Landing A Tour Gig

[Erik Kantar]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post here!

I've been shooting concerts for about 2 years now, picking up a decent portfolio along the way. However, I'm fairly new to the whole freelance world, as I'm still a student in college here in NYC. I'd like to land a tour gig, as most music photographers would, however, I'm just unsure on how to go about it?

Is it considered okay to reach out to management ahead of a tour and inquire about any visual needs they have? If anyone has any advice on how to initially make the first steps to getting booked, I'd love to hear –– as it seems a bit mysterious and I definitely don't want to piss off any managers in the process.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

[Jeff15]

Hello and welcome, good luck........

 

[Erik Kantar]

Thank you!

 

[dennybeall]

(Not quite a zombie thread?)

Ask a tour manager what he/she needs and how does he/she get that now. My guess is that there are a bunch of people lined up to do this job for Free, to the Tour, just so they can get the photos to market themselves. If I was that person I would only be impressed if you showed me better shots than I'm getting now, for a cost less than now.

 

[IanG]

Ask, many venues won't allow serious looking cameras without permission. I've photographed bands live for over 45 years, starting while at school, but that became more serious when I worked near to a recording studio.

Essentially I've worked with the same key people since around 1977 when they were first involved in setting up a small record label. It's essential to build up a rapport with management and bands, and also venues etc. In my own case I eventually became involved in management and could often select the venues I knew had decent lighting, and at one in particular the lighting engineer was very helpful and I always got superb,images there.

So yes definitely ask.

Ian