Above: The Paralympics by Patrik

During his stints with various martial arts, as well as hockey and basketball, he figured out that he loved being behind the camera as well, which led him to study at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Patrik’s affinity for sports, combined with his love of action and cinematic composition, inevitably led him to his current career.

He has repeatedly worked with Nike, adidas, Universal, New Balance, the US Army, NFL, Amazon and plenty more world-renowned brands. He has also photographed some of the world’s biggest athletes including LeBron James, Michael Phelps, Andy Murray, Christiano Ronaldo and a plethora of celebrities during his work shooting portraits in LA.

During the time Patrik started shooting for sports, the industry looked very different – equipment and technology were nowhere near where they are today, and most content was shot on film, which restricted the way sports looked for audiences. But he was always an innovator. Patrik has managed to combine his old-school persistence with a novel, open-minded view on sports in commercials and photography, to ultimately create his instantly recognisable, cinematic style, putting the athlete front and centre.

LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to him to find out the secrets of sports photography, what makes him click, and how he infuses sports with his own vision of beauty and strength.

Above: Patrik

LBB> Tell me about your childhood and how it shaped your interest in creativity and sports. Did you always know this is what you’d be doing? 

Patrik> Growing up, I was into all sorts of sports, I ran around trying out as many of them as I could. I loved watching all the sporting events such as the Olympics – these competitions always interested me but then, as I got a bit older, I became exposed to creativity. I started watching movies like Star Wars. I then wanted to pursue a career in movies but people kept telling me there were other, more secure ways to make money, so I got a degree in electrical engineering. However, throughout all of this, I never really stopped connecting with my creative side. I was photographing things by myself, learning how to shoot black and white, taking a couple of courses and overall just gaining lots of knowledge. 

LBB> Do you believe that your own involvement in sports throughout your life informs your filmmaking style and why? 

Patrik> Yeah, definitely. First of all, sport taught me not to be strict, but to be very focused. I have definitely brought that focus, and determination to succeed in the filmmaking world. My style has been influenced by sport as I love the intensity and the action. Even when I shoot portraits, I always want to try to highlight the athlete, find that edge to them. Whatever photograph or image I’m working on, from a megastar to just the regular dude on the street, I want to make them look incredible. 

LBB> When did you discover your love for the camera? 

Patrik> As I started to watch films, I was like, ‘oh, I want to do that too’. Then I got interested in fashion because I had been around a lot of it when I was a little kid living in Italy – my dad is Italian. I started seeing all this photography, and I wanted to create beautiful images. 

That was the beginning of my photography for me – shooting fashion. There was no talk of sport, but what I noticed when I was doing fashion was how cool it was, the way the models moved through the shot. It’s not about just standing still and striking a pose. I was interested in their movement. I liked to shoot them in action, rather than just having them standing still. This then led me to capture dance. I love it to this day. It’s just beautiful to see the dancers move through the frame. 

LBB> You went to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena – how did that change the trajectory of your career? 

Patrik> When I went to the Art Centre I had already been working in Europe – I worked in Sweden. I decided to go back to school, which was a little bit of a culture shock. What I noticed, by going back to study, was that I gained so much more in-depth knowledge about all the disciplines. I learned how to develop film, how to shoot properly, and [about] composition. These are things that I didn’t know or hadn’t learned about before going to the Art Center. 

I was still doing sports, but at that time I had stopped doing it on a grand scale because, after 10 years playing for the national [ice hockey] team, it had taken its toll on my body. So I just played for fun. To this day, I have suffered a lot of injuries, which still pop up from time to time, so I had to switch to golf – it’s way easier. 

It took a little while for me to find my focus – why and what I wanted to shoot. The Art Center was brand new in the US and I thought I was into fashion, however, I didn’t do any fashion there. Fashion was not that great in LA at the time, there weren’t that many big brands and so this is when I started to photograph celebrities. I got hooked up with an agent who got me work shooting celebrity portraits.  

Shooting for celebrities in the late ‘90s to early ‘00s started to feel a little bit boring. There were some interesting projects, but it was always the same – looking into the camera, beautiful lighting and so on; it didn’t feel new. There was a formula that most people used, there were some people who shot really beautiful portraits but they didn’t have the lighting quite right. Whereas I was always thinking about novelty and different ways to use light, to create depth and atmosphere. 

LBB> How did your style look at the time and what were your earlier inspirations? Have some of them remained the same? 

Patrik> At the time I really liked Anton Kornberg, the way he was shooting black and white, love letter printing. Corbett and Peter Lindbergh were also two photographers who caught my eye. There were lots of people but for me, photography was not as much of an inspiration as film was. I love watching movies, and in the movies I saw moments that could work really, really well in photography. Then I started looking at filmmakers. They deal with life very differently to photographers. They create a cinematic move that moves through space, this is when I thought – I can do that in a similar way, but with photography. 

LBB> What is your favourite sport to direct and why? And what is the most difficult? 

Patrik> One of my favourite sports, obviously the one I’ve done a lot of, is ice hockey. I like martial arts too because of the action and speed. It doesn’t matter what kind of martial art it is, I like it because of the mood it portrays. Back in the day, the cameras weren’t that easy to use. We had to shoot everything on film, and there were not enough fast lights available to shoot at high speed, so you had to try and shoot in a bright environment. We started with strobes back then and with Hasselblad cameras – it was a little harder. 

For me, it’s all about timing – anticipating what is going to happen, I have to be a split second ahead of time. Therefore, when I’m capturing sports, my experience of having done the sport is very helpful. I know first-hand what that move entails. I can anticipate the movement of what that still image will be, or what the action will be if I’m going to capture the end-to-end process of somebody jumping through the air. This is an incredible feeling and skill to have. 

Above: The Paralympics by Patrik

LBB> What are some basic differences between directing other categories and sports? What are some things people who want to go into the category should know?

Patrik> I would say that working with action is totally different to working with portraits and still images. It’s much easier today, due to modern cameras that can rapid-fire. Once you start lighting and you want a certain look, it takes time. It’s about intuition too, finding the right moment to take the pictures. 

When shooting sports, I do a lot of very simple, small-scale tests. I guess that it’s due to my background and discipline in actually participating in sports where you always need to train before game day. You don’t want to be in front of a client and go, ‘What do we do now?’. One big thing when you shoot sports celebrities is that if anything goes wrong with that person, you’re liable for millions of dollars. So, you have to learn how to work fast, and know exactly what you need to get in a very, very short amount of time. 

You have to be totally on it, and have alternative plans. What can often happen is that you may ask an athlete – such as Ronaldo – to run around the pitch and dribble with the ball, and they might decline, as their leg is bruised or whatever. So then you go to your plan B. 

Most sportspeople don’t want to be photographed. However, if you get them to move and play the sport that they love, it doesn’t matter if they don’t like the branded clothes they’re being asked to wear, as it’ll be fun and they will pop a smile. You’re going to get expressions you didn’t expect to get. When they’re doing what they love, they will relax. 

The sad part nowadays is that you’re lucky if you get an hour – it’s usually much less. The most important thing is that you need to know exactly what you want to shoot, because they will change it. 

LBB> To you, what is the importance of composition in sports photography? 

Patrik> I’ve always liked 3D environments. You can play with depth of field, you can play with what’s in front and what’s behind the subject. It’s a little bit harder in a studio with one person, than it is shooting on location. To me, form is what’s in the background, what’s in the foreground. I always think about what I can blur to make the eye focus on the subject first. There are so many different ways that you can do this – relighting, composition, depth of field. 

LBB> What importance do light and sound play in sports content and why? How do you use them in your own work? 

Patrik> Lighting is everything in still photography and sound design enhances the whole image that you have in front of you. When it comes to directing, it makes it much more interesting when you have amazing sound design. Lighting and sound design work together all the time, and you can play around with it depending on the subject and what you’re trying to achieve. 

Above: The Paralympics by Patrik

LBB> What do you prefer – directing moving or still image when it comes to sports?

Patrik> I love to get that single image that looks amazing. When the athlete is in action, or the way they look at you while they are doing their sport. You get that moment when you just connect with the athlete, this is really interesting in the photography world. When it comes to motion, I like to get the vibe of the whole set up, everything that’s going on with and around the subject. With stills, you focus on the moment and with moving images, you focus on a sequence in a single moment.

They’re two different formats. For example, imagine Ronaldo taking a shot; in a still he’d be mid-air, kicking the ball. LeBron would be hitting an amazing dunk. Whereas, in a video, I can edit him dribbling through a couple of players and the ball would be flying through the air, then I’d switch to a close up on his face as he flies through and kicks the ball. It makes it interesting in a different way, it’s hard to match the coolness that you get with stills. 

LBB> If you had to describe your work in three words, what would they be and why? 

Patrik> Moody – because I love playing with lights and I love to shape bodies with lights. That’s what comes with 3D environment, 3D thinking. No matter what it is, I love the whole mood in the image, it is so important. 

Strength – especially when it comes to sport, to show the body’s strength, how they move, how well trained the athletes are. 

Beauty – as I always try to make it look beautiful. Everything’s got to look gorgeous or fantastic or impactful. 

LBB> Is there any particular camera equipment used for filming sports and what is important to be noted about the gear in the category? 

Patrik> Obviously high speed shooting helps a lot. Nowadays, with drones and stabilisation systems, you can film the athletes as if you are right in there with them. 

A light camera is always useful, because once you shoot action, you don’t need the highest quality, you just need a really good camera that can follow the subject and it’s light. This then allows you to be in the action with them. 

I use a lot of RED and ARRI cameras. What I like is RED Komodo. It’s awesome because it gives that vibe of being in with the athlete. And sometimes I even go small, like Sony FX3 cameras, they’re super light and super easy. I haven’t used GoPros as much but sometimes I do. They have a specific place and are used more for adventure, high-action stuff. However, it’s interesting to use GoPros because I can put them anywhere I want. 

Above: Jason Momoa by Patrik

LBB> How has the category changed in the past ten years and what do you expect to see in the coming ten? 

Patrik> There are two major things. One is obviously time. The biggest thing that has changed in the whole industry is time. There’s no doubt about it, it makes things way more challenging. We often only get 30 minutes with an athlete, sometimes 20 minutes. It’s hard when you want to do some really cool stuff, then we find out how much time we actually have! That’s the biggest difference between now and 10 years ago. Another thing is equipment. It’s got a lot better, a lot lighter, and now it’s all digital. It’s just freaking awesome!

And when it comes to the next 10 years – we recently did a shoot on an LED volume using virtual production – a lot of TV shows are going in this direction. In one day, we shot four different stadiums  that we created digitally. We actually built the stadiums digitally, allowing us to shoot basketball, ice hockey, baseball and then gymnastics. Virtual reality will help a lot with allowing us to shoot athletes without us or them having to travel. 

LBB> With more women in sports and in sports advertising, is there something to be said about filming women in sports – are there still prejudices that impact the way sports ads with women in them look, or are these being slowly pushed out? 

Patrik> I definitely feel like it’s being much more pushed out, especially lately. It all depends on the countries and their ideas and ideals about women. Different countries have different ideas about sports as well. For me, I’ve always shot women in the exact same way as I shoot men. You want to show the same strength and determination. It doesn’t matter who’s in front of the camera, it’s about how good they are at doing what they do, that’s all that matters. I definitely feel like prejudice has been pushed aside much more, especially in the US and Europe. 

LBB> What’s the coolest thing on the horizon for you right now? 

Patrik> My friend and I are in the process of making a short film written as a three-part movie series. We have lots of options for it. Hopefully we will get it going in the near future. This is what we’ve been looking to do, it’s full-on action. It ties in with the sports world, but it’s more like ‘John Wick’ meets the samurais. I’m using all my skills and knowledge from sports and adapting it.

It’s no secret the camera industry is highly volatile, but the bigger story lies behind people still buying and using cameras in 2023. Whether you’re a pro or amateur photographer, the landscape is changing rapidly from year to year. As camera manufacturers increasingly prioritize video users, is the market starting to move away from photographers?

Who’s Still Buying Cameras in 2023?

It’s difficult to get reliable insights on the relative market sizes of professional and amateur camera buyers. If we use Zenfolio’s 2023 The State of the Photography Industry report as a guide, 88% of respondents consider themselves professionals in the photography industry, leaving just 12% declaring themselves as hobbyists or students.

I find it hard to believe that’s an accurate representation of the whole market, but insights from Allied Market Research support the theory that most camera buyers are professionals. They also support recent comments from Canon that both pro and amateur markets are growing, although the amateur market is growing faster.

Canon specifically mentions the “advanced amateur segment” as a key target market in 2023 and beyond.

Even more telling are comments from the major camera manufacturers, as published by DPReview. At the 2023 CP+ Expo in Yokohama, Japan, the industry leaders made one thing very clear: camera manufacturers are “laser-focused” on content creators, driving the market forward.

If the decision-makers at Canon, Nikon, etc. are right about this, their primary target market is no longer photographers, amateur or pro. Instead, they’re going after content creators who are mostly interested in video: YouTubers, vloggers, influencers, etc.

Video Driving the Camera Market Forward

If 75% of kids want to be YouTubers when they grow up, camera companies have to the content creator market seriously. The great illusion in this space is that anyone can pick up their phone and start making money from content. Of course, only a fraction will make a serious career out of this and the percentage will get even smaller as more people enter the space, but this doesn’t really matter.

When almost everyone owns a smartphone with an internet connection, the entry barrier couldn’t be much lower. You don’t need to come from a rich family, pay for years of acting school or study medicine for half a decade to enter this space; you don’t even need to be of working age.

In terms of career aspirations, content creator is the new actor, doctor, astronaut – and everything else – all rolled into one, ultra-accessible industry.

For camera manufacturers, their products will be ready for all the aspiring creators who want to step up their production quality. Of course, they’ll still be there for professional photographers, too, but we have to anticipate a change in priorities if their forecasts about the creator market materialize.

Photography as a Niche Within a Niche

In a world where most cameras are smartphones, dedicated cameras are already a niche product. If video is taking the lead, then photography is becoming a niche within a niche, and this raises a lot of questions for stills shooters. Most importantly, how much will cameras and gear, in general, pivot away from the priorities of photographers for the sake of video production?

For example, will the average camera body grow in size to allow for larger batteries, cooling fans, and video accessories? Will lenses get larger and more expensive to reduce focus breathing and other issues that mostly affect videographers? You could argue that this is already happening if you look at the latest mirrorless hybrid models and lens refreshes, especially from Sony and Fujifilm.

Camera equipment is one thing, but what about the photography market itself? Going back to the Zenfolio survey from before, the sentiment among photographers has improved since the peak of the pandemic, but the outlook isn’t great: 39.4% of photographers say business is slower than expected (down from 63.8%).

If the photography market continues to shrink while camera manufacturers profit from content creators, the shift towards video will only accelerate. Photography’s commercial value has plummeted in the digital age, despite a surge in demand for imagery. An online publishing boom didn’t do much to help, either, instead fuelling a market for stock photography.

Now, the digital publishing industry is on its knees and big names are increasingly turning to free, AI-generated visuals to fill space on their pages. At this point, it’s difficult to see the business value of photography increasing in commercial spaces.

Obviously, some types of photography are more susceptible than others. You would hope a genre like wedding photography is more robust than most, but who can guess how long people’s appetite for realism will outlive the fantasy offered by filters, composites, VR, and other technologies?

Let’s face it, reality plays such a small role in people’s projections of their lives now that we can’t overestimate its value. Not to mention the fact that, if everyone’s growing up to be content creators anyway, couples will be shooting and live-streaming their own weddings before too long.

Do Photographers Need to Follow the Market?

If the camera market is moving away from photographers, it would clearly have an impact. At the very least, it would affect the new gear options hitting the market and, by extension, it would probably change our photographic processes, to some extent.

That being said, the bigger issue is the photography industry itself. If the commercial value of photography continues to decline, fewer professionals will be able to rely on it as their sole source of revenue. At this point, pro photographers will either have to follow the market or supplement their income from elsewhere.

If the major camera manufacturers are right, following the market would mean getting more involved in video. We’re already seeing more photographers enter the “creator” space with YouTube channels, and this could become the norm for new people entering the industry.

Of course, the most important thing is that photographers continue to earn a decent living with their craft. That being said, if hoards of photographers follow the market’s move towards video, it would further devalue the pro stills market for camera manufacturers. A self-fulfilling prophecy would vindicate manufacturers’ prioritizing video and, potentially, leave amateur photographers – who don’t have the pressure of monetizing their work – as the last segment representing stills photography.

As long as the photography market remains large enough (pros and amateurs), camera manufacturers won’t be able to ignore it. The risk is that, if enough pro photographers get sucked into the video market, the stills-only market could lose its most valuable customer base.

For a long time, fear was growing that the camera market would shrink to the point that gear would become an expensive, luxury niche. Instead, it seems the camera market is leveling out, and it’s photography that’s becoming the niche, as its commercial value wanes and manufacturers set their sights on a new customer base.

The auction house is offering an eclectic collection from Pier 24 Photography, including anonymous snapshots of Lucky Luciano and 1880s baseball players.

Soren Goldsmith grew up in the backyard of the forest and wetlands of Belmont, Massachusetts. After years of exploring the Mass Audubon’s Habitat Nature Sanctuary and Lone Tree Hill nature preserve, Goldsmith began his nature photography journey five years ago. Today, he advocates for that same land and is expanding his conservation and photography work in college.

“At first, it was just about getting cool photos of the birds and mammals that lived there, but as I went on, I became much more conservation-minded,” the teen photographer tells Feature Shoot. “It was a photo I took of a coyote at night that made me realize how powerful photography can be. By revealing the unseen wildlife that exists in protected lands, we can help people connect with them, and inspire people to protect them. It’s very powerful stuff.”

Goldsmith uses camera traps, which automatically trigger with movement, making them useful for wildlife photography without scaring off the animals or disturbing their habitat. He started the project at 17, using a grant from Mass Audubon that allowed him to purchase the camera traps, which cost $2,000 each. But first he had to sell the organization on his vision, despite the group never having given money to a photography endeavor or anyone so young before.

It appears to have paid off. Earlier this year, Feature Shoot reports, Goldsmith was one of the National Geographic Slingshot Challenge winners, which is open to anyone aged 13-18 with ideas on how to solve environmental issues.

But Goldsmith is not simply recording snapshots in the wild. He shares with PetaPixel that his priority is for his images to have a purpose.

“Most recently I’ve been trying to take my photos with the widest lens possible so that I can effectively reveal an animal’s environment,” Goldsmith tells PetaPixel. “I think it can sometimes be hard for a viewer to personally connect to a landscape. Intimate photos of wildlife are easier to connect to. That’s why I try to include wildlife as the subject of landscape style shots. Doing this allows me to document a threatened habitat in the most compelling possible way. It gives people an individual animal to root for and something to connect to.”

Now, his environmental passions have led him to protect the wilderness where he found his passion for nature photography.

The woods and wetlands of Belmont, Massachusetts, face the threat of development from Belmont Hill School, which owns the land. While the wetlands are protected, the school reportedly plans to build a parking lot and facilities building around that area. This, Goldsmith argues, will affect the habitat and animals that live there, some of which are threatened species.

“It is inevitable that the construction of a parking lot in this area will result in harmful runoff into the wetland. In my opinion, what they are planning to do should be illegal. It will forever change the landscape of the area,” Goldsmith explains to Feature Shoot.

And while the wetlands have some protection, the forest is completely vulnerable to being destroyed. There is a change.org petition organized by Belmont Wild, a coalition made up of local resident opposing the construction, with more than 2,800 signatures at the time of this writing.

Goldsmith’s work showcases the animals that call this area home.

“One of the things I try to do in my photography is depict animals as individuals, not ‘just another coyote,’” he tells Feature Shoot. “Consider the hundreds of animals that live in the forest every single day. They all have individual lives and thoughts. If the coyote that lives in that forest dies, there will never be another one like it. He’s a unique individual.”

Though Goldsmith is attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study environmental engineering, he is not leaving photography behind. The photographer tells PetaPixel he wants to continue the work he started in Massachusetts in Wisconsin.

“There are a lot of really interesting things happening here related to conservation and research that I’m excited to get involved in. The main project I’m starting right now is with the UW-Madison newspaper. I’m focusing on urban wildlife in a photojournalism project and specifically human-wildlife interactions.”

Goldsmith says he looks to get more involved with photojournalism and wildlife storytelling. His future project goals include documenting wildlife in American old growth forests, innovative conservation efforts that don’t usually get a spotlight, and getting into photographing freshwater underwater ecosystems.

To that end, he says both engineering and photographer are extremely important for conservation.

“Engineering can cover the technical side of a conservation problem,” Goldsmith tells PetaPixel, “While photography can promote it. Both tools work together to provide an effective solution. For example, compelling photographs of threatened wildlife can help inspire people to protect them. If people are inspired to protect them, it’s easier for conservationists to get funding to solve that problem. Engineers are needed to solve complex conservation issues. In other words, photography is the vessel by which conservation efforts (and engineering challenges) are brought into existence and seen by the world.”

Image credits: Soren Goldsmith