Jared Wickerham is a successful, young freelance sports photographer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania working for Getty, The New York Times, ESPN, Sports illustrated, and many other publications and corporate clients. In this edition of his “The Art of” column, he discusses the importance of internships.

Apply, apply, apply.

Anyone who has applied for an internship will tell you how hard they are to get. Sometimes though, it’s not so much about your portfolio as it about the intangibles. Let me explain…

Everyone knows how much talent exists in photojournalism and how many schools are churning out photography students (especially if you read the article about the school where I graduated from, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh). All of the best colleges and universities are having their students apply for internships. So how do you think you can win over the editors and photography departments of the respective newspaper/magazine/wire agency that you are applying at? By simply wanting it more.

I will use myself as an example here. I had three internships while going through school: Pittsburgh Pirates, Getty Images, and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. I know for a fact that the other students who applied for all three of these internships had much better work than I. In fact, I failed to get the internship with Getty the first time around. After working my butt off for a year and attending Sports Shooter Academy for a second time, I was asked to reapply and I did so with even more motivation.

Some are you are probably thinking, “Well, I’m not ready or think my portfolio is good enough for an internship yet”. Maybe you aren’t ready to get it THIS year, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply for it. You are not going to be looked down upon for applying for an internship earlier than you should. It actually can help you in many cases. Just like with the images you make – you have to do all of the little things to set yourself apart from the competition. So when the DOP or person in charge of hiring the upcoming photography intern every year sifts through the many applications and recognizes your name from the previous year(s), they are much more likely to set yours aside for final consideration because it shows your persistence.

For those of you who may think your body of work isn’t strong enough to nail an internship, think about this. An internship is your opportunity to take chances. As a young, student intern you are expected to make some mistakes. Learning from those mistakes is sometimes the best learning experience you can have. In my opinion, to be surrounded by a group of supportive veteran photojournalists in a real world environment will help you grow as a photographer more than a semester of any college course you might take.

Most internships will ask you to write an essay explaining why you think you deserve it. Even if they don’t – as was the case in one of my internships – send one along with your application and portfolio anyways. The mere fact that you spent time to write an essay and went above and beyond what they asked for will speak volumes in and of itself. Even more so if that essay expresses your passion for photography and your desire to grow as a photography intern, your chances of being picked go way up.

The one thing most students or recent graduates looking for an internship or job don’t realize is that how well your personality fits in with the company is often times the clincher. Even if it’s just for the possibility of steady freelance work, it’s important. If you don’t get along well with others, your talents may not be enough to save you. This is a small community – even smaller with social media. Your reputation will follow you wherever you go.

Although most internships are announced and made public on many online photography forums (SportsShooter, NPPA, ASMP, etc), some come from referrals by meeting the right person at the right time. If you put yourself in the right situations by attending workshops (i.e. Eddie Adams Workshop, Sports Shooter Academy, NPPA Northern Short Course), your chances for these opportunities are much greater. Another way to find internships and learn exactly what each is like is to read the blog of the students who have already experienced it. They will show you and tell you things that aren’t written up in the description of the internship. That student can also be a great resource to recommend you for the internship the following year as well!

All in all, apply for and do as many internships as you can. No matter where it takes place, I guarantee that you will come away with some of the best images and experiences of your life.

And as my favorite editor picture editor at Getty, Trudy Laltoo, always used to tell me before every assignment, “Don’t fuck up!”

Here are a few blogs of students from various schools who completed internships this past year:

- Joel Hawksley (Ohio University) – Seattle Times

- Patrick Fallon (University of Missouri) – Dallas Morning News

- Patrick McDermott (Brooks Institute) – Getty Images Sport

- Brooks Canaday (Boston University) – Moline Dispatch & Rock Island Argus:

Pittsburgh-based sports photographer Jared Wickerham shares his best photos from 2011.

First off, Happy New Year to everyone!
This year, I’m very thankful for my photography family. That includes everyone in Pittsburgh (to name a few: Pete Madia, Jeff Swensen, Justin Merriman, Stephanie Strasburg, Don Wright, Mike Henninger, Andy Russell, Evan Sanders, Chaz Palla, Matt Freed, Phil Pavely, Jasmine Goldman, Ben Filio, Pete Diana, Katyna and Barry Lavery, Jon Lisbon) as well as those abroad (probably too many to name: Al Bello, Robert Caplin, Justin Edmonds, Jack Megaw, Joel Hawksley, Rod Leland, David Bergman, Jim McIsaac, Scott Clarke, Sean Elliot, Daniel Berman, Hannah Foslien, Adam Vogler, Brad Mangin, Andrew Villa, Pouya Dianat, Rob Tringali, Andrew Weber).
And most importantly my family of picture editors, assignment editors, and photographers at Getty Images: Travis, Pancho, Mike H., Mike L., Brock, etc – I don’t know where I’d be without all of you!
I also owe a big thank you to all of my photographer friends who helped me edit and narrow down my final images of the year: Justin Edmonds, Joel Hawksley, Jack Megaw. You guys were all a huge help!
Looking back through practically every single image that I took in 2011 really helped me learn a lot about where I’ve been photographically as well as where I need to take my images this coming year. Viewing thousands of my own images was definitely quite the cleansing!
Over 100 assignments later, here are the best images to come out of my camera this year. Enjoy!

See more photos on Jared’s blog.

After 5 games and many more practices, my 2011 stint with Monterey Trail Mustang football is complete.

I settled into my home away from home in Elk Grove, CA August 2nd, exactly one month after I relocated from DC to Sac. I reached out to a number of high school football programs in and around Sacramento looking to continue my interest in documenting the sport at this level. Soon after my initial feelers, I got a call from head coach, T.J. Ewing. He thought my work was pretty cool and said he’d love to have me come out. So I did.

The coaching staff was awesome and the kids were an excellent bunch of hard working, determined and accountable young human beings. Although the team finished 4-6 and missed the playoffs, it was great to document their journey. Enjoy and see you next season!

San Francisco Bay Area sports photographer Brad Mangin shares some pictures he shot of the legendary NFL Hall-of-Famer Jim Brown 20 years ago.

I just finished another large update to my online archive, uploading 510 new captioned scans form old slides last week. I have a very short attention span, so I hire my good friend Dave Bonilla to make me awesome scans. He sent me this last batch on multiple DVD’s back in May, and I just did not have time to caption the stuff during the baseball season. Being able to add these beautiful 50 megabyte TIFF files to my online archive (powered by PhotoShelter) makes me very proud. I am doing all I can to take control of my images. I ain’t messing around.

Continue reading and see more photos on Brad’s blog.

Charlotte-based sports photographer Jamey Price snapped some beautiful photos at the Breeders’ Cup horse races in Louisville, KY.

I was given the opportunity to attend the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Horse Racing Championships held at the iconic Churchill Downs race track working as an assistant for Getty Images’ Rob Carr and Matt Stockman on November 4th and 5th, 2011.

During the moments I wasn’t needed to run cards or help make their lives easier, I took the chance to capture some of the racing action and other moments that were passing me by. Huge thanks to the Getty guys for a fabulous time! Work was never as much fun as it was that weekend.

See more photos on Jamey’s blog.

With the fall theater and concert season ramping up (and lighting design work taking a front seat for the next month or so), my photography work on the sidelines of high school football games came to a close this evening for the 2011 season — one that was quite enjoyable and yielded some very diverse images.

Perhaps the challenge of shooting 100% available light (I absolutely abhor on-camera flash for night football) in some of the worst lighting conditions imaginable is what keeps me excited about Friday night football? Perhaps it’s having a front-row seat to the best moments of student athletes’ sporting lives, most of whom will never play on another organized football team ever again following high school? Or, perhaps it’s the adrenaline rush of dodging a physical attack from a dejected football player (still in full pads) who realizes I’m photographing his upset teammates?

There’s one definite realization I solidified within my mind this high school football season, one that I would have rolled my eyes at just a few years ago, despite reading the same words from veteran photographers many times: You don’t need professional athletes as your subjects to produce professional, dynamic sports images. Just because Peyton Manning is in a photo doesn’t make it aesthetically or technically better than a peak-action image of a high school player you’ve never heard of. Don’t believe me? Here’s a few reasons why it’s easier to come away with great images from a high school football game (or any sport, for that matter):

For starters, the access is way better. Want to shoot from behind the bench as an offensive coach goes over plays in a huddle? Go right ahead! As long as you’re not in the way, chances are you’ll be able to get a behind-the-scenes view of the game that the fans can’t see from the bleachers. Try shooting behind the bench at an NFL game, and get back to me on how quickly your credential was pulled.

San Francisco Bay Area sports photographer Brad Mangin covered what he considers the most epic, extra-innings World Series game of his career…and this ain’t his first rodeo!

Holy shit. That was a good one. Epic. All-time. One for the ages. Best ever. Last night’s Game 6 of the 2011 World Series in St. Louis between the Cardinals and Rangers will go down in baseball lore as one of the most dramatic games in history. The Cardinals 10-9, 11 inning heart-stopper evened the Series at three games apiece and forced tonight’s Game 7. I could not be happier.

Entering last night’s game I did not want this fun-filled Series to end. We have not had a seventh game since 2002 when the Angels beat the Giants, and I desperately wanted to photograph a Game 7 this year. I was not ready to go home. I was rooting for the Cardinals, down 3 games to 2 entering the game, to win last night. Thanks to last night’s Cardinals heroics I got my wish.

Continue reading and see more great photos from this year’s world series on Brad’s blog.

Jared Wickerham is a successful, young freelance sports photographer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania working for Getty, The New York Times, ESPN, Sports illustrated, and many other publications and corporate clients. In his first edition of his “The Art Of” column, he discusses how his experiences and the importance of networking plays into beginning a successful freelance photo career.

Millions of people are photographers. Thousands have staff positions. And a growing number in this economy, including myself, are becoming freelance photographers.

Freelance photography is a two-part profession. The obvious part is the photo making part. The other half is where that same photographer must also become a businessperson who can successfully market themselves and their work.

There have been a lot of people who have talked or written about what it takes to be a successful freelance photographer. There is no right or wrong path as this is all still fairly new to everyone, including myself, but there are certainly things that have found proven to work. We all have our own personal experiences so I’m here to offer my own along with advice that I hope can help those starting out.

To give everyone reading a short back-story on myself and my experience, I’m an (almost) 23 year-old who specializes in covering sports in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. I’m a fairly recent graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. During my time in college, I was blessed with certain opportunities that I took advantage of including internships with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa) newspaper, and Getty Images in New York City. I now freelance full time for many clients including Getty Images and The New York Times.

When I first moved to Pittsburgh to pursue my degree in photojournalism, I started a job at a local restaurant cleaning dishes. Although this famous local chain paid fairly well, I couldn’t handle having a “normal” job doing something I didn’t love. After three days, I quit, and from there on out I knew that I would have to really hustle and work hard to pay the bills with my photographs. But in my mind, there were no other options and nothing else to fall back on. I essentially told myself that I would not work retail or in the food industry like the rest of my friends.

I also knew that starting out, assignments would not pay a lot and be few and far between since I had yet to establish myself. Since I was in college, I didn’t have a ton of bills to pay, which was the perfect way for me to start out. My photography would just be paying for my food and transportation. But I knew that six months after graduation, my mailbox would be full of letters demanding money from some woman named Sallie Mae (on top of rent, car payment, insurance, utilities, etc).

After becoming a SportsShooter.com member and regularly posting images from recent local high school and college sporting events, I received a phone call from an editor at ESPN. He told me that he found me via my updates on SportsShooter and asked if I would cover local high school football star, Terrelle Pryor, on National Signing Day. That phone call, three months into college, made me the happiest (and most nervous!) I had ever been! I have never prepared more for an assignment more in my entire life than I did for this. Even though it was just a press conference, I was going to have it covered from every angle. This was my first taste of the real world. I was hooked and I wanted more.

I see a lot of photography students only begin to take themselves seriously upon graduation. If you don’t take yourself and your work seriously, then why should an editor? The key to me not having to work a regular 9-5 job is because I started marketing myself while still in college. It takes time to make that transition to full time freelance. You can’t just wake up, quit your job, move to a city, and assume that you’re all of a sudden going to get a ton of freelance work. It takes time – so don’t get frustrated when you’re not immediately bombarded with assignments. The reason I’m able to pay my bills with pictures is because of years of relationship building and networking. And I don’t just mean just with established professional photographers either. Some of my best assignments (including one tonight as I write this) have come from other fellow recent photography graduates in the area who have another assignment that they’re already covering. The same goes for me if I am already booked on an assignment. That trust that they have in me to make the client happy and complete the assignment successfully is the reason that they call me. If I show up late or don’t produce images to the client’s expectations, it’s ultimately the photographer who referred me who looks bad. And they will most likely never receive assignments from that client, nor help me out, ever again.

I first created my photography website my senior year in high school. I also made sure to have business cards my first quarter at college (albeit poorly designed by my graphic designer roommate). Nonetheless, they had my information and a way to contact me. It was that lame website and poorly designed business card that I now have the amazing mentor that I do in Al Bello over at Getty Images. It’s the little things in your images that set you apart from the photographer next to you. The same goes when marketing yourself and looking for work.

Just because you specialize as a photojournalist doesn’t mean you can’t cover the occasional wedding or event either. I may cover primarily sporting events but in the past week I’ve covered just as many events as games. You’ll learn after your first year as a freelancer, which months are the slowest and where you need to work a little harder on picking up assignments. Those events earlier in the year can help get you through those months by putting aside some money for rent in case the work just isn’t coming in.

And finally, this may be cliché but it couldn’t be more true in the freelance world – what you put into it is a direct result of what you get in return. You are your own boss so you need to be independent and self-motivated enough to set aside time every day to email prospective clients, network with other professionals, and work on your portfolio.  At the same time you have a hundred other bosses that you must make sure are happy with the quality of your work as well. Don’t be afraid to be a go-getter, put yourself out there and take some risks. Be patient and don’t get discouraged too quickly. There is plenty of work out there if you know where to find it and are willing to work hard enough to get it.

Bishop’s Stortford-based sports photographer Dom Romney shot the Britcar 24 hours, a sports car race held annually at the Silverstone circuit in the UK.

Through out all forms of motor sport and in fact sport in general there are these little gems of events that although no the pinnacle of the sport do offer a really unique experience, wether thats as a driver, spectator or photographer.

Britcar 24 hours of Silverstone is one of these events. Its the only motor sport event in the Uk that see’s competitors pushing their limits for 24 hours, as a photographer that’s something that really opens up the opportunities to produce some unique work.

Continue reading and see more photos on Dom’s blog.

Charlotte-based freelancer Jamey Price photographed street racing in the streets of Baltimore.

“The American Le Mans sports car racing series circus landed in downtown Baltimore for the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix around the inner harbor on the first weekend of September, 2011. Despite a lengthy delay on Friday morning while the circuit’s construction was completed (yes as in it wasn’t finished in time), cars eventually took the track and the general consensus from drivers was that the track is demanding in every way, but fun, with a variety of corners and tarmac surfaces around the 2 mile street track. Dyson Racing’s LMP1 Lola chassis took the win after the 2 hour race which finished with the sun setting down the front straightaway giving the photographers lucky enough to be in the area some unbelievable colors to work with. A unique venue for sure and everyone is looking forward to coming back next year.”

Read more and see other photos on Jamey’s blog.