Meade football player Joshua Rowe knows he’s not going to become an NFL player. However, he can still picture himself on the sidelines — just, holding a camera.
“I just love the sport, but I was going to be done after high school. I still wanted to be connected,” Rowe said. “So, I started taking pictures.”
Meade athletic director Jamie Cook allowed Rowe to shoot the basketball games in 2022, after the then-sophomore’s parents fulfilled his Christmas wish for a Canon Rebel T7, a beginner’s camera. Other student photographers around Anne Arundel County start with, or still use, similar DSLR equipment before upgrading.
At first, Rowe crouched alone on the baseline. About a year ago, he noticed there were more and more kids around his age, patrolling the sidelines with cameras in their hands.
Now, you cannot scroll around high school sports-related Instagrams for long without stumbling across a photo set of a player or game. What was once a hobby dominated by parents trying to document their kids’ athletic events has been largely taken over by high schoolers and young college-aged photographers like Rowe, who still returns to shoot Meade games while studying at Salisbury.
The “industry” boomed so rapidly over the past year-and-a-half that Anne Arundel Public Schools issued official passes at the beginning of the school year to try and limit strangers walking freely around games, though that hasn’t really slowed the younger shooters as much.
The higher stakes a game has, the more kids roaming around and posting their content to social media.
Some, like Rowe, mostly do it to build a portfolio and to improve their skills to someday impress an employer. The attention the photos receive from the players thrills them, too.
“[Meade basketball junior] Keon Scott’s profile picture is one of the ones I’ve taken,” Rowe said. “They’re satisfied and I’m happy they’re being put to good use.”
Quinlyn Bary knows hers will be, though she doesn’t get to do it as often as she likes. The Severna Park junior’s a rare bird as a female student photographer, but between serving in an editor capacity for her school yearbook and training as a future Division I softball player, the Arkansas commit doesn’t take pictures as often as she’d like.
But she does it whenever she can, even after her own games. During the “Gold Rush” doubleheader on Jan. 23, Bary switched out of her girls basketball uniform and returned to the court with her camera to shoot the boys game.
“For me, I really like finding that little gem in the multitude of photos I’ve taken,” Bary said, “whether that’s the exposure or the emotion of the subject itself. I think it’s really cool to be able to do that, even without video.”
Others aren’t just doing it for the love of the game.
Since starting to take and post videos a little over a year ago, Old Mill junior Landon Godinez’s photography business — @landos_lens on Instagram – stretched from Baltimore, down toward Washington. He looks at himself like a freelancer, though he’s hoping to earn a job with organizations, even the NBA or NFL someday. Though his rates are adjustable depending on the requests, he generally charges $20 for three or more athletes, providing about 20 to 30 photos per subject.
He said though he does receive commissions from athletes at more affluent schools like Spalding and Severna Park, it’s Baltimore City that overwhelmingly fills his inbox. The passion, he said, drives the demand for videos.
Even so, Godinez tries to create for Old Mill athletes when he can. He learned from his mentors that athletes who promote themselves tend to earn more offers. He named South River football and basketball star Jaden McDuffie, a Northwestern football signee, as an example. McDuffie told the Capital Gazette that he commissioned videos when he was getting recruited. Close shots, he said, were great for growing a platform.
“People don’t take into account how well McDuffie markets himself, what he does off the field. Old Mill has great athletes, but none of those guys go DI,” Godinez said, “because they don’t market themselves off the field.”
Senior Andrew Pham (@phamgfx) began shooting after he was cut from the Severna Park varsity soccer team. He’s drawn to his school’s teams, as well as his friends at Spalding, because talent breeds energy and energy injects photos with life.
“I enjoy the attention to my page, but that’s not all I care about,” Pham said. “I want to have an impact on my community, making good content for teams around me.”
Though he concentrated on his portfolio for his first two months, 90% of Pham’s work now is by commission. Yes, players pay their classmates for photos and videos. Those who have more content to post on their own social media pages are likely paying more regularly.
At Severna Park, Pham shoots for eight players per game on average, at $25 per player.
With so many photographers around and money to be earned, it’d be easy for students to view each other as competition. Chase Bareuther doesn’t see it that way.
It’s not like he’s losing money anyway. The South River freshman won’t charge players for his work; that was a condition in earning a yellow AACPS badge from athletic director David Klingel. If players tip him, he won’t say no.
Bareuther only picked up the camera because friends asked him to, but his mother encouraged him to keep going. At chaseb.graphicss on Instagram, he’s South River’s most consistent photographer, earning a foothold among his classmates. But when he’s sharing the space with other photographers, the freshman sees it as a chance to learn.
“There’s so many cool people. Everyone’s there to help you,” Bareuther said. “Pham helps with edits, gives advice. [Godinez] helps with video editing.”
Pham encourages other photographers to “be original.” For him, that’s using lots of color.
Godinez received guidance from peers too, especially when he started shooting and editing video edits, or “mixtapes,” in early 2025. Broadneck junior Cooper Mengel, who posts popular hype videos for his football team, gifted Godinez his old camera.
That was when Godinez’ talent really unfurled.
“For photos, I’m not one of the best, though the quality’s good. The colors are natural. But for my videos, I’m creative,” Godinez said. “I try to have a good amount of special effects in my videos. I would say I’m one of the better video creators in the county, definitely the area. I’m a perfectionist when it comes to stuff like this.”
He sets rates at $80 for videos. It’s good money, but it’s not what motivates Godinez to keep going. His is the same spark that drives everyone else.
“When I release the photos,” he said, “I just love seeing how happy people are.”
Have a sports tip? Contact Katherine Fominykh at kfominykh@baltsun.com or DM @capgazsports on Instagram.
