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!!
So many good comments here. One small thing to add is that the folks who reply may be giving you vague answers because the answers really are vague. Some of the things you want to achieve don’t have a simple or direct formula, and those who succeed do so in part by being attentive to and seizing on idiosyncratic opportunities. There is no way they can tell you how to replicate that, because not even they could replicate it. Not to say that there are not broad strategies (lots of experienced folks here have described some of them), but there is no simple and precise trick that will get you what you want. Most fields involving creativity or entrepreneurship are like that. Think of it like this: what if you pmed folks and asked them to tell you “how to make great art.” What if someone asked you that question? Probably, your answer would be vague. It would have to be, right? So it is with these kinds of career questions.