Intro

Working on assignment is different than loitering around “waiting for the moment”. This is true, in particular, for sport photography where you have to handle multiple issues at a time, most of them not related to the actual shooting activity.

While there are a lot of sources to drink from that hint about how to assemble and check the gear, which lens is better suited for the job and so on, a less fancy but nevertheless critical issue to be aware of is how to handle the logistic and administrative stuff.

Before the event

1 – Getting your media pass

a – Accelerate the shipping of the accreditation form to the organizing committee

Working for a (possibly printed) magazine helps a lot, but it is better to make the administrative people’s life easier.

Collect all the relevant papers and forms required by the organizing committee of the event, fill it as completely as you can and only then send it to the magazine head quarter. In some case, if you did it right, the editor-in-chief just need to put a stamp and signature on the accreditation form, and ship it to the event’s organizers.

Sometimes – especially if you’re a newbie – is better to ask first the organizing committee about its standard procedure (do the registration is an online process or requires a paper submissions? How many pictures of you are required? If digital, in which format, size and resolution? Is the journalist professional body ticket enough as identification tool or a State-issued ID is mandatory?)

b – Check-in with the organizing committee’s media people

Collect the phone numbers and mail/whatsapp/twitter details of the media people as early as you can. This will helps you later when an urgent issue arises and you can’t afford to waste time to asking “who you’re gonna call”? (no, Ghostbusters isn’t the right answer.)

Try to turn your name into a face (or at least into a voice). Call – or visit in person – the people in charge of handling your accreditation to be sure that everything is fine and then leave them alone. They’re much too busy in getting things done to listen at somebody who has nothing relevant to say.

c – Collecting the media pass

You will be informed once the accreditation is ready. Go pick it up as soon as you can because of three reasons:

• if there are some mistakes you have the time to fix it (once the organizing machine starts moving, every non-critical task will receive a low priority.) In particular, check for the areas you’re cleared for, including training and competition facilities, social venues, VIP lounges and so on,)
• having the pass at hand allows you to enter into the venue(s) when the crews are already setting it up. This is a great chance to take interesting and unusual picture,
• you have the chance to meet the security people in charge of the toughest job (crowd control, access monitoring, and so on.) and your broadcasting colleagues that are there to set-up their stuff. This will be of great help when, during the competition(s) you will not be seen as a “stranger” or a “problem” but as “one of them”.

— See part 2 Having your media pass working for you