So, I’m not a professional photographer, I’m probably barely considered a hobbyist. I got a camera a few weeks ago and I’ve been taking a lot of photos. Really enjoying the hobby, got myself a subscription to lightroom, took photos at a concert, on a hike, on the street at gameday, buncha stuff, but its been a challenge finding the right thing to be taking pictures of (i hear that matters). So i had this idea, tattoos! I like tattoos, you know who has tattoos? tattoo artists! So i messaged a local shop and said HEY! I wanna take pictures of tattoo artists and their tattoos, can i come in and take some pictures? and one of them said yes! but now I’m all in my head about it, i don’t want them to be expecting a professional photographer and then i show up with my 300$ camera, no plan for what to do with the photos, no affiliations with a newspaper, no real good excuse for doing what I’m doing at all…

I guess my question is this; Is it appropriate to message a company and ask to take photos, without a high probability of it benefiting them? I didn’t say that anything would come out of it, and i offered to share the RAW data with them if they wanted it, and to tag them on social media with any edited photos i made, i did call myself a photographer. I guess I’m just worried that im going to show up, and not have any idea what to do, and they are going to ask a question like “so who are you and why are you here?” and im just going to die of embarrassment before i can give a sensible answer… or is it all gonna be chill?