How to get your work noticed?

I think I get asked this on an almost daily basis by someone...

I don't know why they all come to me, I'm sure all the other pro MTB photographers out there get asked the same questions and it made me realize just how luck I am to be doing what so many others obviously really want to be doing...

Anyway lets go in to why I'm guessing your here, the how...




Its not a straight forward formulaic thing, there is no set path for going from unknown to work in magazines and adverts but there are a few things that you can do to up your chances...

• First thing is shoot lots. Shoot everything that moves ( and a lot of stuff that doesn't as well ) still life,portraits,landscapes etc, some people have a better eye for different subject maters. Your bike photos might always look a bit poo, but if you try shooting portraits you might find your calling...

• Second is sharing your work. Having it all hauled up on your HDDs is all well and good but if no one see it, it probably wont get to much attention.
  
  
  
  

• Get on the forums in your field, get a facebook, twitter etc In bikes, Pinkbike, Southerndownhill, Mpora, Vitalmtb etc are all huge sites and great for pushing your work out there...

• Only share the very best of your work! If you share everything even the sub par you will dilute the bangers with dross and so blend in to the hundreds of other people trying to do exactly the same thing you are.

• Once you start to get noticed its just a case of keeping doing whats working and being professional and learning from mistakes. For me anyway it just seemed to snowball, getting a bit of a name as someone to watch is the hardest and first step, once you achieve that it all fell in to place and small work offers started coming along...

That's pretty much what I did, and it seems to be going alright so far. Two years in to being full time and showing no sign of slowing down...

Ta

J