How LinkedIn Led to My First People Magazine Assignment at BottleRock

BottleRock 2023 was my first editorial photography assignment, and it started with a connection I made on LinkedIn.

I did not have a long list of publication credits or an inside connection at the festival. I had a growing portfolio, live music experience, and enough confidence to put my work in front of people.

One of those connections led to a job with People Magazine.

The offer came with one condition. I would handle my own lodging.

I said yes before I knew where I would sleep.

Finding the opportunity on LinkedIn

LinkedIn gets treated like a website for office jobs and forced networking posts. I think creative people overlook it.

I used the platform to connect with people working in media, publishing, and entertainment. That is how I met the person who gave me a chance at BottleRock.

He trusted me with an opportunity that felt much bigger than anything I had done before. I knew how to photograph concerts, but this assignment would require a different set of skills.

I needed to direct artists, communicate with their teams, and create polished portraits in a limited amount of time. There would be no long warm-up period. I had to arrive ready.

First, I had to find somewhere to stay.

Scrambling to find a place in Napa

Once I got the job, I started contacting anyone I thought might still live near Napa Valley.

I went to college in Northern California, and many of my friends moved into the Napa area after graduation. A lot of them wanted to work in wine, hospitality, or the industries built around the region.

By the time BottleRock came around, most of them had moved away.

Hotels during the festival were far outside my budget. I had accepted the job knowing People Magazine would not cover my lodging, so I needed to figure it out myself.

I asked friends, checked old connections, and followed every possible lead. Eventually, a friend connected me with a woman I had never met.

She agreed to let me stay with her.

What started as a practical solution became one of the strangest and best connections from the trip. We found out we had grown up in the same small Southern California town. Then we discovered we had been born in the same hospital.

She eventually became one of my best friends.

Out of everyone I could have stayed with, I ended up with someone whose life had crossed mine long before we met. That still feels wild to me.

Getting the gear to Napa

Lodging was only one part of the scramble.

At the time, I did not own every camera body and lens I wanted for the assignment. I rented the equipment I needed and had it shipped to a UPS location near where I was staying.

Tracking expensive rental gear through the mail before a major festival was stressful. I had to make sure everything arrived on time, worked correctly, and made it back after the job.

There was no production assistant handling those details for me. I arranged the rental, followed the shipment, picked up the gear, tested it, and made sure I had backup options.

That experience changed how I think about professional photography. The work starts long before anyone steps in front of the camera.

Planning matters. Backup plans matter. Knowing how to solve problems without making them someone else's problem matters.

Inside the artist lounge

Our team had access to the artist lounge, which most festival photographers never get to enter.

That access gave me the chance to photograph artists away from the stage. The setting was more controlled, but the pressure was higher.

Artists came through with managers, publicists, assistants, friends, and other members of their teams. Everyone had a schedule. Some artists only had a few minutes available.

I had to introduce myself quickly, explain what I needed, guide each person into a pose, and create enough variety before they moved on.

There was no time to second-guess every frame.

The experience made me much better at reading people. Some artists wanted clear instructions. Others responded better when I kept the session relaxed.

I learned how to adjust without making people feel rushed. That skill now shapes every portrait session I photograph.

Meeting people I had only seen from a distance

During the weekend, I met members of Wu-Tang Clan and crossed paths with Paris Jackson.

Paris complimented my pants, which remains one of my favorite random memories from the festival.

Meeting well-known artists was exciting, but I still had a job to do. I could not freeze every time someone famous entered the room.

I needed to stay calm, pay attention, and treat each artist like a person.

That weekend made me more comfortable working around public figures. Most people do not want a photographer who acts intimidated. They want someone who respects their time and knows how to take control without becoming demanding.

Learning to work with artist teams

BottleRock taught me how many conversations can sit behind one photograph.

I might speak with a manager about timing, a publicist about image use, an assistant about where the artist needed to stand, and the artist about how they wanted to be photographed.

Missing one update could affect the entire shoot.

I became more direct after that weekend. I learned to confirm schedules, ask clear questions, and make sure everyone understood the plan.

Concert photography had taught me how to react to a moment. Editorial photography taught me how to help create one.

Both skills matter, but they require different kinds of confidence.

The moment I started believing in myself

BottleRock was one of the proudest moments of my career.

I had landed an assignment with People Magazine through a connection I made myself. I found a place to stay when my original options disappeared. I rented the gear, got it to Napa, entered a space I had never worked in before, and created images that helped shape my portfolio.

Before that assignment, part of me still wondered whether I was ready for larger editorial jobs.

BottleRock answered that question.

Someone opened the door, but I still had to walk through it. I had to solve every problem between accepting the assignment and delivering the photographs.

I arrived hoping I could handle the opportunity. I left knowing I belonged there.

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