#11: Hannah Palpant & Finding Your Path and Community In Sports Photography

Hannah Palpant joins the Sports Content Gameplan to discuss her path into sports photography. She describes defining moments from DM'ing hundreds of athletes, leading to an NFL field opportunity and later flying to Italy to shoot an F3 driver at the Italian Grand Prix.

Hannah explains her storytelling approach - capturing in-between moments, emotion, and athletes’ humanity — along with her editing style. She shares how she moved from food photography to sports, her favorite sports to shoot, and challenges of switching between different sports speeds and anticipation.

She offers three tips for new photographers to break into the sports industry, then outlines the grind, and motivation that keeps her going, and her goal to shoot an F1 race this year.

00:00 Welcome and Warmup

00:23 Quick Questions

09:06 Storytelling Sports Photos

14:46 From Food to Sports

21:50 Favorite Sports to Shoot

26:31 Switching Between Sports

30:05 What Makes NFL Special

33:41 Seahawks-49ers Rivalry Game

36:20 Getting Sideline Access

37:20 Just Start Shooting

38:15 Use What You Have

40:19 Post Daily on Instagram

42:01 DM and Build Trust

46:19 Three Tips Recap

47:27 The Real Grind

49:19 Finding Your Why

53:43 Confidence and Industry Shifts

59:09 Moving to England Goals

01:05:22 Dream Guest and Wrap