Getting Recruiting-Worthy Action Shots as a High School or Club Athlete

Every fall I get some version of the same message from a parent: "She's got a highlight video, but the coach asked for photos too, and everything we have is blurry phone shots from the bleachers." That's a real problem, and it's an easy one to fix if you know what recruiters actually look at.

I only shoot soccer right now — that's the sport I know from the sideline, not just from behind a camera — so everything here is soccer-specific, but a lot of it carries over to other field and court sports.

What a recruiting photo actually needs to show

A coach looking at a roster of photos isn't judging your artistic composition. They're trying to answer a few practical questions fast: what's your body position doing on the ball, how do you carry yourself off the ball, what does your first touch look like under pressure. That means the photos that matter most usually aren't the ones where you're mid-celebration. They're the ones mid-play — a touch, a cut, a header, a slide tackle, a moment where your technique is on display and your face is doing something other than smiling for a camera.

When I shot players playing for Seattle University Women's Soccer, the shots that ended up mattering weren't the wide shots of the field. They were the tight ones — foot on the ball, eyes up, weight loaded into a turn. That's the kind of frame that tells a coach something about how you play, not just that you were there.

Why this is hard to get yourself

You can't really get these shots with a parent holding a phone from the stands. A couple reasons. First, distance — from bleacher height, on most fields, you're too far away to get anything but a small, flat, compressed image of a bunch of jerseys running around. Second, timing — a phone's shutter lag means by the time you tap the screen, the moment's already gone. A real action shot needs a fast shutter speed to freeze a foot mid-strike or a body mid-turn, and it needs a long lens close enough to actually isolate the athlete from the crowd around them. That's the gap a phone can't close no matter how new it is.

What to ask for if you're hiring someone to shoot a game

If you're bringing in a photographer for this, here's what actually helps the athlete walk away with something usable:

1. Ask for a mix of tight action shots and slightly wider ones. Tight shots show technique. Wider shots show field awareness and positioning, which matters for certain recruiting conversations depending on position.
2. Ask for shots from more than one angle if it's a multi-hour session or tournament, since one sideline position can only capture certain angles of play.
3. Make sure the photographer is shooting fast enough shutter speeds to freeze motion — a blurry ball or smeared jersey number doesn't help anyone.
4. Get the full-resolution files, not just a shared album of small compressed images. Coaches and NIL platforms often want the real file size.
5. If NIL or sponsorship is part of the picture, ask about getting a couple of clean, non-action portraits too — a straightforward headshot-style photo in uniform. Sophie H., an NIL athlete with an adidas deal, needed exactly that kind of shot alongside her action photos when we did her session in Snohomish. Recruiters and brand partners both want to see the athlete's face, not just their back running downfield.

Timing and light matter more than people think

Most club and high school games get scheduled for whatever slot the field has open, which often means the least flattering light of the day — flat midday sun, or games running into that gray hour before dusk when everything goes soft and murky. There's not a lot you can do about game time. But if you're scheduling separate portrait-style shots to go with the game photos — the kind coaches also like to see — early morning or evening light does a lot of the work for you. It's the same reason I like shooting portraits at golden hour instead of noon: the light's coming in low and warm instead of straight down, and it does you favors instead of working against you.

A word on volume

One thing I'd tell any parent: don't expect one photo to do the job. Coaches and recruiters are used to scrolling through a batch, so what actually helps is having a small set — five or six frames that cover different moments of play — rather than a single "hero shot." A good photographer covering a game should come back with enough variety that you can pick the two or three that show off what you actually want a coach to notice, whether that's your first touch, your speed on the break, or how you read a play developing in front of you.

If you're in Everett, Seattle, Bellevue, or anywhere around Snohomish County and you want to talk through what a game shoot would look like for your team or your athlete, reach out or take a look at pricing for the sports and NIL packages.