Sports Photography How To

“I got to Los Angeles four days before the ’84 Olympic games began, and at the gymnastics pavilion saw Glenn Sundby, the founder and publisher of International Gymnast magazine. I knew Glenn, and he’d been hired as venue chief for photographers. Not knowing he’d get that job, two years earlier he’d bought an arena ticket and had a front row center seat for the events. He gave me that ticket in return for use in his magazine of any photographs USA Gymnastics didn’t choose.

Australian photographer Cameron Spencer may have captured the most iconic image of the Rio Olympics yesterday.

One the most fun things I’ve ever done was to photograph the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in France. Of course, I was shooting it as an amateur with very limited access to the track, the cars, and the pits. And I did go back to the hotel to catch a little sleep at one point. (But it was still fun nonetheless and I got some great shots.)

Croatian national team players were understandably excited after forward Mario Mandžukić scored the deciding goal in extra time at the World Cup yesterday, and some photographers got more caught up in the celebration than they expected.

Professional sports photography for the editorial market is an endangered species. Unfortunately, a lot of it has to do with editorial clients turning away from the professional photographer to sports enthusiasts who are willing to trade their photos for season tickets.