen of Tiny Moving Parts - Richmond, VA 5/28/17
First things first, I want to make this very clear... IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A LIVING IN PHOTOGRAPHY THERE ARE MUCH EASIER WAYS TO DO IT. Positions shooting for magazines are incredibly limited, contributing to smaller publications comes with very little pay, and if you're freelancing your only shot at making a living off of this is being picked up as the tour photographer for major acts. These kinds of opportunities come from building relationships with bands, management, and crew and take a VERY long time to come by. Concert photography is a labor of love and, especially if you're first starting out, shouldn't even cross your mind as a means for making a sustainable living.
Jumping off the “labor of love” sentiment, concert photography can be a very difficult niche to break into so be prepared to have your patience tested. Most photographers start small, shooting local bands and small venues to build a portfolio so that they can start contributing to a publication. Once you have the backing of a publication, you are more likely to get approved for slightly bigger shows. The bigger the shows, the more note-worthy your portfolio images will be, the more shows you'll get to shoot. It can take a long time to build a body of work, so don't expect to be shooting major artists on arena tours in the first month (even the first YEAR) of your journey as a concert photographer. Shoot as much as you can, as often as you can, and just keeping plugging along. You'll get there, trust me.
If that small introduction didn't scare you away, we can dive into the nuts and bolts of what it takes to be a concert photographer and I can tell you a little bit more about my personal experiences shooting shows over the last year.
Dan Lambton of Real Friends - Richmond, VA 5/28/17
I consider myself very lucky in that getting access to shows early on for me was pretty easy and it's made my life much easier moving forward. I have a much better chance at shooting the bands that I want whenever they're making their way into town. I shot my first show in May 2017 when Real Friends brought their headline tour through my area. Having gotten back into photography shortly before the tour announcement, I thought it would be a fun experiment to get back into shooting. So I looked up their management contact, sent an e-mail to them requesting photo access, and within a couple days had an e-mail back saying that I was approved. Simple as that! The show didn't have a photo pit, so I was shooting from the crowd. I shot as many photos as I wanted over the duration of the show. It was an incredible challenge for me as a photographer and I was absolutely hooked.
Something I very firmly believe is that, if you can take good photos at a concert, you can take good photos in any other situation you may face. Unless you're shooting outdoor festivals, you're going to be fighting the constantly changing stage lights in an environment that has pretty poor lighting in general. Your camera isn't always going to nail focus, there might not be enough light to properly expose the way you'd like, subject may have harsh lights in their face or at their back. It's an incredibly challenging environment to shoot in. But if you can make it work there, harsh midday sun will seem like a cakewalk and dark, overcast days will be seen as a blessing (they really are regardless, but that's another post all together). No shooting environment will sharpen your ability to work with light and creatively manage a shooting location better than shooting concerts will. I guarantee it.
Jordan Black of Like Pacific - Baltimore, MD 10/20/17
Following that show, I sent my photos to the management for all the bands and got some pretty positive feedback on them. A contact for one of the bands, Broadside, actually helped me get access to another show the following month. So you can see how important it is to start reaching out to people, building relationships, following up on e-mails, and making sure that your name is one that they remember. And all of this happened, before I ever had a publication attached to my name. Taking good photos, being professional, and building relationships will get you much further in this field than anything else, so keep your priorities straight.
For the sake of not giving you a novel to read in this post, I'm going to be breaking this up into a series. There is a lot that goes into taking good photos at a show. I'd also like to go more into more detail about the best way to request access and what to do once you're on location. In the next post on this topic, I'm going to dive a little more into the gear that I use and what things to look for when choosing what to bring with you to a show. I'm excited to share what I've learned so far in my own journey in concert photography. Until next time...
Take Life One Frame at a Time.
Skyler Acord of Issues - Richmond, VA 6/15/17