Hard Work Pays Off
Things are going well, I'm shooting semi-regularly given my (at the time) mostly weekend work schedule. Every time I go shoot I feel a little more confident in my abilities and acquire another nugget of knowledge. Slowly but surely I'm working up the confidence to start charging more for my work and having lots of new opportunities present themselves.
I was offered a contract role to shoot a medical conference at the University of Minnesota. This would be a four day event with a variety of coverage needed and a huge push outside my experience and comfort zone. Thankfully there was a short list of shots the organizers wanted with a vast amount of creative freedom outside of that. The event went well and I've now done it the last four years. My biggest takeaway from these events has been how to properly manage my time and to also ensure preparedness in case of equipment failure.
With a wealth of event experience under my belt, I was able to secure positions covering a mud run event, a beer tasting event and an event known as Culinary Fight Club. These events allowed complete creative freedom with minor guidance for a few "must have shots". One of the greatest things about these types of events is the people you meet throughout the day as well as the potential for referrals and future business.
Most recently my vast experience in action sports coverage presented opportunities to cover some great national and international events. There were two paintball events, both conveniently located mere hours away in Chicago, that drew hundreds of players and a ton of opportunities to cover the event for all the top companies in the sport. Once winter fell upon the Midwest, the affiliate league for Red Bull Crashed Ice came to Northern Minnesota. Luckily I was able to secure one of the limited media spots to be on the track covering the races. These incredibly fast-paced races, while fun to cover, were difficult to capture well before getting the hang of how the track played out.
One more post then we're all caught up!