Spotlight feature with sports photographer Karl Phillipson

Next up in our News, Sports and Entertainment spotlight is sports photographer Karl Phillipson who has called Melbourne, Australia home for the past decade. Karl captures the thriving energy of sporting events in and around the dynamic city, utilizing the sunny Australian weather.

Read on to discover how Karl got into the sports industry, why he is excited to be capturing the start of the 2025 F1 season and why he chooses to upload his images to Alamy Live News.

CG: You specialise in sports photography; can you tell us how you got into the industry and how long you’ve been photographing for?

KP: I was gifted a 35mm film camera for my 18th and flogged the life out of it. Shortly after that I migrated to a town in Northern Alberta, Canada and worked as a darkroom technician for a newspaper developing journo’s film and processing prints the old school way for a weekly tabloid. It was my second job out of school and turned into the best playground to experiment with my camera, film and B&W print making.

Several years later I moved back to the UK and ended up in North London, working at the time in pre-press and publishing. I picked up a medium format camera, it was a twin lens Soviet Wonderbox called a Lubitel and cost around £15. I liked the way you would look down at the matte screen from above and compose the picture in the square format. But in comparison to more expensive medium format cameras it had poor optics, and I needed to upgrade to something with better glass — the lack of clarity was visibly evident. I bought a second-hand Hasselblad 500CM with the Zeiss T* 80mm and 3 120 backs from a camera shop that was closing down. It emptied my wallet, but the investment was so worth it. The detail was, and still is, outrageously good.

Needing subject matter my cousin and I went on a “UK tour” — we covered a massive number of historic buildings and gardens managed by English Heritage and the National Trust, all the while stealth camping out of the back of a Peugeot 504 Estate. I shot the entire experience with the Hasselblad, it really was the best of times, rewarding creatively and the experience cemented how much I actually enjoyed being out and about taking pictures. I have boxes full of 6×6 and 6×7 transparencies from the 90s that I really should scan now that they’re 35 years old.

I now live in Australia. In 2015 I went digital and bought a pre-owned Nikon D4s and a 500mm/F4 to shoot cars and bikes at the local race circuit, in Victoria. I was shooting from the spectator area so the reach of the 500mm lens was helpful. I began submitting the images to the editor of the local newspaper for nothing more than a byline with the view it would lead to bigger and better things.

When there was nothing going around in circles at the track I’d shoot other types of sports; Australian Rules Football, cricket, netball, anything at all. The 500mm as you can imagine would get in close to whatever was happening even with me perched on the sidelines, as if I were literally in there, in the midst of it all, capturing it all in great detail. The pictures did well, I was getting the coveted back page (reserved for sport in nearly all newspapers) on a regular basis. Within months the images were syndicated across various mastheads of the newspaper group, and I built a respectable portfolio and reputation. This led to greater access (trackside) through press accreditation to national events such as the Australian Supercars, Australian Superbikes series and so on. All the time I was doing that I was meeting new people in the industry and forming friendships, one of those friendships led to me signing up to Alamy.

The next step for me was the international events and I wanted to cover World Superbike and MotoGP as I found I really liked shooting bikes. The group editor of the papers I’d been supplying images to kindly provided an editor’s letter and I was able to provide the organisers with enough “tear sheets” to show I was a well published working photographer, and I gained approved accreditation for the World Superbike at Phillip Island. Shortly after that I covered MotoGP, and it took off from there. So, I’ve been shooting for the entirety of my adult life within the sports industry on a professional level in Australia for 10 years.

CG: You’re based in Australia, does this help with capturing the content within your expertise?

KP: It helps that I live in Melbourne out of all the cities in Australia as the major events tend to come here; Formula One, MotoGP, WorldSBK (SuperBike World Championship), The Australian Open tennis, Test Cricket, etc. They’re all either in Melbourne or not far away so that is helpful. I have travelled to other parts of Australia to shoot on commission but 99% of the work I do is in and around Melbourne.

The weather here is overall very kind compared to other countries even when it’s cold in the winter. Rain can offer some special images as it can add drama, but I much prefer shooting when it’s not raining. So Australian weather is very helpful when it comes to capturing content.

CG: With the F1 season starting this month can you tell us how you prepare for the season ahead?

KP: First is research, with anything I’m covering I try my best to get the names of the people I’m shooting, their nationalities if relevant and the teams they are representing well in advance and create spreadsheets with the information in columns. I then use the information in the spreadsheets to create code replacement sets and IPTC templates for use with Photo Mechanic and Shuttersnitch to expedite the process of captioning, keywording and getting the pictures out — they’re both incredibly powerful pieces of software and indispensable to me. (I like to get this step out of the way very early on.)

My code replacement sets are already done for this year’s F1 season, the files are stored in Dropbox so I can access them from any device at any time. It’s a universal copy available to all those devices so if I need to make a change I only need to do it once and can then pull the updated file down to all devices.

I will then start thinking about who is likely to be newsworthy in the run up to the event. For example, this year without question it’s Hamilton, helmet off in the scarlet Ferrari race suit, those images are likely to be the most sought-after images by photographers at Albert Park this year even more so given it’s the first F1 event of the 2025 season. (There are so few images out there in the wild, they’re borderline non-existent beyond the pre-season testing and team released images.)

As we get closer to the event itself, I’ll wheel out the SunSeeker app to baton down the sun’s position at certain corners. I’ll then marry that to the schedule of cars on track so if I’m heading out to shoot action, I can refer to the notes and decide where’s best to go to take advantage of the light. Lastly, I’ll check the weather for the weekend, and this will determine how I dress and what accessories I need to take in addition to the equipment. The day before I finalise what kit I’ll need to take along, get the sensors cleaned and get it all packed up.

CG: What are you most looking forward to capturing during the F1 season?

KP: Capturing something highly newsworthy that nobody else gets, fair to say we all as photographers strive to achieve that outcome and we all look forward to it happening often. Failing that magical moment, I hope to capture sets of images of the event that I can be proud of and know that I did my best when I look back on what I achieved.

CG: Are there any other sports events in 2025 you’re excited to be capturing?

KP: Yep, there’s quite a few on my radar. Apart from the F1, there’s the opening round of the World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island (February 20th – 23^rd 2025), British Lions Rugby tour in a few months, and toward the end of the year the Australian and Indonesian rounds of the MotoGP. In between all of that I’ll have Australian Rules Football and A League soccer too. Lastly, right at the end of the year I’m looking forward to covering the Boxing Day Test Cricket (Australia vs England) in The Ashes tournament, as I have yet to shoot those two teams going head-to-head.

CG: What has been your favourite sporting event to photograph?

KP: I have a top 3.

I really enjoyed the final day of Australia vs India Boxing Day Test (Cricket) in December last year. I came away with images I was happy with especially the celebration shots when Australia sealed the win, and the Australian team erupted with the India batter looking totally stunned and frozen on the spot by it all. I was happy with the Day 5 sets and it made the series a favourite for me.

Next is Formula One, as it’s one of those sporting events that generates its own energy, and this has a profound impact on you when you’re amongst it. It’s incredibly busy there are large servings of colour, speed, drama and adrenaline by the bucket load. It’s also truly global in its appeal and widely covered — there is no other event quite like it.

MotoGP. Alongside F1, this is high octane sport, and I love it.

CG: Why did you choose Alamy to supply your images to?

KP: A recommendation from a close friend of mine, Brett Keating, who I met at a racetrack and he also contributes to Alamy Live News. We’d bump into each other all the time at various events, got chatting as you do and subsequently became good friends. He’s helped me quite a bit over the years in terms of support, friendship and being there to discuss ideas with. I did a spot of research after the recommendation found out it’s a UK based agency, and the fit for me seemed perfect so I signed up.

CG: Any advice for fellow photographers who would like to get into the sports industry?

KP: Get a decent professional body camera with a good quality lens or two that adapts easily to the different types of sports you want to cover. The initial investment may hurt the pocket depending on your situation but the images that come out of it will be crisp, clear and sharp — that above all else is crucial. Talk to those who are already working within the field if you can, perhaps the editor at the local paper and ask if there’s anything they need.

Choose a sport that interests you on a personal level, start at the grass roots level of that sport and practice by taking lots of pictures at a local club. The familiarity of the venue will help you make decisions on position, lighting and if it doesn’t work out you can go back and try again. You will learn what produces the images you’re pleased with — this will fuel motivation and deliver confidence in your abilities.

Don’t let failure turn you off, everyone makes mistakes. They’re lessons, and you can learn from them. Try again with applying what you’ve learned. What you learn can often be applied to other sports so you can adapt easily with your learned knowledge, especially the technical stuff. Try not to talk too much to others around you when the action is on, you can miss things! Sporting events can involve lots of people. Sometimes through miscommunication or misunderstanding you may be told to do something that you disagree with or you know to be wrong, be calm, polite, respectful and overall be nice to people.

We hope you enjoyed this months NSE spotlight with Karl and you can catch the rest of his collection here, also keep up to date with him on Instagram here and his website here.

Would you like to become a live news contributor? You can check out our handy help page here on how to become a lives news contributor or drop an email to contributors@alamy.com for further help.

Don’t forget to come back next month to see who is up next in our NSE spotlight.