Recently, a fellow photographer reached out about a school assignment, which included detailing their “dream photoshoot” and how they'd achieve it, while taking reference from a photographer who inspires them.
For this assignment, this photographed asked, “what was your path to success and how did you get to be where you are?”
I'm always so humbled to be included in assignments like these over the years. It's a funny idea to consider success. I can't really say I have ever thought of photography as a career, let alone success in this pursuit.
I wanted to write an article to answer these questions, with the hope that perhaps the answers may help others.
Starting Out as a Music Photographer
I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, photographing my first concerts there and falling in love with music photography in the city's venues.
I started photographing shows in smoky basement dives and local clubs and theaters, photographing mostly bands I listened to. I shot for free for a local street press until I started to shoot for a weekly newspaper and entertainment publications that eventually paid my rent every month. For several years, I photographed 3-5 concerts every week.
I never truly appreciated my hometown at the time. After all, I had no frame of reference. In hindsight, it was the perfect place to grow as a music photographer, with a thriving local music scene and the critical mass to secure tour stops from most of the largest tours at its stadiums and arenas. But it was not NYC or LA, or even Chicago. For me, finding success meant being found.
Being Seen: Sharing My Work on ishootshows.com
I registered the domain for this website, ishootshows.com, in 2006, just a few months after photographing my first concert. I wanted a domain that was easy to remember, that I could shout over the din of a show if someone asked me where they could see my photos. But it wouldn't be for nearly a year that I started posting. shared my photography, updates like upcoming shows I planned on photographing and other small updates.
Along the way, I started sharing posts on technique and gear, like how to do deal with red lighting, or the lenses and cameras I used. As I learned, it felt natural to share along the way.
At the time, there were only really a few pages I found on the internet that really gave any insight into music photography. One was a photo.net article that was more about photographing portraits of bands. The other was Daniel Boud's boudist.com website, which featured two great posts on how to get started in music photography. Daniel's blog really inspired me to start sharing what I learned along the way.
Why do I mention all of this background to answer a question about one's path to success?
Nearly every big break of mine has come from someone finding me, from the first clients who flew me out to shoot with them from my hometown to Nikon and Rolling Stone, and even the Tonight Show. Most found me through searching Google some variation on “music photographer” or “concert photographer,” which led them to my blog and portfolio.
I genuinely feel like I owe a career to this blog you're reading right now.
A point of difference
Having this website long before social media like Instagram gave me a place to share my images. There were websites like Flickr that existed, with great communities for concert photography, but having my own website gave me something of my own.
In hindsight, more essentially, it let me share more than just photos. I started writing posts on the gear I used, how to photograph concerts from a technical perspective, how to get a photo pass, and so forth. This blog also provided a platform for connecting with others, engaging through comments on post and inviting questions that I'd answer in other posts.
Over the years, I've had many clients who said they hired me because of this blog. Not just because they found it, but because they'd read articles and appreciated the fact that I responded to comments and shared what I could, beyond the photography.
I remember when I first started this blog, I was extremely excited that one day I had ten visitors in a day. Then 20, then 50. For a time, if you googled “concert photography” or “music photographer,” this blog was often on the first page. So when I say I owe a career to this blog, it's because of everyone who read an article or clicked through, and to all those people to whom I'm so grateful.
A Path to Success
It feels intensely awkward for me to write about success, as it's something I have never really considered or even something that have felt like I've achieved. There is always something more to do or other opportunities. I never set out to have a career, I just wanted to shoot shows.
So instead, I'll list a timeline of some milestones and events that have felt important to me.
2006-2007: I photographed my first concert on a whim. After that first show, I was hooked. About a week after that first show, I started contributing to a streetpress in my home town, shooting for free. Everyone volunteered their time for the publication, so it felt like a fair deal at the time. I was the publication's main photographer during this time, so I eagerly photographing as many shows as I could, many in small and dim club venues.
2008-2009: These years held a lot of firsts for me. I started freelancing regularly for the Riverfront Times, an alt-weekly newspaper in St. Louis. I transitioned to shooting almost exclusively paid freelance gigs around this time and was contributing to two paying publications in my area. I came into these gigs because I met editors from the publications in the photo pit. In 2008, I had my first assignment for Rolling Stone, photographing Warped Tour. In 2009, I had one of my first big commercial gig photographing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony for Fuse TV. Other highlights include doing a shoot for Wrangler Jeans and shooting for American Express in 2009 as well. These were really exciting years because it felt like I was finally making progress as a photographer.
2010-2011: After the exciting years preceding, this span of time felt like a lot of the same. There were more opportunities, but fewer firsts. I was still photographing 3-5 concerts a week during this time and I was proud in the moment to pay my rent by photographing concerts. When I look back at images from these years, they feel solid and competent, along with images from 2009 as a turning point. I feel like my approach as a photographer started to solidify in this time.
2012-2014: In 2012, I first photographed for iHeartRadio Music Festival, which I've photographed ever since. This was my first time working on a festival media team. In 2013, I did my first work as a tour photographer, photographing a series of arena/stadium tours. In 2013, I also started freelancing for Red Bull and photographing their events. In late 2013, I moved to NYC and continued to freelance for iHeartRadio photographing their theater shows as well as working for Red Bull.
2015: In 2015, I had my first contact with Nikon, when they found me (via Google) and asked me to be part of a camera launch campaign for the Nikon D500 DSLR camera. This was a huge moment for me, as I have always used Nikon cameras and loved the gear.
2018-2021: After a couple more very small projects with Nikon, in 2018 I was invited to become a Nikon Ambassador for Nikon USA. I had the fortune of working on a few other camera campaigns in the next few years, including the Nikon Z7, Nikon Zfc, Nikon Z6II and Nikon Z7II. In 2019, I was able to each a masterclass with Creative Live, filming a workshop over 5 days in Seattle, Washington. I had never thought it was possible to be part of such a project, but this was really a dream opportunity, made possible as it was sponsored by Red Bull.
2022: In early 2022, I received a cold email from a photo editor at NBC asking if I wanted to try out for the role of photographer for the Tonight Shows starring Jimmy Fallon.
2023-2025: In 2024, I was hired as instructor by Best Buy to help teach their camera sales associates portrait photography using Nikon cameras. In the same year, I held a two-day music photography workshop in LA sponsored by Nikon USA.*
* I had never really considered myself a teacher, but these opportunities as well as the Creative Live workshop have given me the understanding that I really love teaching and mentoring. Which in hindsight has been the true essence of this website for so many years.
2026 and beyond: A continued existential crisis. After thinking of myself as “just” a music photographer for a very long time, now as I live in a realm of celebrity and entertainment photographing the Tonight Show, who knows what the future will hold. I still love that I get to photograph live music and artists 3-4 days out of the week.
Standing Out as a Photographer
I'm often asked how to get bigger gigs, attract bigger clients or generally how to be successful as a photographer. When I hear these questions, I feel like they all circle the same challenge: How do you stand out?
There are as many ways to stand out as there are different kinds of people in this world. But what feels clear is that to stand out, you have to be different.
This difference can certainly come in the work — in your visual style, the presentation or consistency. But this can be hard to pull off, especially when you're shooting elbow to elbow with other photographers in the photo pit. If you're a genius level photographer whose work stands out just on visual distinction alone, perhaps just making images and being seen is enough.
For everyone else, I feel like the opportunity is to also consider how you can take your talents and the tools you have to find a way you can be different from the crowd.
For me, my blog was a vehicle that gave me a point of difference, even if that was never the point. Writing has always come pretty easily for me. I'd certainly rather write a 1,000 word article explaining something rather than film myself talking for social media, or send 10 or 10,000 cold emails. I don't want to go to parties to network. For me, this platform and sharing what I learned along the way was a way I could stand out, in hindsight. At a time when no one else was sharing much info about music photography, this blog let me have a voice.
I genuinely feel like everyone has strengths they can lean on. You don't have to be the best — I'm certainly not the best writer. But within your own personal disposition, your talents and the tools you have available, there's some aspects that are essentially you that can be your vehicle.
There's no single formula for success that's going to work for everyone. If there were, the point of difference wouldn't exist. If there's one thing that feels true, it's that you should lean into yourself. Do what comes, if not easily, than naturally. Follow that individualism in yourself.
If you're doing the exact same thing as everyone else, it's hard to stand out. Do what others can't or won't. Do the hard things, even if just 1% more than the person next to you. That 1% might make all the difference.
If you told me it would take a decade or two and writing over 1,000 blog posts to have a career, I don't think I would have started. The task would have felt too daunting. I waited nearly a year to write my first post on this blog because the idea of starting it felt so heavy. But after the first post, I made another one. And then another. Stack it up, day after day, the impossible can start to look like the inevitable when you look back, as improbable as that feels.
Sharing, educating, nerding out about settings, technique and process — I loved all of that from the very beginning. Success won't look the same for everyone; it can't. But focus on yourself, make the images that only you can make. That will always set you apart in the best way.
