DOUG PENSINGER SPORTS FUND

PhotographyEditor:Charlotte Davies

George Cherry

When I came to St Andrews in 2018, I had no idea photography would be such a large part of my time here. I was part of the rugby team, but after gaining an injury and having to spend my days supporting the team on the sidelines, I decided to pick up my old Canon camera that had previously been used only for sunset or flower photos. I instantly fell in love with the fast-paced nature of sports photography. There is something so exhilarating about trying to pre-empt the next tackle, or the trajectory of the ball in the air, and through sifting through thousands of blurry, terrible pictures to find the one that is *just perfect* As the first lockdown hit, I had just begun preparations for buying my first professionallevel camera and lenses Unfortunately, that money ended up being needed elsewhere, and so I looked for alternative opportunities that might be able to help me out, which is where I came across the Doug Pensinger Photography Fund. This programme supports young emerging sports photographers with seven grants worth $5000 dollars each, plus a mentorship programme The application is a group of 20 photos, which should be linked by a theme Each photo requires a description and a title, and a photography essay describing the overall portfolio must also be included. It pushed me to be more creative in my approach to portraying sports, and what aspects I wanted to document. Although I didn’t receive any grants in the end, I would highly recommend any budding sports photographers to apply, as the skills I learnt through this process were invaluable to how my work has progressed since!