How do you get on the Sidelines of a pro Sporting event?

[PJ]

Just wondering if any joe schmo like me could get on the sidelines of a sporting event if I don't represent a Large News Company (tv or newspaper)?

Is that the only way?

I was thinking about offering to be some photographers assistant for free and possibly bring my gear along if allowed. <--I'm thinking this is the way to go

Those of you that do shoot sporting events; How did you orginally get down there with the action?

thanks
PJ

[IndyJeff]

Just wondering if any joe schmo like me could get on the sidelines of a sporting event if I don't represent a Large News Company (tv or newspaper)?

Is that the only way?

I was thinking about offering to be some photographers assistant for free and possibly bring my gear along if allowed. <--I'm thinking this is the way to go

Those of you that do shoot sporting events; How did you orginally get down there with the action?

thanks
PJ

PJ, bad news, you ain't getting on the sidelines of any major league sporting event, probably not minor league or college (Div 1) either.
Getting a credential for motorsports is fairly hard. If you have a publication your shooting for they must provide a cover letter explaining the story they will be doing and why they need a photographer credentialed. If your shooting for a news service, AP-UPI-Rueters-AFP-Getty etc getting credentialed is easy, getting on with them is the hard part. Example, I shoot Indy for AP so one year I wanted to visit my mother who lived near the Atlanta Speedway. I called the AP guy in Atlanta to see if he would need help. He said my credentials were good enough to get on, trouble was he has a waiting list of people wanting to shoot for him. He referred me to the tracks photography dept. He said if I ever wanted to come down to shoot the IRL or any other race they have let him know about a 2 months in advance.
Now lets take the NFL for example, getting sideline access for an NFL game is VERY hard compared to the IRL or NASCAR. AP, who has 60-80 guys for the Indy 500 gets 2-3 credentials for the Colts games, same with the Pacers games.
The major league's are trying to cut down on credential's issued each year not increase them. If you have an in with a legitimate news outlet who is doing a story you have a chance, a slight chance. They will come back and probably say, "Getty Images handles our images and anything you need can be purchased from Getty."

One website I shoot for of IRL events has been covering NASCAR for years, this year they wanted to expand and do open wheel. They were denied credentials at the Indy 500 this year because the IMS credential staff didn't consider them a legitimate media source. They still got the shots they need thru me tho.

I am not trying to discourage you, just painting a picture of reality. You want to shoot football? Let me give you a suggestion on how to get started. Go to your local high school and see the coach. Take any kind of a sporting portfolio you can put together (8-12 shots will do) and ask him if they need someone to take pictures for their website. His response will be that they don't have any money to pay you. Fine, you will give them 10-15 images from each game in low res to post on their site. In return you will set up a gallery where the players and parents can go and view or purchase pictures from each game. That is how you will be paid for the coverage you give them. If you get this gig, contact the local paper and let them know you will be shooting Central High's football games this fall and want to possibly submit images from games on a freelance basis. Just don't send them an image every game, make it a spectacular shot, a diving game winning TD or something will impress the PE. Tell him if they need a shot of a certain player, let you know and you will get a shot for them, discuss pricing before hand tho.
If you have any questions you can PM me or email me or post it here.


p.s. I am shooting a local high school football teams games this year and doing the same thing. Kind of blows my Friday night plans from late Aug- Nov tho LOL

[PJ]

Thanks a ton for the info Jeff.
I have searched google forever and couldent' find anything near as helpfull as what you just told me.
I really really appreciate it. I'm gonna contact some local highschools and my University that I attended to see if I can't do what you suggested.

thanks again

PJ

[IndyJeff]

PJ I am always glad to help someone by offering advice or an opinion. That is the way help was offered to me and I am just passing those favors along.
Everybody always wants to start at the top. Think about your job, did they hire you on your first job as a supervisor? Probably not, you work your way up to it. Same with photography, well for the most part. Me, I was lucky. I was in the right place at the right time and had some shots I had done from the stands and next thing I know, I am shooting the inaugural Brickyard.
Do hs first and after a year, maybe two you contact the local college. Show em a port' and next thing you know your doing their games.

My hope is that after doing the football this year the basketball coach will call me and want me to do their stuff as well. Now if I get a couple of years under my belt doing basketball and football I can develop a port' that I can show to some of the college teams around Indy. When you approach a SID and ask about shooting for the school, you better have something that will catch his eye and make him want you.
You build up a name, maybe get a few SI shots and somebody calls and wants you to do an NFL or NBA game.
Who knows maybe another hs will contact me and want to buy my services.

[Steiny]

I wanted to offer my two cents on getting credentials to pro sporting events or any other type of events. Here is what happened to me in 2003. I wanted to get credentials to a specific event but I am not going to say which one because I do not want too much away.

I contacted my local newspaper since I know the sports editor pretty well and asked him what the possibility would be of getting a press pass from them for this event. He explained that they do not issue press passes but probably the event had a press coordinator that would give the approval. What I was really looking for is would the local paper back me up. What the sports editor of the paper told me was that he was ok with me doing that, but I would have to do all the legwork getting the approvals and all and he would have to run it by his boss to make sure everything was ok.

So I went out researching what I needed to do to get credentialed. I went to one site that I thought was the right one and submitted information putting down the local paper as a contact as well. It turns out that I went to the wrong site since this was a special event. So I went to the other site and filled out the same infomation as well as sent them a picture. I ended up getting email approval from both organizations which really surprised me.

So I then went back to my local sports editor to tell him that I got approval. Bad news he told me, while he was ok with me going and shooting, his boss was not ok with it. I asked him what I was supposed to do now since I had already got approval. He said go anyway and have a good time shooting pictures. I asked the sports editor if at any time did either organization contact him via fax, email, telephone call or via a letter. He said no, he was not contacted by anyone at all on this.

Essentially I could have made everything up and got approval. I have to be honest, with all the stuff with 9/11, this was pretty alarming.

In a nutshell, I showed up at the press tent as per the email directions, showed them ID, picked up my press pass and went to the game. The press pass was good at a number of venues across the county had I chosen to do so. I only shot at the one event and got about 400 pictures. I did email the local sports editor about a 1/2 dozen shots that night in case he wanted to run them. He never did.

In summary, what I say is ask your local paper. Maybe you know someone who can give you approval to make things happen. What I have found out since then is that each event has its own governing body so to speak that you have to get the proper credentials. I would imagine top pro sporting events may be pretty tough to get approval for, but there might be less spotlight events that you can get into.

One of the benefits of the situation I was involved in was that as I said before there were two organizations that I applied for press credentials for, one of them being the wrong one, the other one being the right one and event specific. The first organization that I applied for still has me in their database and I can log in and when ever they have an event, I can request a press pass. I have not done it yet since nothing has been close in my area that I want to go to but you can bet when there is something in my area, I will go.

Anyway, that was my experience.

[IndyJeff]

Congrats steiny, you beat the system. It is not impossible to do but, the more high profile the event is the harder it will be to get credentials. Even tho I have an IRL hard card I must have a legitimate source that I am working for. Usually the track wants something on company letterhead faxed to them.

The important thing about steiny's story here is, you never know until you try.

[Persian-Rice]

These are some great experiences and tips being shared.

Just from reading these, I think it is more important to try to get some credentials to lower level events rather then pro stuff. As Jeff stated, you need to build your way up. Even for many Pro's its almost impossible to get creds for big name leagues and teams.

Going after the smaller fish not only greatly increases your chances of getting creds, but its still professional level stuff. Whether you drive in the F1 series or you drive in Fran-Am(Formula Renault) doesn't really matter, you are still a professional race car driver........

By going after smaller fish, not only do you get the experience of being in a professional racing environment and photographing real race cars, but you have the opportunity of building a portfolio of spectacular shots. Chances are you can even build some friendship with these teams, since they are umm more homegrown you can say. That can get you places in the future, especially if some of these driver start making their way up.

You can apply this to all sports..........

Cheers.

[AzzKicker]

I have a question....



What if your shooting from the stands, like as a fan and then want to sell the images to friends and family of the player? Do you have to get some type of release form or written permission from each player? How do the legal issues work.


EXAMPLE: I go to a High School football game, take a bunch of photo's, put them on a website or something. Am legally able to sell the photo's ?

[IndyJeff]

AzzKicker, if you take shots from the stands and sell them then they come under the heading of "commercial use" and you would need a release.
However, if your selling to the parents or players more than likely nobody will complain.

If your selling photos of a professional event such as a race or footbal/basketball/baseball game, get a lawyer. Your gonna need one if they find out and believe it or not, big time sports are hiring private detective agencies to surf the internet looking for illegal sales. The IRL hired a guy outright just to keep an eye on eBay specifically.

[timmyquest]

I am not trying to discourage you, just painting a picture of reality. You want to shoot football? Let me give you a suggestion on how to get started. Go to your local high school and see the coach. Take any kind of a sporting portfolio you can put together (8-12 shots will do) and ask him if they need someone to take pictures for their website. His response will be that they don't have any money to pay you. Fine, you will give them 10-15 images from each game in low res to post on their site. In return you will set up a gallery where the players and parents can go and view or purchase pictures from each game. That is how you will be paid for the coverage you give them. If you get this gig, contact the local paper and let them know you will be shooting Central High's football games this fall and want to possibly submit images from games on a freelance basis. Just don't send them an image every game, make it a spectacular shot, a diving game winning TD or something will impress the PE. Tell him if they need a shot of a certain player, let you know and you will get a shot for them, discuss pricing before hand tho.
If you have any questions you can PM me or email me or post it here.

Thank you so much for this information...