Nick Wosika: A Look at the Work of a Top Sports Card Photographer

Nick Wosika, a self-described picture addict with a sports activities drawback, resides his dream life: taking pictures hockey and baseball sports activities playing cards and accumulating them too.

Wosika, from Shakopee, Minnesota, a suburb about half-hour southwest of Minneapolis, has been accumulating playing cards because the early eighties and doing images since he was 25.

Getting photographs on sports activities playing cards “was one of many most important causes I picked up a digital camera within the first place,” Wosika tells PetaPixel. “I began doing images about 20 years in the past, so it was a no brainer to merge my two nice passions. It was at all times a objective of mine to get my work onto buying and selling playing cards, and as soon as that occurred through working for a wire service, Icon Sportswire, I’ve been full throttle on it ever since.

“It was one thing I at all times wished to do, however as I’m positive , gear is pricey. So, after I used to be executed with faculty and that first test from my first “actual job” confirmed up, I purchased a Canon Insurgent package and an entire lot of movie and simply began taking photographs of every part.”

What Makes a Nice Sports activities Card Picture?

Wosika at all times appears to be like by way of his viewfinder for a specific physique place, sort of motion, or expression – a picture that can match neatly right into a sports activities card.

“I’ve some tips I wish to go by,” says the shooter collector. “For example, I at all times wish to see two palms. There are two causes for this. The primary is that these are athletes I’m photographing, and so they use their palms usually, relying on the game, in fact, and I believe they need to be prominently featured.

“The second cause is after I was a child, I had a teammate on my hockey staff named Craig Mooney. Craig was an solely baby, and if you walked into his home, you have been instantly met by this big portrait of him in a pair of denims and a blue flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His arms have been crossed, and he was leaning towards a tree. Assume overused senior portrait pose, however it was a wonderful portrait.

“I bear in mind his mother telling me that the photographer who took the portrait got here in second place in some picture contest and that he would have taken first prize in case you might have seen each of Craig’s palms within the picture. That at all times kind of caught with me.

“Additionally, I wish to see the eyes. The story is at all times within the eyes. I wish to make images that convey motion and present texture. I would like folks to see my photographs and know instantly that the topic is shifting. I additionally need the viewer to really feel like they may contact certainly one of my photographs and really feel the stitching of the jersey or the droplets of sweat dripping off the tip of a hockey participant’s nostril as they prepare for an enormous face-off.

“Topps [major producer of baseball trading cards] pulls most of their photographs from Getty. As soon as I spotted this, I grew to become a pupil once more. In spite of everything, this was the objective from day one. I began learning what forms of photographs they have been utilizing. For instance, I seen that when deciding on frames for pitchers, they have a tendency to choose photographs that present the ball nonetheless within the pitcher’s hand. Often proper because the throwing hand separates from the glove hand or someplace mid-motion.

“I spotted they used only a few bat-on-ball photographs for hitters. It was primarily in the beginning or finish of a swing. And if you may get the tip of the swing and the participant the place they hit the ball, even higher.

“Upper Deck [major card company] has the unique NHL rights to make hockey playing cards with staff logos. They don’t seem to be approved to provide baseball playing cards with MLB logos, as is identical for Topps. They’ve unique rights to make baseball [MLB] playing cards with staff logos and such however can not make bodily hockey playing cards.”

Capturing for Sports activities Playing cards

“I didn’t even know [shooting for sports cards] was an choice till 2017,” says Wosika. “I began doing freelance work for Icon Sportswire. It was a gradual go for me at first, however then they [Topps] shaped a distribution cope with Getty, AP, All Over Press, and a bunch of different wire providers. That was when issues actually took off for me.

“It’s tremendous rewarding for me to land a baseball card as a result of a photograph editor can go to Getty and seek for Mike Trout [MLB center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels] in 2017 and like 3,000 photographs are going to pop up. Which means out of all these frames of a specific play, they thought my picture was cool sufficient to be on a card.

“I geek out on this beautiful laborious! Not solely as a result of I’m a collector however due to how I view images as a career.”

Wosika was doing properly with Topps along with his baseball photographs getting used on their playing cards, however his actual ardour was hockey and he needed to discover out a strategy to break in. With hockey buying and selling playing cards, photographers are assigned to cowl the required video games.

“Higher Deck (the hockey card firm) contracts photographers to cowl video games for them,” Wosika says. “As soon as I discovered this out, I had to determine to come up with them. LinkedIn was useful, however then I went to Winnipeg, Canada, to cowl a hockey recreation and met the staff photographers for the Winnipeg Jets. That they had executed work for Higher Deck, and I requested in the event that they felt snug hooking me up with the picture editor’s contact data.

“They mentioned sure. Gave me the data, and it was similar to my first newspaper job once more.

“I emailed John Ibriks, the picture supervisor at Higher Deck, and mentioned I do know that due to who you might be and what you do, you in all probability get a whole lot of those emails a day, however I shoot a ton of hockey. I do know your product extraordinarily properly, and I’d love a possibility to give you the results you want.

“Turned out that he wanted a photographer in Minnesota, and I’ve been working video games for him ever since.

“The way in which it really works is that I’m contracted to cowl video games for Higher Deck. They arm me with an inventory of crucial gamers to get photographs of for a specific recreation.

“The buying and selling card pastime could be very a lot rookie pushed, so you might be at all times photographing rookies, however you might be additionally capturing photographs of latest free agent signees and gamers who might have been lately traded.

“In some cases, a rookie can get known as up on a second’s discover, or Higher Deck might not have a photographer in a sure market. In these instances, they may lean on Getty, AP, and many others. to get the wanted photographs.”

Picture on a Buying and selling Card vs. within the Newspaper

“We now have an abundance of hyper-talented photographers on this market, as I’m positive is the case throughout,” explains the sports activities shooter. “I have a look at the Star Tribune, which is just like the cream of the crop. Each certainly one of their photographers has the mettle to be in a corridor of fame for his or her work. After which there may be the disheartening half — what we do is fairly disposable.

“It’d get a like or remark on-line, however folks simply preserve scrolling. To land a canopy, a double truck, or a full web page above the fold is spectacular, however that will get tossed out or recycled the subsequent day by most individuals.

“When you get the precise card of the precise participant, it will get put in a protecting case and is cherished or offered on eBay to somebody who will cherish it without end. To me, it feels extra lasting.”

Hockey or Baseball?

Wosika is barely reluctant to call his favourite sport to shoot between hockey and baseball.

“I wish to joke that I’m too outdated to focus on one sport and that they’re like my kids,” he says. “I really like them each equally however for various causes. Hockey could be very a lot a read-and-react proposition. I’ve been skating since I used to be two, taking part in since I used to be 4, and training since I used to be 18. My hockey background has helped me a ton, however on the finish of the day, you might be studying and reacting to the quickest, non-motorized staff sport on the planet.

“Hockey is such an attractive recreation to {photograph}. The way in which the gamers transfer actually lends itself to creating strong images when executed proper. I’ve been taking part in baseball for nearly so long as I’ve been taking part in hockey and training baseball for six years.

“Baseball could be very a lot a situational recreation, and masking is actually a collection of if/then statements. If the ball will get hit right here, then the play will likely be right here. You’re consistently calling on previous experiences to give you strong photographs.”

Getting Into Digital Pictures

Wosika was instructing himself by trial and error the ins and outs of taking pictures movie however didn’t have a lot luck.

“It was a trial by hearth, actually,” remembers Wosika. “I went again to high school for images after a handful of unsuccessful journeys to the digital camera retailer to choose up the photographs I had developed. They weren’t terrible, however they weren’t turning out how I noticed them in my head.”

Wosika enrolled in a 2-year program at a neighborhood junior faculty. There have been a handful of digital courses, however they have been principally nonetheless “rolling and soaking movie” as a result of this was proper earlier than digital grew to become inexpensive to the plenty.

There have been two tracks you can take on this program. It was both portraits or business, which he jokingly known as “glamor photographs and baggage of chips” in a studio. He wasn’t excited by any of that as he wished to shoot rock stars {and professional} athletes. He requested if they might supply a category like that, however they weren’t having it.

Touchdown a Newspaper Job in a Bizarre Means

“So, I left campus that day and emailed each newspaper and journal I might discover a contact and an e-mail tackle for inside a 50-mile radius of my home,” says Wosika.

“I requested them in the event that they have been hiring. In the event that they wanted an intern. If I might observe them round and watch them work. Of the almost 4 dozen emails I despatched, I obtained just one reply.

“It was from the Faribault Daily News. The picture editor instructed me to satisfy him for lunch the subsequent day and convey some samples. It was a complete newbie hour on my finish. I didn’t also have a portfolio. I went down there with a manilla envelope and perhaps ten photographs I took at Vikings coaching camp and Twins video games that I shot as a fan that I had developed at Ritz [camera store].

“I met him for lunch, and after our introductions, I handed him the manila envelope. He laughed.

“He began to look by way of the photographs, and after every one, he’d make a bit of “hmm” sort noise. After the fourth or fifth body, he stopped and mentioned these are fairly good and requested if I wished to shoot a highschool volleyball recreation that night time.

“I instructed him completely however then defined I didn’t have any of my gear with me. He mentioned to not fear about it and requested me to observe him again to the newsroom, which I did. After we get there, we sit down at his desk, and he slides over a beige canvas bag and says, ‘Right here, you should utilize this.’

“I seemed within the bag, and it was a Nikon D1X which on the time was a $5,000 physique, and a bunch of glass that made that bag value greater than the automotive I drove there to satisfy him!

“I don’t know what I seemed like at that second, however I used to be terrified. I seemed within the bag. I checked out him. I seemed within the bag another time and requested, ‘You bought a handbook for that?’ He laughed once more however reached in a desk drawer and handed me the handbook to shoot a volleyball recreation in essentially the most poorly lit fitness center within the historical past of lights and gymnasiums.

“The whole lot went wonderful, and after the match, I returned to the newsroom and was like, I’m executed; the photographs are within the digital camera. They have been like; you could edit them in Photoshop and caption them. I used to be like, Photoshop, what’s that? Fortunately one other employees photographer was there, and she or he helped by way of all that enterprise.

“I submitted 5 frames in a folder and drove house. The following day two of my photographs ran within the paper.

“The day after that, I used to be provided a job on the Faribault Day by day Information. The day after that, I stop going to junior faculty to shoot glamor shoots and baggage of chips as a result of my job at that small each day newspaper in southern Minnesota was on-the-job coaching and a free college for what I wished to do for the remainder of my life.”

Shortly after that, Wosika bought his first digital digital camera, a Nikon D100, and his first private laptop (“it was a Dell or one thing”) and has “been hustling” ever since.

The Likelihood Assembly that Led to a Sports activities Playing cards Pictures Profession

Wosika was in southern California for a household wedding ceremony and stayed at his grandfather’s home at age seven.

“There was this older child that lived throughout the road from him [grandfather], and he gave me an outdated shoebox of baseball playing cards — principally stuff from the 70s,” explains the sports activities shooter. “After that, I used to be hooked. I’d have a look at them for hours.

“As soon as we acquired house, I discovered the place the perfect locations have been to purchase playing cards — principally drug and comfort shops — and even discovered a card store not removed from the place we lived in St. Paul, Minnesota.”

And similar to that, a lifelong ardour for collectible sports activities playing cards was born.

At this time, apart from a whole lot of hockey and baseball playing cards, Wosika’s photographs have additionally graced Sports activities Illustrated, USA At this time, The New Yorker, Forbes, The New York Instances, ESPN, CBS, NBC, and lots of extra publications.

And this opportunity assembly as a child has allowed Wosika “by no means to must work a day in his life” however simply to have enjoyable and receives a commission for it.

You possibly can see extra of Nick Wosika’s photographs on his website,  Instagram, and YouTube.

In regards to the writer: Phil Mistry is a photographer and trainer primarily based in Atlanta, GA. He began one of many first digital digital camera courses in New York Metropolis at The International Center of Photography within the 90s. He was the director and trainer for Sony/Widespread Pictures journal’s Digital Days Workshops. You possibly can attain him right here.

Picture credit: All images by Nick Wosika