A Day in the Life of a Sports Photographer

Before the Game

Let's paint a picture for a moment. You’re a photographer for the Springfield Thunderbirds. You arrive to the arena six hours before the game with $5,000+ worth of camera gear, your MacBook Pro and enough coffee to fuel an entire Fortune 500 company. You get inside and immediately begin working on gameday graphics, pregame videos and promotional photos with the rest of the media team. You each focus on one task while bouncing your ideas off of each other. The team broadcaster is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The media room looks like Wall Street right before closing. Tonight is a promotion night which means the energy in the building will be high. You have only seen the beginning of what I like to call exciting chaos, or as most people call it working in sports.

Here are the @kfc Colonel's Keys to the Game as we take on the @AHLBruins in our annual Blast From The Past Night!#RiseUp // #SPRvsPRO pic.twitter.com/Z1d0Yh1Zdt

— ThunderbirdsAHL (@ThunderbirdsAHL) January 11, 2020

As time passes, the preliminary games begin so you head out to ice level to take some photos for the sales team. There are three prelims: one six-year-old game, one high school game and one adult game. The youngest kids are your favorite to watch since they provide an innocent factor to the game. They’re almost like little marshmallows with all of their gear on. As the marshmallow game finishes up, you walk out onto the ice to take a team photo. You have to be careful because the ice isn’t cut up enough to take it easy to walk on and there are 30 little kids zooming around the ice in every direction imaginable. 

 

Next, you head up to the concourse to take some fan asset photos. Even though it is early, the concourse is buzzing with life. The smell of popcorn and beer overpowers the rest of your senses. When people see your camera, they instantly ask you to take a photo of their family and share their email address so you can send it to them. It’s kind of endearing for people to want me to preserve important memories for them. You escape the hustle and bustle to quickly edit the photos you’ve taken so far and to chug the rest of your coffee. You’ll need it tonight.

 

Warmups

Since warmups are beginning soon, you head down to the player tunnel to grab some photos of the players getting ready to take the ice. Per usual, the goalie is focused, and the rest of the team is alive with energy. You can feel it radiate off of everyone. You head out onto the bench and wait for the players to enter the ice. During warmups, you have three objectives; 1. Capture any new players and jerseys, 2. Photograph any cool player interactions and excited fans, and 3. Do not by any means get hit with a puck. Not only has this happened to you before, but you ended up with a huge gash on the side of your head from it.

 

After surviving warmups, you head back to the media room to edit some photos. At this point, you’ve taken around 600 photos for the night. You somehow find a way to sort through them and pick the best ones to send to the media team. Let me tell you, Airdrop is your best friend on game nights.

 

Starting Lineups and the First Period

Muffled by screaming fans, you can hear the PA announcer introduce Boomer, the team’s mascot, to the ice. This is your cue to throw on your shoe grips and run as fast as you can to the bench. As you step on the ice, you have to be cautious of where the mascot is. Not only is his visibility low due to his costume but he’s riding around the ice on a quad. The last thing that you want to happen is to get run over by a bird riding a quad in front of 6,900 people. The starting lineups take the ice so you rush to photograph this as well as the National Anthem singer. You have to work quietly so that the audience’s attention remains on the singer. You cover the ceremonial puck drop and then rush off the ice to your photo hole. 

 

Photo By: Kelly Shea

Photo By: Kelly Shea

You take the cover off of your photo hole and immediately begin shooting. You must make sure to keep your lens outside of the hole so that it doesn’t get broken. The last thing you want to have to do is replace a $2,000 lens because you were careless. This period, you must focus on covering al little bit of everything: player isolation shots, celebrations, goalies and artistic shots. This will ensure the media team has a variety of photos. As the period ends, you run out onto the ice to cover the intermission dance groups. After this, you arrive back to the media room, pick your best 5 photos from the period, throw a quick edit on them and rush up to the rafters. This is your favorite location to shoot from so your anticipation is building.

 

Rafters

Shooting here is by all means the definition of insanity. You’re walking around on metal grates, which sway as you walk, that are suspended from the ceiling of the arena. You’re hundreds of feet above the crowd and the ice and you have to LEAN OVER a railing to photograph the game. You have to be careful not to drop anything at all. Even though you’ve shot up here hundreds of times, your heart always flutters when you take your first step off of the ladder. The photos are worth it though.

 

Photo By: Kelly Shea

Photo By: Kelly Shea

Photo By: Kelly Shea

Behind the Scenes of Shooting in the Rafters

The Rest of the Game

The second intermission and the third period don’t vary much from the beginning of the game. The main difference is the last minute of the period. Since the Thunderbirds are going to win, you head to the ice entrance to photograph the team celebration afterwards. As the final buzzer goes off, the arena is filled with cheering from fans. The song, Shake, Rattle and Roll floods through the speakers. You snap photos of the team’s celebration and the three stars. There’s no better feeling than working your tail off for a game and having the team win. You head back to the main office with the rest of the media team to begin working on postgame interviews, graphics and the game article. You can finally breathe. The game is over, the team won and you created some damn good photos.

 

Photo By: Kelly Shea

Photo By: Kelly Shea

Photo By: Kelly Shea

In My Own Words

Sounds crazy, right? Sports is one of those jobs where you have to give 150% at all times and you are completely drained afterwards. Despite being exhausting, it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life. Growing up, I played ice hockey and I knew from then that I needed a career where my work would matter and I could actively see the results of my success. The comradery in sports is unmatched by any other industry that you can work in.

 

I remember the first time the NHL used one of my photos. It was a social media post and a Podcast cover for the Florida Panthers. I cried. It’s one of those things that really builds your confidence and makes you fall in love with your job. All in all, I’m so fortunate to be a staff photographer for a team and to love what I do.