[WillN]

April 2, 2013 at 10:38 pm

Hi Stuart,

While I can’t offer much advice as I am not a professional, I can certainly sympathise with you! I am in a similar position as yourself, having started photography in the last number of years and trying to break into a career, primarily in sports photography. I have tried applying to companies for experience and to newspapers etc for photo submissions but as you said, many do not even reply. I was lucky enough to shoot a match with one of the Sportsfile guys and hope to try and get some more experiencework with them in the future but as Gerry rightly pointed out it is very difficult for them in this financial climate to take on any more staff even if it is part time.

I shoot a lot of rugby as well because I played a lot myself and have a local club nearby but I think it is important to branch out to GAA and soccer in particular, as well as other sports so that you have a decent range of shots for your portfolio and gain a wider range of skills. I think the most frustrating thing for me at the moment is the inability to afford the really good gear (I would kill for a 400mm f2.8 or a 600mm f4!) because even though technique and vision is so important, a lot of sports photography does come down to the gear and it is difficult to get noticed when starting out without having capable camera bodies and some reasonably long telephotos.

The only advice I could give is to keep working hard and plugging away at it if it i something you really want to do. I can see from your website that you have some really good work behind you, just keep trying to improve all the time. I know I’ll be looking to apply for some media passes soon, even to smaller events, and if I have some decent shots I can show them then that might sway their decision. Hope this can offer you some comfort knowing you’re not the only one.

Let me know if you’re ever interested in shooting some matches or have any advice/questions, I’d be happy to hear from someone in a similar position about their experiences. In the meantime keep up the good work.

[WillN]

February 25, 2013 at 12:44 am

Agreed, number 3 is a great capture, great concentration on the face.

[WillN]

February 23, 2013 at 1:50 pm

Thanks Jodal1975, I’ve edited my original post to include them now. I was on the right track but I was posting the code in between the img brackets rather than putting it before. Let me know your thoughts

[WillN]

February 23, 2013 at 1:16 am

Thanks for the explanation Gerry, I did try that but they just keep showing up as links in the post. I’ll have another look for info on the site about posting images but as you say it’s not very clear

[WillN]

February 22, 2013 at 11:07 pm

I have them on Flickr Gortan but I’m not sure how to embed them in the post so the images show up rather than a link

[WillN]

February 22, 2013 at 9:22 pm

Sorry I wasn’t sure how to correctly post images into the post, anyone have any tips?

[WillN]

September 6, 2012 at 10:24 pm

Thanks, I’ll have a look into that.