Hey today I'm going to give you
four photo tips that are going to help
separate you from the rest of the pack.
Hey we're back here, Ask David Bergman,
of course I'm David Bergman, answering
the photo questions that you asked me on
my site, AskDavidBergman.com
I picked the best ones and answer them
right here on Adorama TV.
Today I've got one from Anthony M and
he asked how do you keep yourself
motivated and find new ways to shoot a
show that you've seen.
over and over again on tour.
That's a great question,
so yes I'm on tour this
year all year long, and into the next
year with Luke Combs photographing his
show, day in and day out, it's an awesome
show, it's super fun to shoot, but yes
there is a challenge there when you
photograph something that is kind of
similar every night.
of course the show has variances and
things that change from night to night,
but visually it looks kind of the same.
I spent the last 10 years on the road with
Bon Jovi and their show either whether
it's an arena show or stadium show is still
a lot of similarities from night to night.
So how do I stay motivated and challenge myself?
Well over the years I found a few things
that I'm gonna tell you, that I like to
apply to all my photography, not just my
tour photography, but anything I do.
I like to separate myself from the pack,
that's really my goal, because if you
want to make a living in this business
you can't shoot the same thing that
everybody else does.
You might look at pictures that people
shoot and say, I could shoot that picture
yeah that's great maybe you could, but you didn't!
That person did, and they're doing
something that's just a little bit
different that got them the job.
So I'm gonna go through my top four
things that you can do to separate
yourself from the pack.
The first one is stay away from the
other photographers right?
So like I said you might be in an event,
I shot sports for many years from Sports
Illustrated and for other clients, and if
I'm in sidelines of a football game,
there might be 50 or 100 or hundreds of
photographers there shooting the same
game that I am, using the same lenses.
Right, so how do I separate myself?
Well I used to jokingly say if I see a gaggle
of photographers together I run the
other direction, because I don't want to
be in the same physical place as all of them.
Why would a client hire me to shoot
the exact same photograph that somebody
else is making.
They can just pick up the
picture from them, and probably pay less
money for it, because they're already there.
So a lot of times what I did over
the years is, I might go up and
a really high angle a different
perspective, something unique that not
everybody else is doing.
This picture for example was at the Penn
State Notre Dame game quite a number
of years ago, and it was the first time they
had ever done this White House at the
stadium, where they asked everybody to
wear white, usually it's just the student
section, and I was on the field, and I heard this
announcement, and I kind of saw it, and I
went all the way up to the very top of
the stadium to make that picture, once I
was up there, it's not really a hard
picture to make.
There's nothing special
about it it's just a wide-angle lens.
I waited for a little bit of color in the
sky, with the Sun setting, but that was
really about it, but the thing is how
many of the photographers made that
picture? Zero!
I was the only one to go up
there and do that and on that day.
So I get more emails about this picture
than probably any other picture I've ever
made, it's not a challenging photograph
to make, but I was the only one that did it.
Penn State fans must be crazy because
I really do get a lot of emails about
that photograph.
All right that's the first one....
Stay away from the other photographers.
Number two - Use technology to your advantage.
Yes there was a time when just having a
better camera would help you make better
pictures, because not everybody had
access to that gear, today honestly that
that entry barrier is gone, and
everybody's using pretty much the same
gear, so you've got to find other unique
ways, for example remote cameras, I used
to use remote cameras at sporting events
and then I took that technology and
brought it into my concert work, and I'm
able to set up cameras and trigger them
remotely from unique positions.
I can putone on the stage that I can shoot right
by the drum kit, and I can shoot any time
I want throughout the show, no matter
where I am in the crowd.
Sometimes on Luke's show, I'll put one in
the lighting truss overhead, the stage
looking straight down it's a really
unique angle that not... nobody else can
make that picture but me, because I'm his
tour photographer, so because I have that
level of access I've taken that
technology and applied it.
Many years ago at President Obama's
first inauguration,
I made a photograph that went viral, it
was this GigaPan, this gigapixel image
that's super high-resolution, made up of
hundreds of still frames stitched
together, and you can zoom in and you can
pretty much see every face in the crowd
of two million people, that was really
about me thinking ahead of time, I'm
gonna be going to this event this 500 of
the world's best photographers there, how
can I do something different?
Why would they pay me to be there,
if they can just grab
a picture from somebody else?
So I brought that Gigapan with me,
I researched everything I could, and I made
that picture, and it was a really unique
image that wound up you know, earning me
a lot of money, because I wound up
weren't using that technology at other
events, a lot of other clients hired me
to use that technology over the years.
So using technology to separate myself
that's number two.
Number three - it never hurts to ask,
and don't take no for an answer.
This is somewhat of your
psychology skills right, and you need to
work with people and come up with ideas,
and then convince people to do it right?
So for example if you have a young band,
then you want to tie them to a tree,
you just ask, hey you mind if I gaffer tape
you to a tree.
You never know, they might say yes,
if they say no, talk to them about it.
Use your persuasion skills,
obviously in a nice way.
You can't be a jerk about it,
but use your persuasive ability to get
people to do what you want.
Convince them that it's a good idea,
and it's good for them, and it's good for
you, and you can have a lot of fun doing
it, and you really can get people to do
things that you might not have expected.
Many years ago when I worked at the
Miami Herald, Ricky Martin was doing an
event where he was going to be up on a
balcony overlooking a crowd, and the
official photo area was down on the
ground, but I didn't want to be there
with all the other photographers, so I
spent a couple of hours up there talking
to people, making friends with security
and the publicist, and talking about the
picture I wanted to make, and I had a
chair there ready that I could stand on,
and and I just I had it all prepared, and
and I got everybody on my side, and we
were all in it together.
We were gonna make this great picture,
and then when the time came where he
was about to show up,
they kicked everybody else off of
that balcony, they made them go down
except for me.
I was the only one, only still photographer
that was allowed to stay up there and
make that picture, now
look it doesn't always work of course,
you have to know when to quit, and when
to give up, but trying to take no for an
answer, use your persuasive abilities to
convince people to do things,
that is really in their best interest as well as
your own, and then the last one.
Number four - really is just give them more than
they expect. Right.
You really want to go above and
beyond, because there's so many
photographers today, everybody's a
photographer, you're competing against
millions of people, now with their
photography, and photography has
generally gotten very, you know, much less
expensive for clients to hire.
So again why should they hire you?
Well if you just do what you're told to do,
and that's it, you're not gonna be
memorable, nobody's gonna you know
remember you.
Next time they're looking to hire
somebody, give an example,
Drew Carey the comedian, host of
'Price is Right'... he's a friend,
I've worked with him a number of
times over the years, and back before he
got the 'Price is Right' gig,
he was doing this tour,
this comedy tour 'The Improv
All-stars Tour',
with a bunch of his improv friends from
'Whose line is in any way',
and 'The Drew Carey Show' and he
brought me on the tour to document it,
and he told me straight up,
he said I want you here,
because I don't need pictures of myself,
I want you to photograph all the other
comedians on stage,
so they have pictures for their
own websites and all that.
So that was really why I was hired and
what he was paying me to do,
but I go above and beyond whenever I can,
so I would do as much behind you know,
as many behind the scenes photos.
I would follow Drew backstage,
and get him in his dressing
room, and, and I would just make those
pictures, not knowing if anybody would
ever see them, or if he wanted them or
didn't really matter, and then I always
have lighting with me, and I asked him
one day we were in Las Vegas and I said
hey, you know we should do a portrait of
the whole cast at a craps table for
example, and he was like yeah, sure, let's
do it, so the next day we, I set it all up,
we had security at the, at the, in the
casino, and they cordoned off an area for
us, and I lit it all up, and I made a
portrait of the whole cast together, and
that's not a picture he hired me to do.
Nobody was paying me to do that, but I
went above and beyond, it did that,
they loved it, they want to be using it again
the following year to promote the tour,
and it just was memorable, it's one of my
favorite photographs still.
So, you know I'm usually the first one in,
the last one out, whenever I can be,
I try to really go above and beyond,
to give my clients more than they expect,
so Anthony, you know you were asking
specifically about concert tours,
yes, I, what I'd like to do each night is
I'm going to deliver 50, 60, 70 photographs
each night to management in the band,
and my client, but which is the band,
of course, but in my mind,
if I make one unique photograph
that I'm happy with every night,
then I'm happy that's what I'm trying to do.
I'm challenging myself each night to make
one different unique photograph.
Of course there's going to be a lot of
pictures and many of them are gonna be
similar night to night, that's just the nature of the
beast, or in a different city but it's a
similar looking show, so, but I want to
challenge myself to do that each night,
and I want you guys to challenge
yourselves as well, tell me down in the
comments below what you think,
remember the four things are,
stay away from the other photographers,
use technology to your advantage.
Never ask, don't take no for an answer,
and give them more than they expect.
If you follow those four things,
I think you're gonna be on your way to
actually making a living,
and making some money as
a professional photographer.
Hey thanks very much for that question,
listen I talked about a lot of this stuff in my
own photo workshops on Luke's tour.
I'm doing a it's called shoot from the pit
and you come out during the day, and I'm
gonna teach you everything you need to
know about photographing concerts and
really action of any kind, and then you
get to shoot the show that night.
So I'm gonna have a whole batch of them in 2020,
I'm going to announce soon, so make sure
you go to Shootfromthepit.com, sign up
for the email list there, and of course
while you're sitting in front of your
computer Adorama TV.
Those guys have been amazing in,
you know with all kinds of free photo
content to help you guys out.
My show, and a bunch of other
shows from great people, so make sure you
subscribe, hit the little Bell so you get
notifications, all that YouTube stuff,
you know how that works.
So and lastly if I'm not done
self-promoting here...
go to AskDavidBergman.com,
submit your own photo questions.
I'll pick the best ones, and
answer them right here on a future show.
Thanks very much for joining me,
come back next week,
we'll have a new question.
I'll see you then.