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A day in the life of a sports photographer
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Would anyone have any links to get an idea of a day in the life of a sports photographer?
I’ve never tried any sports stuff and would be interested to hear a professional view.
A blog, a story or book recommendation would be good.Hi Swordie
I know that markcapilitan is a member here and works with Grand prix http://www.markcapilitan.com/.. so maybe if you get in touch with him he might be help to give you more information ??
L
Here’s an article I was reading the other day about a Golf Photographer. Had to go off and ferrett out the link again…
And before you start claiming that golf isn’t a sport… *shakes fist* :-)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/5205212.stm
Take it easy,
David.Hi,
I seen my name was mentioned, so here’s a quick run through what a typical weekend is like for me at a grand Prix. Enjoy & Thanks for reading!
**
A race weekend in the life of a F1 grand Prix photographer.Thursday: I generally fly into most races on Wednesday evening, and Thursday is spent milling about the paddock getting portraits of the various people and drivers who might be about. The agency I work for send 5 people to each race – 4 photographers and 1 digital technician who sends all our images back. Every couple of hours of so, we give the techy our cards, and he goes through them and sends the images back to our office near Silverstone. Occasionally there’ll be a PR event that will I will need to shoot, but generally Thursdays are spent walking up and down the paddock.
Friday: Before the weekend begins, all the photographers I work with sit down and make a plan for the weekend, in terms of where each of us will go during the sessions, trying to make sure everything gets covered. There are 2 F1 sessions on a Friday, and I generally go out around the track for the first session and spend the 2nd session in a garage doing client work. After each session, I give my cards to our techy, and he gets to work on the pictures, while I go back to the paddock to do more portraits. We leave the circuit at about 7pm on a friday (we arrived at 8am).
Saturday: Much the same as Friday, with 2 more F1 sessions. I spend the 2 sessions shooting action around the track. At some races after the F1 sessions have finished I will have to shoot the supporting GP2 race also. If I’m not shooting GP2, I’m in the paddock as usual! Again leave the circuit at 7 or 8pm.
Sunday: Much busier than the other days. There are 2 supporting races in the morning which I may have to shoot. Otherwise its the paddock again. The F1 drivers parade is usually a bun fight with the other photographers and difficult to get anything nice, but it has to be covered. After that, if I’m shooting action around the circuit for the race, I will go out to my corner and wait for the race to start (about 1 hour before it begins). If I’m going to shoot the start from the first corner, I will wait to get on the grid to do grid shots of celebs and drivers and whatever! The grid is very hectic, and full of people and you get a great buzz being on it – not to mention trying to find Martin Brundle of ITV to get on live TV!! I leave the grid with 10 minutes to go before the start, and literally run to the 1st corner and hope there’s still a spot to shoot from. Then I shoot the race. For the podium I will either queue up (with around 50-60 other snappers) to do the traditional standard head on money shot, or I will get a ladder and try and do something different. After the podium has ended, I usually go back to our techy and help him out, going through all the race images – usually about 10 Gbs worth of stuff from 4 photographers. The race usually ends about 4pm, and we usually have to leave the circuit by 6 to get to the airport and fly back to the UK.
**Very interesting job. Are you in big pressure from your company? I mean, do you have to bring them always something exceptional?
Thanks Mark for that insight into your job. Hectic stuff. Do you get time to grab a sandwich or go for a pint? Thanks again.
Good link Dave. Thanks for that. It is a good read. And, I have nothing against golf! It’s a great game.
markcapilitan wrote:
The race usually ends about 4pm, and we usually have to leave the circuit by 6 to get to the airport and fly back to the UK.
**I don’t get it … where’s the glamourous life of an international playboy photographer part ?? :shock:
L
Roberto,
We have clients that require specific images, so I’m obviously required to shoot the types of images that they want. I also have to think about editorial. I am under pressure from my company at each race to produce the goods with regards clients/editorial. As I’ve been doing this a while now, I don’t necessarily feel a massive amount of pressure, but it’s there. I put myself under pressure to produce exceptional images…images that are different, memorable, whatever you want to call them. These don’t always pop up right in front of you and you have to work very hard to get them. But hopefully at the end of a weekend you’ll have a couple…or at least one :wink:
http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=2880 has some of my more memorable images of the last few seasons.Stunning shots Mark.. I LOVE the first in that series… yummmmm!!
Number 8 is just a frozen moments – terriffic stuff!!
L
markcapilitan wrote:
I forgot to mention freebie gear, freebie parties, and Monaco!!!!!!! :P
…and you are leaving this game to come home!!!!!!!!
Are you mad or whaaa?I’m sooo jealous …. I got the Canadian GP a few years ago .. The stand tickets I’d booked never arrived so the ticket company gave me replacement for the stand that’s right opposite the entry to pit lane ! Jean Alesi chucked his helmet into the section of the stand next to me at the end of the race when we all yelled happy b’day !
I only had a little olmpus mjuII zoom80 at the time, but I still got in-focus shots of every car in the race :D The markers for the entry to pit lane were a great spot to pick for knowing where the car would be & let me time the panning properly.
Much better than my dad’s efforts at a belgian GP with his SLR !!Of course he’s since been to the Oz GP with a brand new(at the time) Canon DSLR 300D so he got some decent pic’s then.
I did meet the FOSA crew on my flight home as well… the lads that do all the setup & camera work for the races.
I’ve done a couple of pitchside outings for the Munster Supporter Club last season. The first game I still had my film SLR, then I was pitchside again for the homecoming final game of the season and I had my digital SLR for that. All strictly amature, but still fantastic experience. And i’ve had my pics in the supporters club newsletter regularly. This year I’m also the photo editor for the newsletter so I get to pic out whose pic to use for each of the articles when the article doesn’t come with pic’s.
For the Rugby – You need to check in with the team press officer on arrival, get your vest etc.. check out where the TV camera men will be pitchside, check where the advertising hoardings are (you’re not allowed to block them) and then decide where your best spot for the game will be. There’s also usually a few required pic’s – half-time presentations, group shots of any visiting clubs (usually juniors). Obviously depending on the type of images you’re aiming for you will postion yourself accordingly.
Oh yeah.. it also helps to know who people are.. I’ve seen photo’s on the inpho site with players incorrectly identified.. and some have made it onto the irfu site without any correction to the identification.
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