>>2687661mr. b covered one route but here's my own
go to shows where it doesn't matter. think of shows you've been to where you've seen a bunch of people with DSLRs in the crowd
usually the clear cut way of knowing a venue's rules without asking is whether or not it has a barrier or not. if there's a barrier, there's a 90% chance they don't care. it's always good to call if you aren't familiar though
anyways, take a bunch of photos of shows. bar shows, DIY shows, shows you got permission to shoot, etc.
once you have enough, make a portfolio. throw your best photos into a word document and make a pdf. upload it to dropbox and send the link or send the file directly to promoters, venues, musicians, and publications. publication being the main one
when you're in with a publication, you're pretty much invincible. depending on how many photographers they have, it can be hard though. I shoot for basically three of them. one being small where I can get into any mid level show. one being medium where I can get into SOME bigger ones if I claim them before anyone else. one where I can hit regional festivals and even national ones if I can encourage them. haven't done that quite yet but that's because of school and they want me to do big things in the summer.
p.s.- sign up for warped tour under a publication that doesn't exist. they let every single person in and you can get good photos so fucking easily because it's during the day so you can use very flexible settings
