One Shot Requests. [CLOSED]

[ZackMerrick] I'll Be The Judge Of That - AllTimeBlow1

When I was younger, my mother always bought me cameras. It started with the disposable cameras, the ones that you had to get developed at the supermarkets or the local CVS.

I still have a few of them. I don’t use them. They’re more for reminiscing; remembering all the times I realized I really wanted to be a photographer.

But, my hobby turned into a slight obsession. My disposable cameras became digital cameras and those became the professional cameras.

It bothers me when amateur photographers don’t understand how hard it is to make it in this business. Oh, you can take a nice picture of some random scenery and have it look breathtaking, not good enough.

That was me, when I was a teenager; I was so convinced that it was going to be easy to get to where I am now.

I know people, mostly females, who have made it, but not because of their talent, not with the camera anyway. I didn’t want that, so I worked hard, as hard as I’ve ever worked.

And here I am today, following Warped Tour for Alternative Press Magazine, and I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as I am now.

Touring is amazing. Now I know why musicians always say that touring is their favorite part about being in a band. I’ve learned more on the road than I ever did during high school.

At first, I didn’t think that I was good enough. There are so many names here, famous names, with photos in every single Alternative Press issue released.

Hell, I almost cried when they asked me to do this because I thought they were pulling a prank on me, that Ashton Kutcher was jumpstarting his career on Punk’d again and I was the first victim.

From intern to photographer for the biggest tour in America, in my opinion anyway, was the most prestigious honor.

If I do well on this tour and take amazing pictures, then I'm almost positive that they’re going to hire me for a permanent job, a real job, keep me and give me photo shoots and tours to follow whenever they need someone.

That would be amazing. Seeing the world while doing what I love most.

What would make that even better is if I got a job with All Time Low. I didn’t grow up far from them, about thirty minutes away actually, and I didn’t know of them until they became famous.

They all, except for Zack, lived in Baltimore, and Zack lived in the town over, Towson. I grew up half an hour away from them.

Though, I don’t think that I ever saw any of their gigs, I'm pretty sure that I would have remembered that. They’re talented, and their music is fantastic.

Finally, twenty two days in, I get to shoot All Time Low, while they're on stage, in their element. I've been waiting for this for years. This is the assignment that I always wanted.

Shifting my weight onto my left leg, I bite down on my lower lip, running a nervous, damp hand through my brown hair, holding the blonde tips in my fingers, absentmindedly checking for split ends.

The set isn't for another half an hour and I got here early just to check out all the places I can stand to take pictures without walking onto the stage. I don’t want to get into the photographer pit; there are too many people down there already and I'm not competing for a picture.

I’ve made friends on this tour, some photographers for Alternative Press; they got us all an RV to stay in, and it’s only a few of us, a handful really.

This is the first time I’ll be meeting All Time Low. I went to a few of their shows when I was in college and I went as an intern, staying in the photographers’ pit, so I never met them.