How To Become A Sports Photographer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a sports photographer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Paul Runyon Sr.

Do you desire a flexible job that allows you to meet different people from various walks of life? Then, you should consider becoming a sports photographer. With this, you can make as much as $50,000 per year.

Photography is the art of creating unique images by recording light either electronically or chemically. Photography covers different aspects including, landscape, sports, travel and tourism, wildlife, fashion, documentary photography, etc.

Sports photography is a class of photography that covers the different types of sporting activities. A sports photographer is a trained professional who documents sporting events by shooting quality pictures of such events.

You can register for training programs on shooting and editing quality pictures to be a sports photographer. You can then freelance by covering sporting events for free and sell your photographs to magazines or newspapers.

What general advice would you give to a sports photographer?

Paul Runyon Sr.

Associate Professor, Program Director, Website

The single most important thing that young photographers should do is to develop a good network of other photographers and industry professionals. Photography is a small field and having good working relationships is critical to success in the field. The importance of this cannot be overstated. In addition to the development of good networks the following list includes the other key things that we tell our young graduates to work on.

Build a strong portfolio.
Invest in quality equipment.
Develop a business mindset.
Market yourself effectively.
Keep learning and evolving.

ScoreSports PhotographerUS Average

Salary

2.2

Avg. Salary $27,958

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.5

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.21%

Asian 7.10%

Black or African American 6.42%

Hispanic or Latino 15.51%

Unknown 5.38%

White 65.38%

Gender

female 37.33%

male 62.67%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

4.5

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.5

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

1.9

Work life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a sports photographer

Explore sports photographer education requirements

Most common sports photographer degrees

Bachelor's

72.6 %

Associate

12.8 %

High School Diploma

7.5 %

Start to develop specific sports photographer skills

Skills	Percentages
Adobe Photoshop	20.12%
Camera Equipment	13.82%
Kids	8.40%
School Administration	8.10%
Digital Photography	7.53%

Complete relevant sports photographer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New sports photographers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a sports photographer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real sports photographer resumes.

Research sports photographer duties and responsibilities

Coordinate and manage providing and dressing the customers with old western costumes in preparation of taking their photos.
Create PowerPoint presentations and publication quality images using digital input devices, photo-editing and graphic arts software.
Mount cameras on tripods or stands, and load prescribe types and sizes of film in cameras.
Photograph children, families and pets with holiday backgrounds, on Santa's lap, with elves, etc.

Prepare your sports photographer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your sports photographer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a sports photographer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable sports photographer resume templates

Build a professional sports photographer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your sports photographer resume.