By Victoria DeVito ’27
Snapping away on the sidelines of the pool, fields, track, and court, student sports photographers point their lenses to capture special sporting moments throughout the seasons.
Garrett Curtis ’24 picked up photography during the pandemic using his father’s old camera. After photographing the football game during Deerfield Day in 2021, Curtis discovered his love for sports photography. He particularly enjoys shooting soccer and basketball because of the action-packed games and the basketball court’s good lighting, but his favorite photo was taken at the pool. “My favorite photo that I’ve taken is of Ryan Liu [’26] swimming butterfly,” he said. “All the water droplets are in the air, and the lighting is really nice.”
Ethan Cheung ’27 also favors action shots. “For my very first lacrosse game, I shot a picture of my good friend. He was going up for a shot, and you can see the ball kind of set in the pocket,” he described.
Cheung began sports photography last year at his previous school’s basketball game. “It was my first time ever shooting sports, so I just turned on the high-speed mode of my camera and started rapid firing. I realized how much fun it was capturing moments frozen in time,” he said.
Requiring much practice to develop skills and technique, Chris Joseph ’25 embarked on his sports photography journey while taking the course, Digital Photography I, at Choate.
“When shooting games, there’s a couple things we look at: One is shutter speed, which is how fast the shutter closes, and that determines the amount of light that the camera takes into the photo,” Joseph said. Sports photographers adjust the shutter speed depending on their subject’s speed. According to Curtis, developing techniques for good lighting took years of trial and error.
With dual roles of sports photographer and Football Manager, Ella Qu ’24 often photographs outdoor games, which poses a challenge because of unpredictable weather and lighting. “You might start off when the sun’s strong at four p.m., but when the game starts ending at six, the sun’s gone down. In photography, you always have to be adjusting,” she said.
Qu runs the football team’s Instagram account, @choatefootball, in addition to taking photos for the team. “It’s one way to display our program and attract attention for new talent around Connecticut and elsewhere,” Qu said.
Curtis acknowledged that learning sports photography can be challenging initially. “It can seem kind of daunting, because you’re out there all alone on a field or on a court, and it feels like there’s pressure to do well,” Curtis said. “If you go into sports photography, you’re going to fail your first 30 games before you take a good photo.”
However, one of the many rewards of sports photography is connecting with people. “I realized that people really enjoy when I take photos and send it to them after the game. People enjoy seeing themselves in those photos doing things that they love. I think that’s just kind of an addicting feeling that I’ve come to love,” Curtis said.
For students interested in dipping their toes into sports photography, hands-on experience is the most effective way to learn. “The most I have learned is not through watching tutorials but actually going out to any game and getting your settings ready and just shooting,” Cheung said.
