Getting the Shot

Carrie Giordano works fast. She’s a photographer for two professional sports teams in California: baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and football’s Los Angeles Rams. This means she’s constantly racing to follow the action. TFK Kid Reporter Meyer Ballas, who lives in Los Angeles, interviewed Giordano about her job. Read their conversation and check out some of Giordano’s photographs below.

JUST IN TIME Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford fires off a pass.

How did you get into sports photography?

I was one of those kids who always had a camera, but I didn’t think it would be a career path for me. When I started shooting Little League, it was just a side job. Later, I got a job at Dodger Stadium. I went back to school for photography, thinking I would do landscape photography. But one time, at Dodger Stadium, I met [Dodgers photographer] Jon SooHoo. He let me hold his camera. From that point on, I was hooked.

How did you get your current job with the Dodgers?

I started off doing all those little shoots no one wanted to do, like [photographing] someone signing autographs really far away. I started working for a sports media company, which is basically a company that shoots the games and supplies them to the news. The pay was terrible, but I did that for a couple of years until one of the Dodgers photographers was leaving. So that’s how I got in.

HISTORY MAKER Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani celebrates a career milestone.

What’s your favorite moment to have documented?

There have been a lot of good ones, but any [baseball] walk-offs × walk-off in baseball, a game-ending win by the home team in the last half of the last inning (noun) are really exciting, since I get to run onto the field. If I had to pick one, it would be when the Dodgers clinched their division in 2019. It was so exciting. They had a huge celebration.

WHIP IT! Giordano captures Dodgers pitcher Gavin Stone at work.

What advice would you give someone who’s interested in photography?

Work hard, and work up. Go out and shoot some sporting events. For example, I don’t shoot a lot of soccer, but my son just started playing, so I’ve been shooting at his games. It doesn’t take a big arena or pro sports to get good at it. Once you have a good portfolio × portfolio a selection of an artist’s work that shows potential employers what the artist can do (noun) —whether it’s Little League, high school, or college—then you can kind of show people that, and they might trust you for a job. So really, just document as much as you can.

HOT SHOT Odell Beckham Jr. celebrates with L.A. Rams fans in 2021.