Mastering Your Own Domain

Written by: Jimmy Wah - Sense Music Media | Thursday 23 September 2021

Michelle Grace Hunder is a photographer from Melbourne who has single-handedly built a stunning portfolio as one of Australia’s leading names in music photography. She regularly shoots artist press shots, album covers and live shows, having shot for a host of well known international artists including LAURYN HILL, CHILDISH GAMBINO and MARK RONSON as well as touring with the likes of RUEL, SETH SENTRY and ILLY. Michelle has also shot for record labels such as Sony, BMG, Warner Music and Live Nation as well as being published in Rolling Stone, NME, Junkee, Beat Magazine and The Big Issue.

Michelle also produced the ground breaking full length documentary of Her Sound, Her Story which premiered with huge industry acclaim in May of 2018, along with shooting over 80 artist portraits of women in Australian music for this project.

As well as shooting for brands such as New Balance, Zoo York, Crumpler and Timberland Michelle has also been an official Nikon Z Creator since April 2020. She is one of Australia’s only Twitch photography streamers dedicated to photographers and creators, running a weekly podcast on the life of the freelance creative called ‘You’re Killing It’.

Michelle Grace Hunder has just released her very own online masterclass in music photography which teaches both emerging and experienced photographers about shooting in the industry at every level. Michelle is not only living proof that the creative profession is serious business which takes countless hours of dedication, but that the artistic community is full of the most passionate, generous and supportive individuals in our society.

The Interview

In 2019 when I was getting back into music photography and seeing the stage from behind the lens again, I had some questions about how to go about charging people for my photos. After talking to some other photographers, I was pointed toward Michelle Grace Hunder who had made a big name for herself as a music photographer in Melbourne. As fate has it… things have come full circle.

When I heard that she had launched her own masterclass in music photography I was instantly taken back to that moment – and last week I was lucky enough to sit down with Michelle and have an in-depth chat face-to-face (via the interspace) to pick her brain about what I love.

So what made you decide to put together a masterclass in music photography?

It’s like when you contacted me. I get so many questions from people asking about shooting in the music industry on all different levels… and responding to them takes up a lot of my time and energy each day. So I guess when Covid hit and we had so much downtime, it made sense to write everything down and have it in a single document to use as a resource. I realised I do have a lot of knowledge from over 10 years’ experience working in the industry so I thought it would be really valuable.

Tell me about how the masterclass works.

It’s probably less technical than a lot of other photography courses; It’s more industry-specific advice in terms of what works for me.

I think most music photographers go in with a pretty decent skill level so that’s not where I think many people have an issue. Even though the basics are there, my course is more about the unwritten rules that people don’t tell you such as:

-          How to troubleshoot

-          What to wear

-          Where to go

-          What to do if your name’s not of the door

-          What to do if security’s trying to kick you out …

… or any of those problems that you run into when you’re starting out. Things that you have no idea about unless you go through it. All of that basic information’s there and it also goes onto things like:

-          How to turn music photography into a business

-          How to get paid

-          Networking and marketing

-          Making sure artists know who you are

-          Copyright and licensing …

… all the things that people find tricky when they’re trying to navigate the industry on their own, for example; What does it mean when a client wants to ‘buy-out’ or what does it mean when you’re licensing for promotional use?

 How is the masterclass delivered?

It’s a combination of written material and video. When I first launched it, there was a lot of written stuff about little tips and tricks then one of the biggest pieces of feedback we got was that people wanted to see more videos and me explaining real world scenarios. Now there’s a mixture of things and depending on what area of the course you’re at. There are practical tasks, tools like lists on what you should have in your bag the first time you shoot a show and all the information for people that are first starting out; as well as intermediate and advanced stages for people at different skill levels.

How do you make the course appeal to people at different stages of their music photography journey?

The good thing about it now is that we’ve broken it up into sections. Originally when I did a soft launch, we did it as a whole class which had a LOT in it. We got some really great feedback and now you can do the whole course but you can also split it into sections for example: if you’re just interested in how to get paid – that’s one section; or if you’re interested in learning how to do press shots – that’s another section; or if you’re really new you can do the basic course.

So you can break it down into chunks rather than outlaying a huge cost or covering content that you don’t need to cover.

How did you get into music photography?

I kind of fell into it. I started photography really late – I was 31 when I picked up a camera – and I’d just come off the back of a really bad business failure. My husband had bought me a camera and I just threw myself into it. I gravitated toward music photography because I knew a few local musicians who were entering the music industry and trying to navigate their way through it the same way I was. So, there was this really great synergy at the time where we could do work for each other and grow together, like a sort of artistic collaboration.

So I threw myself into it. In about 2011/2012 I was at every show I could possibly be at and making myself very visible, making sure I was very much a part of (at that time) the Hip-hop scene. People noticed very early on that I was always present and very much a part of the furniture in Australian Hip-hop.  

People really appreciated me being there and wanted to see my work. It really quickly turned into a business – I basically went professional within 6 months. It was a really weird time where everything kind of aligned and everything just worked… but I think that was part of being ‘all-in’. I wasn’t working on anything else, I didn’t have a job so I was trying to make this my job.

Looking back on those years, it wasn’t like I was turning up to just one or two shows, it was hundreds, it was everywhere. I was working with anybody who wanted to work with me and really trying to forge a name for myself. It would be easy to downplay it and say ‘everything just clicked’ but I really was working my arse off and doing everything possible so that people knew who I was.

Being an artist working in the same field I noticed a lot of similarities between my own experience and what MGH was saying. Mostly the drive to just do stuff not knowing where it will take you.

I think people get very fixated on knowing what to do next – or the next step – rather than just doing. I had literally no idea. The only thing I knew was that people needed to see me and to know who I was.

The only way I knew how to do that was just to be there! To be present, to meet a bunch of people and to shoot a million shows for free. That’s the only way I could figure it out in my head. What comes from people knowing you is that if they’re looking for a photographer, you’re the first person they think of. Then when people start approaching you for work instead of the other way around, then you can charge.

Looking back on it, the process all makes logical sense in my head. I think a lot of photographers have difficulty charging people when they’ve been shooting for free but it’s not really that tricky; if someone’s asking you for a service, then there should be a fee associated with that.

When things went from shooting free shows and getting noticed to charging for your work and turning it into a business. Did anything change about your working process?

Not from a creative point of view. The creative process stayed the same, things just changed from a business perspective – which wasn’t so difficult for me to comprehend because I came from a business background.

I spent the first year working really hard on my creative process which involved the way that I edit photos so that I deliver a really fast turn-around after a live gig. I think that’s one of the biggest things because the music industry is so fast-paced in terms of media turn-around. Once that was established, the only thing that changed was that I was able to charge.

I also wanted people to see that it was me who took the photos, so I was really big on getting artists to tag and made it my mission to transform the way that artists thought about photographers. Back then I had to really talk to artists about why the visibility is so important to me, to other photographers and our industry as a whole.

That visibility is what really makes the difference because people see your name and feel like they have to get you to take their photos.   

What is the secret behind creating such a fast turn-around of photos?

I made a rule when I first started shooting that I wanted my photos to be the first photos that an artist would see after a gig. Some people would wait until the next morning to edit but I would never do that. I would just go home straight away and get them up on Twitter as soon as I can – this was before Instagram was even around. It was really great because it would mean that artists would see my photos first and they would re-tweet them, sometimes they would follow me and it was a great way to get noticed.

It’s just repetition. It’s so hard when you first start out because it’s a process of culling through hundreds and hundreds of photos – sometimes a thousand – which is really arduous. It’s just about practice and understanding what makes a good photo and learning the program that you’re using – I use Adobe Lightroom.

Learning keyboard shortcuts and using pre-sets as a base to give you a head-start is a great way to do it. I could edit a set of a thousand photos in under an hour with my eyes closed. These days I could do it in my sleep which is really handy in different circumstances, like when you’re on tour and you’re back on the bus and everyone else is partying, having a drink or even sleeping... and meanwhile you can bang out a set of photos really quickly. It’s great cos it means the next day you can have the day off.

Learning how to edit really quickly is really beneficial for a couple of reasons: for yourself and your own visibility so that people see your photos first… and also for the artist. If the artist wants to post on social media that night, you’re working for them, so if you can give them a bunch of options it’s really going to work in your favour.

It’s all about practice. People don’t like to hear the mantra that 10, 000 hours is what it takes to get good at things but it’s true. No one’s going to hand it to you on a platter… you have to work for it.

 How have you been managing during lockdown?

I’ve just been staying really busy. I started live-streaming on Twitch last year and built a little community over there for people that want to stay creative and learn from each other. That’s been incredible, I’ve been doing that 2 times a week. I’ve also been podcasting which is something I do a couple of times a week and I’m off and on other people’s podcasts about once a week.

Then of course I’ve been doing this masterclass. When I started writing up the masterclass last year it took up so much of my time and energy. Now that it’s launched, the marketing and the admin also takes up a lot of time. It feels like I’m just as busy as I would be if we weren’t in lockdown. It’s like ‘OMG I don’t know what I’d do if I was shooting right now’ because I don’t really have that much time to shoot. At some point I’m going to have to incorporate the shooting back into what my new life is but I’ve managed to keep myself really busy which I’m super fortunate about.

If you had any advice for other artists who are struggling to get motivated and stop procrastinating at the moment, what would that be?

When I started working for myself and created my own business, I decided that I only wanted to be responsible for my own successes and my own failures. You only have yourself to blame if you’re procrastinating or not being motivated. We’re living in a time that is incredibly stressful and incredibly difficult but we also have so much free time – which is something that we haven’t had for as long as I can remember.

The way that I’m inspired is by going back to what I love about photography which is human interaction, human creativity and connection. It’s something that I’ve found through an online community on Twitch but it’s different for everyone. This way I don’t just keep myself motivated, I can also keep other people being creative by setting them challenges and ways to spark interest in different things.

We have to take control of our own destiny. There are plenty of ways to make excuses. It’s easy to say ‘We’re living in a pandemic and it’s stressful’ – which is true, I completely agree – but we also have agency and we also have control. You don’t want to get to the end of these two years and all you’ve done is watch Netflix without being able to find any spark or motivation…  

It might not be every day but I’d say pick at least one day a week that is just for you and your art and doing something for yourself, and take ownership and responsibility for that. I’ve read plenty of things saying that we can all give ourselves a break – and absolutely we can, this is really hard – but I also think I need to use this downtime to get new skills and to better myself as a person, as an artist and as a creative.

I’ll probably never have this much down-time again. It’s an amazing tine to do all of those things like build a community, write a course, get new skills – livestreaming for example it’s something I never thought I’d do for a million years. That’s translated into a whole new domain, I now run Nikon workshops which is something Nikon are getting ME to do which is something I never would have been able to do 2 years ago.

A lot of the messaging has been to go easy on yourself whereas I think ‘Yeah sure go easy on yourself but also push yourself a little bit.’  

I’m always blown away by interviewing musicians and creatives working in the industry because there’s something about them that I can relate to. It’s exactly the same way I think, it’s the same shit I do.

There is definitely a similarity in people that are driven by success or driven by what they want to do. It’s incredibly easy to take an easier path. It just is. The hardest part about trying to teach music photography is trying to communicate how hard it is. That’s why there’s not many of us doing it professionally because it’s not easy.

If people want to work hard enough, it’s definitely possible but a lot of people don’t like reading that. I get questions all the time about how to do something in music photography, then after I spell it out for them, I never hear from them again. It’s not an easy path. There are no shortcuts.      

The MGH Masterclass is available NOW!

More from MICHELLE GRACE HUNDER…

The Masterclass

Twitch

Documentary

Social Media

Spotify