Guide to photographing large high school sporting events
Recently, I was able to photograph Washington state’s largest high school sporting event: Mat Classic. More than 1,000 wrestlers converge at the Tacoma Dome for the state wrestling championships, as all classifications compete at the same time under one roof. It’s one of the best spectacles in high school sports, and my favorite sporting event as a photographer. After 11 consecutive years covering Mat Classic, I’ve learned how to work efficiently and get the most out of the weekend for both me, and my clients. Here’s a guide in how I approached Mat Classic XXXV:
1. Booking Clients
About a month before the event, I start reaching out to media outlets around the state informing them that I plan on being there to photograph the event. These are all clients I’ve worked with before so they know me well and anticipate me contacting them asking if they need coverage. In this initial email, I remind them of my experience with the event, give them my freelance rates and what they will receive for that price point.
Typically, most editors will respond to me within two days and often say they haven’t planned that far ahead yet but will keep me in the loop with the plans going forward. I usually remind them that I am talking with multiple outlets and it’s a first-come, first-served ordeal — whoever books first has top priority on event day. Realistically, I know I can photograph for about four outlets, depending on what each needs. I can put together two fully captioned galleries, one partially captioned gallery and then a smaller package of 6-8 selects. It usually works out to about 100 cropped, color corrected and delivered images per day.
About two weeks before the event is when clients start finalizing booking me for the event, registering for credentials and confirming the list of schools in their coverage area and what they want from me each day. I make note of each one in a notebook or legal pad along with the rates they’ve hired me at and any deadlines that need met.
2. Preparation is key
Honestly, the most taxing part of the weekend is the prep work I do to make the event day run smoothly. I make a list of all the schools I am shooting and all the wrestlers that belong to those schools. I sort them by classification and weight class and color-code them to each outlet I’m working with. I call this my “cheat sheet”, because I print it and carry it with me at all times on event day. So when I’m looking for which of the 24 mats I need to be at, I know which wrestlers are priority, what weight class they’re in and what school they’re with.
I then go in and make a code replacement list for Photo Mechanic for each wrestler on the cheat sheet. This way, I don’t have to type in the wrestler’s name in the caption on event day multiple times, and there’s less risk of spelling it wrong under the stress of a long day. It’s time consuming originally, but makes things so much quicker on event day.
And finally, as I do before any event — whether it’s weddings or a senior session — I clean my gear, charge my batteries and load my pack up with everything I need, including snacks and water. (Don’t forget an extension cord and power strip! You will be a hero in the media room if you do.)
3. It’s showtime!
When it comes to event day, I try to get to the Tacoma Dome about an hour before wrestling starts to set up my gear and laptop, load Photo Mechanic and Lightroom and review the cheat sheet to formulate a plan of attack for the day.
Mat Classic started using TrackWrestling a few years back so you could follow all 24 mats on your phone and know when and where certain wrestlers will be competing. This makes keeping track of things once out on the floor easier, but I still like to have an idea of which order I will try to capture as many of the wrestlers on my list as possible. This year, I had 184 wrestlers on my cheat sheet. I ended up photographing more than 100 of them in a six-hour period of shooting on the first day of the two-day affair.
I carry a Nikon D4 and a Nikon D810 on a Holdfast Moneymaker dual strap harness. The D4 has a 70-200, 2.8 Nikon lens on it, and the D810 a Sigma ART 24mm lens. When I hurry over to a mat and take a seat (on the concrete!), I first look for a clean background. I want at least one basic clean shot of the wrestler I’m photographing and then I will start looking for more interesting frames.
On the first day, I like to shoot straight through the quarterfinals, which tends to be about six hours consecutively. On championship day, I will photograph the semifinals in the morning and start culling and editing those photos before third-place matches begin. I use the third-place matches to capture anybody I didn’t get a chance to the first day and a half. Once finals start, I will have a prepared list of which matches I’m shooting at each weight class and due to how the WIAA runs the finals, there’s ample time to get between each of the seven championship mats for each weight class.
A tip for finals: wrestlers usually celebrate toward their friends and family first, then toward their coaches. When they are waiting for their match to start, watch where they’re looking in the crowd, that’s usually where their family is sitting. Use this information to guide where to set up for each match for the best celebration shots.
4. Culling, Editing and Delivery
Outlets want to get their photos online quickly, so efficiency matters once you sit down to edit. I use PhotoMechanic to cull photos to just the best shots, using a star system. Then I will color code the photos based on outlet. I quickly caption the photos in PhotoMechanic using code replacements to speed the process. This year, I snapped about 4,000 frames over two days and delivered 225 edited photos. Most outlets don’t want or need large galleries; a 30-image gallery is usually suitable so I try to deliver just the best photos.
Once captioned, I open them in Lightroom, where a preset I have set up (after hundreds of hours photographing inside the Tacoma Dome) will import, color balance and adjust for highlights and shadows. Then all I have to do is crop, adjust exposure and export.
When my laptop is running smoothly, this process takes about 60-90 minutes to cull, caption, edit and deliver all photos to outlets. When I get home, I will try to make a social media post with some of my favorite images for the day and pat myself on the back for another year covering the best sporting event in Washington state high school sports.
