Pro Sports Shooting Is Dang Expensive

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Of all the photographic professions, professional sports photography is probably the most expensive, so if you think you want to go this route, better bring your checkbook. The main reason it's so expensive is because many sporting events are held indoors (or in domed stadiums) or at night, so you'll need the most expensive (fastest) lenses money can buy (well, only if you want to compete at a professional level). For example, you're going to need some long telephoto lenses (ideally 400mm or 600mm) and since you'll generally be shooting in lower-light situations, they'll need to be f/2.8 to f/4 lenses. If you haven't priced quality 400mm f/2.8 lenses, they're around $6,600. Each. You'll also need more than one camera body, and more than one external flash. Plus a couple of monopodsone or two to hold your long heavy lenses, and one to strap your flash units (which cost around $600 apiece) to. Also, to be competitive (with the pro shooters), you're going to need a camera body that shoots around 8 frames per second (which means as a Canon shooter, you're going to spend around $6,900 for an EOS 1DS Mark II or for a Nikon shooter, you're going to spend around $4,700 for a D2Xs). By the time you add up two camera bodies, a handful of flashes, some long, expensive lenses, monopods, teleconverters, lots of very fast memory cards (plan on shooting around 900 photos for a typical baseball or football game), you're in the $30,000 and up range, just for starters. It helps if you were a doctor or lawyer first (it doesn't make you a better sports photographer, but it helps you pay for your gear).