A day in the life taking photos of a March Madness game in St. Louis
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- Drives four hours, checks gear, then gets hotel and secures credentials.
- Shoots pep rally, baseline game action, sends limited images at halftime.
- Edits, captions and FTPs photos postgame, then packs up after midnight.
First thing you should know about me: I love college basketball.
As a visual journalist for The Star, I’m sent on assignments that range from politics and infrastructure to portraits of people and food. But one of my favorite things to cover is sports.
I started this job in 2024 with zero experience photographing sports, and it’s been awesome learning the ins and outs of this realm of photography. I literally take any opportunity to cover a game, just for the chance to get better at what I’m doing.
So when my editor asked me to cover the Missouri Tigers vs. the Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball game in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, I jumped at the chance.
Follow along with my day — from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. — of covering a March Madness game.
What it’s like to photograph March Madness
I often start my day with a warm drink around this time of the year with a few sips in the sunrise to get my mind right.
Around 9 a.m. Friday, I began the task of checking and double-checking my gear as I packed and loaded up my car to hit the road. Four hours is the distance between Kansas City and St. Louis — the entire width of the state of Missouri. Snacks and entertainment are a must because it’s not the most visually stimulating drive.
Thank goodness there’s sunflower seeds and podcasts to keep me going.
Once I arrived at my hotel room around 3:30 p.m., I dropped my clothes packed for a potential three-night stay — we booked extra nights in case the Tigers headed to the second round of the tournament — and headed to the stadium to secure my credentials for the evening game.
The 15-minute walk to the stadium was beautiful, the weather a balmy 90 degrees — a good 40 degrees above average for March. I’m not complaining.
With credentials secured around 5 p.m., I headed to my next destination: Ballpark Village, where a host of Mizzou Tigers fans would gather for a pregame pep rally complete with beers, basketball and the Mizzou Tigers mini-marching band.
Mizzou fans seemed somewhat enthusiastic but realistic about the chances of their underdog team competing with the visiting Miami Hurricanes. A few thought the team would perform well. Most thought it would be a good game. And several were just happy the home team got a “home” game in the tournament this year — which hadn’t happened since 1982.
After chatting it up with several fans, I headed back to the stadium to get ready for the game, which was scheduled to start at 9:15 p.m.
Food was the first matter of business as I grabbed a basket of stale chicken strips and fries to sit down and send my first batch of photos and videos from the pep rally. The taste of the food doesn’t matter as much as getting it in your body — because eating later wasn’t an option that night.
As I sent photos of fans, I kept an eye on the time because with these tournaments, the games can often seem to run together.
Now, game time
Around 9:30 p.m, I found my spot on the baseline and posted up between the band and the court, earplugs snugly in. The game began and Missouri started out shaky, allowing Miami to get out to a double-digit lead early. Missouri had a couple bright spots, with point guard Anthony Robinson II cutting the Miami lead to single digits just before halftime.
After a pre-game chat with my colleague Vahe Gregorian, I keep my eyes trained on a few standout players and Missouri’s head coach, who has a peculiar pregame ritual.
Halftime is just 15 minutes. During that time, I furiously send in what few images I can before heading back out to the court for the second half.
The Tigers came out with fire, briefly holding a two point lead early in the second half before Miami regained control of the game and defeated the Tigers 80-68 to move on to the next round. The fans filed out of the stadium as the players themselves held their heads down in defeat.
Now the “work” begins.
I head into the workroom and begin marking and ingesting the photos I’ve selected throughout the game into a story folder in The Star’s backend system. I try to select photos that tell the story of the game, like images showing how physical the game was for Mizzou standout Mark Mitchell against the front line of the Hurricanes.
Some photos need a little attention, so I opened Adobe Lightroom for some light retouching. Once exported, I begin the captioning process for each photo, being sure to be accurate with dates and player names.
Then photos are sent via FTP directly to my editor, who places the photos into stories that are already mostly written by the end of the game, thanks to the stellar work of our award-winning sports writers at The Star.
At 12:30 a.m., I packed up my gear and grab one last bag of chips — the last bit of food I would have for the day.
My day started at 9 a.m., and wrapped up at 12:45 a.m. the next day. A long day, but I relish the moment I can walk out of the stadium and see the Gateway Arch down the street.
At one point in my life, this would be unheard of. I’ll never take this for granted.
