Express Action Sports

I don’t mean for like weddings or small stuff, but like sports photographers.
I took a class in photography last year, and I really liked it, but I dont have any room left in my schedule to take more advanced courses.

First thing you have to do is build a portfolio. That is, get out there and take pictures. If you want to do sport photography, photograph every kind of sport you can, and print out the best. Be really strict with yourself here, and weed out anything that doesn’t take your breath away.
Then approach your local newspaper and see if they’ll take you on a freelance basis. That’s usually the way you start. That means they will call you up to take pix when they are short of a photographer.
Or you can get out and take pictures of community sports, really good action shots, and see if the paper will buy them. Time is truly of the essence here — if there is a game on Saturday, they need the pix Saturday nite to get in Sunday’s paper.
Once they get to know you, they’ll begin to call you (if you’re good enough) and that gives you a line in to a steady staff job when one opens up.
It helps if you can do your own editing too — clean up a picture, and make sure it’s as sharp as it can be.
Good luck!

I’m just finishing up high school and would like to pursue this career. I snowboard, skateboard, kite board, long board, and have surfed before. I love extreme sports and would like to make it a career.
I love the thrill and would not be afraid to get into the action.

That’s awesome. I hope you keep this passion and continue to pursue this. Many give up. I, myself, am trying to be a professional photographer. Anyway, the first practical thing to do would be to get yourself started with a DSLR, the best the budget can get. Shoot everything you possibly can. Once you feel comfortable with a DSLR it’s time to move to more advanced things such as getting better lenses, understanding your style and working with it. Every pro-photographer has a certain signature-style. Just a tip for future purchases; you wanna buy telephoto lenses (fancy term for close-up zoom) that have low f stop. This will give you a great depth of field effect. There’s a Canon 75-200 mm (I think?) that costs about $160. It’s a great lens to familiarize yourself with zoomed shots. Needless to mention you’re gonna need a good tripod. Photography is an expensive hobby and you have to invest a lot in yourself in order for you to build a great portfolio for clients to look at. Start documenting your work in a free wordpress blog. If the budget suffice then get your own domain. It’s a fun journey.

Good luck, friend. 🙂