The two jobs on a sports booking
A sports club booking is two jobs wearing one invoice. The portrait set needs even light, a plain background and everyone standing still for six seconds. The action set needs whatever light the weather gives you, a long lens, and players who have stopped noticing the camera entirely. Different kit, different half of the day, different skill.
Ask a committee which set they’ll still be using in five years and most guess action. Wrong. The portrait goes on the clubhouse wall, in the programme and on the website’s “meet the team” page, then gets reprinted for three seasons running. The action shots get posted once and scrolled past.
I run the portrait first, always, and I’ve written before about how an event shoot runs hour by hour if you want the fuller version. Sport is the same shape, just muddier.
The team portrait, done in eight minutes
Eight minutes, not twenty. Before kick-off, not after. Nobody is sweating, nobody is sulking about a missed chance, and nobody is already halfway to the car park with their boots half undone.
Formation by squad size
Under sixteen players, three rows works: kneel, stand, stand, with the tallest players at the back corners for symmetry. Over twenty, I split into two shorter rows either side of the goal, or seat the squad on the grass with staff standing behind.
Running order
Stand with your back to the touchline, not into it. Touchline light in England is flat and grey nine months of the year, which is a gift for group portraits, with no harsh shadow cutting across half the row. Socks up, kit straight, sponsor board angled so it reads in frame. The coach who wants to stand in the middle can, but I’ll usually push them to one end so the captain reads as captain.
This kind of group and action work sits right next to the match shots in the finished gallery, which is the point. One booking, two very different sets of pictures.
What each fixture allows
Every fixture and venue sets its own limits. This is roughly what I can promise, and what no lens will get you, across the sessions I photograph most often.
| Fixture or session | Where I can stand | Lens and shutter I use | Frames I can promise | Frames I cannot get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday junior football, Hackney Marshes | Touchline, pitch-side | 70-200mm, 1/1000s | Portrait, challenges, celebrations | Wide pitch views without a long lens |
| Floodlit midweek match | Behind the goal or halfway line | 70-200mm at f/2.8, ISO 6400, 1/500s | Tackles, saves, crowd reaction | Clean, noise-free frames in the far corner |
| Indoor netball, sports hall | Baseline, outside court markings | 24-70mm, 1/320s, flash off the ceiling | Shooting circle action, huddles | Wide-court shots in a low-ceilinged hall |
| Swimming gala | Poolside, behind the blocks | 70-200mm, 1/800s | Starts, turns, finishes | Underwater frames, backstroke faces |
| Track meet | Trackside at the bend, or finish line with accreditation | 70-200mm, 1/1000s+ | Sprint finishes, baton changes | Every lane in one frame over 400m |
| Rugby in the rain | Touchline, weather-sealed body only | 70-200mm at f/2.8, 1/800s | Rucks, line-outs, mud | Clean lens glass by the second half |
| Cricket in July | Boundary rope, square of the wicket | 300mm, 1/1000s | Bowling action, close catches | The exact moment of bat on ball |
| Martial arts grading | Mat-side, seated | 24-70mm, off-camera flash | Gradings, bows, belt presentations | Fast throws without a strobe rig |
| Crit, Herne Hill velodrome | Track centre, marshal permitting | 70-200mm, 1/1000s | Bunch sprints, banking shots | Every rider in a forty-strong bunch |
None of this is a complaint. It’s the job. A club that knows what is possible before the whistle goes wastes less of the two hours arguing over a shot list that was never realistic.
Photographing under-18s
Most of my sports bookings involve under-18s, so this section matters more than the portrait formation does. I hold an enhanced DBS check and will send a copy before the day if the club asks, which good clubs always do.
A written safeguarding policy should sit alongside that: who the images are for, where they will be published, and who signs off before anything goes on a public website or social account. Your welfare officer should hold the consent list, not me. I photograph who is on the pitch; the club decides who gets into a public gallery.
If you’re unsure what your sport requires, ask your national governing body rather than the photographer. Rules vary between sports and change more often than people expect. None of this is legal advice, just what I ask clubs to have ready before I arrive.
Sponsors, kit and the images that pay for the day
The sponsor board matters more than most committees admit before the shoot, and more than any player will admit after it. I frame the team portrait so the board reads clearly, then shoot a second, tighter board portrait the sponsor can use on their own marketing. That second frame is often what gets a sponsorship renewed.
Presentation night is worth booking separately where the budget allows. Trophy handshakes, shirts held up, parents in the background. It photographs nothing like a match, and everyone involved wants a print of it afterwards, sponsor included.
Committees ask for the winning goal. Fair enough. But the image that actually gets reprinted, framed and hung in the clubhouse is nearly always the handshake, not the goal.
What it costs and what a club day includes
A single session starts at £350 for two hours, the same as standard event photography from £350, and covers a team portrait, individual player frames and match action for one squad.
A full club day covering four or five teams costs more, but works out cheaper per team than booking each one separately, since I am already on site and set up. Where the ground allows it and airspace rules permit, I will add drone photography from £400 for an aerial of the pitches, which most clubs use once a year for the website header and rarely again after that.
What the day includes
- Team portrait and squad photos for each side booked
- Action coverage across the fixtures running that day
- Files delivered within 48 hours, cropped for print and web
- Print packs available for parents to order directly
Parents buying prints is a separate, optional step. I set up a simple order link rather than handling cash on the touchline.
Team portraits earn more than action shots, and clubs get this backwards
Committees brief me for the magazine shot: the diving save, the overhead kick, the moment of contact. Then they sell forty prints of the team portrait and maybe three of the action set. I’ve watched this happen at enough clubs to stop being surprised by it.
The portrait sells because parents buy pictures of their own child, clearly visible, smiling, in focus. An action shot with their child as one blurred figure among twenty rarely sells at all, however good the composition. The clubhouse wall wants the portrait too, not an action shot nobody can identify at a glance.
I’ll concede the exception: a cup final, a promotion decider, a once-a-season match where the story is the result, not the squad photo. Budget properly for action coverage there. Most Saturdays, though, spend the money on getting the portrait right and treat action as the bonus set, not the brief.
Tell me the date, the postcode and roughly how many teams need covering, and I’ll book a club day for you. I reply within one working day.