When i grow up: I want to be a Concert Photographer?

I think that being a Concert Photographer would be an amazingly interesting job. What are some things that i can start doing at my age (16) to get pretty good at it? What type of camera should i get? I have a Nikon one now, but i know that they don't use that kind of digital camera for this job.

Would it really be that interesting? From what I have seen of concert photographers they are sent there by the editor of the paper/magazine/website they are employed by. They are rounded into a confined area like sheep into a pen, they are under a lot of pressure to take a certain amount of usable shots, they then leave (usually after a couple of songs, why would they need to stay the whole concert? They have a deadline to keep and the papers are going into print soon!), then it's editing the images and handing them over to be published.

The last concert I went too, all the photographers had gone by the third song.

What are you going to do in the meantime when there are no concerts? You will be sent on other photography assignments. If freelance then you are not going to make a living doing just concerts.

You will need a DSLR and high quality fast lenses. Sometimes you may be close to the stage, other times you may be quite a distance back (the use of a 400mm f/2.8 may be necessary, maybe even longer reach, theses lenses cost thousands of £'s.)

At your age I suggest you acquire a DSLR and lenses and learn about exposure, composition, lighting and subject matter. Depending on what camera you have now you can still learn about the latter three, I'm unsure if you can control the exposure on your current camera.

You can do an Open University course on digital photography, I've just finished and its really good! It'll give you a good head start. It teaches you all about exposure, shutter speeds and all the rest of it! Although it does cost £200+ but your school may give you funding, thats what mine did.

What you'd need is a camera capable of handling challenging and bad lighting situations well. That usually means a DSLR camera. Next is some good lenses. Most brands have affordable 50 and 85mm f1.8 lenses,

Once you have those the next thing you need is skill. With stage lighting you hardly ever can trust your camera so you'd need the skills to use a DSLR on full manual. After that it's tons of practice to translate the equipment and technical skills into nice images.

A traditional way to get into concert photography is to start small, hook up with a local amateur band, shoot their gigs for free but do get the rights to use the shots for your portfolio. Sooner or later that will translate in a backstage pass somewhere and with a bit of luck getting your pics published. From there it's working your way up.

Concert photography is a demanding field with fierce competion. On one hand you have the allround pros being sent by papers. On the other hand there's tons of amateurs trying exactly the same thing. Very few people can earn a decent living doing this kind of photography

You would need to know everything about metering and light…

and how to use your skills and abilities to take the best shots…

if you know any young new bands, ask them if you can shoot them… And see what happens…