So, I'm not a professional photographer, I'm probably barely considered a hobbyist. I got a camera a few weeks ago and I've been taking a lot of photos. Really enjoying the hobby, got myself a subscription to lightroom, took photos at a concert, on a hike, on the street at gameday, buncha stuff, but its been a challenge finding the right thing to be taking pictures of (i hear that matters). So i had this idea, tattoos! I like tattoos, you know who has tattoos? tattoo artists! So i messaged a local shop and said HEY! I wanna take pictures of tattoo artists and their tattoos, can i come in and take some pictures? and one of them said yes! but now I'm all in my head about it, i don't want them to be expecting a professional photographer and then i show up with my 300$ camera, no plan for what to do with the photos, no affiliations with a newspaper, no real good excuse for doing what I'm doing at all....
I guess my question is this; Is it appropriate to message a company and ask to take photos, without a high probability of it benefiting them? I didn't say that anything would come out of it, and i offered to share the RAW data with them if they wanted it, and to tag them on social media with any edited photos i made, i did call myself a photographer. I guess I'm just worried that im going to show up, and not have any idea what to do, and they are going to ask a question like "so who are you and why are you here?" and im just going to die of embarrassment before i can give a sensible answer.... or is it all gonna be chill?
maybe yes, maybe no.
If you want to continue your photography, you have to learn that you to get denied every now and then. Only way to avoid that is being overly cautious, never getting those opportunities to photograph what you like.
If you show up with a 300$ camera, and show interest in the tattoos and the craft doing them and take your time to get good photos, they will feel lucky. Even if a flagship smartphone could in principle perhaps take (in some regards) better pics. If someone sees me, another non-professional photographer, using my camera, they often wonder if I am a pro (while I don't even carry a backpack nor have other gear around me).
i went to the skate park the other day, and this 12 year old on a bike was SOOO impressed by the "photographer" who just showed up and took abuncha blurry pics of teenagers on bikes. He had so many questions and so many stars in his eyes. It was tough to see him realize i was just some guy with a camera.
all part of the photographer life.
I once was part of the audience of a show and we were not allowed to take photos. I secretly took some anyway, trying to not get caught. Another guy just said he is "the photographer" and was left in peace. He had the smaller camera but of course took a lot more useful photos.
Now some colleagues call me an artist just because I posted some okay pics (a couple of shots out of many I took) in the teams channel. But, photography is projection anyway.
I am quite confident next time you could take enough sharp photos of skaters to let them think you are a pro, at least if you don't show them too many of the bad photos.