I have been shooting sports photography for the local newspaper for the last three years.  I have been doing it on a contracted per-assignment basis.  They call me when they need me.  The work is mainly local high school and college sports.  In the sports arena, I have covered football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, track & field, soccer, swimming, and lacrosse.  I have met a lot of great people and I have had a fantastic time doing the work.  I have learned a lot about one of the most difficult types of photography.  Sports photography is no cake walk.  It’s a constant battle between the photographer, the subject, and the elements.  Sports photography, by far, is the most challenging photography work I have ever done.  I believe that challenge is what compelled me to do it in the first place.  It wasn’t about the newspaper.  It wasn’t about making a hero or two at the local high school after each assignment I shot.  It wasn’t about filling a kid’s scrapbook with memories.  It wasn’t about cakes and cookies that showed up at the newspaper office with my name on it from thankful sports moms.  It was about learning and becoming effective at capturing the right shot.  All those other things were certainly nice though.  I have learned a new skill. 

On July 30th, I’m putting sports photography behind me.  I’m taking a different part time job that will suit my finances a little better while I’m in school.  I won’t like the job as much, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and do what you have to do to get where you wanna go :)  There might be an occasional newspaper assignment available for me on nights I’m not working the new job, but those will be rather rare since I expect to be working most Friday nights during the week. 

The good side of leaving sports is that I’ll spend more time on my original passion in photography, which is the artistic portion of the craft. 

So… you won’t likely see much more of me getting mowed over on the football sidelines, camped out on the baseline at a basketball game, or looking for a larger hole in the chain link fences at baseball fields :)

Photojournalism, Sports