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 don't mean to be mean but...
That's not gatekeeping, it's simply not being interested in helping someone they don't know with nothing in it for them.
You're expecting them to take time and put effort into hand-crafting replies to give you information with nothing in return.
They're not saying you can't be an event photographer, they're not stopping you from doing anything, they're just too busy living their own lives to want to take the time to help you.
Your best bet is to ask on forums like this one where people can elect to provide advice if they want to, or to search up the answer (it's been asked often enough!). Most people posting on social media like Instagram don't tend to have in depth conversations about anything, in my experience, unless they stand to gain from it.
And on Instagram of all places. At least do the legwork to track down an email and contact them directly and personally instead of via a medium that’s essentially a spam generator.
They don't get nothing, they get additional competition for already scarce work.
Well that too, although (in her defence) no sign that OP is targetting people local to her for advice - they could be half the world away.
But yeah... I guess it is a little like asking a baker in their bakery for their secrets of how to get into baking.
That's literally it. Oh you want to get into this industry that I'm in? That's already highly competitive? And you want my advice? Why, pull up a chair and have a seat! I'll tell you all about it!
Said no one ever. As with any industry, the moment you go from hobby to business it's cut-throat. This isn't a photography specific scenario.