Sports Photography Resource SportsShooter.com is Shutting Down
SportsShooter.com, one of the most well-loved and popular online resources for sports photography, has announced that it is shutting down. The website will close its doors for good on March 15, 2023.
The concept for the website began in 1998 as an e-mail newsletter created by USA Today photographer Robert Hanashiro as a way for him to share his thoughts about the industry with a handful of sports photographers, photojournalists, and colleagues. It eventually grew to include 7,000 subscribers and pulled int “countless” editorial contributions from those in the industry.
“Recognizing the value in the content being shared among this small community of sports photographers, freelance photographer Brad Mangin initially reserved space on his Web site www.manginphotography.com to archive each issue of Sports Shooter along with photos and links not included in the e-mail version of Sports Shooter,” the publication explains.
It eventually transitioned into SportsShooter.com and all of that editorial content was uploaded to a searchable database to allow anyone to research topics at their leisure.
“Over 20 years ago a few of us got together to take an email newsletter and turn it into a wide-reaching website for the sports and journalism photography world. We didn’t really know what to expect, and, to be honest, my expectations were somewhat low,” Burfield, the last staff member at the website, writes.
The website was in its heyday well before social networks took off, and the group created a passionate community over 11,000 members and amassed more than a million images uploaded to the platform.
“We had a good group of people behind the scenes. Robert Hanishiro had created the original newsletter that we were branching from. Joe Gosen spent hours testing new features and assisting members. Brad Mangin was the one that brought us all together and originally hosted the old newsletter files. Grover Sanschagrin was the ‘idea’ guy helping to direct where the site should go and what it should be. And then me flying by the seat of my pants building the tech to make it all work,” Burnfield continues.
“We built a site that brought people together from all over the world. They interacted and shared ideas. They looked for feedback on their work. They shared great photography. They learned from each other. Over the years we have added features and removed features. We’ve worked to try to stay on top of everything and do our best. But, at the end of the day, this was a passion project for us and not something that would replace our day jobs.”
As a result, the current website staff waned, and in 2023 it consists solely of Burnfield who says he has been operating it by himself for the last two years.
“It does not leave any time for updates or new features or any of the things the site deserves,” he says.
“So, unfortunately, it’s time to turn off the lights so to speak.”
Burnfield’s final message can be read on Sports Shooter until the site is shut down on March 15, 2023.
“It has been a great ride and I have enjoyed the various stages we have gone through over the past 20+ years,” Burnfield says. “Thank you to every current and former member and everyone who has helped out along the way!”
