How to get into sports photography?

I am interested into getting into shooting collegiate sports. I have no idea how to go about it though. Should I start with High School or try to get in with some D3 or D2 colleges in my area? How did you all get started?

Enroll at a nearby community college that has lots of sports(most are open enrollment and very cheap) take a few units on the college's newspaper. Most community college newspapers have no prerequisites and love to get photographers who are interested in covering sports.

That'll allow you to build up the portfolio.

I'm not exactly sure why you want to get into sports photography, is it just to say you're on the sidelines at the big game or trying to make money off it? If it's to just do it for the hell of it then it's useless, read this...

http://www.sportsshoot​er.com …ge_display.html​?tid=37247

If it's to make money at it then you really just have to be hired by someone, and there's not much of it going around anymore. Most colleges have a sports photographer on staff, they sometimes hire freelancers but not that often, that or they have students shooting for free. Magazines/newspapers have staffers and freelancers, the "big games' the staffers are always going to do. It's like anything and you have to work your way up. If you have no portfolio to show from any level (youth/high school) nobody is going to take a chance hiring you.

I would like to get into making money off sports photography. I currently shoot weddings and enjoy doing those but I have been longing for something else lately and the next area of interest for me is sports. Also, sports never was an option for me before since I had a 5D but have since upgrade to 1D II, 1D IIN and recently added a 1D III. I have lenses capable of short distance sports (basketball or baseball). To shoot football I would probably need to invest in a longer lens.

Honestly, I find it hard to make money in sports. Im a jack of all trades freelancer for newspapers, and sports is the hardest one to do time and money wise. Mostly HS sports, but I'm sure you would have to start there. For instance, I get paid per assignment - general, lifestyle, or sporting event. A football game could take me 3 hrs round trip plus editing. "Senior Bingo Night" is 45 minutes round trip - I give my editor 8-10 good frames and I'm good. 1.5 hrs total. I shoot many more frames for sports than "senior bingo night". Go home upload, edit down, - I'll bet I put 4 hrs into a game.

I rarely sell shots to parents or other folks - when they see my pictures in the paper they go right to the papers archive printer. And its not just me - every other photog I talk to on the sidelines shakes their head. Now granted, I have spent no time marketing myself. I do not hand cards to players or anyone else on the sidelines. In fact, I don't even talk to coaches or players. So you better come up with some sort of marketing plan once you get a job freelancing for papers or some other publication. Spend a lot of time handing cards before the game or something. I just don't have it in me right now. Oh and once you host a bunch of shots on your website, be prepared to deal with every single person that emails you or places an order that needs to be approved.

Not trying to intentionally discourage you, just tellling you what the reality is through my eyes. I tried getting picked up by other local web publications and they actually tried to get me to keep score and write for the same amount I'm getting now. Their pictures suck and their reporters run around with point and shoots. They know their pictures suck too - we joke about it..

Newsprint is dying a slow death. Parents are getting, or at least they think they are getting, the shots on their own.

You gotta have an in at the college and go staff.

-Tim

I can't speak about the college level but at the HS level, sales of action shots to parents will not make it worth your time. At one time it was worth it but sales tanked along with the economy. T&I is the easiest and most profitable but the catch is that the person who does the action shots usually gets the T&I job. I now limit myself to only home games and know that at least the team will purchase a slideshow and usually prints for the seniors. Although this year I had a soccer team and a basketball team call and ask me to do the T&I shots only and said they have a parent covering the games. Never worked for these teams before and I don't have a clue why the parent isn't doing the easy job also.

Shooting the T&I for a HS football team can be as profitable as a lower end wedding and takes much less time. You also don't have to deal with Mother of the bride or Bridezilla

Sports is very difficult to make a name for yourself and to make a living. Action photos just don't do as well as say T&I do, that's honestly where the money is. Problem is that's what is known as assembly line photography in that it's not the most creative in the world, many people hate it. Personally, I like doing it because the kids are usually fun to be around - having a teaching degree and coaching for 17 seasons with running clinics/camps, something I've always done so it's enjoyable. Especially when you do the same league over and over and get to know them a bit so can joke more openly.

The older the "kid" gets the less appealing the photos are to parents. Little League when little Timmy is first doing something they love the photos (after all EVERYTHING he does is SO CUTE!), when he turns 20 and is in college the appeal isn't there as much. First year in college playing may be a selling point, you'll always have "photo parents" no matter what level who buy everything. Marketing is a lot tougher though because you're dealing with the players, not the parents directly.

If you're speaking editorially you're entering at the wrong time. Every magazine/newspaper/web​site/etc. is looking for free content, and the last thing you want to be is "that guy" who gives his stuff away just for access. Again I refer to the Sports Shooter link where he mentions that, it's not a way to get a foot in the door and not a way to make a name or money for yourself. There's money out there in sports, you just have to find it and market to it.

Some other things...

I'll disagree with Mike though and say it's not easy to do T&I. For someone who's done it and knows, OK easy, but for others don't really think so. Sure the photography part is not the most thought out process, it's assembly line as stated, but to get quality results you need to know what you're doing and put some effort in. Most T&I I see out there is pure and simply put, BAD! If you look at what some people post in the sports photos section you'll cringe at thinking someone buys it. Most throw a flash on with no clue how to use it and go at it, snap snap, easy and done. I look back at when I did then compared to now and cringe at the thought people didn't complain about the results I produced at first. This is without mentioning the paperwork and what you have to do for the orders (unless you do them all online). It's a lot of behind the scenes work to.

Also, I am so sick of everyone using the economy as a crutch still! The economy is recovering, slowly, but recovering. Businesses are reporting record profits, people have more money to spend, it's getting spent as prices are being increased on products again. Everyone looks at one number (unemployment) and jumps up and down yelling the economy still sucks. Fact is the unemployment numbers are always the last to recover after a recession, check any in history and you'll see this. The only reason unemployment still sucks is the current no regulations on sending jobs overseas and the fact that all the tax plans expire, so businesses are keeping TRILLIONS in banks until it's settled. Small businesses though, NO more blaming the economy!

The first thing people cut in the recession is unnecessary items that they don't need, they get rid of the "wants". Some people I know stopped buying, but for the most part everything equaled out and never really lost much in sales during the recession on my end. However, I did some things to battle that like introduce products that parents can't do on their own (digital memory mates was probably the savior!). Raised my prices this year and sales are up almost 500%, every category but one improved - and that one has been bad through good and bad. Does it mean sales per game is booming, no it never will unless you're shooting something special - but all sales per game went up. Things are getting better, the economy is recovering/recovered. Still long way to go before we see the good ol' days of the 90's return - but it's there if you take it.

Another option is to start race photography. I started in July of this year I think. I am booked almost every weekend. I just started by emailing the race director(RD) around when they posted ads on running websites. Most 5/10k that are under 300 people don't have a photographer. Its an easy way to spend a saturday/sunday morning. I shoot, my fiance runs the race for free. We head home spend an hour or two tagging the photos, start the upload. I get a runners list from the RD, send an email blast out to everyone. Its pretty consistent with what you make. Interestly enough, smaller races that are 5/10ks make more than the half-marathons and tri's I shoot. Its usually the people who complete thier first race that want proof. It may be enough of a change for your for a while. let me know if you want to know more.

very smart! proof there are some little niches that you can specialize if your interested in.

ZXDrew wrote in post #11327779
Another option is to start race photography. I started in July of this year I think. I am booked almost every weekend. I just started by emailing the race director(RD) around when they posted ads on running websites. Most 5/10k that are under 300 people don't have a photographer. Its an easy way to spend a saturday/sunday morning. I shoot, my fiance runs the race for free. We head home spend an hour or two tagging the photos, start the upload. I get a runners list from the RD, send an email blast out to everyone. Its pretty consistent with what you make. Interestly enough, smaller races that are 5/10ks make more than the half-marathons and tri's I shoot. Its usually the people who complete thier first race that want proof. It may be enough of a change for your for a while. let me know if you want to know more.

Your right about the economy - it really has nothing to do with that. People have money. The papers just have limited budgets. I just had to beg for a double fee on thanksgiving morning football - they wanted me there an hour early for a team shot (I got too . Sometimes I think they want to see if they can get you to do it cheap. I give them good shots and good coverage - so I had a little leverage to ask for it - but I hate having to ask. Wish they would have just throw me a bone!

MJPhotos24 wrote in post #11327703
Sports is very difficult to make a name for yourself and to make a living. Action photos just don't do as well as say T&I do, that's honestly where the money is. Problem is that's what is known as assembly line photography in that it's not the most creative in the world, many people hate it. Personally, I like doing it because the kids are usually fun to be around - having a teaching degree and coaching for 17 seasons with running clinics/camps, something I've always done so it's enjoyable. Especially when you do the same league over and over and get to know them a bit so can joke more openly.

The older the "kid" gets the less appealing the photos are to parents. Little League when little Timmy is first doing something they love the photos (after all EVERYTHING he does is SO CUTE!), when he turns 20 and is in college the appeal isn't there as much. First year in college playing may be a selling point, you'll always have "photo parents" no matter what level who buy everything. Marketing is a lot tougher though because you're dealing with the players, not the parents directly.

If you're speaking editorially you're entering at the wrong time. Every magazine/newspaper/web​site/etc. is looking for free content, and the last thing you want to be is "that guy" who gives his stuff away just for access. Again I refer to the Sports Shooter link where he mentions that, it's not a way to get a foot in the door and not a way to make a name or money for yourself. There's money out there in sports, you just have to find it and market to it.

Some other things...

I'll disagree with Mike though and say it's not easy to do T&I. For someone who's done it and knows, OK easy, but for others don't really think so. Sure the photography part is not the most thought out process, it's assembly line as stated, but to get quality results you need to know what you're doing and put some effort in. Most T&I I see out there is pure and simply put, BAD! If you look at what some people post in the sports photos section you'll cringe at thinking someone buys it. Most throw a flash on with no clue how to use it and go at it, snap snap, easy and done. I look back at when I did then compared to now and cringe at the thought people didn't complain about the results I produced at first. This is without mentioning the paperwork and what you have to do for the orders (unless you do them all online). It's a lot of behind the scenes work to.

Also, I am so sick of everyone using the economy as a crutch still! The economy is recovering, slowly, but recovering. Businesses are reporting record profits, people have more money to spend, it's getting spent as prices are being increased on products again. Everyone looks at one number (unemployment) and jumps up and down yelling the economy still sucks. Fact is the unemployment numbers are always the last to recover after a recession, check any in history and you'll see this. The only reason unemployment still sucks is the current no regulations on sending jobs overseas and the fact that all the tax plans expire, so businesses are keeping TRILLIONS in banks until it's settled. Small businesses though, NO more blaming the economy!

The first thing people cut in the recession is unnecessary items that they don't need, they get rid of the "wants". Some people I know stopped buying, but for the most part everything equaled out and never really lost much in sales during the recession on my end. However, I did some things to battle that like introduce products that parents can't do on their own (digital memory mates was probably the savior!). Raised my prices this year and sales are up almost 500%, every category but one improved - and that one has been bad through good and bad. Does it mean sales per game is booming, no it never will unless you're shooting something special - but all sales per game went up. Things are getting better, the economy is recovering/recovered. Still long way to go before we see the good ol' days of the 90's return - but it's there if you take it.

Ghostfly wrote in post #11328028
Sometimes I think they want to see if they can get you to do it cheap

I just had a paper contact me about a photo they want to run, it's one of the biggest papers in the world and they said "no budget". I said no thanks, if you find a budget will send along a quote...all of a sudden a budget appears. Send a quote and they JUMPED at it, and no it was not low balled either of a quote. So you are 100% right!

MJPhotos24 wrote in post #11328330
I just had a paper contact me about a photo they want to run, it's one of the biggest papers in the world and they said "no budget". I said no thanks, if you find a budget will send along a quote...all of a sudden a budget appears. Send a quote and they JUMPED at it, and no it was not low balled either of a quote. So you are 100% right!

How do you value the photo? Any sort of guidelines?

I've now been at my website over 2 years, blogging and selling some shots through a photoreflect site.. and 2 months ago the once a week paper's sports writer (freelance also) asked for a few shots for his blog through their website. I joined Smugmug at that time (saves time over having to edit and re-upload shots the way photoreflect works) and then the editor started asking to buy shots.. and that's quickly turned into a freelance contract and the News Tribune (Duluth's daily paper, both papers are Forum Communications' papers) asking for stuff now also. Combined with the print sales to parents I'll be able to recover the cost of my new 7D in 3 months if not a bit sooner I think. Maybe I got lucky being in this area of Minnesota at the particular time I am?

Mike, you are absolutely correct on all comments. The SS post is a good one. A couple of added thoughts.

First, the public often does not know the difference between good quality and not. I was shooting a playoff game for a DI college about a year ago. The "official photographer" for the conference was there with a booth to sell pics. Lousy pictures, no cropping, but they sell. I am often struck that images that I would trash are purchased because they strike a cord for the purchaser.

Second, the proliferation of digital photography has allowed many to get "decent" action shots. You therefore must set yourself apart (contradicts point one). Depth of field, background, photo-journalistic quality etc. Develop a special and unique product.

Lastly, at sports shooter academy earlier this year a full time SI photographer noted the tough economic times for all doing sports. Many of the faculty also shoot weddings to make ends meet.

So do it if you love it and it is a true passion!

MJPhotos24 wrote in post #11327703
Some other things...

I'll disagree with Mike though and say it's not easy to do T&I. For someone who's done it and knows, OK easy, but for others don't really think so. It's a lot of behind the scenes work to.

Also, I am so sick of everyone using the economy as a crutch still! The economy is recovering, slowly, but recovering.
The first thing people cut in the recession is unnecessary items that they don't need, they get rid of the "wants". better, the economy is recovering/recovered. Still long way to go before we see the good ol' days of the 90's return - but it's there if you take it.

I'll somewhat agree with you about T&I not being easy. My first one seemed like a lot of work, It was for football and cheerleading. And there were some mistakes with orders (all corrected) Once I got a system down, it became easy. I'm now shooting them for 7 teams.

You're right the economy is slowly recovering but as you go on to say, people get rid of "wants" Unemployment has affected a lot of families in my area, where both parents worked and now only one does. I have been with these families for 4 years now and many were repeat customers. These families still buy the T&I packages but forgo the action shots except for what the team club buys for the seniors at the end of the season. The ones that do purchase action shots, have cut back the amount they spend. I just completed a volleyball season and a parent of a senior convinced the parents club to purchase a 20x30 poster for each senior. The parents of these seniors have purchased action shots in past years.

I'll continue to stick by my teams,as long as it takes, knowing that things will get better.