I Want to Become a Professional Sports Photographer

[Tee]

There's a member on here by the name of imagemaker. He does tons of sports photography. Look him up and ask him. He posts a lot so you should see his work in the forums.

 

[ginoo]

Cool, that's great for you. You were on assignment with a newspaper, not Obama's campaign marketing department haha.

Anyways, please leave as you have not helped me in any way. Cheers,

 

[imagemaker46]

Well the first thing I can tell you about shooting sports is that unless you are really good and even then, you won't be travelling the world shooting sports. You won't be making 100k per year shooting sports, most likely you end up less than half that. You're looking at spending between $25-35 thousand on gear. The majority of the photographers that cover the Olympics are working with agencies and they are supplied with the gear, many don't even own their own gear. It's not as glamorous as it seems. I've covered eight Olympics, and for the most part it's 20 hour days, up at 5am, on a bus and then sitting at a venue waiting eight hours for a race to start, no leaving the spot or you lose it, you pee where you are, go without food, and then wait some more. This is just a simple example. I've been shooting swimming for the past two weeks, up at 7am, the pool by 8:30, a two hour break inthe afternoon to work on the pictures, then back to the pool for another three hours of finals, and then back to working on the pictures for a few more hours. I could keep going on.

If you really want to do it, you'll have to start small, shoot as much sports as you can, different sports, even if you aren't selling stuff, you'll get an idea of what is involved. It's never easy. I've been shooting sports for decades, and it gets more difficult all the time, not the sports themselves, and I don't have trouble producing high quality images, it is becoming filled with the getty fast food garbage producing photographers where only the handfull of guys at the top are the ones that work the big events, all the little grunts end up shooting little league events for $50 a day.

 

[jamesbjenkins]

Cool, that's great for you. You were on assignment with a newspaper, not Obama's campaign marketing department haha.

Anyways, please leave as you have not helped me in any way. Cheers,

Junior, you may not have been taught this in Silicon Valley, but being a smarta$$ to people isn't the best of ideas under any circumstances, but ESPECIALLY when you're asking for help. This forum doesn't exist to serve you.

You have 9 posts here. 9. You are 17 years old. 17. If you want to be successful in life, learn it quick that you're not that big a deal. Stay humble about your abilities, or lack thereof, and stay teachable. NOBODY LIKES COCKY PEOPLE. Photographers, more so than most other professionals, have a really low tolerance for divas.

You should be asking questions, not trying to score zingers.

 

[ginoo]

Well the first thing I can tell you about shooting sports is that unless you are really good and even then, you won't be travelling the world shooting sports. You won't be making 100k per year shooting sports, most likely you end up less than half that. You're looking at spending between $25-35 thousand on gear. The majority of the photographers that cover the Olympics are working with agencies and they are supplied with the gear, many don't even own their own gear. It's not as glamorous as it seems. I've covered eight Olympics, and for the most part it's 20 hour days, up at 5am, on a bus and then sitting at a venue waiting eight hours for a race to start, no leaving the spot or you lose it, you pee where you are, go without food, and then wait some more. This is just a simple example. I've been shooting swimming for the past two weeks, up at 7am, the pool by 8:30, a two hour break inthe afternoon to work on the pictures, then back to the pool for another three hours of finals, and then back to working on the pictures for a few more hours. I could keep going on.

If you really want to do it, you'll have to start small, shoot as much sports as you can, different sports, even if you aren't selling stuff, you'll get an idea of what is involved. It's never easy. I've been shooting sports for decades, and it gets more difficult all the time, not the sports themselves, and I don't have trouble producing high quality images, it is becoming filled with the getty fast food garbage producing photographers where only the handfull of guys at the top are the ones that work the big events, all the little grunts end up shooting little league events for $50 a day.

Thank you very much... Really changed my perspective on sports photography. I still would love to try it out, though. I find it amazing you've shot 8 Olympics, even though it didn't seem that great from you.

Sounds like a dog eat dog world unfortunately.

 

[Ernicus]

The reason you were being asked to prove your credentials is because you came in here doing name drops. Naturally we would want to see your work. Not for you to "prove" yourself but because you dropped the names to add some sort of cred to your ability. So yeah, we'd like to see it.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I

I don't believe you are getting paid to take photos of Obama.......

Uh, you weren't specific about who he was getting paid by, so...........

Also, if you are going to enter a room with an attitude, you better expect it to be challenged.

 

[ginoo]

Cool, that's great for you. You were on assignment with a newspaper, not Obama's campaign marketing department haha.

Anyways, please leave as you have not helped me in any way. Cheers,

Junior, you may not have been taught this in Silicon Valley, but being a smarta$$ to people isn't the best of ideas under any circumstances, but ESPECIALLY when you're asking for help. This forum doesn't exist to serve you.

You have 9 posts here. 9. You are 17 years old. 17. If you want to be successful in life, learn it quick that you're not that big a deal. Stay humble about your abilities, or lack thereof, and stay teachable. NOBODY LIKES COCKY PEOPLE. Photographers, more so than most other professionals, have a really low tolerance for divas.

You should be asking questions, not trying to score zingers.

Ok... Sorry if I came out "cocky," I didn't mean to. I'm not going to point and fingers but you guys simply questioned my credentials and I showed you them upfront.

I knew this would happen, hence why I put that second sentence up on the first post.

Oh yeah, post count doesn't mean **** to me, and I'm sorry if it does to you. Age shouldn't matter either. Never said I was a big deal.

 

[ginoo]

The reason you were being asked to prove your credentials is because you came in here doing name drops. Naturally we would want to see your work. Not for you to "prove" yourself but because you dropped the names to add some sort of cred to your ability. So yeah, we'd like to see it.

Gino Troian Photography

Cheers........

 

[Ernicus]

I knew this bull**** would happen, hence why I put that second sentence up on the first post.

If you knew this bullchit would happen, maybe you should have approached it differently instead of putting up a stupid disclaimer that would only entice negative responses. Food for thought. ;-)

 

[Ernicus]

The reason you were being asked to prove your credentials is because you came in here doing name drops. Naturally we would want to see your work. Not for you to "prove" yourself but because you dropped the names to add some sort of cred to your ability. So yeah, we'd like to see it.

Gino Troian Photography

Cheers........

Sorry but that doesn't show me anything you did for money or that you were hired as a professional photographer for an event. Looks like shots from any fan with a little bit of photography knowledge.

 

[Ernicus]

I was not being rude, simply stating my thoughts on the matter.

You are aware that we can't just "leave" right, since we never "entered" to begin with.

Why is it the ones who tout maturity are always doing it in a non-mature way? Interesting.

 

[Haya.H]

I was not being rude, simply stating my thoughts on the matter.

You are aware that we can't just "leave" right, since we never "entered" to begin with.

Why is it the ones who tout maturity are always doing it in a non-mature way? Interesting.

My thought exactly.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

 

[jamesbjenkins]

If you're not going to give input on sports photography please leave... Please.

Is it really possible that the irony of your attitude and statements has escaped you? You joined this forum, what, today? And you're telling people who have been here for months and years, people who have shared their experience with countless new members such as yourself, to "leave... please."?

Maybe you've been coddled and whispered sweet nothings your whole life, I don't know. But, speaking as someone who was once as cocky and full of himself as you are now, listen to me. Humility is your friend here. You're talking to adults here, professionals and people with a whole lot of experience in photography who come to this forum to collaborate, to gain knowledge, to show off their work, and to hopefully help each other become better photographers and (if applicable) more successful businesspeople.

Go back and read your posts from the perspective of someone who doesn't know you at all. Wonder why you've received the response you did?

Now, ImageMaker46, myself and a couple others have given you solid advice. This is the part where you say "thank you for spending your valuable time typing out a few helpful paragraphs to me." Your attitude and responses are extremely childish. You will not be successful in photography with that approach.

I wish you the best in your endeavors. Enjoy your yearlong vacation in Switzerland. I hear there are nice things to shoot there...