Hi Everybody
Does anyone know how the photographers that you always see at sports events on TV get access, Is there some kind of Supreme Overlords of Sports Photography club that you have to be a member of or do you need to work for a certain magazine/newspaper/other media
Sorry if this is a stupid question but I have always wondered
So I get an early night and then someone asks "THE" question....
Rory, you've perhaps opened the biggest can of worms you've ever opened, bigger than if you worked in the quality control can opening department of a worm canning factory!
There are a couple of ways you can get access to the sporting events on TV. Between us on Talk Photography I think we've done them all!
I'll start firstly with your "Supreme Overlords club"...I might recommend a name change to that actually, I like it. One of the largest organisations for sports photographers is the Sports Journalists Association. They don't actually accredit you, but as a large organisation composed entirely of Sports Journalists and Photographers, they often have some handy info for you applying to events...for example, they reminded me the other day that accreditation for the 2012 Olympics opened last week.
Now, it should be mentioned that being a member of this association relies on you already being at the standard required for top-level sports photography, there are some requirements that need to be met before they'll allow you to be a member.
As for your question about how to become a sports photographer, as Andy has already said, it's the most competitive area of photography around...after all, who wouldn't want to sit on the touchlines of a World Cup final, for free and then get paid for it! As a result, you need to be producing consistently good images in all conditions and lighting. These images need to be captioned, edited, processed and sent off to your employer on a strict deadline.
That's just to be a good sports photographer...to be really successful, you need to be doing all that, and then looking for something different, a new perspective on the game and trying to find a way to photograph that, you also need to be satisfying your employers and whatever other demands they put on you (they may want one particular player, a sponsor may want shots of their adverts etc.)
So we've established that you need to be VERY good.
Now, if you want to get into this there are a number of suggested methods...
1. Get a job with a newspaper. This is perhaps the least entertaining prospect as in between football matches (which will always be fairly few and far between) you'll have to photograph cheque presentations and village fetes. Plus, jobs (especially photographer jobs) with a newspaper are like rocking horse excrement.
2. Get a job with a football club. This is the first of two "slow-burn" strategies. Firstly you need to get out to the park or sunday league boys, every week and photograph it (ideally posting some shots up here for critique) until you improve and can photograph a game with your eyes closed standing on your head. Then you can approach a club (ie. Elgin City - I'm not sure just how North East of Scotland you are - Scottish third is a good starting point) and see if they're interested. They may not be able to pay you, but you'll get into the ground and photograph the games. You then have two choices...you can either try and work your way up the leagues with different clubs or you can approach agencies, or...if your team is successful and gets promoted, you can ask for money when they've got a bit more - Ross County are a good example to follow here...they've had very quick success!
3. Get a job with an agency. This is very similar to the "get a job with a football club" approach...except it's an agency. You'll need to do the same thing with Sunday League stuff, but build a good portfolio to show agencies. Shots need to be technically excellent (ie. in focus, properly exposed) and show your best abilities as a photographer. There would need to be some celebration shots, some general action shots and some "context shots" and these all need to be in both daylight and floodlit. A commissioning editor needs to know they can get results from you in any conditions.
As Andy says, you'll get knocked back a lot, but persevere and you might get lucky! Oh, and don't go for the big agencies first...never run before you can walk.
If you've got any questions you can PM me (or any of the other guys who've chipped in here)...until we get a "sports talk section"...then it can be discussed in there!
lesson learnt though... watch for good strong barriers behind me in future...
