Our First Press Conference
The students at the Auburn University Journalism Workshop met with Todd Van Emst, the photographer for all the Auburn University sports. Emst talked to the students about being a professional photographer. He also showed the students a lot of photos from the previous Auburn football season.
He gave the students advice about being a sports photographer. Emst told them that its long hours, but just on nights and weekends. He said the best thing about being a sports photographer is being around the sports. Also, he said that nights are harder to shoot pictures in then day. He said he misses a lot of the games trying to take pictures of it. Emst's favorite part is the challenge of getting the best pictures. " Other than shooting baseball, office work after being on the road for awhile," said Emst about the hardest thing about photography. He also said that photography is not that good of money, but there is more money when football is successful. He makes an estimate of $42,500 a year. Emst advised, "Don't limit yourself to sports and have a back-up plan." He also said not to get too mentally attached to what you are shooting and do not be too biased.
Being the sports photographer, he gets to go to everything involving the teams including: The Heisman Award Ceremony, The NFL draft, The White House to meet the President with the football team, every Auburn University sports event, the Auburn clubs with the coaches, and he rides to all the away games.
After every game, Emst sends his pictures to newspapers all over the country. He said that he only uses maybe 5 percent of all the photos he takes. Emst says he tries to cover a little bit of everything. He also said, "Being competitive in photography is a good thing." Emst thinks that the hardest sport to photograph is baseball.
Emst's most unforgettable event that he photographed was the BCS Championship game when Auburn won the National Championship.
He gave the students advice about being a sports photographer. Emst told them that its long hours, but just on nights and weekends. He said the best thing about being a sports photographer is being around the sports. Also, he said that nights are harder to shoot pictures in then day. He said he misses a lot of the games trying to take pictures of it. Emst's favorite part is the challenge of getting the best pictures. " Other than shooting baseball, office work after being on the road for awhile," said Emst about the hardest thing about photography. He also said that photography is not that good of money, but there is more money when football is successful. He makes an estimate of $42,500 a year. Emst advised, "Don't limit yourself to sports and have a back-up plan." He also said not to get too mentally attached to what you are shooting and do not be too biased.
Being the sports photographer, he gets to go to everything involving the teams including: The Heisman Award Ceremony, The NFL draft, The White House to meet the President with the football team, every Auburn University sports event, the Auburn clubs with the coaches, and he rides to all the away games.
After every game, Emst sends his pictures to newspapers all over the country. He said that he only uses maybe 5 percent of all the photos he takes. Emst says he tries to cover a little bit of everything. He also said, "Being competitive in photography is a good thing." Emst thinks that the hardest sport to photograph is baseball.
Emst's most unforgettable event that he photographed was the BCS Championship game when Auburn won the National Championship.