Twin Turbo wrote in post #9939156
I think that Rukes could come in here and tell us about how hard it may have been for him in the beginning.
At the risk of not doing a huge book, yeah, it pretty much was. Most of the pics in 2005 and earlier were just for fun. I generally got paid a little to do club events for the first few years (usually just ClubPlanet in 2005), before Avalon/Giant hired me in 2006, Insomniac/Giant in 2007, and even then it wasn't until late 2007 that I took the huge risk of leaving my 9-5 job to try photography full-time. It ended up working out well, since in 2007 I also started working with Pioneer, did my first mini-tour with James Zabiela, got hired to shoot events at WMC, and started doing massives in LA. Only JUST comparable pay to a basic 9-5 job, but it showed promise and I stuck to it. I figured if it didn't work, I would just go back to my old job. It's nice to do my taxes every year and see it increase more and more; I think 2010 will be the first year for me that the amount of money I earn will be more than "just enough" thanks to touring/merchandise and probably joining something like Getty on the side.
The one thing I will say is that it is a bit tougher now, since back when I started, I was pretty much the only person in a club with an SLR, and there were no hipsters or really any other photographers. Hell, here's a bit of fun I just found too, Steve Aoki in 2006. No Cobrasnake, not jumping around, just a normal DJ: [URL][URL]http://photo.rukes.com/forbidden/slides/forbidden%20035.html
Nowadays with everyone having a camera, there is, as many people said, the "well we could get this ****ty photog for free". It doesn't matter in the long run anway; if a promoter is too cheap to hire talent when they see it, they are probably not making any money and won't last long regardless. Quality promoters always know how business works, and they know that if they are making money, they want thier events to look good so they can keep making money, so a good photog is a business investment. None of the big promoters in LA will ever pay a ****ty photographer, but if a decent one want's to do it for free, they might let them, but just only pay the qualified people. People also have to remember that even though everyone can be a photographer now, everyone can be a promoter too. Promoters are good at making things look good. I can't even begin to count the amount of promoters websites I have seen with full on event calendars and even photography every gig, to go under pretty quickly...so never let any of that get to you.
It always changes too. When the economy hit LA late 2009, people were switching clubs and promoters were saving money, so I was pretty much out of a job locally for a bit. If it wasn't for Deadmau5 wanting me to document his life, pretty much, I would either have no galleries for a bit, or been doing a lot of freebies for no good reason. Even then, freebies to keep the relationship going is great. When Giant switched back to Avalon, I think I did a gig or two for free just to say "Hey, i'm here for you guys, here's what I can provide when everything gets back in order".
One of my biggest fears is not doing work up to par, so whenever I am working with a new promoter or a new gig/venue, I always sell myself short "just in case" for some reason the venue is bad at pics/taking time to learn everything. Usually never even matters in the first place, but that fear just pushes me to do even better and make sure to do an above-and-beyond job.
There is no better feeling than working hard all night and then getting that one "perfect" picture that sums it up and you just feel like "Wow, I could just stop now if I wanted to, I probably can't get any better than that one!" but you just say "Maybe I CAN..." and just keep going. Most of the time when shooting I am so into it, I don't drink or stop, or even listen to the music. As long as it's not a top 40 mess or insanely hard trance, I can zone out everything but my camera.
The bottom line is you just got to shoot what YOU want and what YOU think looks good. People ask me all the time to look at their pics and give advice, but it's impossible, aside from technical advice. I see the world photography-wise how I want to see it. Any pictures that aren't mine, of course I will find a fault with, because my standards/photography eye are completely different from everyone else in the world. As long as you are happy with what your photos look like, then your work will constantly improve and people will notice how your look is different from everyone else's. Never ever be suckered in by anyone else's photos, in terms of "Hey, that looks good, let me try to copy that". I spent a lot of time doing that in the beginning, and not one bit helped; the only thing that ever did was just trying things out myself.
srika wrote in post #9939997excellent, I had the exact same attitude whenever I went out to shoot at the club. funny thing, I was shooting SO MUCH at the club that I found broad daylight to be VERY challenging! And I would say over the past 4 years I have shot about 95% in the dark!
Exactly! I can't stand daylight stuff, it just seems too simple, almost like cheating. The WMC pics during the day are some of the first I did in ages, and it just seemed like cheating to put the camera on auto, fill flash and (gasp) point the flash at the person without a diffuser! Of course after a bit of tweaking I did go for more Av/Tv type modes to control my look, but I still can't stand not being challenged by lack of light. Not to say I wouldn't do it, but if the pics come out good, they still look "foreign" to me, as if I didn't take them.
I've got some brainstorming to do.
