Where from here?

Doug Scarratt of Saxon

I started photographing bands as an experiment in April last year… I love doing it, I’ve managed to get myself into some pretty amazing gigs. Counting Crows, The Prodigy, U2, Metallica, Alice in Chains, Razorlight to name a few larger concerts.. Some amazing venues, Wembley Stadium and Arena, O2 arena, Brixton Academy, Hammersmith Apollo… Knebworth and Benicassim – It has been an amazing, eye opening ride. A ride filled with rights issues, snooty PR people, power tripping security men and women and snobby artists, but it’s had amazing artists, security and PR as well, and music and atmosphere that can’t be bettered.

The Edge of U2

I listed some names yesterday that I’d love to photograph, but, at the same time I have to ask myself why… In the 500 or so days that I’ve been taking music photos I’ve made very little by way of return. I’ve been told that “we have no budget” “what do you mean you’re going to invoice us” “It’s great that you’re giving us the images for free” “You’re welcome to shoot, we’ll get a free copy of the images I assume” and many other phrases a lot like these… Well, I don’t know, maybe I am an idiot, but at some point I have to start turning this around… I spend so much time doing it that it’s passed a hobby – I’m not that bad at it – I rank in google (2nd page, hey.. getting there) but I’m all on my own here… Should I perhaps consider trying to get agency representation? Should I start taking photos of coffee cups for a micro-stock agency?

I don’t expect hand outs, hell – you have to work hard if you want to get anywhere, right? And I love photographing music – totally, but where is that line?

Does anyone else have an experience like mine? Still rolling down that rocky road? Share it in the comments section below. Or should I just dress up like a freak and keep doing it for free?

Fans in all shapes and sizes

4 Responses to "Where from here?"

Paul Smart says:

August 21, 2009 at 1:58 pm

Start approaching those agencies dude…
and bands… get in with the management….!

Do what we talked about yesterday!

You can make it work for you, rather than you working for it.

I think(?) if you saturate your contacts as the guy who “works for free”, you’re doing three things….

1. getting plenty of portfolio building images
2. telling companies that you work for free
3. devaluing yourself *and* other music photographers!

much love brother from another mother
Chlo. says:

August 23, 2009 at 4:28 pm

Um, well, I keep trying every place in town for jobs but continue to fail? Woooooo!

I just wanted to say, yesterday Alice Cooper was on the 7PM project [or maybe it was the day before.. hmmm..] and it made me think of you.

That is all.
Christie says:

August 25, 2009 at 1:30 pm

I understand your frustration as I have been there before (maybe I’m still there). It’s a tough world and in this age with every yuppy owning a digital camera who is happy to give away his pictures for free just to get a photo pass isn’t helping the business either. The short of it is that photographs have become easily and readily available and most of the people in the music business take advantage of that. Budgets for photography are the first thing they cut down when money runs short. There are just too many photographers available, too many yuppie’s shooting crap for free, too many pictures ready to be plucked from the Internet. Top artists only use very well known photographers and are happy to pay between £8000 and £15000 for a shoot but refuse to work with unknown photographers although the quality of the unknown photographer might exceed that of the well known one. Other bands have no budgets for photography and just use what they can get for free. That was the darker part of my message. The good news is that there is still a possibility to make money if you want to and are really passionate and serious about it. First and most important is to have a portfolio that is representable of what you do. Not just a selection of good pictures because every one has one of those. You need pictures that are different than the millions you find around. You need pictures that wow people. Once you have that well in to place then you should hitch a ride with a band with a high profile (not top artist but well known). It’s a lot of knocking on doors until one lets you in and says…yes we want to work with you. It might be that at start you will be doing this for peanuts but once you are in and you get to work on a CD cover or DVD cover for them, then you are half way. Once you have something to show for then the next door you knock on you can say, I supplied the artwork for **** on their new CD cover and that’s what I can do for you. Make sure whatever you do that you don’t follow the road of the masses but take your own road and dare to be different. Dare to break through what the other million photographers do…only then you will get noticed.
It’s a long and winding road my friend and it takes a lot of work and a lot of disappointment and a lot of patience to get there. But it is feasible if you are determined. I’m not yet where I want to be but I am passed half way. If someone of the likes of Joe Satriani says he only wants me to take pictures and no one else then you know you are on the right track.
Your work is good, just try to put a bit more of your soul in to your pictures and they will get noticed. Stay away from the classic editorial photographer we share the pits with. They do make excellent and technical perfect pictures but so do a million others. It’s only by staying away from what every one else does and daring to be different that you will get there.

Catch you somewhere on the road !

Christie x
UBPICS says:

August 30, 2009 at 10:59 am

The market has changed.

The historical bread and butter jobs for a music (/sports/news/pap) photographer no longer carry the same value as they did a few years ago. Simple economics… more photographers available to produce similar quality images means they have to battle it out on price.

This is also coupled with the fact that the main purchasers (newspapers/record companies/artists) have had their products devalued and as a result have less money available to them.

On that point of the industry being devalued by amateurs/weekend warriors, I always find it interesting to compare related matters… do you buy a newspaper or do you now just pick up the free papers in the morning and evening? do you insist on paying full RRP (£14?) of all the music you own or do you get it cheaper either via the internet, mass general retailers (Tesco), by paid download (Itunes), industry freebies or illegal downloads? do you get all your equipment from UK businesses paying full RRP, search for the cheapest UK deals, import it cheaper from abroad declaring it at UK Customs or getting it abroad and try avoiding paying any duty on it? Photography is no different.

The ability and capital required to produce quality images has been reduced over the recent years. As a result, photography is no longer a premium service and quite rightly no longer commands the financial rewards it used to. Pre-digital meant putting blind faith in the photographers ability to hand over a film with a suitable frame on it. Shooting digital enables an even an average photographer to get a suitable frame just by playing the numbers game.

There is still money to be made but you have to always remember that a successful photography business is 10% photography and 90% business.

So thinking business… who is paying good money still? what do they want? why should they use you? what is your Unique Selling Point?

Unfortunately, as eluded to above, shooting editorial means that your images are sitting alongside every other pro or ‘shoot for a pass’ photographer who was at the event. And at quality events with pro-lighting, it is unlikely that your photos will be too different from the others, at which point it comes down to luck who ends up with the best expression on the performer.

I’m fortunate now to be in a position where I am on the books of corporate clients (only through demonstrating that I brought them new types of images that their existing list of photographers didn’t), finally getting promo access to acts signed to majors (and I imagine it will take another two years or another spot of luck moving up the status list to do established artists rather than artists in development) and have developed a platform on which to take forward a mid to high end portrait business even in a market that has a great deal of saturation. Most of this has been achieved as a result of good business skills, knowing what the client wants and knowing how to hook them. Of course, this has to be backed up with the ability to deliver.

Would I love to cover the artists I love in the best venues there are? Of course. Will that ever enable me to become a full time photographer? Probably not. I will always keep time for my love of music photography but ultimately making my photography pay its keep means business head rules over heart and concentrating on those areas which do still pay regularly and if I get opportunities to combine the two, that’s a bonus.

Brad

Comments are closed.