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Photographing Triathlons - part 5 of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Published 01/08/2014

Simon White - The Volunteer Most professional photographers have no desire to give their work away for little to no gain, however, what do you do if you're thinking about adding another string to your bow and trying out sports photography for the first time? Simon White champions volunteering to photograph events for local grassroots sports clubs.

"Being able to try different things, when you're not under the pressure to deliver a professional product, can be a great way of getting practice in a new area," Simon tells me. As a member of BRAT Club - Birmingham's triathlon club - he volunteered to shoot photographs at events to give participants a memento of their experience. "Athletes don't choose to go to events based on the photographers who will be there, but they often expect there to be something. It's hard to attract professional photography businesses to grass-roots events as they just won't make that much money, but it's a great opportunity for a photographer who wants to hone their skills." In addition, having a trusted photographer who volunteers can be useful for the club itself when it comes to junior events that involve swimming, such as triathlons and aquathons, "There's a large perceived risk around photographers and child protection at sports competitions. It's great for a club to have a professional photographer on board who they trust and have a relationship with because it allows them to restrict and control other cameras at the event."

So that all sounds good for the club, but what's in it for the individual photographer who is giving up their time to photograph an event?

"Volunteering is about learning skills. Perhaps learning to use new software packages or workflows and maybe doing things differently to how you might normally do them." Treating a sports club like a mock client can be a good approach for solving problems in different ways. It's a useful intellectual exercise, but it's not totally academic because you still have an output at the end - a set of photographs for the participants and organisers," says Simon.

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